K-pop boy band EXO has added another album to its list of million-selling albums with the latest release "Don't Fight the Feeling," its management agency said Tuesday. The EP, released last week, has sold 1.09 million copies as of Sunday, becoming the nine-member group's sixth million-selling album, according to SM Entertainment. The group first earned a million-selling album record with its debut studio album "XOXO (Kiss & Hug)" in 2013. "Don't Fight the Feeling&

K-pop June 14, 2021

K-pop boy band Tomorrow X Together (TXT) saw its latest album land at fifth place on the Billboard main albums chart in its best record since debut. "South Korean pop quintet Tomorrow x Together notches its first top 10 album on the Billboard 200 as 'The Chaos Chapter: Freeze' debuts at No. 5 with 43,000 equivalent album units earned," the Billboard reported Sunday (local time). Album sales accounted for a majority of the total with 39,000, while the remaining units came from digital

K-pop June 14, 2021

Half of SsangYong Motor Co.'s workers will go on unpaid leave for two years beginning next month as part of self-help measures as the debt-ridden automaker is striving to speed up its sales process, the company said Monday. SsangYong said its management and labor union inked a deal on the corporate restructuring plan and will carry out the measures in July after ironing out the details. Over half of SsangYong workers last week voted for the company's proposal of a two-year unpaid leave to ha

Industry June 14, 2021

A parcel delivery worker has suffered a cerebral hemorrhage caused by overwork and fallen into a coma, a couriers' advocacy group said Monday. According to the group, the 47-year-old employee at Lotte Global Logistics Co.'s branch in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, was sent to a hospital after showing abnormal symptoms, such as stiffness of the body, while he was sleeping at home early Sunday morning. The courier, surnamed Lim, underwent surgery for a serious case of a cerebral hemorrhage but r

Social Affairs June 14, 2021

South Korea's smaller firms on Monday called for a further delay in enforcing the 52-hour workweek system for them set to take effect next month amid the extended COVID-19 pandemic.   In a joint statement, the country's business lobby groups, such as the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Korea Enterprises Federation, called on the government to allow companies with a workforce of fewer than 50 people more time to prepare for the 52-hour workweek amid the prolonged fallou

Industry June 14, 2021

The unification ministry on Monday urged North Korea to respect the spirit of reconciliation and to respond to calls for dialogue ahead of the anniversary of the first-ever summit between the two Koreas over two decades ago. South Korea on Tuesday is to mark the 21st anniversary of the June 15 Declaration adopted during the summit in Pyongyang in 2000 between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. "The government will continue to implement its a

North Korea June 14, 2021

Young South Korean football players hoping to compete at the Tokyo Summer Games will be raring to take the field Tuesday, when they'll have one last opportunity to build their case for inclusion on the 18-man Olympic squad. Of 28 players at training camp for the men's Olympic football team, 18 saw action in the first of two friendlies against Ghana on Saturday. Head coach Kim Hak-bum had long declared he would use all 28 players across these two matches. But then he added two more players into

Olympic Games June 14, 2021

More than three-fourths of South Korean exporters to China have suffered damage from the coronavirus pandemic, a poll showed Monday. The survey of 540 exporting companies, taken by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), showed 75.7 percent of the respondents saying their businesses in the world's No. 2 economy have been hit by the COVID-19 outbreak. Nearly 38 percent replied that they have suffered severe damage, while about 7 percent answered their Chinese businesses have benefited

Economy June 14, 2021

Insurance firms in South Korea saw their risk-based capital ratio fall for the second straight quarter in the first quarter of this year amid rising market interest rates, data showed Monday. The risk-based capital (RBC) ratio of local insurance firms stood at 256 percent at end-March, down 19 percentage points from three months earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). The fall in the RBC ratio came as a hike in bond yields incurred valuation losses from the

Economy June 14, 2021

Support for the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) continued to grow last week, apparently driven by the ascent of a new leader, widening its gap with the ruling Democratic Party (DP) to nearly 10 percentage points, a poll showed Monday. In a Realmeter survey conducted from June 7-11, the PPP scored 39.1 percent of backing, up 1.1 percentage points from the previous week. It is close to its highest-ever point of 39.4 percent posted during the first week of April. The DP's support fell 0.

Politics June 14, 2021

An Army soldier in his 20s has died six days after receiving his first dose of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, officials said Monday. The soldier, based in Seoul, was found unconscious in his barracks the previous day and transferred to a nearby hospital but died. It wasn't immediately clear if the death was directly related to the vaccine. An autopsy is planned to look into the exact cause of the death, officials said. It is the second death of a service member following COVID-19 vaccination.

Defense June 14, 2021

Japan called off agreed-upon talks between President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga during the Group of Seven (G-7) meeting in Britain due to Seoul's regular exercise to defend its easternmost islets of Dokdo, a foreign ministry official said Monday. Seoul and Tokyo had reached a tentative agreement to hold a "pull-aside" meeting between their leaders on the sidelines of the G-7 session in the seaside resort of Carbis Bay in Cornwall, the official said. The thr

Foreign Affairs June 14, 2021

South Korea plans to stage an annual military exercise on and around its easternmost islets of Dokdo this week to beef up the country's defense capabilities, sources said Monday. The drill, named the East Sea Territory Protection Exercise, is scheduled to take place Tuesday, and will involve the Navy, the Air Force and the Coast Guard, according to the government and military sources. The Marine Corps will not join this year's program, as no landing drill will take place, the sources said, add

Defense June 14, 2021

South Korea's exports of information and communication technology (ICT) products rose around 30 percent last month, data showed Monday, thanks to strong demand for semiconductors, displays and mobile phones amid signs of a global economic recovery from the pandemic-induced slump. Outbound shipments of ICT products were tallied at $17.73 billion in May, up 27.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Science and ICT. The latest figure marked the second-largest amou

Industry June 14, 2021

SK Inc.'s European bio subsidiary Yposkesi has begun the construction of its second drugmaking plant in France to ramp up its manufacturing capacity, the holding firm of South Korea's No. 3 conglomerate SK Group said Monday. In March, SK acquired a 70 percent stake in Yposkesi, a France-based Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) specializing in cell and gene therapies, to expand its presence in the burgeoning biologic CMO market. The latest deal is SK Inc.'s third acqui

Industry June 14, 2021