Seoul shares opened lower Thursday, taking a cue from overnight falls on Wall Street amid renewed worries over the Federal Reserve's tougher monetary tightening. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 27.51 points, or 1.06 percent, to 2,564.76 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The KOSPI had lost ground for the seven straight sessions until Wednesday as investors worried the Fed wi...

This year's Seoul International Book Fair (SIBF) will kick off next month to guide book lovers through the latest news and trends in the publishing industry at home and abroad, its organizers said Thursday. The SIBF 2022, the country's biggest annual book fair, is set to run from June 1-5 at the Convention and Exhibition Center in southern Seoul under the theme of "One Small Step," according to ...

Police have launched an investigation into allegations that former Culture Minister Hwang Hee took political funds from a state utility agency in return for facilitating business favors, officials said Thursday. Hwang, a two-term lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party, allegedly received a total of 10 million won ($7,818) in political funds from an executive of Korea Water Resources Co...

WASHINGTON -- The UN Security Council (UNSC) convened an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss North Korea's recent missile provocations but failed to produce a tangible outcome due to opposition from China and Russia. The special session of the 15-member council came at the request of the US, which condemned North Korea's recent missile tests as "a blatant violation of multiple Security Counci...

WASHINGTON -- The United States stands prepared to engage in any kind of diplomacy or dialogue with North Korea, White House policy coordinator for Asia Kurt Campbell said Wednesday. He also said the new South Korean government of Yoon Suk-yeol is determined to work closely with the US. "I will also just note that we have a new partner, a new president in South Korea that is determined, working...

WASHINGTON -- The sole US intent toward North Korea is to see its complete denuclearization, a state department spokesperson said Wednesday, again dismissing Pyongyang's accusation of hostile US intent toward the impoverished country. Ned Price also reiterated that the US and its allies, including South Korea, only seek to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula through peaceful dialogue. "We have ma...

South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang Inc. said Thursday its first-quarter operating loss narrowed sharply from a year earlier thanks to record sales. Its operating loss stood at $205.7 million in the January-March period, down 23 percent from a year earlier, the New York-listed e-commerce behemoth said in a regulatory filing. The drastic improvement came as its sales reached a quarterly high i...

Mercedes-Benz and six other carmakers will voluntarily recall nearly 12,000 vehicles to fix software errors and part defects, Seoul's transport ministry said Thursday. Mercedes-Benz Korea will recall 7,598 cars from eight models, including the S 580 4MATIC, as software flaws in their rear signal acquisition and actuation module could cause the malfunction of blinkers, hazard lights and reversing...

As new American players like Paramount+ and HBO Max are set to start their services in South Korea later this year, competition is expected to intensify in the local streaming service market. US media giant Paramount Global said earlier this month that Paramount+, its subscription-based video streaming service, will land in South Korea next month in partnership with Tving, a local online video-o...

President Yoon Suk-yeol said Wednesday security conditions are tough amid talk of a possible North Korean nuclear test and called for a close monitoring of the situation. Yoon made the remark during his first meeting with his senior secretaries after taking office the previous day. "The security situation is tough," he said. "Foreign countries are worried and there's talk of a resumption of nuc...

Non-financial listed companies in South Korea will likely see their total operating income expand nearly 10 percent this year on rising sales, a local brokerage house said Wednesday. In its latest report, Hanwha Investment & Securities Co. forecast the combined operating income of those firms listed on the main stock market to grow 9.6 percent on-year to 208 trillion won ($163 billion) this year...

President Yoon Suk-yeol made his first commute to work by motorcade Wednesday, an unusual spectacle that followed his relocation of the presidential office. Yoon left his private home in southern Seoul at 8:21 a.m. and arrived at his office in the central district of Yongsan at 8:34 a.m. The president will commute everyday for now while the foreign minister's official residence is being convert...

New South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup took office Wednesday, vowing to "sternly" respond to North Korea's possible provocations and cement the alliance with the United States. In his inauguration speech, Lee, a retired three-star Army general, stressed his commitment to ensuring a "robust" defense as he pointed to the "very grave" security context marked by the North's evolving nuclear ...

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases stayed above 40,000 for the second straight day Wednesday amid the government's effort to move the country back to pre-pandemic normalcy. The country added 43,925 new COVID-19 infections, including 37 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 17,658,794, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The tally decreased from 49,93...

The choreography video for "How You Like That," a 2020 hit single by K-pop girl group BLACKPINK, has surpassed 1.1 billion views on YouTube. The group's agency YG Entertainment said Wednesday the video hit the milestone slightly after midnight, one year and 10 months after it was uploaded on the global video streaming service. The number 1.1 billion is the largest for a K-pop choreography video...