Blackpink added another city and more dates to its ongoing tour, according to label YG Entertainment on Wednesday. The quartet’s ever-expanding international tour will now include a concert in Mexico City slated for April 26 and two concerts each in Melbourne and Sydney, due on June 10-11 and 16-17. Separately, Lisa logged 900 million streams on Spotify with her solo album “Lalisa.” This is the first time a K-pop solo musician achieved the feat on the platform. “Lalisa&r

DAEJEON -- An appellate court on Wednesday ruled against a Buddhist temple in a civil suit it filed to claim a 14th century statue taken away to Japan centuries ago, and stolen and brought back to South Korea a decade ago. The 50.5-centimeter-tall Buddhist statue from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) was one of the two bronze statues Korean thieves stole from Kannon Temple in Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, in October 2012. Claiming its ownership, Buseok Temple in Seosan, 98 kilometers southwest

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South Korea is looking to test-launch a new "high-power" ballistic missile in the near future, an informed source said Wednesday, in a move to bolster deterrence against evolving North Korean military threats. The country has been working on the development of the missile, known as Hyunmoo-5, as a core asset of its deterrence capabilities. Earlier in the day, speculation emerged that the state-run Agency for Defense Development may test-fire it at its Anheung test site in Taean, 15

Lee Byung-kee, the former presidential chief of staff under the Park Geun-hye administration, was acquitted Wednesday on charges of obstructing lawmakers' probe into the cause of the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014. The Seoul Central District Court ruling indicated that the allegations against Lee's involvement in the obstruction lacked evidence. Lee and eight other officials were indicted in May 2020 on charges of hindering the probe as lawmakers tried to look into the whereabouts of the

The push by the administration of previous President Moon Jae-in to take away investigative powers from the National Intelligence Service is being rolled back under President Yoon Suk Yeol, Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers claimed Wednesday. Opposition party Reps. Youn Kun-young and Kim Eui-kyeom of the National Assembly’s intelligence committee reiterated in a conference that the top spy service should not be allowed to continue investigations of North Korean espionage and meddling. Yo

Last year’s ticket sales for Korea’s performing arts scene not only returned to pre-pandemic levels but jumped 43 percent from 2019, according to data released by the Korea Performing Arts Box Office Information System Wednesday. The combined revenue of 14,447 musicals, theatrical plays, classical concerts and other performances came to 55.90 billion won ($45 million) in 2022, up 43 percent from pre-pandemic revenue in 2019. Compared with 2021, the figure soared by 82 percent. In ter

The remains of Korean independence fighter Whang Ki-hwan, the real-life inspiration for 2018 hit TV drama “Mr. Sunshine,” are set to return home some 100 years after he passed away in New York. The Korean patriot, whose English name was Earl K. Whang, inspired the drama series' producers to create the character Eugene Choi (played by Lee Byung-hun), a Korean American US Marine Corps officer who returns to Korea and ends up helping his compatriots thwart a looming Japanese invasi

The combination use of Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine’s camrelizumab and HLB Bio’s rivoceranib has received a novel drug approval from the National Medical Products Administration of China, HLB Bio announced Wednesday. With the approval, the camrelizumab-rivoceranib combination can be used as the first-line treatment for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma in China. The approval was given three years and nine months after the company started its phase 3 clinical trial April

KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo delivers a speech during the investor conference KB Investor Insights 2023, held via the financial giant's metaverse platform on Tuesday. During the event, the chairman pledged to boost investor profitability by upgrading expertise and risk-management know-how. (KB Financial Group)

North Korean state media has stepped up the rhetoric to justify military buildup despite lingering economic woes ahead of the army founding anniversary, saying that defending the country from “enemies” is its priority. “What comes first is to reinforce our own strength and national defense capabilities in order not to become a slave of imperialists,” the Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, said Wednesday in a Korean-language article. &ldqu

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South Korea reached a record-high monthly trade deficit of $12.69 billion in January, mainly due to weakening global demand for semiconductors, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Wednesday. While outbound shipments fell 16.6 percent on-year to $46.27 billion in January -- the largest drop in three years -- imports slipped 2.6 percent on-year to $58.96 billion. This figure broke the previous record high of $9.43 billion in August last year. It is also

Foreign Minister Park Jin set off on a five-day tour to the United States on Wednesday to drum up support for South Korea’s bid to win a two-year seat on the United Nations Security Council while reinforcing bilateral efforts to denuclearize North Korea. Seoul, which last served on the UN body from 2013 to 2014, is eyeing another term starting next year -- a move it sees as part of its long-term Indo-Pacific strategy to lead the international conversation on peace by discussing more than a