The total value of gift certificates issued in South Korea last year accounted for more than 50 percent of the country's money printed by the central bank, a report showed Sunday. Some 11.3 trillion won ($10 billion) worth of gift vouchers, mobile coupon and revenue stamps were issued in 2016, according to a report by Rep. Shim Ki-joon of the ruling Minjoo Party. This is equivalent to 56.2 perc...

Shares of Samsung Electronics Co. held by the chairman's family rose 1.55 percentage points this year, mainly due to the cancellation of treasury shares, official data showed Sunday. Data by the Financial Supervisory Service and the tech giant showed that shares held by chairman Lee Kun-hee, his heir apparent Lee Jae-yong and "specially related people" accounted for 20 percent of all ordinary sh...

US aerospace giant Boeing Co. and Saab of Sweden are vying to win South Korea's next maritime patrol aircraft contract, military sources here said Sunday. Military officials at this year's Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition being held in Seongnam, just south of the capital city, said the two companies have respectively proposed the P-8A Poseidon and Swordfish as candidates for ...

The number of attendees at this year's Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) increased about 17 percent from last year to top 190,000, its organizer said Saturday. The 22nd BIFF opened in Busan on Oct. 12 and closed its 10-day run after featuring 299 movies from 69 countries which have been shown on 32 screens at five theaters in the southern South Korean port city. World and international pr...

President Moon Jae-in is expected to state his position as early as Sunday on an independent state panel's recommendation that the government resume the construction of two nuclear power reactors that Moon had pledged to abandon during the election campaign, sources said Saturday. The panel unveiled the recommendation Friday, saying an official survey of 471 people selected for the jury showed t...

Korean singer and actor Choi Si-won on Saturday offered an apology over the death of a local businesswoman who recently died after being attacked by his family's pet dog at an apartment in southern Seoul. The 30-year-old Choi, who gained fame as a member of the Korean boy band Super Junior, said in his social media post that he is deeply sorry for the death of his neighbor bitten by a dog raised...

The National Intelligence Service had provided a conservative civic group with the Norwegian Nobel Committee's address during the previous Lee Myung-bak administration as they worked together to have the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to former President Kim Dae-jung revoked, investigators said Saturday. Prosecutors have found that after Kim's death in 2009, the NIS and the rightist group discus...

Kim Il Sung University, North Korea's most prestigious seat of higher learning, plans to open its doors wider to foreign students by expanding major studies available for them, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper published in Japan said Saturday. According to the Choson Sinbo, international students will be allowed to major in various economics and social science studies, including philosophy, law and his...

North Korea could feel threatened if U.S. President Donald Trump visits the demilitarized zone on the inter-Korean border next month, a U.S. expert said Friday. Trump could include a trip to the buffer zone dividing South and North Korea when he visits Seoul from Nov. 7-8, according to news reports. There are concerns it could provoke Pyongyang amid high tensions over its nuclear weapons and bal...

Two former senior officials of the National Intelligence Service were arrested Saturday for their alleged roles in the spy agency’s interference in domestic politics during the past two conservative administrations. The Seoul Central District Court issued arrest warrants for the two -- Shin Seung-kyun, a former chief of the NIS’ office for national interest strategy, and Yoo Sung-ok, who served ...

Tehran Mayor Mohammad Ali Najafi on Friday expressed hopes for South Korean companies' investment in the country, especially in the construction, manufacturing and energy sectors. He was in Korea to attend the OECD Champion Mayors for Inclusive Growth, an international mayors' forum jointly hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and OECD. "I met with a dozen Korean industries to talk about...

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez said Friday that he still isn't 100 percent fit enough to return to the octagon this year, although he expects to come back in the middle of next year. Velasquez said making a comeback isn't his priority at the moment, since his wife is pregnant. "She's going to deliver pretty soon, probably next month, and I want t...

Citizens expressed mixed reactions Friday toward a state commission's recommendation to resume the construction of two nuclear reactors. An independent commission announced the proposal earlier in the day based on a survey of 471 people selected as a jury on whether to abandon or continue the Shin Kori-5 and Shin Kori-6 reactors. Nearly 60 percent of the jury voted for the resumption of the con...

More than one in three smartphones in 2020 will be shipped with an artificial intelligence chipset capable of real-time translation and malware detection, giving health care advice and recognizing user behavior, a report said Friday. The ratio of AI chipset-equipped smartphones is expected to rise to 35 percent or more than 500 million units in the cited years from just three percent in 2017. N...

President Moon Jae-in may have been forced to push back the start of his new nuclear-free energy policy, as a public debate commission recommended Friday resuming the construction of two unfinished nuclear reactors the president had promised to scrap. The commission said 59.5 percent of 471 citizens and experts who took part in the debate voted in favor of completing the Shin Kori-5 and Shin Kor...