South Korea had proposed Japan use the expression "forced" in the museum exhibits on an old Japanese mine complex linked to its wartime forced labor of Koreans prior to its UNESCO inscription, but Tokyo refused, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. The ministry had made the call during the negotiations with Japan on the Sado gold and silver mines as a precondition for Seoul's consent to the site's listing as a UNESCO World Heritage, its response submitted to Rep. Lee Jae-jung o

Foreign Affairs Aug. 6, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday instructed the government to take swift and preemptive responses to heightened volatility in the financial market, his office said, refuting opposition criticisms over his vacationing despite a recent market rout. South Korean stocks suffered the worst sell-off since late 2008 on Monday, along with its global peers, on growing fears over an economic recession in the United States, before rising more than 3 percent Tuesday. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Pr

Politics Aug. 6, 2024

South Korean diving medal hopeful Woo Haram and teammate Yi Jae-gyeong advanced to the semifinal in the men's 3-meter springboard event at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday. With the top 18 divers out of 25 in the preliminary advancing to the next phase, Woo finished 12th with 389.10 points after six dives at the Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, north of Paris. Yi finished 16th with 381.40 points. The semifinal is Wednesday, and the top 12 divers from there will qualify for the final Thursday. W

More Sports Aug. 6, 2024

South Korean chip giant SK hynix Inc. said Tuesday it is set to receive up to $450 million in grants from the US government for its investment to build a production base for advanced semiconductor packaging in Indiana. In April, the company announced a plan to invest $3.87 billion to build a memory packaging plant for artificial intelligence (AI) products and an advanced packaging research and development (R&D) facility in West Lafayette of the U.S. state to produce next-generation memory ch

Technology Aug. 6, 2024

South Korean stocks rose more than 3 percent Tuesday, rebounding from the previous day's worst market sell-off, sparked by fears over a US recession and the sluggish performance of big tech firms. The local currency slightly fell against the US greenback. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 80.6 points, or 3.3 percent, to close at 2,522.15. It marked a turnaround from a whopping 8.77 percent crash Monday as investor sentiment was undermined by fears that the US economy is

Market Aug. 6, 2024

The Cabinet passed a motion Tuesday calling for parliamentary reconsideration of four bills aimed at changing the governance structure of public broadcasters. The motion, passed a week after the last of the four bills was railroaded by the opposition-controlled National Assembly, will be sent to President Yoon Suk Yeol. Should Yoon endorse it, the bills will be sent back to the Assembly for a revote. Three of the bills call for amending the Broadcasting Act, the Foundation for Broadcast Culture

Politics Aug. 6, 2024

Police have referred a man to the prosecution Tuesday on charges of slashing a random neighbor to death with a Japanese longsword last week. The 37-year-old assailant, surnamed Baek, brandished a 75-centimeter Japanese blade at the entrance of his apartment complex in Seoul's northern Eunpyeong district on July 29 and killed the neighbor, who was smoking outdoors at the time. The victim, a 43-year-old father of two sons aged 4 and 9, did not know the assailant personally. During the police

Social Affairs Aug. 6, 2024

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is expected to contest a court's recognition of former President Roh Tae-woo's slush fund as seed money for the conglomerate in his divorce suit against Roh's daughter, sources said Tuesday. In May, the Seoul High Court ordered Chey to pay 1.38 trillion won ($1 billion) in property division to Roh Soh-yeong in the country's most expensive divorce suit in history. The court recognized that a purported slush fund of 30 billion won from the former

Industry Aug. 6, 2024

South Korean stocks began sharply higher Tuesday following the previous session's worst crash over mounting US recession fears and the sluggish performance of big tech shares. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 106.11 points, or 4.35 percent, to 2,547.66 in the first 15 minutes of trading. During the session, the bourse operator issued a sidecar order at 9:06 a.m., halting program purchasing for five minutes, after the Kospi 200 index rose over 5 percent for more than 1

Market Aug. 6, 2024

South Korea's financial authorities said Tuesday that they are ready to take action against extremely volatile market jitters urging investors to remain calm and cool-headed given the country's sound economic fundamentals. The country's benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index suffered the worst crash on Monday as investors staged a massive selling binge out of fears over a recession in the United States. The index plummeted a record 234.64 points, or 8.77 percent, to close at

Market Aug. 6, 2024

Moments after capturing her first Olympic gold medal in Paris on Monday, South Korean badminton player An Se-young hinted at retiring from the national team over its poor handling of her knee injury. An defeated He Bingjiao of China 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) in the women's singles final at Porte de La Chapelle Arena in Paris. It came about 10 months after An tore a ligament in her right knee during the Asian Games women's singles final in China. The 22-year-old returned to action about a mont

More Sports Aug. 5, 2024

One person was killed with another one injured when a car crashed into pedestrians at an apartment complex in central Seoul on Monday, police said. The driver of the vehicle, a man in his late 50s, has claimed vehicle malfunction, but the police suspect "poor driving" may have caused the deadly accident. The accident took place at an apartment complex in Ichon-dong, Yongsan, at around 11 a.m., when the vehicle crashed into a woman in her 50s and then another woman in her 80s, according

Social Affairs Aug. 5, 2024

NCSoft, a major South Korean game developer, said Monday its operating profit decreased 75 percent from a year earlier on sluggish sales. Operating profit for the April-June period came to 8.8 billion won ($6.4 million), compared with 35.3 billion won a year ago, and sales fell 16.2 percent on-year to 368.9 billion won, the company said in a regulatory filing. Net profit for the period, however, jumped 132.8 percent on-year to 71.1 billion won thanks to favorable currency exchange rates, accordi

Industry Aug. 5, 2024

South Korea will provide $3 million to four African countries to help them cope with the damage from severe drought, the Foreign Ministry in Seoul said Monday. Of the total, $1 million will each be delivered to Zimbabwe and Zambia, and $500,000 each to Malawi and Namibia, the ministry said. The aid will be made through the World Food Programme. The four countries have declared a national emergency as the severe drought hit the South African region and exacerbated food shortages. (Yonhap)

Foreign Affairs Aug. 5, 2024

The world's top-ranked shuttler An Se-young soared to her first Olympic gold medal in the women's singles in Paris on Monday, giving South Korea its first badminton singles title in 28 years. An defeated He Bingjiao of China 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) in the final at Porte de La Chapelle Arena in the French capital to become just the second South Korean woman to win an Olympic singles title, joining Bang Soo-hyun from 1996. South Korea now has 11 gold medals overall, just two shy of matching i

More Sports Aug. 5, 2024