South Korea's producer prices gained 0.4 percent on-month in August due to a modest rise in prices of food and energy, extending their monthly gains for the 10th straight month, central bank data showed Friday. The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, stood at 110.72 in August, compared with 110.28 a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The July index advanced 7.3 percent from the previous year, the BOK data showed. The prices of agricultural goods

Economy Sept. 24, 2021

President Moon Jae-in has said North Korea is maintaining its own moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, apparently leaving the door open for dialogue. Pyongyang seems to be making "various considerations," refraining from taking serious provocative acts that would lead the United States to give up dialogue, Moon said in his rare in-flight press briefing on his way back to Seoul on Thursday following a five-day visit to New York and Hawaii. He was explaining the backgrou

Politics Sept. 24, 2021

North Korea on Friday rejected President Moon Jae-in's proposal to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 war as "something premature," arguing that such a declaration would be meaningless as long as the US "hostile policy" remains unchanged. Vice Foreign Minister Ri Thae-song made the rejection in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, saying that an end-of-war declaration has "no legal binding force" and will "become a mere scrap of paper in a m

North Korea Sept. 24, 2021

  President Moon Jae-in returned to South Korea on Thursday after a hectic five-day visit to the United States. Just ahead of his departure from Hawaii, he attended a joint ceremony with the US for the handover of the remains of their troops killed in the 1950-53 Korean War. South Korea received 68 sets of remains. The caskets containing the remains of two identified soldiers were carried by Moon's Air Force One presidential jet. The other remains, still unidentified, were airlifted by

Politics Sept. 23, 2021

Police said Thursday that they have launched a probe into a female North Korean defector for seeking to cross the inter-Korean border to return to North Korea. The woman, who is in her 60s, was taken into custody by the police near Tongil Bridge in the western border city of Paju around 3:40 a.m. on Sept. 13 after telling a military solider on duty that she wanted to return to North Korea. It remains unclear why she sought to return to the communist homeland. Tongil Bridge is the gate to t

Social Affairs Sept. 23, 2021

The population movement during this year's Chuseok holiday period increased 5 percent from a year earlier, Seoul's transport ministry said Thursday, apparently due to eased virus curbs for family gatherings.  The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said a total of 32.76 million people traveled between Friday and Wednesday to celebrate Chuseok, the Korean harvest celebration. Daily average population movement reached 5.46 million during that period, up 5.1 percent from a year ea

Social Affairs Sept. 23, 2021

A revision bill will take effect this week to allow a police officer to go undercover when investigating online sex crimes against minors, police said Thursday. The Korea National Police Agency (KNPA) said investigators can hide or disguise their identities to approach potential offenders to secure criminal evidence under the revised Act of the Protection of Children and Youth Against Sex Offenses, which will go into effect Friday. With a court warrant, undercover operatives can also use fake id

Social Affairs Sept. 23, 2021

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki will hold a four-party meeting next week with the governor of the central bank and two chiefs of financial regulatory authorities to discuss household debt and other economic issues, officials said Thursday. Hong will preside over the gathering on Sept. 30 with Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Lee Ju-yeol, Koh Seung-beom, new head of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), and Jeong Eun-bo, new chief of the Financial Supervisory Service, according to the finance ministry.

Economy Sept. 23, 2021

South Korean stocks retreated Thursday after the three-day Chuseok holiday in the face of comments by the US Federal Reserve's chief that it could start tapering its stimulus as early as November, as well as growing woes over a default of a giant Chinese real estate developer. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 12.93 points, or 0.41 percent, to close at 3,127.58 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 612 million shares

Market Sept. 23, 2021

Two allied opposition parties on Thursday proposed a bill for a special counsel probe into growing corruption allegations against Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung, the front-running presidential contender for the ruling party. The main opposition People Power Party and the conservative minor People's Party together said they submitted the bill to the legislature earlier in the day, along with a letter officially requesting a parliamentary investigation into the allegations. The bill, propose

Politics Sept. 23, 2021

South Korea will join international efforts to help Afghanistan overcome the humanitarian crisis and other hardships in the wake of the Taliban takeover, the foreign ministry said Thursday. Ham Sang-wook, deputy foreign minister for multilateral affairs, made the remark during a virtual ministerial meeting of the Group of 20 nations (G-20) held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday. In the meeting, Ham voiced concerns over the current situation in Kabul and called for concer

Social Affairs Sept. 23, 2021

A 2.6 magnitude earthquake struck South Korea's southeastern region Thursday afternoon, the state weather agency said. The quake occurred about 14 kilometers south of Changnyeong, about 350 kilometers southeast of Seoul, at 12:02 p.m., according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). It was the sixth strongest quake to hit the Korean Peninsula to date this year. The epicenter was at 35.42 degrees north latitude and 128.49 east longitude at a depth of 16 km. The quake's tremor was reco

Social Affairs Sept. 23, 2021

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday expressed his wish for his country and the United States to further enhance their combined defense capabilities to ensure permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. Moon made the remarks during his meeting with Adm. John C. Aquilino, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, where the two earlier attended a ceremony to transfer the remains of Korean and American soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War. Moon

Politics Sept. 23, 2021

The government has come up with a set of special measures to boost the COVID-19 vaccination rate among migrant workers here as fears of a possible crackdown on unregistered immigrants are holding back their vaccination turnout, officials said Thursday. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Justice and other related government agencies discussed the measures in an interagency pandemic response meeting held a day earlier in a bid to help ease the hesitation many migrant workers

Social Affairs Sept. 23, 2021

South Korea's leading internet-only lender Kakao Bank said Thursday its customer number has surpassed the 17 million mark nearly four years after its launch. Kakao Bank, led by Kakao Corp., the operator of the country's dominant messaging app KakaoTalk, said its customers numbered 17.17 million as of the end of August. Kakao Bank said slightly over 15 million customers have accounts at the online lender, with 2.15 million people using its services. Kakao Bank has achieved the milestone four year

Industry Sept. 23, 2021