South Korea will host a meeting of over 200 national Olympic committees in 2022, one year after losing the event to the coronavirus pandemic. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) announced Monday that Seoul will host the 26th General Assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) on Oct. 19 and 20 in 2022. The KSOC added it won the right to bring the event home during the 25th General Assembly in Greece this week. Seoul had been chosen as host of the 25th ANOC Ge

Olympic Games Oct. 25, 2021

President Joe Biden are expected to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Italy or the UN climate summit in Britain, a senior presidential official said Monday.   Moon and Biden are scheduled to participate in the G20 summit next week, as well as the COP26 climate talks on Nov. 1 and 2, when world leaders will assess achievements since the Paris agreement to limit global warming.   Asked whether Moon and Biden could meet on the margins of the global s

Foreign Affairs Oct. 25, 2021

South Korean stocks snapped its three-day losing streak Monday amid expectations of strong quarterly earnings. The Korean won rose sharply against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 14.38 points, or 0.48 percent, to close at 3,020.54 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 782 million shares worth some 10.3 trillion won ($881 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 552 to 286. Foreigners bought a net 36 billion won, while retail investors sol

Market Oct. 25, 2021

Woori Financial Group Inc. on Monday reported its third-quarter net profit of 824.7 billion won ($705.9 million), up 58.1 percent from a year earlier. Operating profit for the July-September period was 1.09 trillion won, up 61.8 percent from a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. Sales rose 102.3 percent to 8.68 trillion won. The operating profit was 12.8 percent higher than the average estimate, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Ag

Industry Oct. 25, 2021

LG Chem Ltd. on Monday reported its third-quarter net profit of 679.9 billion won ($581.9 million), up 19.2 percent from a year earlier. Operating profit for the July-September period was 726.6 billion won, down 19.6 percent from a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. Revenue rose 41.4 percent to 10.61 trillion won. The operating profit was 20.3 percent lower than the average estimate, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. The e

Industry Oct. 25, 2021

South Korea's leading media and entertainment company CJ ENM said Monday it is considering acquiring K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment, but nothing has been decided yet. "In order to strengthen our music content business, we are mulling taking over a stake in SM Entertainment or seeking other operating synergies," said the company, a content creating unit of South Korea's food and entertainment conglomerate CJ Group, in a filing. "But nothing has been determined yet." Over

Industry Oct. 25, 2021

Police in this southeastern port city have apprehended 27 sex trafficking suspects, including one identified as a court official, the local police agency said Monday. The suspects are accused of operating 95 prostitution establishments in Busan and adjacent areas of Ulsan and South Gyeongsang Province, mediating prostitution over 8,800 times and taking 700 million won (US$599,000) in profits from March last year to last month, according to the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency. Notably, a civil

Social Affairs Oct. 25, 2021

An arrest warrant has been sought for a sitting prosecutor accused of conspiring with the main opposition party to investigate key ruling camp officials last year when Prosecutor-General Yoon Seok-youl, now a leading opposition presidential contender, was in office. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said it sought the warrant over the weekend for Son Jun-sung, who served at the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office last year, as he has not cooperated with the inve

Politics Oct. 25, 2021

South Korea's national short track speed skating team has lost a top skater to injuries in the middle of the International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup season, adding to woes from a recent race-fixing scandal. Choi Min-jeong was hurt in separate collisions during the opening World Cup competition in Beijing on Saturday. She is expected to miss at least the next competition in Japan starting Thursday with knee and ankle injuries. In the women's 1,500m final, Kim Ji-yoo tried to cut inside Choi

More Sports Oct. 25, 2021

Nine additional people affiliated with the US Forces Korea (USFK) have tested positive for COVID-19, the US military's infection tally showed Monday. Among the new cases counted from Oct. 15 to 21 were four American troops working at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul. The remaining individuals were four family members and a civilian contract worker, according to the USFK. The latest cases raised the total number of infections reported among the USFK-affiliated populat

Defense Oct. 25, 2021

Prosecutors were expected to seek arrest warrants in the coming days for two key suspects in an urban development scandal on charges of promising to give massive bribes to a top official of the project's administrator in exchange for business favors. Prosecutors have been looking into suspicions over how a previously unheard-of asset management firm, Hwacheon Daeyu, and its seven affiliates reaped astronomical profits from a 2015 project to develop the Daejang-dong district in Seongnam, south o

Politics Oct. 25, 2021

South Korea plans to hold a food fair next month to promote the country's agricultural and other food products, and to help local companies' advance into the global market, the agriculture ministry said Monday. During the four-day K-Food Fair set to kick off Nov. 8 at the Convention and Exhibition Center in southern Seoul, some 200 local companies will present major export items, such as kimchi, pears and ginseng, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. One-on-one onl

Industry Oct. 25, 2021

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Monday it has obtained a 383 billion-won ($325 million) deal to build four LNG-propelled petrochemical carriers. The 4,000-ton vessels to be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., a subsidiary of KSOE, will be delivered to a shipper in the Middle East by the first half of 2024, the company said in an emailed statement. KSOE said it has bagged 60 percent of the global orders for 61 LNG-powered petrochemicals so far this year. &qu

Business Oct. 25, 2021

South Korea will once again call for international discussions on Japan's plan to discharge radioactive water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean at this week's international maritime gathering, the oceans ministry said Monday. During the London Convention and Protocol meeting set to begin on the day, the ministry will raise the need to discuss Japan's planned disposal within the Protocol framework, and urge Japan to disclose related information in a full and transpar

Foreign Affairs Oct. 25, 2021

POSCO on Monday reported its third-quarter net profit of 2.63 trillion won ($2.2 billion), up 415.7 percent from a year earlier. The company said in a regulatory filing that it posted 3.12 trillion won in operating profit for the quarter, compared with 670 billion won a year ago. Revenue rose 44.7 percent to 20.64 trillion won. The operating profit was 9.7 percent higher than the average estimate, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. The est

Industry Oct. 25, 2021