The foreign ministry corrected the number of Afghan evacuees brought into South Korean on Thursday to 377 from 378, saying one person had to be returned to Kabul from Islamabad due to unclear identity. A total of 391 Afghans had originally been brought from Kabul to Islamabad, but while checking their identities before departure for South Korea, officials found one unidentified person not on the evacuation list, according to the ministry. "The person was sent back to Kabul on a military t

Foreign Affairs Aug. 27, 2021

South Korea's top nuclear envoy, Noh Kyu-duk, will visit the United States next week for talks with his US counterpart, Sung Kim, about efforts to resume dialogue with North Korea, the foreign ministry said Friday. Noh's four-day trip to Washington, D.C., starting Sunday, comes only about a week after Kim's visit to Seoul early this week, during which the two discussed humanitarian aid to the North amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang's protest against military exercises between the South a

Foreign Affairs Aug. 27, 2021

JINCHEON -- Hundreds of Afghan civilians who evacuated to South Korea seeking refuge from the Taliban in their homeland arrived at their temporary shelter in the country's central region Friday, where they are expected to stay for about eight weeks. The group of 377 Afghans, including 180 children and infants, which landed at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, on Thursday via a KC-330 military tanker transport aircraft, was admitted to the Leadership Campus of the National Human Reso

Foreign Affairs Aug. 27, 2021

K-pop superband BTS has refuted the recent online allegations of Billboard chart manipulation, pointing out that they are easily subject to such accusations just because they are a peripheral band from Korea. The septet's English-language songs "Butter" and "Permission to Dance" have stayed atop the Hot 100 main singles chart for a combined 10 weeks this summer thanks to overwhelming physical album sales and digital downloads. Typically, on the other hand, most of the Hot

K-pop Aug. 27, 2021

A pilot error caused July's crash-landing of an Army medical chopper, and the same type of helicopters will be allowed to resume operations, the Army said Friday. In July, five people were injured after the ambulance helicopter, Medion, crash-landed at a military base in Pocheon, north of Seoul, on its way to pick up a patient. The Army immediately suspended the operations of the same type of aircraft and launched an investigation. "Our investigation found that the pilot misunderstood t

Defense Aug. 27, 2021

North Korea did not answer liaison calls from South Korea on Friday morning, a unification ministry official said, dashing hopes Pyongyang could pick up the phone now that joint military exercises between the South and the United States are over. The calls via the inter-Korean liaison office went unanswered at 9 a.m., the official said. North Korea also refused to respond to the military communication channels in the eastern and western border regions. The inter-Korean communication lines were

North Korea Aug. 27, 2021

Lee Seok-hyun, former six-term lawmaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly, has been tapped as executive vice chairman of the presidential National Unification Advisory Council, Cheong Wa Dae announced Friday. Lee is replacing Jeong Se-hyun, former unification minister, to assume the minister-level post. The council, chaired by President Moon Jae-in, is a constitutional body to help establish and implement bipartisan policies on democratic and peaceful unification. Moon also appointed

Politics Aug. 27, 2021

South Korea strongly denounces the suicide bombings near an airport in Kabul that killed  dozens and wounded more than 100, the foreign ministry said Friday. "Our government defines the bombings as terrorist attacks, expresses deep concern that it has incurred many casualties and strongly denounces the attacks," ministry spokesperson Choi Young-sam said in a commentary. "We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and their bereaved families," Choi said. South

Foreign Affairs Aug. 27, 2021

Three Army members and a Navy sailor tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Friday, the latest in a series of infections among service members across the nation. The two Army soldiers and the sailor were confirmed to have been infected after their recent vacation, and a civilian official for the Army tested positive following the infection of one of his family members, according to the ministry. The latest cases brought the total caseload among the military populati

Defense Aug. 27, 2021

South Korea on Friday inked an agreement to expand a joint loan facility program with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in a bid to support infrastructure development in Latin America. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki and IDB President Mauricio Claver-Carone signed the agreement between the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF), South Korea's lower-interest loan scheme with emerging countries, and the regional development bank, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The a

Economy Aug. 27, 2021

North Korea's main newspaper on Friday stressed the importance of ideological education for younger generations ahead of the county's Youth Day, urging officials to look out for any "exotic elements" in their lifestyles. The Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the North's ruling Workers' Party, made the appeal in an editorial, referring to the youth as a generation vulnerable to capitalistic ideas and foreign culture as they have "never experienced the hardships of a revolution." &q

North Korea Aug. 27, 2021

Samsung Electronics Co. expanded its presence in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) tablet market in the second quarter of the year, a report showed Friday, despite an overall market decline. The South Korean tech giant shipped 3.55 million tablets in the EMEA market in the April-June period for a 30.1 percent market share, according to the latest report from industry researcher International Data Corp. (IDC). The figures were up from a year earlier when the company shipped 3.42 milli

Industry Aug. 27, 2021

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases hovered under 1,900 for the second day Friday, while the number of critical patients continued to rise, as health authorities stepped up vaccination campaigns to control the worst wave driven by the highly infectious delta variant. The country added 1,841 more COVID-19 cases, including 1,811 local infections, raising the total caseload to 245,158, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Friday's tally compares with 1,882 o

Social Affairs Aug. 27, 2021

South Korean stocks opened steeply lower Friday as investors await the results of the meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for clues about the US Federal Reserve's stance about its tapering timeline. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 9.65 points, or 0.31 percent, to trade at 3,118.88 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The KOSPI and its global stock peers retreated amid concerns that the Fed could start rolling back its accommodative policies as early as later t

Market Aug. 27, 2021

South Korea's outbound shipments are predicted to increase 34.5 percent on-year in August on strong global demand for chips and automobiles despite the protracted COVID-19 pandemic, a poll showed Friday. Exports are expected to reach $53 billion won this month, according to the survey of seven brokerage houses by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency. Imports are estimated to rise 44.8 percent on-year in August to $51.8 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $1.2 bil

Economy Aug. 27, 2021