Most Popular
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Psy's touch or new trend in music? P Nation’s solo stars lose their shine
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Seoul to hold grand military parade on Tuesday, disrupting major city routes
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Park Zi-a, the actor who played 'The Glory' heroine's mother, dies
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Yoon warns North Korea against nuclear attack attempt
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Shut up and dance
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NewJeans fans corner Hybe amid PR backlash, looming National Assembly audit
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Miss Universe Korea names 80-year-old model 'best dressed'
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Israel targets Palestinian group in first strike on Beirut center
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Brit pop legend Oasis to perform in Seoul next year
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[KH Explains] Is Hyundai-GM partnership win-win to beat Tesla, Chinese rivals?
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Park calls for watertight defense, greater military power
President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday called on her top aides to strengthen defense capabilities and maintain airtight readiness posture, saying this year marks a “turning point” in her diplomatic and security policy. Presiding over the first Cabinet meeting of the year, she also pledged to make constant efforts to put cross-border relations back on track, in an upbeat response to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s New Year address in which he said Pyongyang would strive to improve the ties and cont
DefenseJan. 5, 2016
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North Korea ends preventive steps against MERS virus
North Korea has lifted a set of measures aimed at preventing the spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak as Seoul declared full control of the disease last month, the Unification Ministry said Tuesday.The North said that as of Monday it stopped checking the body temperatures of South Koreans who move in and out of Kaesong Industrial Complex, a joint industrial park located in the North's border city of Kaesong, according to the ministry.Since June, North Korea has used three ther
North KoreaJan. 5, 2016
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Seoul shares up 0.8% in late morning trade
South Korean stocks traded 0.8 percent higher late Tuesday morning, recovering from the previous session's plunge triggered by China's stock rout.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 4.81 points to 1,933.57 as of 11:20 a.m.Tech firms led the overall market gain. Top market cap Samsung Electronics gained 0.17 percent, and global chipmaker SK Hynix rose 2.65 percent.In contrast, No. 1 automaker Hyundai Motor remained unchanged, and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors went down 0.2 pe
Jan. 5, 2016
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Korea, Japan mull 'Abe letter' to former sex slaves: reports
South Korea and Japan could soon discuss the possibility of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sending a letter to Korean women forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers during World War II, according to Japanese news reports.According to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se asked his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, to take "steps to approach the victims" during their talks in Seoul last week.The talks produced a landmark agreement under which Japan
Foreign AffairsJan. 5, 2016
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Self-employed people struggle with snowballing debts
Loans taken by self-employed people in South Korea reached a record high in 2015, with some 20 percent of them at risk of becoming insolvent, a report showed Tuesday.According to the report by the Hana Institute of Finance, self-employed South Koreans owed a combined 520 trillion won ($437.5 billion) to local financial institutions as of end-June.Of the total loans, 18.5 percent were mortgages in excess of the government-imposed lending cap, known as the loan-to-value ratio that allows homebuyer
Jan. 5, 2016
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Korea downplays impact of China stock rout
South Korea downplayed the impact of China's stock market crash on its domestic financial market on Tuesday, saying the market will regain stability again.Chinese stock tumbled nearly 7 percent Monday on the year's first trading session due to concerns over its manufacturing sector, rattling South Korean and other financial markets.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) plunged more than 2 percent to a four-month low on Monday, with the South Korean currency sinking to the lowes
Jan. 5, 2016
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Korean medicine exports triple in 10 years: data
South Korean medicine exports jumped threefold in the last 10 years as local pharmaceutical companies have become more competitive on the global stage, government data showed Tuesday.According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Asia's fourth-largest economy shipped out 2.54 trillion won ($2.13 billion) worth of medical drugs in 2014, up 9 percent, or 210 billion won, from the year before. The total is 3.1 times larger than 820 billion won in exports tallied in 2005.In the past decade, medi
IndustryJan. 5, 2016
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Park receives pay raise of more than 3%
The Cabinet raised President Park Geun-hye's annual salary by more than 3 percent in a wage hike that also affected all other civic servants across South Korea, officials said Tuesday.Park is set to earn 212 million won ($178,000) this year, compared with 205 million won last year, according to officials at the Ministry of Personnel Management.Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will be paid 164 million won, up3.4 percent, while Cabinet ministers are set to earn 120 million won, according to the minist
PoliticsJan. 5, 2016
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North Korean leader inspects firing test by military units
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected a firing test by the military's artillery units as his first "field guidance" of the new year, Pyongyang's state media said Tuesday.Kim observed the artillery contest by combined units under the Korean People's Army (KPA), according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). As usual, it did not reveal the date of his public activity.The KCNA said that "all the contestants hit every target with perfect marksmanship they acquired in routine drills."Kim
North KoreaJan. 5, 2016
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Carmakers in Korea rush to unveil new models to preempt market
Carmakers in South Korea are rushing to unveil their new models in an apparent bid to preempt the domestic market this year by appealing to customers with upgraded and enhanced functions and designs, industry sources said Tuesday.Hyundai Motor Co., the country's largest automaker, plans to launch the Ioniq hybrid mid-January, which marks its first time to unveil a car exclusively developed as an electric vehicle, as opposed to cars based on existing models.Following the hybrid version deemed to
IndustryJan. 5, 2016
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Ambulances to be banned from using sirens in non-urgent situations
Emergency vehicle drivers who turn on their sirens and warning lights in non-urgent situations will be fined starting this year, police said Tuesday.The National Police Agency said a revision to the traffic law passed the parliament last year and will take effect in July.According to the revision, offenders can be fined up to 200,000 won ($168), except for certain situations, such as for a patrol or during training. The revision is aimed not only at protecting the right of way held by the police
Social AffairsJan. 5, 2016
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Korean tourism industry hit hard by MERS in 2015
South Korea's tourism industry suffered a severe setback due to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in 2015, but most industry players are upbeat on this year's business outlook, a poll showed Tuesday. According to the survey by the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute, nearly half of 332 tour agencies said the tourism industry was stuck in a slump last year due to a sharp fall in foreign travelers since the MERS onslaught in late May.The number of inbound travelers through November was 1
IndustryJan. 5, 2016
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BigBang's Seungri reports colleague to prosecutors over $1.7 mln fraud
Seungri of the boy band BigBang has filed a complaint with the prosecutors over an alleged fraud committed by his colleague that caused him losses of 2 billion won ($1.7 million), his agency said Tuesday."Seungri is extremely shocked by this incident," a YG Entertainment official said, adding the complaint has been filed by Seungri himself. "YG will deal with this situation together to make sure he suffers no more losses."In the complaint, Seungri reportedly said a female singer whom he consider
PerformanceJan. 5, 2016
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Actor Jung Woo-sung says seniority overrated
As with any other society in South Korea, the film community here has long espoused a culture of seniority -- the more experienced and successful you are, the greater respect you command from neophytes. But actor Jung Woo-sung says he's not one to subscribe to that kind of ideology. The 43-year-old is the leading man in the upcoming arthouse film "Remember You." The mystery romance feature is directed by a rookie, Lee Yoon-jung. Jung briefly worked with her on a separate movie directed by someon
FilmJan. 5, 2016
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Seoul shares start higher recovering from China-triggered sell-off
South Korean shares opened higher on Tuesday, recovering from the previous day's plunge triggered by Chinese turmoil, as investors scooped up oversold stocks.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged up 0.49 points, or 0.03 percent, to 1,919.25 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Market heavyweights traded mixed.Top market cap Samsung Electronics slumped 0.08 percent, while global chipmaker SK Hynix rose 2.65 percent.No. 1 automaker Hyundai Motor gained 0.69 percent, and its smaller a
Jan. 5, 2016
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State pension fund logs big profit in first 10 months of 2015: data
South Korea's state pension fund posted a profit of more than 20 trillion won ($16.8 billion) in the first 10 months of 2015 on increased earnings from bond and stock investments, official data showed Tuesday.The National Pension Service (NPS) said its profit reached 20.8 trillion won in the January-October period, with the rate of return standing at 4.24 percent.The profit doesn't take into account premiums paid by people who will receive pensions after they retire.The bulk of the profit, or 10
Jan. 5, 2016
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Ex-U.S. Amb. Stephen Bosworth dies
Stephen Bosworth, a long-time Korea expert who served as U.S. ambassador to South Korea and as Washington's special representative for North Korea policy, has died. He was 76.Bosworth died at his home in Boston on Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. Bosworth had served as chairman of the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS until recently. SAIS did not give the exact cause of his death, but the former diplomat suffered from prostate cancer.Bosworth s
Foreign AffairsJan. 5, 2016
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Korea's current account surplus widens on narrowing service deficit in Nov.
South Korea's current account surplus grew from a month earlier in November as the deficit in the service sector narrowed, nearly offsetting a drop in the goods account, preliminary data from the central bank showed Tuesday.The current account surplus came to US$9.4 billion in November, compared with a revised $9.12 billion surplus in the previous month, according to the data from the Bank of Korea.The November tally, however, marks a significant drop from the$10.76 billion surplus in November 2
Jan. 5, 2016
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U.S. activates fifth THAAD battery: Lockheed Martin
The U.S. Army activated its fifth THAAD missile defense battery at the end of last year, manufacturer Lockheed Martin said Monday.The American defense giant also said that it has been awarded a $528 million contract from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to produce and deliver interceptors for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile defense system."The U.S. Army activated the fifth of seven programmed THAAD batteries at the end of 2015," the company said in a release without elaborating. T
DefenseJan. 5, 2016
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Trump expresses concern about possibility of North Korea using nuclear weapons
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has expressed concern about the possibility of countries like North Korea using nuclear weapons."Nuclear is a major problem. And we have major problems, because you have other people that would be very fast on that. You look at North Korea, you look at some of these countries, I don't think they would hesitate to use it if they really had it in a proper manner," Trump said on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.Trump has repeatedly called North Kore
North KoreaJan. 5, 2016