Foreign players in S. Korean baseball set to rejoin teams this week

Just a few weeks ago, when Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) clubs were wrapping up their spring training in places like the United States, Japan and Taiwan, their foreign players, most of them Americans, were rushing to return to their home country. South Korea was struggling to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, while the US appeared to be safe. But the tables have since turned, and those players are now on their way to South Korea. The COVID-19 outbreak forced the KBO to cancel i

BaseballMarch 23, 2020

More EVs with LG, Samsung batteries to receive subsidies in China

The Chinese government has allowed subsidies for electric vehicles equipped with South Korean batteries, lowering the threshold for foreign battery makers.　 According to the Korean Embassy in Beijing on Friday, Tesla’s China-made Model 3 EV sedan and Chongqing Jinkang’s pure electric SUV -- equipped with LG Chem and Samsung SDI batteries -- have been included on a whitelist for new energy vehicle subsidies announced March 6 by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of

IndustryMarch 23, 2020

National Library of Korea introduces enhanced online service amid coronavirus spread

The National Library of Korea started providing its enhanced online service Digital Collection on Monday. “Digital Collection provides selected content curated by experts from different fields who also wrote commentaries. We hope that this cultural content can help people who are having a difficult time due to the delay of the new school semester and social distancing,” a National Library of Korea official said in a statement. The service can be accessed via the National Library

CultureMarch 23, 2020

Daegu to offer emergency aid to virus-battered households, businesses

The government of Daegu, the southeastern city hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak, on Monday announced emergency financial assistance of about 660 billion won ($517 million) to help about 640,000 households suffering economic fallout from the disaster. The municipal government said it will secure its first COVID-19-linked supplementary budget of 659.9 billion won to hand out varying amounts of financial support to low-income households, small business owners and self-employed people, begi

Social AffairsMarch 23, 2020

KAI to lease trainer jets to US despite losing contract to Boeing

South Korean aircraft manufacturer KAI said Monday that the US Air Force is planning to rent a small number of KAI’s advanced T-50A trainer jets until new trainer jets arrive from Boeing, the winner of the T-X trainer contest. According to a notice posted online by the US General Services Administration in January, the US Air Combat Command plans to contract Hillwood Aviation to provide four to eight of KAI’s T-50A Golden Eagle advanced jet trainer aircraft to help its aviators de

IndustryMarch 23, 2020

'Joy of spring': Japan fetes cherry blossoms despite virus

TOKYO (AFP) -- The crowds might be thinner and parties smaller, but warnings from officials over the coronavirus have done little to stop Japanese celebrating as the country's famed cherry trees explode into bloom. Over a warm long weekend in Tokyo, people packed into traditional blossom hotspots, many not even wearing face masks, to admire the fluffy white and pink flowers hanging from delicate stems. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike admitted that taking cherry blossom parties away from Japanese

World NewsMarch 23, 2020

Shinsegae Department Store introduces 3 types of shopping carts

Shinsegae Department Store said Monday it is introducing three types of shopping carts from Tuesday. According to the retail giant, the three carts each have different features. One is designed for safekeeping bags. Another has a baby seat. The last type caters to small purchases. The cart with a space to store purses is covered with water-proof fabric to prevent shoppers’ designer bags from getting scratched, Shinsegae said. Shinsegae explained that customers had often held onto th

ConsumerMarch 23, 2020

Coronavirus dents market cap of major firms, exports

Major South Korean firms have suffered a sharp drop in market capitalization, losing a combined 266 trillion won ($207 billion) over the past two months since the country’s first confirmed case of coronavirus infection, latest data showed Monday. Local corporate tracker Korea CXO Institute surveyed the share prices of 100 listed Korean companies -- the top five in 20 industries -- for the 60 days starting Jan. 20, until Friday. Their market cap fell by 29.7 percent during the period,

IndustryMarch 23, 2020

Samsung 3rd-largest player in mobile AP market: data

Samsung Electronics Co. edged out Apple Inc. to take third place in the global mobile application processor (AP) market last year, a report showed Monday. Samsung, which makes Exynos chipsets, had a 14.1 percent share of the global mobile AP market in 2019, up 2.2 percentage points from a year earlier, according to data from industry tracker Counterpoint Research. Apple settled for fourth place after its market share declined by 0.5 percentage point to 13.1 percent last year, data showed.

TechnologyMarch 23, 2020

S. Korean Olympic body in wait-and-see mode as IOC, Japan hint at postponing Tokyo 2020

The South Korean national Olympic body is taking a wait-and-see approach in its buildup for the Tokyo Olympics, which may well be postponed due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Following an Executive Board meeting Sunday in Lausanne, Switzerland, the International Olympic Committee said it will step up its "scenario-planning" for Tokyo 2020, with changes to the start date of the competition among the possibilities. The IOC's decision is expected within the next four weeks. The IO

Olympic GamesMarch 23, 2020

Changwon bars access to cherry blossom sites amid coronavirus concerns

CHANGWON (Yonhap) -- The southeastern city of Changwon on Monday barred public access to major cherry blossom-viewing sites to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Late last month the city government canceled its annual Jinhae Gunhangje Festival, one of South Korea's largest cherry blossom events, scheduled to open this Friday. In a news conference, Mayor Huh Sung-moo announced additional measures to keep visitors away, as about 360,000 cherry trees in the industrial city, 400 kilometers sout

Social AffairsMarch 23, 2020

S. Korea weighs options for humanitarian support for coronavirus-hit Iran

South Korea is exploring ways to provide humanitarian support to Iran to help its fight against the new coronavirus, the foreign ministry said Monday, as the Middle East country struggles with shortages of medical supplies under US sanctions. Seoul's consideration appears to have accelerated after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reportedly sent a letter to South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier this month to request 3.2 million COVID-19 diagnostic kits and other quarantine supplies. &quo

Foreign AffairsMarch 23, 2020

S. Korea mulling sending chartered flight to South Sudan to bring home some troops

South Korea is considering sending a chartered flight to South Sudan to bring back some of its peacekeeping troops amid coronavirus concerns, the defense ministry said Monday. About 210 rotational troops of the 270-strong Hanbit Unit are expected to return home without replacement, after the African country asked Seoul and other foreign countries not to send fresh troops in the wake of the spread of the COVID-19 virus across the globe. "We have had close consultations with the host natio

Foreign AffairsMarch 23, 2020

Netflix to exclusively release ‘Time to Hunt’

  The film “Time to Hunt” will be released next month exclusively through video streaming platform Netflix, the film’s distributor Little Big Pictures said Monday. Originally slated to be released late last month, the film’s opening had been indefinitely postponed due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. This marks the first time Netflix is exclusively releasing a film originally scheduled for a theatrical release. “Considering the danger of the COVID-19

FilmMarch 23, 2020

Ministry emphasizes inter-Korean anti-virus cooperation following Trump's offer to help N. Korea

South and North Korea should work together in preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus from the perspective of "humanitarian" and "mutually beneficial" cooperation, Seoul's unification ministry said Monday. The emphasis on cross-border cooperation came a day after North Korea announced that US President Donald Trump expressed an intention to help its fight against the coronavirus in a personal letter to leader Kim Jong-un. "Our government's

North KoreaMarch 23, 2020

US still insists on $4 billion demand in defense cost-sharing talks: source

The United States stuck to its demand for $4 billion in Seoul's financial contribution to stationing 28,500 American troops here in last week's defense cost-sharing talks with South Korea, a diplomatic source indicated Monday. The figure was down from the US' initial call for a fivefold increase to $5 billion in Korea's share of the cost for the upkeep of the US Forces Korea (USFK), but Seoul officials believe that the figure is still unrealistically high. "Basically, there wasn't a chan

DefenseMarch 23, 2020

Moon replaces four vice ministers, two Cheong Wa Dae secretaries

The office of President Moon Jae-in announced the replacement of four vice minister-level officials and two of Moon's secretaries in a partial shake-up Monday as his administration nears its third anniversary. It followed the resignation of some senior officials seeking to run in the April 15 general elections, affecting the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the National Agency for Administrative City Construction. Moon

PoliticsMarch 23, 2020

KBO team cancels practice after player reports fever

A South Korean baseball club canceled its practice and closed its home stadium on Monday after a player reported a fever. The Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said the unidentified player will be tested for the novel coronavirus later in the day, and the rest of the team will be self-isolated in their homes in the meantime. The Giants, based in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, came home from their spring training in Australia last Tuesday. They had three days of

BaseballMarch 23, 2020

Canada says no athletes at Tokyo Games if not postponed

TORONTO (AP) -- The Canadian Olympic Committee says it won't send athletes to the Tokyo Games unless they're postponed for a year, becoming the first country to threaten such a move in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The committee sent out a statement Sunday evening saying it was willing to help the IOC search for alternatives, but that it was not safe for athletes, "their families and the broader Canadian community for athletes to continue training for these Games." &quo

Olympic GamesMarch 23, 2020

Seoul, Moscow hold FTA talks for service sector

South Korea on Monday launched another round of trade talks with Russia to flesh out details on the two country's pending free trade agreement (FTA) in the service and investment segments. The two countries have decided to hold the four-day video conference on their free trade talks due to the global spread of the novel coronavirus, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. So far, the two countries held three rounds of trade negotiations, with the previous meeting being held in

EconomyMarch 23, 2020