South Korea kicked off annual consultation meetings with global rating appraiser Standard & Poor's Global Ratings (S&P) on Monday to discuss the country's credit valuation and economic outlook, the finance ministry said. The delegation, led by Kim Eng Tan, senior director of Asia-Pacific sovereign ratings at S&P, visited South Korea for four days of consultations through Thursday, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. It will be the first face-to-face meetings between th

Economy Nov. 29, 2021

North Korea said Monday it has strengthened preventive measures against COVID-19 in response to growing concern about the Omicron variant, a move that heralds a further delay in easing its stringent border control. The reclusive nation had been seen preparing to reopen its land border with China and Russia, at least partially, before the end of this year. But the emergence of a new variant of the coronavirus has put the country and many other parts of the world on high alert. In a report, the

North Korea Nov. 29, 2021

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit Seoul this week for annual defense talks with his South Korean counterpart on the envisioned transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON), North Korean threats, cybersecurity and other issues, Seoul officials have said. Austin is set to depart for South Korea on Tuesday (Washington time) to attend the 53rd Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) slated for Thursday. It marks the first SCM between Seoul's Defense Minister Suh Wook and Austin since the

Defense Nov. 29, 2021

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. said Monday it has signed a deal with Microsoft Korea to cooperate on the digitalization of its shipyard. Samsung Heavy said it plans to build up a collaboration system among each shipbuilding sector in its shipyard by using cloud computing service Azure, artificial intelligence, group chat software Teams and metaverse technologies, which will be provided by Microsoft under the deal. Samsung Heavy said the latest deal will accelerate the digitalization of its shipy

Industry Nov. 29, 2021

South Korea's new coronavirus cases stayed below 4,000 for the second straight day Monday due largely to fewer tests, but the high number of critically ill patients remained worrisome amid concerns about the new virus variant. The country reported 3,309 new COVID-19 cases, including 3,286 local infections, raising the total caseload to 444,200, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Monday's tally was down from 3,928 reported Sunday and 4,068 on Saturday. The cou

Social Affairs Nov. 29, 2021

South Korean stocks opened lower Monday, largely as investors wondered how the omicron variant of the coronavirus would affect the global economic reopening. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 21.9 points, or 0.75 percent, to 2,914.54 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. South Korea reported 3,309 new COVID-19 cases Monday, none of which have been confirmed as an infection from the omicron variant. Most sectors traded lower, except vaccine-related bio and medic

Market Nov. 29, 2021

RM, leader of the K-pop sensation BTS, said Sunday (US time) he felt there is an "invisible wall" for Korean artists despite the group's back-to-back success in the global music industry. The remark was seen as referring to the group's failure to win nomination for the top four Grammys despite a series of dazzling successes, such as producing back-to-back Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers and winning the coveted top honor at the American Music Awards. "We secured the AMAs' artist

K-pop Nov. 29, 2021

Nearly half of South Korean hospitality companies were unable to service their debts with earnings in 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, a report showed Monday. The report from the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the lobby for South Korea's family-controlled conglomerates, showed 45.4 percent of firms in the local hospitality industry had an interest coverage ratio below 1 last year. The figure is up 11.3 percentage points from 2018, indicating those companies have been hit h

Economy Nov. 29, 2021

Presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl of the main opposition People Power Party is leading his ruling Democratic Party rival Lee Jae-myung by 9.4 percentage points in a hypothetical multicandidate race, a survey showed Monday. Yoon had 46.3 percent support against Lee's 36.9 percent in the survey of 3,023 adults conducted last Monday to Friday by Realmeter. The difference fell outside the margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. Ahn Cheol-soo, t

Politics Nov. 29, 2021

  Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors moved to the brink of a historic fifth straight title in the top South Korean football league on Sunday.    Hong Jeong-ho and Moon Seon-min scored a goal apiece to lead Jeonbuk past Daegu FC 2-0 in the clubs' penultimate match of the 2021 K League 1 season on Sunday at DGB Daegu Bank Park in Daegu, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul.    Jeonbuk improved to 73 points, two points ahead of their closest competitor, Ulsan Hyundai FC, with one

Soccer Nov. 28, 2021

The two leading presidential candidates remained neck and neck with each other in the latest survey released Sunday.    Yoon Seok-youl, the presidential nominee of the main opposition People Power Party, earned 38.9 percent support, while Lee Jae-myung, the candidate for the ruling Democratic Party, had 36.1 percent support in the poll conducted by Embrain Public.    Yoon's lead of 2.8 percentage points was within the margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points

Politics Nov. 28, 2021

South Korean brokerage firms saw their combined net profits rise 10.5 percent in the third quarter from three months earlier, due to increased income from their proprietary trading, data showed Sunday. The combined net profit of 58 brokerages stood at 2.52 trillion won ($2.1 billion) in the July-September period, compared with 2.28 trillion won three months earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The gain was mainly driven by profits from proprietary trading, tra

Economy Nov. 28, 2021

South Korea's exports of agricultural and fishery goods exceeded the $10 billion mark for the first time this year, led by the popularity of "hallyu," the Korean wave of pop culture, data showed Sunday. Outbound shipments of foodstuffs came to $10.13 billion in the Jan. 1-Nov. 25 period, up 16.1 percent from the previous year, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. It marked the first time that exports of agricultural and fishery goods

Economy Nov. 28, 2021

South Korea said Saturday that it will restrict visa issuance and arrivals from eight African nations, including South Africa, starting the next day to block the inflow of the new Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus. It said South Africa and seven other nearby countries -- Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi -- will be re-listed as closely watched nations, subject to visa restrictions and tougher quarantine requirements. All arrivals from those regions m

Social Affairs Nov. 28, 2021

MADRID -- National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug held meetings with his counterparts from Oman and Bahrain on Saturday during which he asked the two Middle East nations to export urea solution to South Korea. The meeting came as South Korea is scrambling to secure urea solution, the essential fluid used in diesel vehicles to cut emissions, after China imposed export curbs on urea to ease domestic supply bottlenecks. Park, who is in Madrid to attend the 143rd Inter-Parliamentary Union Asse

Politics Nov. 28, 2021