KBO club SK Wyverns to post LHP Kim Kwang-hyun

South Korean left-hander Kim Kwang-hyun will take his second crack at the majors after all.Kim's Korea Baseball Organization club, SK Wyverns, announced Friday they will post their former MVP-winning pitcher for interested Major League Baseball clubs.The Wyverns said they've met with Kim twice since he returned from pitching for South Korea at the World Baseball Softball Confederation  Premier12 on Monday. Because Kim was still under contract with the Wyverns, he needed the club's perm

BaseballNov. 22, 2019

Cheong Wa Dae to announce GSOMIA decision at 6 pm, termination plan apparently averted

South Korea's presidential office said Friday it will make public a decision on the fate of a military information-sharing agreement with Japan at 6 pm, six hours before it was scheduled to expire.Kim You-geun, deputy director of Cheong Wa Dae's national security office, plans to hold a press briefing, it said.The announcement follows final discussions on the issue of the General Security of Military Information Agreement.Cheong Wa Dae initially planned to make an announcement on its plan to pre

DefenseNov. 22, 2019

Investors lose trust in financial firms amid derivative fiasco: survey

South Korean investors have lost their faith in financial firms and their products, amid the latest series of investment fiascos here, a survey showed Friday.According to a poll conducted by the Korea Financial Investors Protection Foundation on 1,000 respondents aged from 25 to 69, 10 out of the 12 questions scored below 50 out of 100 points.Scoring the lowest were the financial firms’ duty to inform investors of all possible investment risks beforehand and their liability for advertiseme

MarketNov. 22, 2019

[Behind the Wheel] The New Grandeur gains a bold, younger and sportier look

Hyundai Motor’s flagship full-size sedan Grandeur has been positioned as a luxurious car for the older generation and people with high social status in their late 40s and 50s in South Korea.But with the New Grandeur, the automaker has transformed itself, seeking to target those in their early 40s and encourage the older generation to seek a bold and sporty image with their cars, even threatening the market for the new Sonata and affiliate Kia Motors’ steady-selling sedan K7.The Korea

MobilityNov. 22, 2019

Grammys under fire after BTS wasn't nominated for 2020 event

The Grammy Awards, one of the major American pop music award events, have become fodder for criticism after K-pop band BTS was shut out of the nominations for the 2020 Grammys.Many eyes had been on BTS' possible nomination when the American Recording Academy announced the 2020 list of nominees Wednesday following the septet's unprecedented feats in the American music scene this year.With its latest album, "Map of the Soul: Persona," BTS topped the Billboard 200 album chart, becoming th

PerformanceNov. 22, 2019

Warmbier's parents urge Seoul to pressure Pyongyang on human rights issues

The parents of American student Otto Warmbier, who died soon after his release from 17 months of captivity in North Korea, called on South Korea's government Friday to pressure North Korea on its human rights abuses. Fred and Cindy Warmbier made the appeal during a press conference in Seoul organized by the Korean War Abductees' Family Union to drum up international support for legal responses by victims of North Korea's abductions and detention, and their families.  Warmbier was held capti

North KoreaNov. 22, 2019

Woori Bank resolves ‘overhang’ issue by divesting holdings share

Woori Bank has cleared out its remaining stake in Woori Financial Holdings, removing the overhang for potential stock value, Woori Financial Group officials said Friday.The bank has disposed of its last remaining 1.8 percent stake in the group’s holding unit Woori Financial Holdings in an over the counter block transition.The corresponding stake was the second batch of the 5.8 percent stake which the bank was holding as part of the all-inclusive exchange of shares to restructure Woori Card

MarketNov. 22, 2019

Moon emboldened by new corporate investment in chip material production

President Moon Jae-in celebrated the construction Friday of a new silicon wafer plant in South Korea by a Taiwanese firm's local unit, calling it a milestone in his country's efforts to diversify the supply channel of core strategic materials against Japan's export control.His move came as a Seoul-Tokyo military information-sharing accord, called the General Security of Military Information Agreement, is scheduled to expire at the end of the day.Seoul's decision not to extend GSOMIA is attributa

IndustryNov. 22, 2019

Korean EV battery makers' market share sharply up in Sept.

South Korea's major electric vehicle battery producers sharply increased their market share in September amid a slowdown in global EV battery use, industry data showed Friday.  Based on the global usage of their EV batteries, the combined market share of three South Korean EV battery makers -- LG Chem Ltd., Samsung SDI Co. and SK Innovation Co. -- stood at 16 percent in September, up 6.8 percentage points from a year earlier, according to data from market tracker SNE Research.   L

IndustryNov. 22, 2019

Korea to enhance protection of foreign wives from violence

South Korea will create a multi-language police hotline to better protect foreign wives from domestic violence, the gender ministry said Friday. The government will also ban men with records of serious crimes from bringing in foreign brides and enhance education for marriage migrants and mix-race families to help them settle in this ethnically homogenous nation.  The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and related government agencies announced a set of measures to enhance protection of t

Social AffairsNov. 22, 2019

USFDA approves SK Biopharmaceuticals’ new anti-epileptic drug

A new South Korean anti-epileptic drug will be available in the US from as early as April. The US’ Food and Drug Administration has approved SK Biopharmaceuticals’ anti-epileptic drug XCOPRI (Cenobamate), officials said Friday. The product will be available in the second quarter of 2020 after review by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.The marketing and sales process will be overseen by SK Life Science, the US subsidiary of SK BIopharmaceuticals based in Paramus, New Jersey. XCO

IndustryNov. 22, 2019

Prosecutors raid Coast Guard in Sewol probe

South Korean prosecutors on Friday raided the Korea Coast Guard headquarters and some regional offices as part of its ongoing probe into the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking, one of the country's worst maritime disasters, which killed more than 300 people.A special unit tasked with the probe launched the raid at around 10 a.m. at the Incheon-based Korea Coast Guard headquarters, as well as at regional offices in the southwestern coastal cities of Mokpo and Yeosu.The raid is part of a widening probe into

Social AffairsNov. 22, 2019

Jeju Air opens routes to Phu Quoc, Bohol

Jeju Air Co., South Korea's biggest low-cost carrier, said Friday it has opened routes to Vietnam's Phu Quoc and the Philippines' Bohol amid lower demand for travel to Japan.The budget carrier began to serve the routes from Incheon International Airport to the two Asian cities on Thursday, the company said in a statement.Local airlines have suspended or reduced flights on routes to some less-popular Japanese cities since August amid a trade row between South Korea and Japan.To protest Japan's cu

IndustryNov. 22, 2019

[Weekender] Malaysian chef cooks ‘agak agak’ in Yeonnam-dong

Whenever a young Basira Yeusuff wondered how much chili there was in her soup, her grandmother would always say, “Agak agak.” Meaning “roughly” or “rough estimate” in Bahasa Malaysian, the phrase is used widely in Malaysian kitchens to explain seasoning amounts in home-cooking recipes, said Yeusuff, now a chef, using the tips of her fingers to explain how much “agak agak” could be. It sums up the Malaysian food culture, and that’s why she cho

FoodNov. 22, 2019

Topping box office upon release, 'Frozen 2' to continue winning streak

Sensational Walt Disney animation "Frozen 2" immediately topped the box office on the first day of its release in South Korea, box-office data showed Friday."Frozen 2" sold 606,816 tickets on the first day of its release Thursday here, debuting atop the box office, according to data by the Korean Film Council.On Thursday, the film was shown on 2,343 movie screens across the country and ran 12,998 times, according to the data. This marked 63 percent of all the shows screened t

FilmNov. 22, 2019

Train services reduced as strike continues for 3rd day

Train services across the nation are expected to be reduced again Friday as unionized workers at the state railway operator striked for the third straight day.Subways ran by the Korea Railroad Corp. -- lines No. 1, 3 and 4, and the Gyeongui-Jungang and Bundang lines -- are expected to operate at 82 percent of the usual level, the company said. Other passenger services will also be affected, with the KTX bullet train running at 68.9 percent of the usual level, and the Saemaeul and Mugunghwa lines

Social AffairsNov. 22, 2019

[Weekender] A culinary journey to Asian neighbors

Long overshadowed by Asia’s two gastronomical giants China and Japan, cuisines from Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian nations are tantalizing taste buds and adding new flavors to South Korea’s diverse food scene. A visit last week to the Shinsegae Department Store’s basement-level food mall, where only the hottest eateries in Korea are invited to set up, reconfirmed the geographical diversification. A section was created to resemble a food street in an imag

FoodNov. 22, 2019

[Eye Plus] Tracing footsteps of beloved author Kim Yu-jeong

After an hour and 20 minutes’ ride on a train from Cheongnyangni bound for Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, you reach a small station named after a 20th-century novelist beloved by many Koreans: Kim Yu-jeong. Originally called Sinnam Station, it was renamed in 2004, as part of a local project to commemorate the author, who hailed from a rural village called Sile, just a few minutes’ walk from the station. Surrounded by Geumbyeongsan, the town has preserved his birth house and a memo

TravelNov. 22, 2019

[Box Office] Movies in theaters this week

Black Money(Korea)Opened Nov. 13Crime, DramaDirected by Chung Ji-youngAn employee of the Financial Supervisory Service is killed in an accident. An employee of a bank takes her own life, putting the blame on alleged sexual harassment by public prosecutor Yang Min-hyeok (Cho Jin-woong). Seeking to clear his name, Yang finds that the two seemingly unrelated deaths are linked to a questionable acquisition by a foreign investment bank.The Divine Move 2: The Wrathful(Korea)Opened Nov. 7Crime, ActionD

FilmNov. 22, 2019

[Travel Bits] Festivals and sights across Korea

Chrysanthemum Exhibition of the Garden of Morning Calm (1)Visitors to the Chrysanthemum Exhibition can enjoy the blazing fall foliage of nearby Chungnyeongsan and the golden waves created by the pine trees, as well as the myriad fully bloomed chrysanthemums covering just about every corner of the 330,000-square-meter outdoor garden. The festival runs through Sunday and is open to visitors of all ages.For more information in Korean, English, Japanese or Chinese, visit www.morningcalm.co.kr.Seoche

TravelNov. 22, 2019