South Korea posted a current account surplus for the 14th straight month in June as exports remained solid amid the global economic recovery, the central bank said Friday. The current account surplus reached $8.85 billion in June, compared with $10.76 billion the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade. The current account has been in the black since the country suffered a deficit of $3.33 billion in April last yea

Economy Aug. 6, 2021

TOKYO -- South Korean Kim Se-hee is in second place after the fencing ranking round of the modern pentathlon event at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday. Kim went 24-11 in her 35 fencing bouts to earn 244 points in the early fencing portion of the competition at Musashino Forest Sport Plaza in Tokyo. The one other Korean in action, Kim Sun-woo, went 19-16 with 214 points to rank 14th among 36 athletes. The female pentathletes will compete in freestyle swimming, riding show jumping and laser ru

Olympic Games Aug. 5, 2021

Diplomats of South Korea and the United States have held talks in Washington to discuss joint efforts to resume dialogue with North Korea, the foreign ministry said Thursday. Wednesday's talks between Rim Kap-soo, director general at the ministry's peninsula peace regime bureau, and Jung Pak, the deputy U.S. special representative for North Korea, came as last week's restoration of inter-Korean communication lines fueled hopes for the resumption of nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang. "The

Foreign Affairs Aug. 5, 2021

South Korean stocks snapped a three-day winning streak Thursday on investors attempted to lock in profits from the recent gains. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) slipped 4.25 points, or 0.13 percent, to close at 3,276.13 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 671 million shares worth some 11.7 trillion won ($10.2 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 518 to 308. Foreigners bought a net 70 billion won, while retail in

Market Aug. 5, 2021

KT&G Corp., South Korea's dominant tobacco firm, said Thursday its earnings sank nearly 16 percent in the second quarter of the year despite a slight rise in sales. KT&G said in a regulatory filing its consolidated net income came to 246.4 billion won ($215.3 million) in the April-June period, down 15.9 percent from a year earlier. Operating profit fell 16.2 percent on-year to 330.1 billion won, while sales increased 2.1 percent to 1.35 trillion won. KT&G said its second-quarter n

Industry Aug. 5, 2021

South Korea's ICT ministry said Thursday it will expand support to small businesses to help them ward off ransomware threats after it raised the country's cyberthreat warning level a day earlier. Cyberattacks using ransomware, a type of malware that holds a target's data hostage by locking up systems until a ransom is paid, have been on the rise in South Korea, with 78 such attacks reported to the country's internet security agency in the first half of the year, compared with 39 in 2019 and 127

Technology Aug. 5, 2021

Koh Seung-beom, who was nominated to lead the Financial Service Commission (FSC), is an expert with extensive experience in dealing with economic and financial policies. Born in 1962, Koh, currently a member of the Bank of Korea (BOK)'s rate-setting board, passed the civil service exam in 1984, spending most of his career as a public servant at the finance ministry and the financial regulator. The nominee was in charge of major financial policies over household debt, the capital market and cor

Economy Aug. 5, 2021

Samsung Electronics Co. saw its smartphone market share in India decline in the second quarter of the year, a report showed Thursday, as the tech giant tries to fend off challenges from Chinese players. Samsung represented 17.7 percent of the smartphone shipments in India in the April-June period, down from 25.7 percent a year earlier, according to market researcher Counterpoint Research. The figure was also down from a 20 percent share in the first quarter of the year. The South Korean firm r

Industry Aug. 5, 2021

Seoul's temperature again remained above 25 C overnight, bringing the total number of tropical nights the city experienced this summer to 20, the state weather agency said Thursday. The capital logged a minimum temperature of 25.6 C between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). A tropical night occurs when the temperature does not fall below 25 C during the nighttime. The nighttime low was 27.4 C on the southern Jeju Island and 26.

Social Affairs Aug. 5, 2021

South Korea will try to write a new chapter in its underdog story, as it takes on world No. 2 Brazil in the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympic women's volleyball tournament Friday. After knocking down world No. 4 Turkey in the quarterfinals and climbing two spots to reach No. 11 in the rankings, South Korea is now playing with house money. Captain Kim Yeon-koung and Co. have guaranteed themselves at least two more matches in Tokyo. Beat the second-ranked Brazil in the semifinals, starting at 9 p.

Olympic Games Aug. 5, 2021

The unification ministry on Thursday expressed hope that North Korea will respond to South Korea's recent offer for discussion on setting up a virtual conference system for inter-Korean talks. South Korea made a proposal to discuss the matter with North Korea days after the two Koreas restored cross-border communication lines last week that had been severed for more than a year after North Korea cut them off in protest of anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent from the South. North Korea has yet to provi

North Korea Aug. 5, 2021

The Supreme Court said Thursday it has confirmed the appellate court's ruling to dismiss a request to cancel the nuclear watchdog's permit to build nuclear power reactors in the southeastern coastal city of Ulsan. The cancellation request was filed by Greenpeace Korea and some Ulsan residents in September 2016, who claimed that the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) allowed the construction of Shingori No. 5 and Shingori No. 6 reactors "without considering the unique hazards of

Social Affairs Aug. 5, 2021

South Korea said Thursday it will increase its stockpile of so-called rare metals, in line with growing demand from emerging industries, such as electric cars and rechargeable batteries. Under the plan, the country will seek to maintain at least 100 days' worth of rare metals to cope with potential uncertainties in their supply, significantly up from the current 56.8 days, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. South Korea has been designating 35 different kinds of resources

Economy Aug. 5, 2021

South Korea's industry ministry said Thursday it will work to maintain a stable supply of reinforcement steel products used for construction in the second half of 2021, although the recovery of the virus-hit economy may continue to drive up their market prices. The local supply of rebar products is expected to reach 5.6 million tons in the July-December period, up 11 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The amount will surpass the anticipated de

Industry Aug. 5, 2021

Yeo Han-koo, who has been tapped as South Korea's new trade minister, is tasked with a mission to maintain a recovery in exports amid the virus pandemic and expand its trade portfolio with emerging economies. The 51-year-old bureaucrat has served various positions at the trade ministry, before taking the current position as the presidential secretary for New Southern and New Northern policies. "We anticipate that Yeo will successfully carry out pending issues, including coping with the ne

Economy Aug. 5, 2021