BTS postpones ticketing for Europe leg of new world tour over coronavirus

K-pop boy band BTS has postponed ticket sales for the European leg of its new world tour, "Map of the Soul Tour," set for July, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. "Due to recent events, BTS 'Map of the Soul Tour - Europe' ticket sale will be rescheduled," the British branch of Live Nation, which organizes the European leg, said in an SNS message Tuesday (local time). According to the message, ticket presales for the members of Army, the official BTS fandom, has been r

K-popMarch 18, 2020

Virus threatens to hit state airport, rail, highway operators

The coronavirus outbreak threatens to batter South Korea's state airport, railway and highway operators due to tumbling demand for travel, data showed Wednesday. The spread of the respiratory disease, whose first confirmed case in South Korea was reported on Jan. 20, has halted almost all flights to and from South Korea, cut the number of train passengers in half and made a big dent in vehicle traffic on highways. According to the data that Rep. An Ho-young of the ruling Democratic Party rece

MobilityMarch 18, 2020

Ruling party urges govt. to take more bold action to fight coronavirus

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) called on the government Wednesday to consider drawing up another extra budget and come up with bold market-stabilizing and economic measures to fight the new coronavirus. The National Assembly passed an 11.7 trillion won ($9.44 billion) supplementary budget bill Tuesday to help contain the spread of COVID-19 and minimize the economic fallout of the outbreak. But the ruling party urged additional and unprecedented steps to tackle the potentially devastating im

PoliticsMarch 18, 2020

S. Korea, US resume defense cost-sharing negotiations

South Korea and the United States have opened a new round of defense cost-sharing talks in Los Angeles, the foreign ministry said Wednesday, as Korean workers in the US Forces Korea (USFK) face unpaid leave absent a deal to bankroll their wages. Seoul's top negotiator Jeong Eun-bo and his US counterpart, James DeHart, began the two-day negotiation session on Tuesday, following a two-month hiatus that underscored the deadlock over how much Seoul should pay for stationing the 28,500-strong USFK.

DefenseMarch 18, 2020

[팟캐스트] (344) 코로나 확산 관련 증오 범죄 / 타다 베이직 종료

  진행자: 손지형, Paul Kerry 1. [Newsmaker] Korean punched in the face in NY for not wearing mask 아이튠즈(아이폰): https://itunes.apple.com/kr/podcast/koliaheleoldeu-paskaeseuteu/id686406253?mt=2 팟빵 (안드로이드): http://www.podbbang.com/ch/6638 요약: 뉴욕 맨해튼에서 코로나19 확산과 관련해 여성이 인종차별성 증오 범죄 대상이 되었음.  [1] A 23-year-old South Korean student was punched in the face for not wearing a face mask in New York, in what appears to be a hate crime against Asians amid virus fears, reports said Friday. *punch A in

PodcastMarch 18, 2020

NK leader attends ground-breaking ceremony for Pyongyang hospital amid coronavirus fears

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has attended a ceremony to break ground on a general hospital in Pyongyang, calling it a "crucial task" to prop up the country's public health, state media reported Wednesday. The ceremony to begin the construction of Pyongyang General Hospital marked Kim's first reported public activity in the capital city in about three weeks. Recent state media reports suggested that Kim had been away from Pyongyang to observe military drills along the east coast, i

North KoreaMarch 18, 2020

S. Korea's parliament passes extra budget bill to fight coronavirus

The National Assembly on Tuesday approved an 11.7 trillion-won ($9.42 billion) extra budget to help contain the novel coronavirus and minimize the economic fallout from the outbreak. The supplementary budget bill passed through the parliamentary plenary session, with 222 of the 225 lawmakers present voting in favor. One voted against the bill while the remaining two lawmakers abstained. The overall size of the budget was unchanged from the original government proposal but details have been ad

PoliticsMarch 17, 2020

Over 170,000 overseas Koreans eligible to vote in April general elections

More than 170,000 overseas Koreans in 119 countries will be allowed to vote in the April 15 general elections, the National Election Commission said Tuesday. The number of eligible overseas voters stood at 171,959, up 11.5 percent from 154,217 four years ago, according to the NEC. It will be the third time for Korean citizens to participate in parliamentary elections from abroad. The first was in 2012, when a total of 123,571 overseas voters were registered. Residents in the United States ha

PoliticsMarch 17, 2020

S. Korean, Estonian defense chiefs discuss arms industry cooperation, anti-virus measures

 The defense ministers of South Korea and Estonia held phone talks on Tuesday and discussed measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Seoul's defense ministry said. The talks between South Korea's Jeong Kyeong-doo and Estonia's Jüri Luik took place "to continue their close defense ties amid this COVID-19 situation," according to the ministry. Luik postponed his planned trip to Seoul in February, when South Korea began to report a dramatic increase in the number of confi

BusinessMarch 17, 2020

[Graphic News] Korea's traffic deaths dip 11% in 2019

　The number of traffic fatalities in South Korea fell 11.4 percent last year from a year earlier, data showed. 　A total of 3,349 people died from car accidents in 2019, down from 3,781 tallied a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Land and Transport Ministry and the National Police Agency. 　The annual number of traffic deaths in the country has fallen steadily every year since 2015. (Yonhap)

Social AffairsMarch 17, 2020

NongHyup Financial nominates VP as new CEO for bank unit

NongHyup Financial Group’s committee for nominating executive members announced Tuesday that it has recommended incumbent Vice President Son Byung-hwan as the sole candidate for the new CEO post of its bank subsidiary.  The announcement came after the bank’s former CEO Lee Dae-hoon offered to resign earlier this month.  Son, 58, joined the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation in 1990 and has led the bank’s digital transformation by implementing an open ap

MarketMarch 17, 2020

Gyeonggi to regulate densely-packed church services to curb virus spread

The government of Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul, issued an administrative order on Tuesday imposing strict conditions on church worship services to help combat the coronavirus outbreak. Under the administrative order, the first of its kind issued in South Korea, the provincial government will enforce guidelines for mass gatherings at 137 churches that have been caught failing to comply with its guidance for preventing the spread of COVID-19. The government said it will enforce seve

Social AffairsMarch 17, 2020

Johnson & Johnson donates W200m worth of masks and relief goods in Korea

Global health care company Johnson & Johnson has donated 200 million won ($161,000) of relief goods to medical professionals and low-income families in Korea to help alleviate the COVID-19 situation, the company said Tuesday. Johnson & Johnson’s four operations in Korea -- Medical, Janssen, Vision and Consumer -- collaborated with the Salvation Army here in distributing 20,000 KF94 masks and 4,000 emergency relief kits. “Our heart goes out for those who are fighting the s

IndustryMarch 17, 2020

[Herald Interview] ‘Acting is about cultivating knowledge’

Actress Shim Eun-kyung won the best actress award at this year’s Japan Academy Film Prize, six years after winning the best acting award at South Korea’s Baeksang Arts Awards in 2014. “I’m truly grateful for all the congratulatory messages. It still doesn’t feel real,” Shim, currently living in Japan, told The Korea Herald through an email. “I’m very thankful to all the staff members who took part in making ‘The Journalist’ and ever

FilmMarch 17, 2020

Seoul markets sink as monetary easing fails to quell virus fears

South Korean stocks declined again Tuesday as surprise monetary policies around the globe failed to soothe market jitters over the economic fallout from the new coronavirus pandemic. The Korean won also continued to sink against the US dollar. The benchmark Kospi opened sharply low at 1,640.84 -- down 74.02 points, or 4.32 percent, from the previous session. The index even plummeted to 1,637.88 points in early morning, then inched up to close at 1,672.44. Foreign investors offloaded a net 1.

MarketMarch 17, 2020

Worshippers, priests wear masks during Mass service in Pyongyang

Russia's Embassy in North Korea has released photos showing all priests and worshippers wearing masks during a recent Mass service at a Russian Orthodox church in Pyongyang in an indication that the country is on high alert for the coronavirus. "The service was carried out in compliance with all necessary precautions ... the parishioners who were quarantined and those attending the mass wore masks and the rituals were performed in sanitary conditions," the embassy said in a post Mond

North KoreaMarch 17, 2020

[Tyler Cowen] Entertainment partial solution of COVID-19

First the NBA postponed its season, with no immediate resumption in sight, and then March Madness was canceled. Broadway has been shuttered, along with other public entertainments across the country, Disneyland included. These are prudent if belated steps. Nonetheless a question arises: If every empire needs bread and circuses, where will Americans turn for the latter? Which public spectacles will keep us all distracted? One obvious response is the internet. For younger generations especially,

ViewpointsMarch 17, 2020

Moon calls for ‘unprecedented’ economic measures

President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday that he will chair an emergency economic conference, and that all available resources and methods will be mobilized to deal with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Special responses and measures will be decided on quickly, and (the situation) will be dealt with firmly through the emergency economic meeting presided over by the president,” Moon said at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, calling the current economic situation more grievou

PoliticsMarch 17, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] Lesson from Academy Award-winning Parasite

Ostensibly, the 2020 Academy Award-winning South Korean film “Parasite” seems to depict the problems of a polarized society here, sharply divided between the rich and the poor. That was why Korean left-wing politicians hailed the movie as a victory of socialism over capitalism and tried to use the movie’s international recognition for political gain so that they can win the upcoming election in April. After watching the movie, however, viewers realize that such a view is only

ViewpointsMarch 17, 2020