The South Korean government vowed Tuesday to support local companies' bids to export nuclear reactors overseas, in a move to ease concerns that its nuclear phase-out plan could adversely affect efforts to new secure contracts. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held a meeting with state-run utilities, construction companies and local banks to discuss global market strategy and financial ...

South Korea's unification ministry said Tuesday that North Korea should not unilaterally resume operations at a now-shuttered joint industrial complex, as the move violates the property rights of local firms running factories there. The government said that there are no specific signs that confirm North Korea's reopening of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, though some bus movements and illuminate...

President Moon Jae-in called for additional efforts to speed up government-led social and political reforms Tuesday, dismissing opposition accusations that the move is aimed at retaliating against his political rivals. "Reforms and rooting out the old evils are not aimed at prosecuting but innovating old practices that have been pervasive in all areas, such as the economic and social sectors, an...

US President Donald Trump may travel to the inter-Korean border in early November when he visits South Korea, a defense source said Tuesday. The White House dispatched an advance team of working-level officials in late September to check candidate sites for Trump's "special activity" here, according to the source. "They looked around Panmunjom and Observation Post Ouellette," the source said on...

Popular non-verbal show “Nanta” will close one of its exclusive theaters in central Seoul as the number of Chinese tour groups, its main customers, plummeted due to a diplomatic feud between Seoul and Beijing over a US anti-missile system, its production company said Tuesday. PMC Production said it will close the Chungjeongno theater, one of four “Nanta” theaters in the country, at the end of th...

INCHEON -- Three of the brightest stars in women's golf today will take their battle to South Korea this week, as the LPGA Tour makes its lone annual stop in the country. The LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship will begin Thursday at the Ocean Course at Sky72 Golf & Resort, situated next to Incheon International Airport. The Ocean Course is hosting the tournament for the 10th consecutive year. The ...

A group of North Korean defectors sent about 300,000 leaflets denouncing Pyongyang's nuclear missile development into the communist nation on Tuesday as the North marked the anniversary of its ruling Workers' Party. Eight members of the Fighters for a Free North Korea, an organization of North Korean defectors, flew the leaflets by balloon from a mountain in the western city of Gimpo near the bo...

Traditional markets with stores run by E-Mart Inc., the country's largest discount chain operator, have been witnessing an increase in the number of customers, signaling the possibility of the co-prosperity of giant retailers and mom-and-pop shops, industry sources said Tuesday. E-Mart operates stores dedicated to selling its private-label No Brand products at three traditional markets in South ...

Electric vehicles will have little effect on the electricity supply and demand in South Korea even if the number of emission-free cars reaches 250,000, a local report said Tuesday. The government has set the target figure by 2020, sharply up from this year's goal of 46,000. As of the end of August, the number of electric vehicles stood at 19,022, according to the documents the National Assembly ...

South Korea's share in the Chinese import market is weakening, likely to fall to under 10 percent this year despite strong exports to the neighbor country led by semiconductors and petrochemicals, trade data showed Tuesday. Statistics from the Korea Center for International Finance, data firm CEIC and the trade industry said South Korean products accounted for 9.4 percent of China's imports in m...

The Cabinet approved a revision to the law on police appointment Tuesday to make it possible to award posthumous promotions not only to officers killed in the line of duty but also to retired officers who die with injuries sustained while on duty. So far, special posthumous promotion has been possible only when police officers are killed while on duty. But the proposed revision to the decree on ...

Imports of electronic cigarettes more than doubled after the government raised taxes on conventional tobacco in 2015 to discourage smoking, government data showed Tuesday. Industry sources attribute the sharp rise to smokers switching to e-cigarettes which are exempted from higher taxes. The government increased taxes on cigarettes by 2,000 won ($1.70) per pack from Jan. 1, 2015, raising the pr...

South Korea has successfully developed a combat system for its envisioned 3,000-ton attack submarine, the state arms agency announced Tuesday. The country plans to build a total of nine 3,000-ton submarines with its own technology in the Chang Bogo III project and the first is scheduled to be launched next year, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration. They will replace the ...

President Moon Jae-in's approval rating continued to rise this week, a poll showed Tuesday. In a survey conducted by Realmeter on 1,047 adults, 69.5 percent of the respondents said they supported the way the president managed state affairs, up 1.8 percentage points from a week earlier. The weekly survey was conducted on Sunday and Monday. The latest reading marked a second consecutive week of i...

South Korea and China were to hold another meeting Tuesday to discuss whether to extend the existing currency swap deal, the head of South Korea's central bank said. Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said an expiration is not necessarily all that important as the two sides are holding negotiations on the deal. "It would be good if everything is concluded before the existing deal expires, but it ma...