S. Korea to provide $3 mln to 4 drought-hit African countries

South Korea will provide $3 million to four African countries to help them cope with the damage from severe drought, the Foreign Ministry in Seoul said Monday. Of the total, $1 million will each be delivered to Zimbabwe and Zambia, and $500,000 each to Malawi and Namibia, the ministry said. The aid will be made through the World Food Programme. The four countries have declared a national emergency as the severe drought hit the South African region and exacerbated food shortages. (Yonhap)

Foreign AffairsAug. 5, 2024

An Se-young wins gold medal in badminton women's singles

The world's top-ranked shuttler An Se-young soared to her first Olympic gold medal in the women's singles in Paris on Monday, giving South Korea its first badminton singles title in 28 years. An defeated He Bingjiao of China 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) in the final at Porte de La Chapelle Arena in the French capital to become just the second South Korean woman to win an Olympic singles title, joining Bang Soo-hyun from 1996. South Korea now has 11 gold medals overall, just two shy of matching i

More SportsAug. 5, 2024

Royal Opera House's 'Otello' to come to Seoul Arts Center

The Royal Opera House's 2017 production of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Otello" will be performed at the Seoul Arts Center from Aug. 18 to Aug. 25, featuring conductor Carlo Rizzi and top opera singers Lee Yong-hoon and Teodor Ilincai as Otello. This is the first time the Seoul Arts Center is presenting "Othello" since 2002. It also marks Korean tenor Lee Yong-hoon’s first time performing in “Otello” in Korea. “I had always dreamed of making my

PerformanceAug. 5, 2024

More K-pop singers turn to video streaming service

More K-pop musicians struggling to succeed in the entertainment industry are turning to the local livestreaming platform AfreecaTV as a way to make money. AfreecaTV has long been ill-received by the public due to its involvement in several social problems, including sex crimes and the abasement of disabled persons. For K-pop musicians, appearing on the platform’s video streaming service has been seen as taboo. However, for many former idols who have devoted their youth to training to becom

K-popAug. 5, 2024

Firsts in Korea's Olympic history

This year, summer in South Korea is even more sizzling with excitement as its athletes have delivered outstanding performances at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. Major milestones in Korea’s history of participation in the Summer Games -- like shooter Ban Hyo-jin’s win of the country's 100th gold medal and the men’s saber fencing team's win of Korea's 300th medal of any type -- have sparked awe. But equally if not more deserving of recognition are the firsts i

More SportsAug. 5, 2024

Cho Yeong-jae wins silver in men's 25m rapid fire pistol shooting

Cho Yeong-jae was on target for silver in the men's 25-meter rapid fire pistol shooting at the Paris Olympics on Monday for South Korea's sixth medal in the sport. Cho finished in second place behind Li Yuehong of China, 32-25, at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, south of Paris. With Cho's medal, South Korea has now won more shooting medals at the Paris Games than at any other Olympics before. The country had previously won five medals at the 2012 London Olympics wi

More SportsAug. 5, 2024

US says Mideast military moves aimed at deescalating

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The US is deploying additional military might in the Middle East as a defensive measure with a goal of deescalating tensions in the region, a White House official said on Sunday. Regional tensions have increased following the assassination on Wednesday of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Tehran a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a senior military commander from the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Both groups are back

World NewsAug. 5, 2024

[Today’s K-pop] Seventeen to return in October

Seventeen will release its 12th EP in October, agency Pledis Entertainment said Monday. The band will also embark on a world tour to be held across North America and Asia where it will perform songs from the upcoming album. The tour will be named “Right Here,” after the group's best-of album “17 Is Right Here,” which was released in April. Consisting of 33 tracks, the compilation album set a record on the Oricon chart, topping its weekly combined album ranking for th

K-popAug. 5, 2024

South Korean commandos on Kim Il-sung mission to get first apology

South Korean commandos who died as they escaped from Silmido -- an uninhabited island where they were being trained to kill then-North Korean leader Kim Il-sung -- are due to receive an apology from the country’s defense chief for the first time in 53 years. In August 1971, the 24 commandos of South Korea’s secret killer squad fled the island in protest of poor treatment, after over three years of training to infiltrate North Korea and capture its leader. On their way out of Silmido,

DefenseAug. 5, 2024

‘Mission: Cross’ exudes simple, entertaining energy of detective wife and stay-at-home husband

Netflix's upcoming action comedy film “Mission: Cross” featuring a detective wife and stay-at-home husband with secret pasts, will exude entertaining energy, said the movie’s director and actors on Monday. Hwang Jung-min stars as Kang-moo, a stay-at-home husband who hides his past as a former agent, and Yeom Jung-ah plays veteran crime squad team member Mi-seon, who was once an Asian Game silver medalist in shooting. After learning about her husband’s past, Mi-seon g

FilmAug. 5, 2024

Korean shares tank as global rout continues

South Korean shares dived more than 8 percent on Monday, triggering the stock exchange to temporarily halt the main Kospi and secondary Kosdaq markets, as investors were gripped by fear that the US economy may head toward a recession. A record 190 trillion won ($139 billion) was wiped off the Kospi market, as it tumbled 8.77 percent, or 234.64 points, to close at 2,441.55. This is the first time since the benchmark bourse opened that it has fallen by more than 200 points, recording the largest d

EconomyAug. 5, 2024

[Career compass] 'You can only succeed by making others successful'

Readers have requested interviews with successful individuals about their career journeys. For this column, I had the pleasure of interviewing Park Hee-je, managing director of Kohler Novita Korea, a leading global bathroom products company. Park began his career in marketing at P&G Korea, later moving on to eBay and Philips. His professional journey has taken him to Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, gaining valuable experience in each location. I have immense respect for Park's leadership,

ViewpointsAug. 5, 2024

US recession fears send Kospi plunging by record high of nearly 9%

South Korean stocks tumbled by the most on record to a near nine-month low Monday amid intensifying fears over a US economic slowdown, with big tech coming under heavy selling. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) plummeted a record 234.64 points, or 8.77 percent, to close at 2,441.55, after dipping to as low as 2,273.97 at one point, following a 3.65 percent loss the previous session. It is the lowest closing price since Nov. 14, whe

MarketAug. 5, 2024

[Herald Review] Infinite leader Kim Sung-kyu mesmerizes fans with top-notch live performance with band

Kim Sung-kyu, the leader of veteran boy band Infinite, thrilled fans with a stand-alone concert last weekend, his first in 18 months. The singer's “LV3: Let's Vacay” concert took place over the weekend at Jamsil Student Gymnasium in Seoul. Following 2022's "LV1 : Light & Voice" and last year's "LV2: Like Your Vibes," the third iteration of the singer's branded concerts embraced the theme of summer vacation in steaming heat, subtitled &

PerformanceAug. 5, 2024

SK chief inspects HBM chip production lines

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won called for its memory chip-maker SK hynix to seek next-generation profit models to continuously secure its leadership in the burgeoning artificial intelligence semiconductor market. “SK hynix is currently recognized in the high bandwidth memory market, but competition will become more intense when the sixth generation HBM4 is commercialized next year,” Chey said upon his visit to the chip maker’s plant in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, to inspect the

TechnologyAug. 5, 2024

[팟캐스트] (607) 야근하는 아이돌?

진행자: 최정윤, Chelsea Proctor Internet drives K-pop stars to overwork [1] The punishing schedule and little rest that K-pop stars endure are not new. Big-name K-pop agencies have been consistently criticized for operating like factories in producing and managing artists. endure: 견디다 big-name: 일류의, 유명한 [2] Bang Si-hyuk, chairman of Hybe, the largest K-pop agency globally, acknowledged this issue in a CNN interview in March 2023. "It’s not a total urban legend. Of course, there was some

PodcastAug. 5, 2024

JYP launches new subsidiary Innit

JYP Entertainment announced on Monday the establishment of a new subsidiary, Innit Entertainment, aimed at enhancing its capabilities as a comprehensive entertainment company. According to JYP Entertainment, the name Innit derives from a shortened form of the English expression “isn’t it.” Innit Entertainment will handle various music genres including pop, ballad, trot and R&B; it plans to launch soloists, duos as well as actors, utilizing JYP Entertainment's training

K-popAug. 5, 2024

Woori returns to investment banking after 10-year hiatus

Woori Investment & Securities, a brokerage house under Woori Financial Group, is poised to bolster its presence in investment banking, backing the potential of its group affiliates. The securities firm, formed through the merger of Woori Investment Bank and Korea Foss Securities, officially launched Thursday. The launch comes nearly 10 years after Woori Financial Group sold its securities firm to NongHyup Financial Group in 2014. “Woori Investment & Securities will be a key affilia

IndustryAug. 5, 2024

Education Ministry to inspect study abroad agencies for false ads

Amid South Korea's growing demand for private education, the Ministry of Education said Monday it will conduct a special inspection on agencies that arrange or help students study abroad. The Ministry of Education will focus on false and exaggerated advertisements of such centers to put the brakes on sales methods that prompt advanced learning and promote private education from August to September, with the cooperation of the 17 provincial offices of education nationwide. The ministry will

Social AffairsAug. 5, 2024

Hyundai Motor chief touts Korean archers' Olympic wins

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun, who doubles as the president of the Korea Archery Association, on Sunday emphasized the importance of believing in the association, the athletes and the staff, as well as the association's system itself, as he thanked the Korean national archers after they won all five available gold medals at the 2024 Olympics Games in Paris. “First and foremost, I want to thank our athletes,” said Chung. “I’m most glad about the fac

More SportsAug. 5, 2024