South Koreans were almost evenly divided on the idea of granting pardons to two former presidents currently in prison for corruption charges, a hotly debated topic recently brought up by the ruling party chief, a survey showed Wednesday. In a one-day survey by Realmeter conducted on 500 voters nationwide on Tuesday, 47.7 percent of respondents said they were in favor of providing amnesty to Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, while 48 percent said they were against the idea. The remaining 4.3 perc

Nine shareholders of Doosan Fuel Cell Co. sold their combined 8.13 percent stake in the fuel cell maker via a block deal, the company said Wednesday. "The stake sale was a part of Doosan Group's self-rescue plan," a company official said by phone. The shareholders were reported to have raised around 274.5 billion won ($252.7 million) via the block deal. The shareholders include Park Jeong-won, chairman of cash-squeezed Doosan Group. After the sale, the combined stake in Doosan Fuel

South Korea's agricultural ministry said Wednesday it has completed culling 13.6 million poultry as a preventive measure to cope with the rising number of highly pathogenic bird flu cases from local farms, with the total caseload approaching closer to 50. Under the country's quarantine guideline, all birds within a 3-kilometer radius of infected farms should be culled, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. They included 10.8 million chickens. The ministry confirmed

Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea rose 4.5 percent last December from a year earlier due to strong demand for German cars, an industry association said Wednesday. The number of newly registered foreign vehicles climbed to 31,419 units last month from 30,072 a year earlier despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement. For the whole of 2020, foreign carmakers sold 274,859 autos, up 12 percent from 244,780 in the

미국 최고 권위의 음악상인 그래미 시상식이 신종 코로나바이러스 감염증(코로나19) 확산 여파로 연기됐다. 그래미를 주관하는 미국 레코딩 아카데미는 5일(현지시간) 오는 31일 열릴 예정됐던 제63회 시상식을 3월로 연기했다고 AP통신이 보도했다. 레코딩 아카데미는 당초 소규모 관객이 참여하는 야외 시상식을 계획했지만, 행사가 열리는 로스앤젤레스(LA)에서 코로나가 급격히 확산함에 따라 시상식을 연기했다. LA 카운티는 현재 코로나 누적 확진자가 82만명을 넘었고, 총 사망자는 1만여명에 달한다. 이번 시상식 일정은 방탄소년단(BTS)이 최초로 그래미 트로피를 움켜쥐는 자리가 될 수 있다는 점에서 한국에서도 큰 관심을 모았다. 지난해 '다이너마이트'로 빌보드 싱글차트 정상을 차지한 방탄소년단은 '베스트 팝 듀오/그룹 퍼포먼스' 후보에 올랐다. (연합뉴스)

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Wednesday demanded authorities come up with measures to address growing complaints from owners of commercial gyms forced to shut down for weeks under strict social distancing schemes. Indoor gyms in the capital area are subject to an assembly ban under Level 2.5 social distancing measures, which were recently extended by two weeks until Jan. 17. In announcing the extension, however, the government allowed ballet and taekwondo schools to hold classes of up to nin

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed below 1,000 for the second consecutive day on Wednesday amid signs of a slowdown, while nursing homes and churches continued to be hot spots for virus outbreaks despite extended virus curbs. The country added 840 more COVID-19 cases, including 809 local infections, raising the total caseload to 65,818, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Wednesday's daily caseload rose from 715 on Tuesday but fell sharply from 1,

South Korean biotech company GC Pharma said Wednesday it has completed phase two clinical trials of its plasma therapy treatment for the novel coronavirus. The plasma therapy, known as GC5131A, is a type of hyperimmune globulin drug that uses blood plasma taken from people who have fully recovered from COVID-19. GC Pharma wrapped up the phase two clinical study on Dec. 31 and plans to file for a conditional approval to the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety during the first quarter of thi

Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday its fitness tracking app was used by more than 200 million people around the globe in 2020 as the South Korean tech giant tries to further expand usability of its health platform. Samsung Health, which was first launched in 2012, offers various health-related features from virtual exercises to tacking of sleep patterns, heart rate and blood pressure. "In the past year alone, Samsung Health users burned around 3 billion calories and took around 78 tri

He has done it again. Son Heung-min scored in his second straight match, lifting Tottenham Hotspur into the English League Cup final with a 2-0 victory over Brentford on Tuesday (local time). After Moussa Sissoko opened the scoring in the 12th minute at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, Son doubled the lead with his 70th-minute strike against the second-division club. Tottenham will face the winner of the other semifinal match between Manchester United and Manchester City. The championship

SK Innovation Co., a South Korean refinery-to-battery company, plans to issue a green bond worth 1.09 trillion won ($1 billion) to expand its electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing capacity in the United States, officials said Wednesday. SK battery America Inc., the Korean firm's US subsidiary, will issue the green bond, a type of financing for eco-friendly projects, later this month to build its second EV battery plant in Georgia, a company spokesperson said. The new fund will be an exte

South Korea and the United States conducted their wintertime combined exercise last month amid concerns over the new coronavirus pandemic, a military source said Wednesday. The allies held a scaled-back version of their original wintertime drills, codenamed Vigilant Ace, from Dec. 7-11, involving fighters, such as F-15K and KF-16 jets from South Korea and F-16s from the US, according to the source. The annual Vigilant Ace exercise was replaced with a smaller training starting in 2018 to suppor

Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Wednesday their US vehicle sales fell 7.3 percent in 2020 from a year earlier amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Hyundai and Kia, South Korea's two biggest carmakers, sold a combined 1,208,374 vehicles in the world's most important automobile market last year, down from 1,304,109 units the previous year, the companies said in separate statements. Hyundai's US sales fell 9.7 percent to 622,269 units last year from 688,771 a year ago, while

The incoming US administration of Joe Biden should recognize the progress made with North Korea so far and reengage the North in denuclearization talks to build on such progress, a former US nuclear negotiator said Tuesday. Joseph DeTrani also argued North Korea would be willing to come back to the negotiating table. "President Donald Trump and his two summits had success, certainly in Singapore, with that joint statement, that declaration coming out of Singapore that spoke about a transf

South Korea's exports of kimchi reached an all-time high in the first 10 months of 2020, data showed Wednesday, on the back of growing global demand for healthier foodstuffs amid the new coronavirus pandemic. Outbound shipments of kimchi over the January-October period of last year came to $119 million, rising 36.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA). The export volume also set a fresh high of 32,000 tons during the ci

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has admitted the failure to meet the country's economic development goals as he opened the ruling party's first congress in nearly five years, state media said Wednesday. Kim made the acknowledgement in his opening speech for the eighth congress of the Workers' Party, which took place in Pyongyang on Tuesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency. The party congress, the North's biggest political event, was launched amid expectations the North will unveil

South Korea's foreign reserves rose for the ninth straight month in December last year, supported by an increase in investment returns, central bank data showed Wednesday. The nation's foreign reserves came to a record high of $443.1 billion as of end-December, up $6.72 billion from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). Foreign reserves consist of securities and deposits denominated in overseas currencies, International Monetary Fund reserve positions, special drawing rights a

Korean Air Lines Co., South Korea's biggest carrier, said Tuesday it will change its articles of association to help finance its planned acquisition of smaller rival Asiana Airlines Inc. Korean Air will hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on Wednesday to amend its articles of association ahead of its 2.5 trillion-won ($2.3 billion) rights issue plan for March to sell more stocks aimed at funding the acquisition, a company spokeswoman said over the phone. The national flag carrier plans

South Korean mobile carriers are launching cheap payment plans to woo more 5G subscribers amid accelerating user migration to their high-speed 5G networks. LG Uplus Corp. said Tuesday it will release a new monthly data plan, offering 6 gigabytes of data at 5G speeds for 47,000 won ($43), following rival carrier KT Corp., which also launched late last year a monthly 5G plan at 45,000 won for 5 gigabytes of data. The new data plans are relatively more affordable than most existing 5G data plans

The political debate over the idea of offering pardons to two convicted former presidents continued to reverberate within the ruling Democratic Party (DP) on Tuesday, despite an earlier backlash from the party's base supporters. DP Chairman Lee Nak-yon stated Friday that he would ask President Moon Jae-in to grant pardons to Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak -- two former conservative presidents in jail on corruption and influence-peddling charges -- at an appropriate time in order to transcend p