South Korea's foreign ministry called in a Japanese Embassy official Thursday to express concerns over the operator of Tokyo's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant having filed for approval for its planned release of radioactive water into the ocean. On Tuesday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) submitted an application for the planned water release to Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) amid growing concerns in South Korea that it could cause health risks and maritime contamination. L

Foreign Affairs Dec. 23, 2021

South Korea's national Olympic body set a humble target for medals at the upcoming Beijing Winter Games on Thursday, with hopes of winning a gold medal or two for a top-15 finish. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) predicted South Korea will fall well short of its Winter Olympic-record total of 17 medals won at home during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games. South Korea won five gold, eight silver and four bronze medals to finish seventh in the medal race then. This time around, t

More Sports Dec. 23, 2021

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that grandparents can legally adopt their own grandchild, even though the child's biological parent is alive, when the arrangement is in the interest of the child's welfare. The top court ruled in favor grandparents who filed an appeal to adopt their own grandchildren, and transferred the case to a district court in Ulsan, 415 kilometers southeast of Seoul, for a retrial. The decision was the first Supreme Court ruling which allowed grandparents to adopt the

Social Affairs Dec. 23, 2021

The government unveiled a revised road map on improving regulations for self-driving cars Thursday to hasten their commercial adoption starting next year. The road map, confirmed at an interagency government meeting earlier in the day, came as South Korea is expected to see a fast adoption of autonomous driving for commercial vehicles beginning in 2022, starting with the launch of Level 3 self-driving cars -- made for conditional driving automation that requires human intervention. The governm

Industry Dec. 23, 2021

Military prosecutors have appealed a recent court decision to sentence an Air Force service member to nine years in prison on charges of sexually abusing a now deceased female colleague, officials said Thursday. On Tuesday, the prosecutors filed the appeal. They had sought a 15-year prison term for the master sergeant purported to have groped the victim of the same rank inside a car in March. She took her own life in May. On Friday last week, the General Military Court meted out the nine-year

Social Affairs Dec. 23, 2021

South Korea's central bank said Thursday it will end a special program to buy corporate bonds, including low-rated debts, at the end of this month as planned as the financial market has stabilized. The Bank of Korea (BOK) and the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) launched a 10 trillion-won ($8.4 billion) program in July last year to purchase corporate bonds and commercial paper, a move aimed at easing a corporate funding squeeze. The program has been extended twice and is set to end on Dec

Economy Dec. 23, 2021

South Korean slugger Na Sung-bum grew up in the southern city of Gwangju, rooting for the Kia Tigers. He would frequent their home stadium with his parents, and as a teenage prospect, his middle school and high school teams even played a few games there too. And come 2022, Na will be playing for the Tigers. As a free agent, Na signed a six-year contract worth 15 billion won ($12.6 million) with the Tigers on Thursday, a deal that ties the record for the largest free agent deal in Korea Baseball

Baseball Dec. 23, 2021

Investigative authorities of South Korea and the United States have cooperated to crack down on a 2017 cryptocurrency phishing scam and help victims recover some of their losses, prosecutors in Seoul said Thursday. The Supreme Prosecutors Office (SPO) said it arrested two South Korean suspects behind the cyber fraud and confirmed the identify of one Japanese suspect based on intelligence provided by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2018. The SPO and the FBI then teamed up to sei

Foreign Affairs Dec. 23, 2021

SEJONG -- Corporate retirement pension funds under management expanded more than 16 percent in 2020 from a year earlier as the system has taken root here, government data showed Thursday. Cumulative corporate retirement pension funds stood at 255 trillion won ($214 billion) as of end-December last year, up 16.1 percent from a year ago, according to the data first compiled by Statistics Korea. A total of 408,000 companies adopted the scheme for their employees as of last year, up 3.5 percent fr

Social Affairs Dec. 23, 2021

SEJONG -- North Korea's economy shrank 4.5 percent in 2020 from a year earlier due to international sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Thursday. The drop in the reclusive country's real gross domestic product (GDP) represents a turnaround from a 0.4 percent increase a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The statistics agency attributed the decline to international economic sanctions for its weapons program and border lockdowns stemming from th

North Korea Dec. 23, 2021

South Korea will be able to borrow up to $60 billion from the US Federal Reserve's "repo facility," designed to help countries secure overnight dollar funding by using their holdings of US Treasury securities, the central bank said Thursday. The deal reached with the Federal Reserve on Tuesday (US time) will allow the Bank of Korea (BOK) to exchange its US Treasury holdings for dollars through the Foreign and International Monetary Authorities (FIMA) Repo Facility at an interest rate

Market Dec. 23, 2021

South Korean firms' earnings plunged to a six-year low in 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Thursday. The combined pretax net profit of 13,429 companies came to 97.7 trillion won ($82 billion) in 2020, down 3.9 percent from the prior year and marking the third straight year of decline, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It was the lowest level since the 91.4 trillion won recorded in 2014 and represented the first time for their total bottom l

Economy Dec. 23, 2021

The government will cut credit card processing fees for small merchants to ease their burdens amid the COVID-19 crisis, the ruling Democratic Party said Thursday following its meeting with financial authorities. The commission rate for small merchants with an annual revenue of below 300 million won ($252,550) will be lowered from 0.8 percent to 0.5 percent, according to Rep. Kim Byung-wook of the DP. For small business operators with an annual revenue between 300 million won and 500 million

Politics Dec. 23, 2021

South Korea and China will hold high-level strategic talks on Thursday, the first of its kind between the two sides in more than four years, to discuss bilateral cooperation on regional and global issues, Seoul officials said. Choi Jong-kun, first vice foreign minister, and his Chinese counterpart Le Yucheng will lead the 9th Strategic Dialogue meeting to be held via video links in the afternoon. The two countries held the 8th session in June 2017. The discussions are expected to touch on a wi

Foreign Affairs Dec. 23, 2021

South Korea will expand "future-oriented" cooperation with the United States on supply chains, technologies and other areas next year while reinforcing "conflict prevention" efforts with China, the foreign ministry said Thursday. The ministry delineated the plans in a written policy report for 2022 to President Moon Jae-in as Seoul seeks to craft an optimal diplomatic strategy amid a hardening Sino-US rivalry on technological primacy, security, trade and other fronts. Deliv

Foreign Affairs Dec. 23, 2021