South Korean stocks finished at a fresh record high Tuesday as institutions and individuals scooped up market heavyweights on earnings expectations, analysts said. The won rose against the dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged up 0.44 point, or 0.02 percent, to close at 2,490.49. The gain was bolstered by robust third-quarter earnings expectations, with a slew of major fi...

Nearly half of South Korea's salaried workers were paid 2 million won ($1,772) or less in monthly wages during the first six months of this year, government data showed Tuesday. About 32.6 percent of the country's 19.7 million salaried workers were paid between 1-2 million won per month while 10.4 percent received less than 1 million won, according to the figures by Korea Statistics. About 27.3...

GWANGYANG -- A ruling party legislator called Tuesday for urgent measures to revive Gwangyang Port, a major seaport in South Korea whose cargo processing volume is rapidly diminishing. Rep. Lee Gae-ho, elected from the constituency including the southern city of Gwangyang, said the volume of cargo handled at the port has fallen for five consecutive years. "There were less than 2.3 million TEUs p...

GWANGJU -- Two former major league pitchers will start the opening game of the South Korean baseball championship series this week. The Kia Tigers will host the Doosan Bears to open the Korean Series, the championship final in the Korea Baseball Organization, Wednesday at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, some 330 kilometers south of Seoul. To start the best-of-seven series, the Tigers wil...

LG Household & Health Care Ltd., South Korea's No. 2 cosmetics and household goods maker, said Tuesday it racked up a solid profit in the third quarter of this year on the back of its high-end cosmetic brands, despite concerns over a setback from a diplomatic row between Seoul and Beijing over a US anti-missile system here. Its operating profit came to 253 billion won ($224 million) in the July-...

The number of international passengers using Gimhae International Airport in the southeastern port city of Busan has risen sharply this year despite a drop in Chinese tourists, industry data showed Tuesday. As many as 5.24 million passengers used international flights through Gimhae in the first seven months of this year, according to statistics provided by the Korea Airports Corp. The number r...

A North Korean diplomat who recently joined a conference in Moscow called for the United States to drop its hostile policy and make the "right choice" of recognizing it as a nuclear-armed state, saying that it would lead to a "way out" from the current stalemate, a foreign ministry source here said Tuesday. Choe Son-hui, director-general of the North American department of North Korea's foreign ...

A reality show "Wanna One Go" Season 2 will be broadcast next month, cable music channel Mnet said Tuesday. Following up on the 2-episode program aired in August, the show features the ordinary life of the 11 winners of the popular audition program "Produce 101." The upcoming "Wanna One Go: Zero Base," consisting of 8 episodes, will have more interesting content and behind-the-scene stories abo...

Singer-actress Uhm Jung-hwa will release a new album next month, according to a music production company Tuesday. The five-track record will be the second half of "The Cloud Dream of the Nine," Uhm's 10th full-length album, Mystic Entertainment, the production company of Uhm's record, said. The first half, a four-track record, was released in December of last year. The new album will feature co...

They were once battling each other for Olympic speed skating medals, but now, Lee Seung-hoon of South Korea and Bob de Jong of the Netherlands are chasing a common goal as athlete and coach -- to win medals for host South Korea at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games. Lee was the shock gold medalist in the men's 10,000m at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, where de Jong claimed the bronze. Turn the ...

South Korean police have requested arrest warrants for executives at the World Taekwondo Headquarters, also known as Kukkiwon, over allegations of obstruction of business and violation of political funding law. According to investigative authorities, Gangnam Police Station requested arrest warrants last Friday for Kukkiwon President Oh Hyun-deuk and the organization's general secretary Oh Dae-yo...

The US dollar-Korean won exchange rates were the least volatile in three years during the third-quarter of this year, despite rising tension surrounding North Korea, the central bank said Tuesday. The average gap between the daily high and low of the dollar-won exchange rates came to 4.8 won in the third quarter, down from a 5.8 won fluctuation a quarter earlier, according to the Bank of Korea. ...

Senior members of the center-left People's Party sought Tuesday to defuse a growing rift over the possibility of a merger with a conservative party, saying the time is not yet right for talks on the issue. The cracks within the party have been widening as its chief, Ahn Cheol-soo, seeks to join forces with the minor opposition Bareun Party to bolster his party's legislative presence, despite con...

South Korean speed skating star Lee Sang-hwa said Tuesday she's confident of beating her emerging rival from Japan at next year's Winter Olympics on home ice. Lee is the two-time defending Olympic gold medalist in the women's 500m, and is the current world record holder with 36.36 seconds. But she suffered through an injury-plagued 2016-2017 season, and was nipped by Nao Kodaira of Japan at the ...

South Korean stocks pared back earlier gains Tuesday morning to trade slightly lower as institutions and foreigners offloaded stocks on profit taking. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 1.86 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,491.91 as of 11:15 a.m. Institutions and foreigners sold a combined 57 billion won ($50 million) worth of stocks, exceeding the 52 billion won stocks purchase...