South Korea's bourse operator on Thursday decided to grant the scandal-ridden drugmaker Kolon TissueGene Inc. a one-year period to improve its management. In a meeting to decide whether to delist the drugmaker, the KOSDAQ market committee under the Korea Exchange (KRX) decided to give the company, an affiliate of Kolon Life Science, a one-year grace period to enhance its management. Kolon TissueGene was listed on the secondary KOSDAQ market in 2017. The trading of Kolon TissueGene has been sus

Fifteen American service members, five family members and one US Forces Korea (USFK) retiree tested positive for the new coronavirus upon arrival in South Korea from the United States over the past few weeks, the USFK said Monday. Of them, five service members arrived at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on US government-chartered flights between Nov. 29 and Dec. 19, according to the US military. Ten other service personnel, five dependents and one USFK retiree a

South Korea's consumer prices are expected to grow at a faster pace in the next two years due to an economic recovery and rising rent, a central bank report said Thursday. South Korea's consumer inflation is forecast to reach 1 percent in 2021 and 1.5 percent the next year, according to the report from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The country's core inflation, excluding volatile food and energy prices, is projected to come to 1 percent and 1.3 percent in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The BOK said

South Korean stocks closed nearly flat Thursday as investors remained wary of spiking COVID-19 cases and looming virus restrictions. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 1.36 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,770.43 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 998.4 million shares worth some 15.8 trillion won ($14.5 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 493 to 352. Foreigners sold a net 301.1 billion won, and institutions off

The unification ministry expressed regret Thursday after a UN special rapporteur called on South Korea to reconsider a recently legislated ban on sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea, saying the measure was legislated in due democratic procedures. Earlier in the week, the National Assembly, controlled by the ruling Democratic Party, passed the bill penalizing the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets into the North despite strong objection by opposition party lawmakers. Spe

South Korea's top power plant builder Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. said Thursday that it has joined forces with a local government to build an offshore wind farm in seas off the coast of the southwestern part of the country. Doosan Heavy signed a deal with the government of North Jeolla Province to cooperate on the construction of a 2.4-gigawatt offshore wind farm to be completed by 2028, a 14 trillion-won ($12.8 billion) project, the company said in an emailed statement. Und

The number of South Korean moviegoers nose-dived more than 80 percent on-year in November as the third wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic hit the country, data showed Thursday. A total of 3.59 million people went to theaters last month, down 80.7 percent from 18.6 million tallied a year ago, according to the monthly data by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). From a month earlier, the November tally fell 22.4 percent from 4.63 million. The revenue plunged 79.3 percent on-year to 32.1 billion

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) has set out to find ways to cut rent for small business owners teetering under the protracted COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, DP Chairman Rep. Lee Nak-yon reaffirmed his party's push to get landlords to slash rent for small business owners struggling under the weight of the new coronavirus. The drive for so-called fair rent gained traction earlier this week after President Moon Jae-in raised the issue of small business owners who have to shoulder a heavy econ

Posco, the world's fifth-largest steelmaker by output, said Thursday it has agreed to buy a 15 percent stake in Black Rock Mining for $7.5 million. The deal will pave the way for Posco to secure graphite fines, a material required to make anodes, according to the steelmaker. Still, Posco said no specific date has been set for the formal signing of an offtake agreement with the Australia-based graphite producer. An anode is a key material in a battery that preserves lithium coming from th

South Korea began producing ground vibration sensors on a trial basis to install on the border with North Korea, officials said Thursday, after the military failed to detect a North Korean jumping over barbed wire fences on the border in a defection bid last month. The system is designed to sense vibrations on the ground and ring an alarm bell to allow troops to detect infiltrators, as it is to be equipped with diverse sensors, such as infrared, image and vibration sensors, according to the Def

South Korea pledged Thursday to provide $1 million to a UN development fund to help communities near the Aral Sea suffering from decadeslong water depletion, the foreign ministry said. Chung Kee-yong, director general for climate change, energy, environment and scientific affairs at Seoul's foreign ministry, signed an agreement to provide the funds during a virtual meeting with Jennifer Topping, executive coordinator of the UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office, the ministry said. Of the pledge

State-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco) said Thursday it will revamp its billing system by adopting flexible rates linked to global prices of resources next year, in a move to improve its profitability. "The current billing system failed to reflect fluctuations in production costs in a timely manner," Kepco said in a statement. "It has also remained unchanged since 2013 and also failed to notify consumers of additional prices linked to climate change," it added. South

South Korean companies' sales declined at a slower pace in the third quarter than three months earlier as the manufacturing sector fared better amid improving exports, central bank data showed Thursday. Sales of local businesses fell 3.2 percent in the July-September period from a year earlier, slowing from a record 10.1 percent fall in the second quarter, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The pace of a fall in corporate sales eased last quarter, but it marked the seventh con

South Korea plans to implement its economic policy next year to maintain economic recovery momentum and prepare for a post-pandemic era, the finance ministry said Thursday. The South Korean economy is expected to grow 3.2 percent next year, following this year's estimated contraction of 1.1 percent, the first contraction since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The ministry's 2020 and 2021 growth outlooks are lower than its June projection of

President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that South Korea should overcome the COVID-19 crisis and achieve a "grand transformation" of its economy in the coming year. "We will have to turn 2021 into a period of great transformation of South Korea's economy. The beginning is to clearly overcome the coronavirus crisis," he said during an expanded session of the National Economic Advisory Council. Moon received a briefing on the government's economic policy for 2021 and had related

The income gap between the haves and have-nots in South Korean narrowed to a fresh record low in 2019, as the bottom 20 percent income bracket saw their income rise due to state welfare support, data showed Thursday. The Gini coefficient measured with disposable income, a gauge of income inequality, came in at 0.339 last year, down from 0.345 the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. A reading of zero means complete income equality, while higher numbers nearing one indica

A former US nuclear negotiator said Thursday that Washington needs to push for normalizing relations with North Korea and make efforts to sign a peace treaty that ends the 1950-53 Korean War, as Pyongyang's ultimate goal is to secure its regime and leadership. Joseph DeTrani also said during a virtual seminar that recognizing North Korea as a nuclear weapons state is not a "viable option" because such recognition would facilitate an arms race and cause instability in the region. &qu

A parcel delivery worker has suffered a hemorrhagic stroke while on duty this week as authorities are working to draw up measures to protect couriers following a series of deaths in their profession, apparently from overwork, an advocacy group said Thursday. According to the group supporting couriers, the 58-year-old man, working for Hanjin Transportation Co., the logistics arm of Hanjin Group, fell unconscious from the stroke while delivering parcels at an apartment complex in eastern Seoul on

Motional, the Hyundai Motor-Aptiv joint venture, said Thursday it has partnered with US ride-sharing firm Lyft Inc. to launch driverless robotaxi services in major US cities in 2023. Motional said it plans to deploy fully autonomous vehicles, which are based on the Korean automaker Hyundai Motor's platform, in Lyft's ride-sharing network in the United States. Lyft has the second-biggest ride-sharing network in the world's most important automobile market after Uber Technologies Inc. The busin

Australia has tapped Catherine Raper, a senior career diplomat, as its new and the first female ambassador to South Korea, its embassy here said Thursday. Raper, who most recently served as head of Australia's COVID-19 coordination unit, will be replacing the outgoing envoy, James Choi, who began his term here in 2016. She is expected to formally take office in Seoul in mid-January Raper has also worked in Taipei, Washington and the Australian Permanent Mission to the World Trade Organization