Chinese President Xi Jinping has reaffirmed efforts to strengthen bilateral relations with North Korea, Pyongyang’s state media reported Saturday. Xi made the remarks in a reply to Kim‘s earlier letter to mark the 72nd Chinese National Day, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). In the reply, Xi said he has highly taken note of relations between North Korea and China, and expressed his willingness to raise bilateral ties to a “new level.” North Korea and

North Korea Oct. 23, 2021

South Korea saw its new coronavirus cases rise slightly Saturday, but the daily caseload stayed below 2,000 for the 15th straight day, as the country‘s vaccination rate was nearing a key milestone of 70 percent. The country reported 1,508 new cases, including 1,487 local infections, raising the total caseload to 350,476, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Saturday’s tally is up from the 1,439 counted the previous day. The death toll came to 2,745, up 20

Social Affairs Oct. 23, 2021

  Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung, the presidential nominee of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), is likely to announce his resignation from the governorship next week, officials here said Friday. "Lee has decided to step down from the governor position on Oct. 25 and will soon tender his resignation to the provincial council chairman," an official with the Gyeonggi provincial government told Yonhap News Agency. Lee will work as the governor of the populous province surrounding Seo

Politics Oct. 22, 2021

The justice ministry on Friday ordered the military to drop its plan to challenge a court ruling that said it was unjust for the military to discharge a transgender soldier over her gender reassignment surgery. Justice Minister Park Beom-kye accepted a recommendation from an advising committee on administrative suits which reviewed the case of Byun Hee-soo. "The court's ruling is not intended to allow transgender people to serve in the military, but it's saying that the military's compul

Social Affairs Oct. 22, 2021

  Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum on Friday met Turkey's top diplomat and vowed to bolster ties between the two countries, his office said. Kim welcomed Turkey's foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, in Seoul and discussed ways to beef up their cooperation. In their meeting, Kim asked for Istanbul's support on South Korean firms so that they can expand their economic ties. They also touched on issues to increase personnel and cultural exchanges between the two nations. Cavusoglu responded th

Foreign Affairs Oct. 22, 2021

South Korean stocks closed nearly flat Friday as investors took a wait-and-see mode over the debt crisis of Evergrande Group, a leading Chinese property developer. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) slipped 1.17 points, or 0.04 percent, to close at 3,006.16 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 684 million shares worth some 8.9 trillion won ($7.6 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 546 to 296. Foreigners sold a net 107

Market Oct. 22, 2021

K-pop superband BTS will hold an online concert, "BTS Permission To Dance On Stage," this weekend, featuring fresh up-to-date viewing technologies, its management agency said Friday. The seven-piece act's performance on a scale equivalent to an offline concert will be livestreamed from a local stadium Sunday, according to Big Hit Music. It is BTS' first global online concert in about a year. "This event is designed to help our fans feel like they are at the concert in person,&qu

K-pop Oct. 22, 2021

A Chinese fishing boat was seized Friday for fishing illegally in South Korean waters in the Yellow Sea, Korea Coast Guard officials said. The 60-ton boat was caught operating in waters about 25 kilometers west of the island of Baengnyeong at around 2:40 a.m. after crossing 7 kilometers into South Korean waters from north of the inter-Korean sea border, known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL). A 500-ton Coast Guard vessel patrolling the area found the Chinese boat and sent a speedboat to seize

Social Affairs Oct. 22, 2021

South Korea's central bank will likely raise its policy rate at least twice next year as it will continue to normalize its eased monetary policy intended to prop up the pandemic-stricken economy, an analyst said Friday. Last week, the Bank of Korea kept the rate unchanged at 0.75 percent for October after conducting a quarter-percentage hike in August from 0.5 percent, a record low level put in place for years to bolster the economy under heavy strain from the coronavirus pandemic. Gov. Lee Ju

Economy Oct. 22, 2021

A US spy aircraft flew over the Korean Peninsula on Friday, an aviation tracker showed, in what appears to be a sortie to monitor North Korea's military activities following South Korea's launch of a space rocket. The United States Air Force's RC-135W Rivet Joint was spotted flying between the west and east coasts of the peninsula, according to Flightradar24, a real-time flight tracker. The plane flew into South Korean airspace from abroad, an official at the US Forces Korea (USFK) said withou

Foreign Affairs Oct. 22, 2021

Ensuring stability on the Korean Peninsula is the most important goal in handling issues surrounding North Korea, the presidential National Security Council (NSC) said Friday, after the North's test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. National security adviser Suh Hoon made the remarks while presiding over a regular NSC meeting, days after North Korea test-fired a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile, marking the North's latest weapons test in recent weeks. In a statement, t

North Korea Oct. 22, 2021

Posco International Corp. said Friday its third-quarter earnings swelled more than 25 percent from a year ago on strong sales stemming from rising material costs. Its consolidated net income came to 69 billion won ($58.5 million) in the July-September period, up 25.4 percent from a year earlier, the trading arm of top steelmaker Posco said in a regulatory filing. Operating profit also soared 38.7 percent on-year to 148.5 billion won in the three-month period, with sales spiking 80.6 percent to 9

Industry Oct. 22, 2021

Yoon Seok-youl, a leading opposition presidential contender, drew fire Friday after a photo of his dog being fed an apple sparked speculation that he likened the people to a dog following a reluctant apology for making insensitive remarks about a former dictator. In Korean, "apology" and "apple" are homonyms and the fact that Yoon's dog Tory was given the fruit only hours after the candidate issued a public apology led to criticism that Yoon was insincere in his apology and

Politics Oct. 22, 2021

Starbucks Coffee Korea said Friday it will stop using disposable cups at all of its stores on South Korea's southern resort island of Jeju within this year in the latest move to protect the environment. Starbucks said it eliminated all single-use cups at four of its stores on Jeju in July during a trial run before applying the policy to all of its 23 operations on the island. The four stores only use multiuse cups, both for drinking inside the shops and for take-out. Customers are asked to pay

Consumer Oct. 22, 2021

South Korean actor Ma Dong-seok, also known as Don Lee, said Friday that his character Gilgamesh in the upcoming superhero movie "Eternals" reflects his unique personality and signature action style. "Since the zombie thriller 'Train to Busan' (2016) was released about five years ago, I've received some offers from Hollywood," he said during an online press conference with Korean media. "A few years ago, I got a call from a casting director of 'Eternals' after I lost so

Film Oct. 22, 2021