After completing a two-week self-quarantine period in South Korea, London-based Standard Chartered Bank CEO Bill Winters has been traveling back and forth between South Korea’s capital Seoul and Pangyo, touted as the nation’s Silicon Valley, meeting with a number of high-profile figures in the domestic financial technology industry in recent days, according to sources Tuesday. Winters was initially granted a quarantine exemption upon his arrival in the country on Aug. 30, but decide

A man, who was arrested 11 years after committing rape in the southwestern city of Gwangju, was sentenced to eight years in prison by a district court on Tuesday. The case had remained unsolved due to lack of evidence until February this year, when DNA found at the scene matched a sample from the suspect. The Gwangju District Court handed down the prison term to the perpetrator, identified only as a 39-year-old man. The man was convicted of raping the victim after breaking into her home i

South Korea suspended its plan to offer free seasonal flu vaccines due to storage issues involving inactivated bottles, health authorities here said Tuesday. The government was to provide free flu shots to around 19 million people, or 37 percent of the country's population. Children between six months and 18 years old, pregnant women and those aged 62 years old or above were included. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said some of around 5 million doses of flu vaccines

Incheon International Airport, the country's main gateway, failed to draw enough bidders in duty-free auctions Tuesday, its operator said, underscoring an extended slump in the duty-free business sector amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) auctioned six duty-free sections for cosmetics, perfume, liquor, tobacco, fashion and miscellaneous goods in the airport's Terminal 1. As widely expected, industry leader Lotte Hotel and No. 3 player Shinsegae took pa

Twitter Korea on Tuesday released a new report, “#KpopTwitter 2020 World Map,” which looks back on K-pop’s rapid growth on the platform over the past decade. According to the report, K-pop-related content and conversations on Twitter increased monumentally from 2010 to 2020, spanning first-generation acts like Super Junior, Big Bang and Girls’ Generation as well as the latest acts like BTS, EXO, Blackpink, GOT7 and NCT 127.  The upward curve showed the most rapid

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The UN's first virtual meeting of world leaders was set to start Tuesday with pre-recorded speeches from some of the planet's biggest powers, kept at home by the coronavirus pandemic that will likely be a dominant theme at their video gathering this year. Among those expected to speak Tuesday are US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose countries have reported the highest and second-highest coronavirus death tolls, respectively. Also on dec

K-pop girl group TWICE finished first on a Japanese weekly album chart with its latest repackaged album "#TWICE3," its management agency said Tuesday. Released last Wednesday, the compilation of the group's past Korean and Japanese hits scored 109,000 points to top the Oricon Daily Albums chart in its first week of release, according to JYP Entertainment. It is the band's seventh album to reach the top of the most coveted music chart in Japan, making the group the second foreign fem

South Korea’s tax agency said Tuesday that it has launched probes into 98 individuals for alleged property tax evasion as part of its ongoing efforts to strengthen a crackdown on tax dodgers and those who fall behind on large sums in taxes. Among the tax evasion schemes identified by the National Tax Service were 22 Koreans who purchased multiple homes here by establishing corporations or investing in private equity funds and 76 people aged 39 or younger who bought luxury apartments. Of

South Korean officials on Tuesday flew to Jakarta to claim development costs Indonesia owes to Korea for the joint development of next-generation KF-X fighters. According to industry sources, a Korean task force of 10 officials from Korea Aerospace Industries and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration will renegotiate with Indonesian officials from Wednesday to Thursday on how the Southeast Asian country will deliver its portion of development costs for the KF-X project. The joint K

President Moon Jae-in on Monday called for the fair distribution to all countries of vaccines and therapeutics against COVID-19, stressing that “solidarity and cooperation” will prevail against the virus. Addressing the high-level meeting commemorating the 75th anniversary of the United Nations via satellite link, Moon said the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to undermine the multilateralism embodied by the UN and proposed three ideas for overcoming the crisis. Stressing the efforts

As more and more K-pop groups create backstories and universes of their own, FNC Entertainment’s newest K-pop group, P1Harmony, is debuting in a sci-fi movie starring the six band members. The 99-minute movie, “P1H: The Beginning of a New World,” by director Yoon Hong-seung, who also goes by “Director Chang,” shows the P1Harmony universe and how each member of P1Harmony finds his own superpower that can help save the world from a deadly virus. The movie will come

After the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 fall-winter Seoul Fashion Week earlier this year, the fashion week showcasing the spring-summer 2021 collections will be held next month, reaching out to the global audience on an online platform. Some 45 South Korean fashion designers are participating in the 2021 SS Seoul Fashion Week -- 35 established designers for the Seoul Collection show and 10 rookie designers for Generation Next. The fashion shows, scheduled from Oct. 20-25, will be held

Rival parties on Tuesday agreed to process the fourth supplementary budget bill. The bill was set to be put to the parliamentary Special Committee on Budget and Accounts later in the day. The 7.8 trillion won ($6.7 billion) supplementary budget bill was put to the National Assembly on Sept. 11. The agreement was made at a meeting between the floor leaders of the ruling Democratic Party and the main opposition People Power Party, where a number of changes were made to the bill proposed by th

South Korea’s producer prices increased for the third consecutive month in August, mostly reflecting the rising costs of agricultural goods and oil products, central bank data showed Tuesday. The inflationary trend, attributed to the record-long rainy season and typhoons, is seen as adding pressure on coronavirus-hit consumers ahead of the Chuseok holiday. The producer price index -- an indicator of future consumer inflation -- stood at 103.19 in August, climbing 0.5 percent from a m

Original Korean musical “Sonata of a Flame” has been viewed in 45 countries online, according to its production company Shins Wave on Tuesday. The musical, which kicked off its run on Sept. 11 in Daehangno, Seoul, livestreams 13 of 18 live in-person performances. The 13 performances are streamed globally, with the exception of China and Indonesia, via a local tech startup‘s online platform, Presented Live. According to a press release shared by Shins Wave on Tuesday, viewer