Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related. Answer: ⓓ South Korea is technically still at war with North Korea and most men here are trained shooters, stemming from their experience as active-duty conscripts.     But not even the president -- the most powerful elected official and chief military commander -- can freely carry a gun.  Only authorized personnel in security-related fields, such as poli

Netflix's new South Korean series "Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area" rose to No. 2 on a global popularity chart for TV series available on the streaming service. According to data released by streaming analytics company FlixPatrol on Tuesday (US time), the Korean remake of the streamer's smash-hit series "Money Heist" placed second on its daily global chart for TV programs on Netflix, four days after it was released. The ranking was up one notch from third p

South Korea's new coronavirus cases exceeded 10,000 for the first time in 20 days Wednesday, though in recent months the pandemic has shown a downward trend. The country added 10,258 new COVID-19 infection cases, including 205 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,349,756, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The pandemic has loosened its stranglehold on the country since mid-March when infections peaked at more than 621,000. Daily virus caseloads re

A subcommittee of South Korea's state defense procurement committee has endorsed a basic proposal to purchase some 20 F-35A radar-evading fighters, Seoul officials said Wednesday. The Defense Project Promotion Committee's subcommittee approved it on June 9 in a push for a 3.9 trillion won ($3 billion) project to introduce the fighters, manufactured by the US defense giant Lockheed Martin from 2023 through the mid to late 2020s. The approval came as the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol admini

　Apple reclaimed its title as the world’s most valuable brand, according to a survey from Kantar BrandZ, knocking rival Amazon off the top spot for the first time in three years. 　The iPhone maker’s brand value reached $947 billion this year, while Amazon slipped to third, according to Kantar’s survey published June 15. Apple was last ranked the most valuable brand in 2015. 　Louis Vuitton became the first luxury brand to reach the top 10 after experiencing 64 percent growth

PYEONGTAEK -- South Korea's Navy on Wednesday held a ceremony to commemorate the sacrifices of sailors killed in an inter-Korean naval skirmish near the western sea border two decades ago. The memorial event took place at the Navy's Second Fleet in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, with the attendance of some 300 people, including the sailors' families and fellow troops. The naval conflict occurred on June 29, 2002, as two North Korean patrol boats crossed the Northern L

North Korea is taking emergency measures to prevent damage from flooding as it braces for the summer rainy season amid the coronavirus fight, according to its state media Wednesday. The country's "central emergency anti-epidemic sector" took steps to ensure medical supplies in thousands of emergency medical units set up at hospitals across the country and urged disinfection work in evacuation centers to prevent the outbreak of an "enteric illness," the official Korean Ce

LG Energy Solution Ltd. (LGES) has decided to reconsider its 1.7 trillion-won ($1.31 billion) plan to build a new battery plant in the US state of Arizona, as global inflation and a sharp fall of the Korean currency are expected to incur greater costs, company officials said Wednesday. "We are thoroughly reassessing the timing, scale and details of the investment, due to a sharp increase in investment costs stemming from the deteriorating business environment," a LGES official said by

Korean Air Lines Co. and Asiana Airlines Inc., South Korea's two biggest carriers, on Wednesday resumed the Gimpo-Haneda route after a two-year suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic. South Korea and Japan agreed to reopen the route last week. Korean Air and Asiana will operate two flights per week on the Haneda route, respectively, while All Nippon Airways Co. and Japan Airlines Co. will provide a total of four flights a week as well, according to the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Mi

Demand for an unprecedented "big-step" rate hike among policymakers of the Bank of Korea (BOK) will likely intensify ahead of an upcoming rate-setting meeting should the country's consumer prices in June rise 6 percent or higher, a high-ranking central bank official has said. The outlook comes amid growing speculation the BOK could lean more toward the possibility of an unprecedented 0.5 percentage-point hike in borrowing costs when monetary policy board members gather on July 13

Inflation expectations in South Korea hit the highest level in about 10 years in June amid worries that prices are fast increasing due to high energy and commodity costs, a central bank report showed Wednesday. Ordinary people expected consumer prices to rise 3.9 percent over the next year, the fastest pace since April 2012, according to the report from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The June figure was also higher than a 3.3 percent rise predicted the previous month. Data on expected inflation is clo

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world's largest technical professional organization, said Wednesday it has launched an investigation into a South Korean research paper accused of plagiarizing multiple papers published in the past. The move came just days after a research team led by Yoon Sung-roh, a professor at the department of electrical and computer engineering at Seoul National University, admitted to engaging in plagiarism when producing the paper rec

South Korean stocks opened sharply lower Wednesday, tracking an overnight Wall Street plunge amid growing fears of economic recession. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 32.67 points, or 1.35 percent, to trade at 2,389.42 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, Wall Street tumbled amid bleaker-than-expected economic indicators that added to investor jitters over a possible recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 1.56 percent, while tech-heavy Nasdaq co

MADRID -- South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol talked briefly with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a gala dinner for NATO summit participants in Madrid on Tuesday and expressed hope for the future-oriented development of relations between the two countries, officials said. The encounter, which lasted three to four minutes at the dinner party hosted by Spain's King Felipe VI, began as Kishida offered greetings to Yoon with congratulations on his inauguration and the local election vi

MADRID -- President Yoon Suk-yeol will seek to promote the export of South Korean nuclear power plants and arms during his bilateral meetings with world leaders in Spain this week, a senior presidential official said Tuesday. Yoon is in Madrid to attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit on Wednesday and has begun a series of bilateral summits on the sidelines, including with Australia's prime minister earlier Tuesday. On Wednesday, he is scheduled to meet with the preside