The number of babies born in South Korea hit a new record low in November last year, data showed Wednesday, underscoring the country's chronic low birth rate. The number of deaths rose to the highest in 37 years, leading to the population declining for the 13th straight month, according to Statistics Korea. The data showed that 20,085 babies were born in November, down 15.3 percent from a year earlier. It marked a record low for the month of November since 1981, when the statistics agency beg

Chinese President Xi Jinping has expressed his active support for Seoul's initiative to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, calling the efforts in line with the common interests of both countries, according to Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday. It said Xi delivered the comments during his phone talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday. During the talks, Moon said he hopes Seoul and Beijing can work together to open a trilateral summit between the two countries along with Japan. Xi repl

SEOUL/WASHINGTON -- Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and new US Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed Wednesday that the North Korean nuclear issue is an urgent matter that the two countries should work closely to resolve. They shared the understanding in their first phone talks that came just hours after Blinken officially took office as the country's top diplomat following the Senate confirmation on his nomination. "The two ministers shared the understanding that the North Korean nucl

The deputy nuke envoys of South Korea and Russia held phone talks to discuss the latest developments on North Korea, including the recent key party congress, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday. Lee Moon-hee, director-general for North Korean nuclear affairs at Seoul's foreign ministry, and his Russian counterpart, Oleg Burmistrov, shared assessments on the recent situation on the Korean Peninsula, including the eighth congress of the Workers' Party that ended earlier this month, the minist

North Korea's official newspaper on Wednesday stressed the importance of admitting flaws and fixing them at the right time as the country steps up efforts to carry out key policy goals unveiled in a rare party meeting earlier this month. "Revolutionaries must strictly stay away from praising one's own accomplishments and drifting into indolence, which is equal to giving up their struggle for the revolution," the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North's ruling party, said i

A conscientious objector, now carrying out his alternative military service as a prison staff member under the current law after refusing to enlist for religious reasons, has filed a constitutional appeal contending that the alternative military service law is unconstitutional due to its punitive nature, judicial officials said Wednesday. By law, all able-bodied South Korean men must carry out military service for 18 to 22 months. But the National Assembly passed the Act on the Assignment and P

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Wednesday urged health authorities to remain vigilant against new virus outbreaks linked to unregistered regional schools operated by a Christian missionary group with a vast national network. "The number of daily cases has risen back to above 500. We've confirmed a mass outbreak at an unauthorized school owned by the Gwangju branch of IM missionary society," Chung said during an interagency meeting on the COVID-19 response held at the government compl

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases soared over 500 for the first time in 10 days Wednesday as infections at religious educational facilities flared up this week. The country added 559 more COVID-19 cases, including 516 locally transmitted infections, raising the total caseload to 76,429, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The figure was sharply up from 354 on Tuesday and 437 on Monday. The sharp rise in cases of locally transmitted infections came from

LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday it has won a prestigious TV technology and engineering award in the United States for its high-end OLED TV as the South Korean tech giant tries to expand its presence in the global TV market. LG said it has been named one of the recipients at the 72nd Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards organized by the US National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). The Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards honor those who contributed to technic

KT Corp., a major South Korean telecom operator, said Wednesday it has started testing standalone 5G on its commercial network in its latest push for 5G technology. Currently, South Korean mobile carriers operate the non-standalone version of the latest generation network, requiring support from the previous 4G LTE network. The standalone version has benefits as it solely uses the 5G network, leading to decreased latency and improved battery life for devices, according to KT. While local mobi

South Korea's agricultural ministry said Wednesday it is looking into four suspected cases of highly pathogenic bird flu as it extended the daily disinfection operations at all poultry farms for another two-week period. Since late November, South Korea has reported 73 cases of the H5N8 strain of avian influenza from local farms, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The country has been carrying out daily disinfection operations at all farms since last week. All fou

South Korean stocks opened nearly flat Wednesday as investors waited for the results of the US Federal Reserve's policy meeting. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 1.4 points, or 0.04 percent, to 3,138.91 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics lost 0.35 percent, while No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix shed 1.16 percent. Leading chemical firm LG Chem moved down 2.2 percent, but rechargeable battery maker Samsung SDI climbed 0.25 percent. Pharmaceuti

신종 코로나바이러스 감염증(코로나19) 대확산으로 올해 일본 도쿄 하계 올림픽의 취소 가능성이 다시 제기된 가운데 미국 플로리다주가 도쿄를 대신해 올해 올림픽을 개최하고 싶다는 뜻을 밝혔다고 AFP통신이 25일(현지시간) 보도했다. 플로리다주의 지미 파트로니스 최고재무책임관(CFO)은 이날 토마스 바흐 국제올림픽위원회(IOC) 위원장에 보낸 서한에서 "2021년 올림픽 개최지를 일본 도쿄에서 미국, 구체적으로는 플로리다주로 이전하는 것을 고려하길 바란다"고 말했다. 이어 "일본 지도부가 2021년 올림픽 개최에 대해 '사적으로는' 매우 걱정하고 있다는 보도들이 나온다"면서 "플로리다에 개최지 선정팀을 보낼 수 있는 시간이 아직 남아있다"고 전했다. 파트로니스 CFO는 "플로리다 주지사가 빠른 백신 보급을 위해 민간 부문과 파트너십을 맺었다"면서 다른 주와는 달리 백신이 신속히 배포될 것이라고 강조했다. 또

Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday its fitness app with advanced health tracking features will soon be available in 31 new countries as the South Korean tech giant tries to expand its health service amid the pandemic. The world's largest smartphone maker said the Samsung Health Monitor app received a Conformity to European (CE) marking in December 2020 and will be allowed to use in 28 European countries. A CE marking is given when a product meets European Union safety, health and environme

South Korea's national pension fund earned nearly 58 trillion won ($52.6 billion) from stock investments in 2020 thanks to the bullish stock market, data showed Wednesday. As of Friday, the National Pension Service (NPS) held 181.3 trillion won worth of shares in 275 companies, of which it owns 5 percent or more, according to the data from corporate tracker CEO Score The amount was up about 47 percent, or 57.7 trillion won, from the start of last year. The bulk of last year's gains came from

LG Display Co., a major display panel maker in South Korea, on Wednesday said it shifted to a net profit in the fourth quarter of 2020, on the back of increased demand of its panels for IT products and sales of OLED displays amid the pandemic-induced stay-at-home trend. LG Display reported a net profit of 621 billion won ($561.2 million) for the October-December period, swinging from a loss of 1.81 trillion won a year earlier. Operating income for the fourth quarter was 685.5 billion won, comp

Several foreign investment banks (IBs) have revised up their forecasts for South Korea's 2021 economic growth following the economy's relatively good performance last year, a report showed Wednesday. Out of six foreign IBs and one research institute that published reports on Asia's fourth-largest economy Tuesday, three upgraded their growth outlooks by 0.1 to 0.3 percentage point, according to the report by the Korea Center for International Finance. These institutions predict the South Korean

South Korea welcomes the inauguration of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and expects that the alliance with the United States will develop further, the foreign ministry said Wednesday. "Our government welcomes the official inauguration of US Secretary of State Blinken following the Senate approval," ministry spokesperson, Choi Young-sam, said in a commentary. "We expect the South Korea-US alliance to develop further with the inauguration of the new secretary, who has ample

WASHINGTON -- Former US President Donald Trump's push to revise the Korea-US FTA may have hurt the countries' alliance, a congressional report said Tuesday, noting the issue may need to be addressed by the Biden administration. "The modification agreement allayed some of these concerns, but the Trump Administration's statements linking trade and security issues and persistent threats of additional US unilateral import restrictions, particularly on US auto imports, added a degree of uncerta

South Korea's corporate direct financing gained 10.8 percent on year in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic prompted more companies to tap the bond market to raise funds, data showed Wednesday. Local companies raised a combined 194.4 trillion won ($175.6 billion) by selling stocks and bonds last year, up 18.9 trillion won from 2019, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Corporate stock sales more than doubled to 10.9 trillion won, with the value of initial public off