South Korea's industry ministry said Tuesday it has hosted a business roundtable with Kazakhstan and signed around two dozen business agreements, in a move to enhance economic ties with the Central Asian nation. During the meeting, Seoul and Nur-Sultan signed a set of 23 memorandums of understanding in various industries ranging from automobiles to the development of natural resources, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The move came during Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart

Economy Aug. 17, 2021

South Korea will keep a close eye on how North Korea will respond to a major joint military exercise under way with the United States, the unification ministry said Tuesday, as Pyongyang remains silent in contrast to angry reactions to last week's preliminary exercise. The nine-day computer-simulated Combined Command Post Training, which kicked off Monday, is based largely on a computer simulation with no field training, in consideration of the virus situation, according to South Korea's Joint

North Korea Aug. 17, 2021

The military plans to deploy advanced amphibious bridging vehicles by 2027 to boost operational capabilities, the arms procurement agency said Tuesday. Under a 500 billion-won ($426.5 million) contract, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) and Hanwha Defense will develop and produce the localized version of the European M3 Amphibious Rig for their deployment starting around 2027, according to the agency. The M3 rig was developed by the European manufacturer General Dynamics Eu

Defense Aug. 17, 2021

Seven service members have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Tuesday, the latest in a series of infections across the country. Five Army members, one Navy officer and one Marine Corps officer were confirmed to have contracted the virus during the three-day holiday that ended Monday, bringing the total caseload among the military population to 1,555, according to the ministry. (Yonhap)

Defense Aug. 17, 2021

South Korean superband BTS' mega-hit "Butter" has placed seventh on this week's Billboard main singles chart, remaining in the top 10 for 12 straight weeks. Billboard said on its website Monday (US time) that BTS' "Butter" dropped three notches to No. 7 on the recently updated Hot 100 chart. It led the Digital Song Sales chart for the 11th consecutive week, with 629,000 downloads. The summery song has finished in the top 10 for 12 weeks in a row, including a yearly high o

K-pop Aug. 17, 2021

Three South Korean players will be in action for the annual PGA Tour playoffs starting this week, competing with more than 100 others in a quest for a jackpot in September. Kim Si-woo, Im Sung-jae and Lee Kyoung-hoon have finished 30th, 31st and 34th on the FedEx Cup points rankings, and have qualified for the first leg of the playoffs, the Northern Trust, which will tee off at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Thursday. The top 125 from the FedEx Cup standings will be

Golf Aug. 17, 2021

Tourist arrivals in South Korea plunged more than 95 percent in the first half of the year due to global travel curbs amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The data from the state-run Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) showed 73,000 foreign tourists visited South Korea in the January-June period, down 95.4 percent from a year earlier. The figure accounted for 17.5 percent of all foreigners who visited South Korea in the six-month period. In particular, it was much fewer than the 2

Social Affairs Aug. 17, 2021

South Korean construction machinery maker Hyundai Construction Equipment Co. on Tuesday said it will develop small-sized forklifts to be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The subsidiary of Hyundai Genuine Co. will team up with S-Fuelcell Co., a local hydrogen fuel cell maker, to commercialize the 1-3 ton forklifts by 2023, it said. Hyundai Construction Equipment also said it developed 5-ton hydrogen fuel cell powered forklifts in 2020 in cooperation with Hyundai Mobis Co., South Korea's biggest

Technology Aug. 17, 2021

Prosecutors have raided Hyundai Heavy Industries Co.'s headquarters in the southeastern city of Ulsan for allegedly destroying evidence to avert the antitrust watchdog's investigation into unfair business practices, judicial sources said Tuesday. According to the sources, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office recently searched the company's office in Ulsan, about 415 kilometers southeast of the capital, to seize internal documents. Last year, People's Solidarity for Participatory Democ

Social Affairs Aug. 17, 2021

The number of employees for South Korea's major companies has declined by nearly 30,000 over the past three years, with global tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. having the largest workforce, a corporate tracker said Tuesday. The combined headcount of the country's top 100 firms stood at about 1.39 million as of the end of 2020, down slightly by over 27,000 from three years earlier, according to the CXO Institute. Last year alone, the number decreased by 9,000 from the previous year, marking t

Economy Aug. 17, 2021

SsangYong Motor Co., the South Korean unit of Indian carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., said Tuesday its first-half net losses narrowed from a year earlier on self-rescue measures. From January to June, SsangYong Motor's net losses fell to 180.53 billion won ($154 million) from a net loss of 202.38 billion won during the same period last year, the company said in a regulatory filing. SsangYong's first-half operating losses also narrowed to 177.91 billion won from 215.78 billion won over th

Industry Aug. 17, 2021

All of four last-remaining South Koreans in Afghanistan, including the country's ambassador, have left the country, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. A plane carrying the four -- three diplomats and one civilian -- departed from the Kabul airport at around 9 a.m. (Seoul time) and is expected to land in a third country in the Middle East, the ministry said. The three embassy officials, including Ambassador Choi Tae-ho, had stayed behind in Afghanistan even after all other embassy staff evacua

Foreign Affairs Aug. 17, 2021

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Tuesday the government plans to provide more than 70 percent of emergency relief funds to small merchants hard hit by the pandemic over the next two weeks. The move is aimed at accelerating the provision of cash handouts to pandemic-stricken merchants as the country is grappling with the fourth wave of the pandemic. The country plans to provide a total of 4.22 trillion won ($3.6 billion) in relief aid to micro business owners by the end of September as it crea

Economy Aug. 17, 2021

There are many ways in which the coronavirus pandemic has changed sports, not the least of which is unexpected disruption to playing schedules. Four clubs in the K League 1 are staring at a long week, as they play rescheduled matches on Wednesday following bouts with COVID-19, and then have to return to the pitch on the weekend for regularly-scheduled contests. Incheon United will host Seongnam FC at 7 p.m. Wednesday, while FC Seoul will bring home Jeju United at 7:30 p.m. on the same day. Th

Soccer Aug. 17, 2021

With summer vacations ending, children started to return to their classrooms under relaxed distancing rules for schools Monday, despite an uncontrolled outbreak of the coronavirus. Last week, the Ministry of Education eased social distancing guidelines in schools for the fall semester. The measure was aimed at running in-person classes even under Level 4 distancing measures, the most stringent set of rules, as long as there are attendance caps to keep a safe distance among students in order to

Social Affairs Aug. 17, 2021