South Korea's new coronavirus cases fell back to below 400 Sunday, but health authorities decided to extend tougher virus curbs amid a continued rise in cluster infections, mostly tied to mission schools. The country added 355 more COVID-19 cases, including 325 local infections, raising the total caseload to 78,205, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The figure was lower than 458 cases Saturday and compared with 469 on Friday and 497 Thursday. The tally fell

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung has sent a letter to the United Nations and the US Congress to call for support for a law that South Korea enacted to ban the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets into North Korea, officials said Sunday. Lee, considered a leading presidential hopeful, said in the letter that the leafleting ban is the minimum measure to protect the lives, safety and properties of the people of Gyeonggi Province that includes regions bordering North Korea. Lee also s

South Korea is in the final stage of assembling a prototype of what would be the country's first indigenously developed fighter jet, which is expected to be unveiled in April, officials said Sunday. South Korea has been working on the KF-X project since 2015 to develop a homegrown cutting-edge fighter aircraft to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of F-4 and F-5 jets. In September last year, Korea Aerospace Industries Co. (KAI) got down to the final assembly of a prototype jet and is now in t

Seoul on Saturday reported more than 150 new daily coronavirus cases, marking the highest figure in two weeks. According to the metropolitan government, the number of new COVID-19 cases in the capital rose by 154, the highest since Jan. 15, when 156 new cases were added. The city's daily caseload has remained in the 100s for the last 23 days after falling from 297 on Jan. 6, the government said. The figure has also fluctuated within the range of the early 100s over the past two weeks, it added

DRAM and NAND flash are expected to be the two semiconductor products that outshine this year, a report showed Saturday, boding well for South Korean chipmakers that dominate the world's memory chip market. Sales growth for DRAM and NAND flash were projected to be 18 percent and 17 percent, respectively, making them the two sharpest-growing chips among the 33 integrated circuit products in 2021, according to the McClean Report released by market tracker IC Insights. DRAM, or dynamic random-a

The Ministry of Justice said Saturday that it has introduced a deposit program to encourage foreigners subject to deportation to voluntarily leave the country as part of efforts to ease crowding in temporary detention centers amid the coronavirus pandemic. Under the new policy, foreigners who are ordered to leave the country following a violation of the immigration law can avoid being detained if they make a deposit of up to 20 million won ($17,800). It was introduced to reduce crowding at det

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha has urged the world to ensure a fair and equitable supply of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, voicing concerns about vaccine nationalism. Kang made the remarks at an online session of the World Economic Forum on Friday, the foreign ministry said in a statement. During the session, Kang called for the world to take a multilateral approach for a fair use of vaccines and treatments, the ministry said. Kang also hailed the World Health Organization

The US-led regional forum in the Indo-Pacific, known as the Quad, may serve as the foundation of US foreign policy in the region, the top US security adviser said Friday. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also said the Joe Biden administration will continue to build on the Quad. "I think we really want to carry forward and build on that format, that mechanism which we see as a foundation upon which to build substantial American policy in the Indo-Pacific region," Sullivan said

South Korean steelmakers have launched talks with shipbuilders over prices of thick steel plates, which are mainly used for shipbuilding, people familiar with the matter said Saturday. Posco, the country's largest steelmaker, said it is pushing to raise prices of thick steel plates -- a key material that accounts for about one-fifth of shipbuilding costs -- by up to 15 percent. The move is meant to reflect increased costs of iron ore, one of the main raw materials used in steel production. A h

The number of working days lost due to labor disputes surged by nearly 40 percent in South Korea last year, a report said Saturday, indicating a likely deterioration in labor-management relations at local firms. According to the report by the state-funded Korea Labor Institute, the number of lost work days totaled 554,000 days in 2020, soaring 37.8 percent from the previous year's 402,000 days. The figure had steadily fallen from 862,000 days in 2017, when the Moon Jae-in government took offic

South Korean stocks are likely to come under selling pressure next week following this week's choppy trading, as market volatility is expected to remain high over massive foreign selling and profit-taking. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed at 2,976.21 points Friday, down 5.24 percent from a week ago. The index crashed below the 3,000-point level for the first time since surpassing the psychologically important threshold on Jan. 7. The fall was largely attributed to for

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed in the 400s for the third day in a row on Saturday, as health authorities scrambled to contain cluster infections linked to mission schools nationwide. The country added 458 more COVID-19 cases, including 423 locally transmitted infections, raising the total caseload to 77,850, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The figure was down from 469 on Friday and compared with 497 on Thursday and 559 on Wednesday. The countr

North Korea‘s top diplomat to Geneva has argued that Pyongyang’s push toward strengthening its military capabilities was aimed at opening an era of peace, according to the North’s foreign ministry Friday. According to Pyongyang’s foreign ministry, Han Tae-song, North Korea‘s ambassador to Geneva, said via videoconference at the meeting of the United Nations Disarmament Conference in Geneva on Tuesday that the reason his country was building up its war deterrent ca

A freezing cold snap, accompanied by high winds, swept across South Korea on Friday, leaving one person missing and two others injured, authorities said. The day‘s lowest temperatures dropped below minus 10 C in Seoul and central regions and below minus 8 C in southern regions, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said. Seoul’s morning low plunged to minus 11.6 C, while low temperatures fell to minus 13.9 C in Dongducheon, just north of the capital; minus 14.4 C in Cheor

SsangYong Motor Co., the South Korean unit of Indian carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., said Friday its fourth-quarter net losses widened from a year earlier due to weak sales amid the coronavirus pandemic. For the three months ended December, net losses deepened to 173.6 billion won ($155 million) from 155.9 billion won in the year-ago period, the company said in a statement. "Weaker sales and tougher competition with rivals weighed on the quarterly results as the COVID-19 pandemic p

A key suspect at the center of a financial fraud scandal involving Lime Asset Management was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday. The Seoul Southern District Court handed down the prison term to Lee Jong-pil, the hedge fund's former vice president, along with a fine of 4 billion won ($3.57 million) and a forfeit of 1.4 billion won. The court found him guilty of deceiving investors by concealing the massive loss the company's fraudulent fund product was making. Lime Asset, founded in 201

A pro-unification organization on Friday urged the US Congress not to hold a hearing on a South Korean law banning the sending of anti-North Korean leaflets, calling such a move a "clear infringement" on their country's sovereignty and interference in domestic affairs. The North Korean Committee for the June 15 Joint Declaration, which was established to uphold the peace agreement from the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, made the appeal in a statement that the group said was co-sig

A political controversy appears to be brewing over the Seoul government's possible attempt years ago to help North Korea build a nuclear power plant, after a local broadcaster on Thursday disclosed the existence of relevant government documents. SBS TV, citing prosecutors investigating the destruction of government documents related to the closure of an aging nuclear reactor by some officials of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in 2019, reported that a number of files on inter-Korean

Sales of cigarettes in South Korea rose 4.1 percent on-year last year as smokers' purchases via duty-free channels were thwarted amid the pandemic, the finance ministry said Friday. South Korean smokers purchased 3.59 billion 20-cigarette packs last year, compared with 3.45 billion packs the previous year, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The rise in domestic sales came as tobacco sales at duty-free shops sharply fell due to low overseas travel amid the pandemic, which helped

The South Korean benchmark stock index plunged below the 3,000-point threshold Friday on massive foreign dumping, largely generated by valuation concerns over local stocks and a liquidity squeeze in China. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 92.84 points, or 3.03 percent, to close at 2,976.21 points, registering the largest daily loss since Aug. 20 last year. Trading volume was high at about 972 million shares worth some 23.8