All new arrivals to be placed in mandatory 2-week self-quarantine

South Korea will place all new arrivals in self-quarantine for two weeks as it struggles to stem a rise in new coronavirus cases coming from abroad, the country's health authorities said Tuesday. All arrivals will be required to stay at designated facilities, starting at midnight Tuesday, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). Those that do not have a place of residence here will be charged around 100,000 won (US$82) per day for using public facilities. In

Social AffairsMarch 31, 2020

New cases up again on cluster, overseas infections; new school year further delayed

South Korea reported a slight uptick in new cases of the novel coronavirus Tuesday, driven by a steady rise in cluster infections and imported cases. In the face of community spread of the virus, the country again pushed back the new school year, with the introduction of online classes. The opening of kindergartens and child care centers has been delayed indefinitely. The 125 new cases, which were detected Monday and up from 78 new cases a day earlier, brought the nation's total infections t

Social AffairsMarch 31, 2020

BOK offers $8.7b to banks via US currency swap

The Bank of Korea (BOK) offered $8.72 billion to banks Tuesday in its first round of dollar lending using a currency swap line with the United States Federal Reserve in a bid to stabilize the currency market. The central bank held a 30-minute online auction to provide local banks and other financial institutions with $800 million in seven-day debt and $7.92 billion in 84-day loans. Bids undershot the BOK target of $2 billion in seven-day debt and $8 billion in 84-day loans, which the central

EconomyMarch 31, 2020

S. Korea to begin new school year with online classes

South Korea said Tuesday it will begin the new school year on April 9 with online classes for middle and high school senior students following repeated delays due to the novel coronavirus. The unprecedented move to introduce online classes at elementary, middle and high schools nationwide will be carried out step by step, depending on grades, according to the education ministry. The new school year here usually starts in March, but the country had postponed it three times by five weeks to nex

Social AffairsMarch 31, 2020

Human testing for Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine this fall

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Johnson & Johnson said on Monday it had selected a lead candidate vaccine for the new coronavirus that would move to human trials by September and could be ready for emergency use by early next year. The pharmaceutical company has signed an agreement with the US government's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to invest $1 billion in the effort, it said in a statement. J&J began working on the vaccine under investigation -- Ad26 SARS-CoV-2 -- in

TechnologyMarch 31, 2020

Pompeo: US looks forward to meeting NK leadership for nuclear talks

The United States looks forward to sitting down with North Korea's leadership for nuclear talks, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday, shortly after Pyongyang accused him of slandering the regime and said it will "go our own way." Pompeo was responding to an official North Korean statement that condemned his earlier call on the Group of Seven major economies to continue diplomatic and economic pressure on Pyongyang. In a telephone briefing with Yonhap News Agency and other Asi

North KoreaMarch 31, 2020

Camp Humphreys contractor tests positive for coronavirus, raising USFK infections to 13

A US citizen working at a US Forces Korea (USFK) base tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday, bringing the total number of USFK-related infections to 13, the military said. The latest COVID-19 patient is an American contractor working at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, according to USFK. He is currently in isolation at his off-base residence, and he last visited the garrison on Friday, it added. "KCDC and USFK are actively conducting contact tracing to

DefenseMarch 31, 2020

Lotte chairman highest-paid exec in S. Korea in 2019

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin ranked as the highest-paid corporate executive in South Korea last year, industry data showed Monday.  Shin topped the list by receiving 18.18 billion won ($14.78 million) in wages from seven group companies, including Lotte Shopping Co., according to the companies' public disclosures. Lotte is the nation's fifth largest business group. He was the highest salary earner in 2017 with 15.2 billion won, but his compensation nearly halved the following year

IndustryMarch 31, 2020

Employee at Samsung's chip plant tests positive for coronavirus

A n employee at Samsung Electronics Co.'s chip production line in Yongin, south of Seoul, was confirmed to have contracted the novel coronavirus on Monday, a local government said.    The worker in his 20s first showed symptoms of the COVID-19 virus last week and took a test on Sunday, according to the city government of Hwaseong, where he resides.    After the result came out Monday, he was taken to a hospital and the authorities are tracing his contacts.    Th

IndustryMarch 31, 2020

3 million masks stored for kindergarten, elementary students: Education Ministry

South Korea’s Ministry of Education has stocked up about 3 million small medical masks for kindergarteners and first and second grade students ahead of the planned reopening of schools next week, the ministry said Monday. Some 2.2 million masks have been secured on top of 764,000 that the government previously had on hand for immediate distribution by school in case a student shows symptoms of the novel coronavirus or tests positive, according to the Education Ministry. It has also sepa

Social AffairsMarch 30, 2020

Polish virus patient caught breaking mandatory quarantine

Amid the rising number of imported cases of COVID-19 infections, a Polish national who tested positive reportedly carried out outdoor activities while in quarantine, sparking concerns of a community spread, local reports said Monday. The Yongsan District in Seoul posted online last week that a Polish man in his 40s had contracted the virus after coming into contact with a previously confirmed virus patient and that he had completed the two-week mandatory quarantine. Multiple Yongsan residents

Social AffairsMarch 30, 2020

EXO’s Suho hopes to show real self in solo album

Suho of EXO released his first solo album, “Self-Portrait,” on Monday, hoping to connect with the audience through the most personal side of himself. “As a solo artist, I wanted to make music that captured the color and musicality of Kim Jun-myeon (Suho’s given name), not the one I had shown through EXO as a group. I do feel burdened, but excitement outruns nervousness,” Suho said in a statement. The six-track EP is fronted by lead track “Let’s Love,

K-popMarch 30, 2020

‘Hardest part is not knowing when this will end’

Health care workers on the front line of the novel coronavirus fight are working grueling shifts and exhausted -- risking infections every day at work since the first case was found in South Korea on Jan. 20. As the outbreak prolongs, the burnout of COVID-19 warriors is a real threat in the quest to quell the virus, experts worry. The decline in the daily tally belies the mounting workload for those on the front line, says Choi Youn-suk, a head nurse at the coronavirus-only Keimyung Dongsan

Social AffairsMarch 30, 2020

KCDC says virus death rate rising in S. Korea

South Korea’s case fatality rate from the novel coronavirus reached 1.64 percent Monday, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a significant rise from March 1’s 0.4 percent. The KCDC said that as of midnight Sunday, 158 out of 9,661 confirmed with the virus have died. Epidemiologist Dr. Kim Dong-hyun, who is on the medical societies’ joint committee for virus response, said Korea’s death rate was lower initially because approximately a thi

Social AffairsMarch 30, 2020

Thai K-pop fans trending #Dispatch to vent frustration at monarchy

Frustrated with the monarchy’s actions -- or inaction -- amid the COVID-19 outbreak, some K-pop fans in Thailand are using memes and lyrics to express their discontent. On Sunday, the hashtag #Dispatch dominated Thai Twitter for hours as local fans translated a report from a Korean media outlet as to the whereabouts of the king of Thailand. The online story heavily relies on reporting from the German media, which appears to refer to reporting by German news website Bild. According to th

K-popMarch 30, 2020

Chaotic market puts fate of Korean M&As to test

Over the past few months since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, some employees of Hyundai Development Company, a local real estate developer under the pan-Hyundai empire, have been walking on thin ice. The market is facing a pandemic test, they said, pointing out the company’s landmark deal to acquire Asiana Airlines, the nation’s second-largest air carrier. The market hit by once-in-a-generation crisis could undermine the financial soundness of the company, not to mention

MarketMarch 30, 2020

[Graphic News] S. Korea reports more deaths than births for 3rd month in Jan.

　South Korea reported a net decrease in its population for the third consecutive month in January, due mainly to the critically low birthrate that has plagued Asia’s fourth-largest economy for years. 　Only 26,818 infants were born in January, down 11.6 percent on-year, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The number of births has fallen on-year for a whopping 50 consecutive months, dating to December 2015. 　The number of deaths, on the other hand, advanced 4 percent on-y

Social AffairsMarch 30, 2020

S. Korea ponders road to return to normal amid pandemic

With no end in sight in the global coronavirus outbreak, South Korea is pondering sustainable ways of continuing the quarantine system while also allowing for a return to normal.  The government said Monday it will launch a body encompassing public and private experts this week to devise guidelines on how people should go about their day while still helping to bring the spread of the virus under control. “The long-term goal is to control the size of infections to the level where h

Social AffairsMarch 30, 2020

Halsey cancels Seoul concert over COVID-19

American singer-songwriter Halsey called off her Seoul concert due the novel coronavirus spread. “‘Halsey - Manic World Tour Live in Seoul,’ originally slated to be held on May 9 at the Olympic Hall in the Olympic Park, has been canceled,” said the concert’s local organizer Live Nation Korea in a statement issued Monday. The organizer stated that all tickets will be automatically refunded without any charges. Those who canceled their tickets after 5:30 p.m. on

PerformanceMarch 30, 2020

Solgent moves to meet global RT-PCR kit demands

COVID-19 real-time PCR diagnostic kit manufacturer Solgent is working to meet rising global demands, the company said Monday. Solgent is genome precision medicine company Eone Diagnomics (EDGC)’s affiliate that is currently at its full capacity churning out 3,000 kits per week. With one kit, 100 people can test whether or not they are infected with the novel coronavirus. Over 20 nations are requesting Solgent to export its independently developed DiaPlexQ Novel Coronavirus Detection Kit

IndustryMarch 30, 2020