The presidential National Security Office has held a meeting to discuss North Korea's firing of artillery shots presumably from a multiple rocket launcher, the presidential office said. The shots were detected between 8:07 a.m. and 11:03 a.m. on Sunday morning, and the NSO meeting was convened at 10:30 a.m. the same day to check the military's readiness posture, the office said in a notice to re...

Seoul shares opened sharply lower Monday, as the higher-than-expected inflation in the United States renewed concerns over more aggressive monetary tightening and a global economic slowdown. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 57.04 points, or 2.2 percent, to 2,538.83 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. On Friday, US shares tumbled after the US' consumer price index for Ma...

South Korea's exports fell 12.7 percent on-year in the first 10 days of June due largely to fewer working days, and the country suffered a trade deficit due to high fuel costs, data showed Monday. The country's outbound shipments stood at $15.07 billion in the June 1-10 period, compared with $17.3 billion a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. The fall in exports ...

North Korea fired artillery shots Sunday, presumably from multiple rocket launchers, South Korea's military said, in what would be yet another show of force by the reclusive regime. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a text message to reporters that it had detected "several trajectories" believed to be artillery shots from around 8:07 a.m. to 11:03 a.m. It gave no additional details, such a...

The South Korean coast guard said Sunday that it has seized a Chinese speedboat for suspected illegal fishing in South Korean waters in the Yellow Sea. The five-ton boat carrying two Chinese fishermen is suspected of trying to fish in waters about 35 kilometers west of South Korea's western border island of Socheong at around 8 p.m. on Saturday. The Chinese boat was fleeing to the north of the ...

President Yoon Suk-yeol had dinner on Sunday with director Park Chan-wook and actor Song Kang-ho to celebrate their honors at this year's Cannes International Film Festival. Park won the Best Director prize at the 75th edition of the film festival last month for his romance thriller "Decision to Leave." It was his third Cannes award following the Grand Prix for "Oldboy" (2003) and the Jury Prize...

CJ CGV, South Korea's largest multiplex cinema chain, said Sunday that it will expand investment in high-technology, multi-projection screens and premium theaters to meet changing customer demand in the post-pandemic era. "We will focus more on expanding high-tech screens in a bid to help movie fans not only watch content but also experience something more special at theaters," said Cho Jin-ho, ...

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases stayed below 10,000 for the third consecutive day Sunday on fewer tests on the weekend and the waning omicron-driven virus wave. The country added 7,382 new infections, bringing the total caseload to 18,225,460, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Sunday's figure was down from 8,442 the previous day. It was also down from 9,832 new cases...

After three decidedly mixed results, South Korea's international match window for June will close on Tuesday against Egypt missing their biggest star. The kickoff between 29th-ranked South Korea and No. 32 Egypt will be 8 p.m. at Seoul World Cup Stadium. The 18th meeting between the two countries had potential for some intrigue, with the two captains, Son Heung-min for South Korea and Mohamed S...

North Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases dropped to near 40,000, while another death was reported, according to its state media Sunday. More than 40,060 people showed symptoms of fever over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing data from the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters. One additional death was confirmed...

The Korean action comedy "The Roundup" topped 10 million admissions in local theaters on Saturday. The sequel to the 2017 hit movie "The Outlaws" had set the record by 1:50 p.m., according to its local distributor, ABO Entertainment Co., based on a real-time box-office tally from the Korean Film Council. It exceeded the mark on the 25th day since its release on May 18 and became the 28th film t...

K-pop supergroup BTS' new album "Proof" sold over 2 million copies on the first day of its release, its entertainment agency said Saturday. The anthology album had sold a total of 2.15 million copies as of 11 p.m. Friday, just 10 hours after it became available in the market, according to Hanteo Chart, a South Korean music chart. It was the second time that the boy band's album sales surpassed ...

The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States held talks on the margins of a security forum in Singapore on Saturday to discuss joint deterrence against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, Seoul's defense ministry said. Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup and his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin, met on the margins of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue amid concerns about the possibility of...

South Korea will actively consider joining a global move to support the war-torn Ukraine by participating in multilateral development banks, a Seoul senior official has said. During the annual meeting of the OECD Council at the Ministerial Level, which ran in Paris from Thursday to Friday, First Vice Finance Minister Bang Ki-sun said the South Korean government will look at the option of using l...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for stronger "self-defense" measures to tackle "very serious" security challenges as he presided over a key ruling party session earlier this week, Pyongyang's state media reported Saturday. But there was no specific message issued from the fifth enlarged plenary meeting of the party's eighth Central Committee with regard to the possibility of the secretive...