Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Wednesday called for a sense of urgency to cope with economic difficulties at home and abroad, as the economy is grappling with soaring inflation and recession fears over rising interest rates. "The government will continue to achieve growth and development of our economy by overcoming this internal and external environment with the attitude of strictly responding ...

South Korean builder Daewoo E&C and its parent company Jungheung Group participated in a campaign to improve the living environment of a descendant of an independence patriot as part of its corporate social responsibility project on Friday, the companies said Tuesday. The campaign hosted by Habitat Korea involves renovating old houses in which descendants of independence patriots experiencing ec...

Police referred Don Spike, a well-known K-pop composer and TV celebrity, to the prosecution on Wednesday on charges of purchasing and using methamphetamine on multiple occasions this year, officials said. The 45-year-old, whose real name is Kim Min-su, was apprehended at a hotel in southern Seoul last week on charges that he had purchased methamphetamine with an accomplice on a total of eight oc...

BERLIN -- German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed "full support" for South Korea's "audacious initiative" designed to help North Korea improve its economy in return for denuclearization steps, Seoul unification minister said Tuesday following a bilateral meeting. Kwon Young-se, South Korea's top point man on North Korea, paid a courtesy call on Steinmeier during his four-day trip to G...

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases hit around 35,000 on Wednesday, a rebound from the previous day but down by more than 1,000 from a week ago, with a rise in reinfections adding to concerns ahead of the winter season. The country reported 34,739 new COVID-19 infections, including 69 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 24,882,894, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) sa...

North Korea's state media outlets remained silent Wednesday about its latest launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), as its leader Kim Jong-un has stayed out of public view for nearly a month. The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the Korean Central Television and the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the country's ruling Workers' Party, carried no repo...

South Korean stocks opened markedly higher Wednesday, tracking overnight rallies on Wall Street, on solid demand for tech bargains. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 22.39 points, or 1.01 percent, to 2,231.77 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 2.80 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 3.34 percent, ...

Nearly 1 in 2 South Koreans have been infected with COVID-19, with the reinfection rate on the rise, the government said Wednesday. A total of 48 percent of the country's population have so far tested positive for the virus, said Kim Sung-ho, a senior interior ministry official in charge of disaster management, during a regular briefing. Kim also said the reinfection rate has steadily increased...

South Korea's exports are expected to worsen in the fourth quarter of the year amid a global economic slowdown, a trade body said Wednesday. The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) said its export business survey index stood at 84.4 for the October-December period, down from 94.4 three months earlier and staying below par for three consecutive quarters. The index came to 96.1 in the se...

Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Corp. said Wednesday their combined sales in the United States rose 8.5 percent last month from a year earlier despite the extended chip shortage. Hyundai and Kia sold 115,735 vehicles in the world's most important automobile market in September, up from 106,706 units a year ago, according to the companies' sales data. Hyundai's sales climbed 11 percent t...

South Korea's consumer prices grew at a slower pace on-year for the second consecutive month in September on the back of slowed growth in prices of oil and agricultural products, data showed Wednesday, in yet another sign that inflation may have peaked. Consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, rose 5.6 percent last month from a year earlier, slowing from a 5.7 percent rise in August, according...

South Korea and the United States fired four ground-to-ground missiles into the East Sea on Wednesday in joint drills, a day after North Korea's intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) launch, according to the South's military. The two sides each launched two Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, which precisely hit mock targets and demonstrated the allies' capability to deter furt...

On Oct. 1, Indonesian police fired tear gas after violence broke out at a soccer match in Malang, East Java province, sparking a mass panic which drove the crowd toward stadium exits, causing a deadly crush which left at least 125 people dead.