Major South Korean drug and biopharmaceutical companies saw their sales surge in 2020 from a year earlier despite the coronavirus pandemic, industry sources said Monday. Eleven local pharmaceutical companies in Asia's fourth-largest economy, including Green Cross Corp. and biopharmaceutical behemoth Celltrion Inc., registered sales of more than 1 trillion won ($910 million) last year. The remainder are Kolmar Korea Co., Celltrion Healthcare Co., Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corp., Yuhan Corp.

Foreign investors have remained net sellers of South Korean stocks due to their massive selling of top-cap Samsung Electronics Co., data showed Monday. As of Friday, offshore investors had sold a net 5.51 trillion won ($4.99 billion) worth of local stocks during the 33 sessions this year, according to the data from industry sources. Foreigners have been in net-selling mode for the past year, with their net selling amounting to 29.78 trillion won. Their net-selling position this year resulted

South Korea's largest association of doctors said Sunday it will stage a general strike if parliament passes a revised bill on revoking the licenses of medical professionals convicted of serious crimes. The threat by the Korean Medical Association, which represents about 130,000 doctors, comes only five days before South Korea is scheduled to begin COVID-19 inoculation program with AstraZeneca's vaccines. It fueled concerns that the vaccination program will be adversely affected before it even

South Korea will begin administering 117,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines to medical staff on Saturday as the vaccines are expected to arrive in the country later this week, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Sunday. "On Feb. 26, 117,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines will arrive in the country and the vaccines will be administered to medical staff treating coronavirus patients starting on Feb. 27," Chung said during a meeting on the COVID-19 response held at the government complex in Seoul.

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Sunday it has decided to fine two small concrete pipe producers a combined 313 million won ($282,000) for colluding to fix prices of industrial pipes. Buyang Industry Co. and Shinhung Hume Pipe Co. colluded to fix their quotations between  2012 and 2016 for 38 rounds of concrete pipe purchase bidding put forward by government agencies and public firms, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KTFC). The deals were worth an estimated 10.6 billion

Lee Jae-yong, the de facto head of Samsung Group, is expected to be dismissed as head of a social welfare foundation established by his late father, as he is imprisoned over a high-profile bribery case, sources said Sunday. Samsung Life Public Welfare Foundation is expected to hold a board meeting next month to decide whether to strip him of the chairmanship of the foundation, according to sources at the Seoul city government and the Yongsan Ward office. Last month, Lee was sentenced to two an

The amount of cargo processed at South Korea's seaports moved down 1.6 percent in January from a year earlier amid the new coronavirus pandemic, data showed Sunday. The volume of cargo handled at local sea ports came to 128.9 million tons last month, compared with 131 million tons posted a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. Handling of export-import cargo also shrank 1 percent on-year to 111.1 million tons last month. The ministry attributed

A North Korean man was caught on military surveillance cameras set up along the east coast at least four times after he swam ashore in the South, but border guards did nothing to stop him, an investigation has found. Military authorities have been looking into what went wrong with border security after the man was caught on Tuesday about 8 km away from the border inside a restricted area north of the Civilian Control Line in the eastern border town of Goseong. The man has expressed a desire to

South Korean retail investors pared down their net buying of local stocks in February as the country's key stock index traded in a tight range following a bull run, data showed Sunday. Retail investors snapped up a net 5.8 trillion won ($5.24 billion) worth of stocks on the main and secondary markets during 13 trading sessions ending on Feb. 19, compared with a net purchase of 25.8 trillion won in January, according to the bourse operator Korea Exchange. Compared with a month earlier, their ne

South Korea's app market ONE store has drawn attention as a possible alternative to Google's Play store as local app developers worry about increasing costs over the US tech giant's decision to expand its 30 percent commission fee to all in-app digital goods purchases later this year. ONE store, a subsidiary of top wireless carrier SK Telecom Co., launched the app market in 2016 as a smaller rival to the Play store on Google's Android operating system. The app market has since steadily grown,

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed below 500 for the second straight day on Sunday, but health authorities remained vigilant about a potential flare-up in virus infections amid eased social distancing rules. The country reported 416 more COVID-19 cases, including 391 local infections, raising the total caseload to 86,992, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The country added four more deaths, raising the total to 1,557. The virus tally was lower

JEONGSEON -- A wind-fed forest fire that broke out in the northeastern county of Jeongseon has been put out after 18 hours, authorities said Sunday. The fire, which broke out on Saturday, was put out as of 9:40 a.m. after affecting an estimated 12 hectares of mountain land, according to the Korea Forest Service. No casualties have been reported. The authorities have deployed 14 helicopters and 421 personnel from the Korea Forest Service, fire services and the military as part of mop-up efforts

비트코인 투자 열풍을 촉발했던 미국 전기차 업체 테슬라 최고경영자(CEO) 일론 머스크가 가상화폐 비트코인과 이더리움의 가격이 높은 것 같다는 의견을 밝혔다. 머스크는 대표적인 비트코인 회의론자이자 금투자 옹호론자인 피터 시프의 트위터 글에 이러한 내용의 댓글을 달았다고 20일(현지시간) 로이터통신 등이 보도했다. 머스크는 시프가 "금이 비트코인과 종래의 현금보다 낫다"고 밝히자 "돈은 물물교환의 불편함을 피하게 해주는 데이터일 뿐이다. 그렇기는 하지만, 비트코인과 이더리움 가격은 높은 것 같다"고 말했다. 로이터통신은 "비트코인 시가총액이 1조달러(약 1천100조원)를 넘어선 상황에서 머스크가 이렇게 말했다"고 주목했고, 경제전문매체 인사이더는 "머스크가 비트코인과 이더리움 가격이 높아 보인다고 인정했다"고 전했다. 비트코인은 지난 6개월 동안 투자자들의 매수세가 몰리며 350% 폭등했고, 2월 들어서만

South Korean biopharmaceutical company Celltrion will supply its antibody treatment for COVID-19 without a profit margin in South Korea, its chairman has said. Celltrion’s CT-P59 won the South Korean drug safety agency’s conditional approval earlier this month, becoming the first locally made treatment for the virus. The drug began to be supplied to local medical institutions Wednesday. CT-P59 is administered to COVID-19 patients at higher risk, referring to people aged 60 and olde

North Korea’s official newspaper on Saturday stressed the importance of “economic principles” and “scientific analysis” as the country is striving to achieve a recently unveiled five-year economic development scheme. “Economic workers should stay away from such tendencies of ignoring economic principles and failing to concentrate and causing waste and confusion by not resorting to scientific analysis,” the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the r

Any US effort to denuclearize North Korea will not be as effective without the support and close cooperation of both South Korea and Japan, a US State Department official said Friday, highlighting the importance of the two US allies working together. Ned Price, press secretary at the State Department, also said three-way cooperation between the countries is important to promoting their shared values in the Indo-Pacific region. “We know that any approach to North Korea, one that puts den

A group of US lawmakers,including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on Friday insisted on an immediate stop to racially motivated crimes, including those targeting Asian Americans, calling them a total disgrace to the country. The call comes amid a sharp increase in anti-Asian hate crimes. “I always say, ‘Our diversity is our strength, our unity is our power,’ and we have unity on this subject. So thank you for the opportunity to salute you, and this precedent to call attention to s

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases fell back below 500 for the first time in four days on Saturday, but sporadic infections continued to be reported amid worries over a potential resurgence after the government eased social distancing rules earlier this week. The country reported 448 more COVID-19 cases, including 416 local infections, raising the total caseload to 86,576, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The latest caseload was down from the previous day's 56

POHANG -- The South Korean Coast Guard was searching for a fishing boat with six crew members aboard Friday after it made a distress call in choppy seas off the southeastern coast. The Pohang Coast Guard said it received a report at 6:49 p.m. that the 9.77-ton crab fishing boat was flooding in waters some 42 kilometers east of Gyeongju. Six crew members -- three South Koreans, two Vietnamese and one Korean-Chinese -- were aboard, officials said.   The Coast Guard and the Navy dispat

As many as 200 ancient Japanese maps have been confirmed to mark Dokdo in the East Sea as Korean territory, a government-funded foundation here said Friday. 　 The Dokdo Foundation said it has secured the undisputed evidence to deny Tokyo‘s territorial claim to Dokdo after examining some 1,000 old maps owned by various local institutions, including the National Assembly Library, the Northeast Asian History Foundation and the National Map Museum run by the National Geographic Information Ins