South Korean superband BTS' mega-hit "Butter" has placed seventh on this week's Billboard main singles chart, remaining in the top 10 for 12 straight weeks. Billboard said on its website Monday (US time) that BTS' "Butter" dropped three notches to No. 7 on the recently updated Hot 100 chart. It led the Digital Song Sales chart for the 11th consecutive week, with 629,000 downloads. The summery song has finished in the top 10 for 12 weeks in a row, including a yearly high o

K-pop Aug. 17, 2021

Three South Korean players will be in action for the annual PGA Tour playoffs starting this week, competing with more than 100 others in a quest for a jackpot in September. Kim Si-woo, Im Sung-jae and Lee Kyoung-hoon have finished 30th, 31st and 34th on the FedEx Cup points rankings, and have qualified for the first leg of the playoffs, the Northern Trust, which will tee off at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Thursday. The top 125 from the FedEx Cup standings will be

Golf Aug. 17, 2021

Tourist arrivals in South Korea plunged more than 95 percent in the first half of the year due to global travel curbs amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The data from the state-run Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) showed 73,000 foreign tourists visited South Korea in the January-June period, down 95.4 percent from a year earlier. The figure accounted for 17.5 percent of all foreigners who visited South Korea in the six-month period. In particular, it was much fewer than the 2

Social Affairs Aug. 17, 2021

South Korean construction machinery maker Hyundai Construction Equipment Co. on Tuesday said it will develop small-sized forklifts to be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The subsidiary of Hyundai Genuine Co. will team up with S-Fuelcell Co., a local hydrogen fuel cell maker, to commercialize the 1-3 ton forklifts by 2023, it said. Hyundai Construction Equipment also said it developed 5-ton hydrogen fuel cell powered forklifts in 2020 in cooperation with Hyundai Mobis Co., South Korea's biggest

Technology Aug. 17, 2021

Prosecutors have raided Hyundai Heavy Industries Co.'s headquarters in the southeastern city of Ulsan for allegedly destroying evidence to avert the antitrust watchdog's investigation into unfair business practices, judicial sources said Tuesday. According to the sources, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office recently searched the company's office in Ulsan, about 415 kilometers southeast of the capital, to seize internal documents. Last year, People's Solidarity for Participatory Democ

Social Affairs Aug. 17, 2021

The number of employees for South Korea's major companies has declined by nearly 30,000 over the past three years, with global tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. having the largest workforce, a corporate tracker said Tuesday. The combined headcount of the country's top 100 firms stood at about 1.39 million as of the end of 2020, down slightly by over 27,000 from three years earlier, according to the CXO Institute. Last year alone, the number decreased by 9,000 from the previous year, marking t

Economy Aug. 17, 2021

SsangYong Motor Co., the South Korean unit of Indian carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., said Tuesday its first-half net losses narrowed from a year earlier on self-rescue measures. From January to June, SsangYong Motor's net losses fell to 180.53 billion won ($154 million) from a net loss of 202.38 billion won during the same period last year, the company said in a regulatory filing. SsangYong's first-half operating losses also narrowed to 177.91 billion won from 215.78 billion won over th

Industry Aug. 17, 2021

All of four last-remaining South Koreans in Afghanistan, including the country's ambassador, have left the country, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. A plane carrying the four -- three diplomats and one civilian -- departed from the Kabul airport at around 9 a.m. (Seoul time) and is expected to land in a third country in the Middle East, the ministry said. The three embassy officials, including Ambassador Choi Tae-ho, had stayed behind in Afghanistan even after all other embassy staff evacua

Foreign Affairs Aug. 17, 2021

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Tuesday the government plans to provide more than 70 percent of emergency relief funds to small merchants hard hit by the pandemic over the next two weeks. The move is aimed at accelerating the provision of cash handouts to pandemic-stricken merchants as the country is grappling with the fourth wave of the pandemic. The country plans to provide a total of 4.22 trillion won ($3.6 billion) in relief aid to micro business owners by the end of September as it crea

Economy Aug. 17, 2021

There are many ways in which the coronavirus pandemic has changed sports, not the least of which is unexpected disruption to playing schedules. Four clubs in the K League 1 are staring at a long week, as they play rescheduled matches on Wednesday following bouts with COVID-19, and then have to return to the pitch on the weekend for regularly-scheduled contests. Incheon United will host Seongnam FC at 7 p.m. Wednesday, while FC Seoul will bring home Jeju United at 7:30 p.m. on the same day. Th

Soccer Aug. 17, 2021

With summer vacations ending, children started to return to their classrooms under relaxed distancing rules for schools Monday, despite an uncontrolled outbreak of the coronavirus. Last week, the Ministry of Education eased social distancing guidelines in schools for the fall semester. The measure was aimed at running in-person classes even under Level 4 distancing measures, the most stringent set of rules, as long as there are attendance caps to keep a safe distance among students in order to

Social Affairs Aug. 17, 2021

Major Korean refiners posted strong earnings in the first half of the year thanks to solid petrochemical businesses, swinging from the pandemic-driven losses a year earlier, industry data showed Tuesday. Four refiners -- SK Innovation Co., GS Caltex Corp., S-Oil Corp. and Hyundai Oil Bank Corp. -- logged a combined 4 trillion won (US$3.4 billion) of operating profits in the January-June period, shifting from 5.1 trillion won of deficits from a year earlier, their earnings reports showed. Their

Industry Aug. 17, 2021

South Korean disaster comedy film "Sinkhole" has surpassed a cumulative 1 million admissions on the sixth day of its release, the fastest pace among homegrown flicks released this year, data showed Tuesday. The film, released last Wednesday, attracted 741,000 people over the Saturday-Monday Liberation Day holiday, bringing its combined total to 1.14 million, according to the data by the Korean Film Council. It topped the 1 million threshold on Sunday, becoming the eighth 2021 film to

Film Aug. 17, 2021

Citibank Korea Inc., the South Korean unit of Citigroup Inc., will decide on its exit plan for its retail banking unit next week, an industry source said Tuesday. Citibank Korea will hold a board meeting Aug. 26 during which the lender will confirm how to sell the retail banking division. In April, Citigroup said it will exit consumer banking operations in 13 markets, including South Korea, as part of its global business reorganization. Four financial firms have conducted a due diligence of C

Market Aug. 17, 2021

LG Display Co., a major display panel maker in South Korea, said Tuesday it will invest 3.3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) to expand its medium-and-small sized OLED display production capacity. The company said the investment, which will be made through March 2024, will be used in OLED facilities in South Korea that manufacture sixth-generation (1,500mm x 1,850mm) substrates. LG Display is the world's sole supplier of large-size OLED panels for TVs, but its competitiveness in the medium-and-

Technology Aug. 17, 2021