South Korea blew a chance to qualify for the FIFA World Cup after getting held to an undermanned Iran at home on Thursday. South Korea failed to get past 10-man Iran in their World Cup qualifier at Seoul World Cup Stadium, and their hopes of securing their ninth consecutive trip to football's showpiece event remain up in the air with one match remaining in the final Asian qualifying round. Sout...

South Korea's PyeongChang is "ready to welcome the world" next February when it hosts the Winter Olympic Games, an International Olympic Committee official said Thursday. Gunilla Lindberg, head of the IOC's Coordination Commission on PyeongChang, on Thursday concluded her team's ninth and final visit to PyeongChang, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul, before the Winter Games. At her wrap-up press...

An average wedding in South Korea costs nearly 46 million won ($40,000), excluding the price of buying or renting a home, a survey showed Thursday, with more people opting for smaller ceremonies. Of the 45.9 million won total, the proportion spent on essential items like home furnishings accounted for 32 percent or 14.6 million won, followed by spending on presents and the wedding ceremony, acco...

PYEONGCHANG -- The organizing committee for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Thursday briefed approximately 100 Olympic-related foreign officials on South Korea's measures to combat terrorism. Invited by the committee, the foreign officials from 35 International Olympic Committee member countries, IOC official sponsors and US broadcaster NBC, the rightsholder for broadcasting the Olympics...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's once-powerful aunt is receiving medical treatment in seclusion on the outskirts of Pyongyang, multiple sources said Thursday, amid a flurry of rumors over her health and safety. The National Intelligence Service told the parliament's intelligence committee Tuesday that Kim Kyong-hui, the 71-year-old sister of the current leader's late father Kim Jong-il, has sta...

Internet-only bank K-Bank said Thursday it posted a net loss of 40.5 billion won ($35.9 million) in the first-half of this year, hit by a jump in spending as it launched operations in April. K-Bank said it attracted deposits worth 643 billion won and made loans worth 600.3 trillion won as of the end of June. K-Bank, which is led by KT Corp., the nation's biggest fixed-line Internet operator, sp...

South Korea's unification minister on Thursday asked for Russia's cooperation in resolving North Korea's nuclear issue during his meeting with Moscow's top envoy to Seoul, government officials said. Minister Cho Myoung-gyon and Amb. Alexander Timonin discussed the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and ways to bolster bilateral ties, according to Seoul's unification ministry. "The minis...

A fourth baseball club admitted to giving money to an umpire in a rapidly-snowballing scandal on Thursday. The Nexen Heroes in the Korea Baseball Organization issued an apology, saying one of its former executives wired 3 million won ($2,670) to the then umpire surnamed Choi on Nov. 22, 2013, after Choi had contacted him for cash. "We'll accept any punishment that comes our way," the Seoul-base...

A group of conservative opposition lawmakers on Thursday proposed a parliamentary resolution calling for South Korea's nuclear armament, saying it must not condone North Korea's nuclear "monopoly." The 26 lawmakers of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party stressed that in light of self-defense, Seoul has to seek its own nuclear arms should Pyongyang conduct another nuclear test. Their call is...

President Moon Jae-in on Thursday called for swift and multidimensional efforts to boost the country's slowing birthrate, which he warned could do "unrepairable" damage to the nation if left untouched. Meeting with officials from the labor, welfare and gender equality ministries for a policy discussion session, the president insisted the country must work to remove fundamental causes of the prob...

Four F-35B stealth jets and two B-1B strategic bombers from the United States trained with South Korea's F-15K fighter jets over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday in response to North Korea's continued ballistic missile launches and nuclear weapons development, the South's Air Force announced. The unprecedented combined maneuver involved the F-35Bs from Japan and the long-range bombers based in G...

South Korean stocks finished lower Thursday, as foreign investors extended their selling binge into the fifth day. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index dropped 9.1 points, or 0.38 percent, to close at 2,363.19. Trade volume was a moderate 256 million shares worth 5.12 trillion won ($4.54 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 442 to 329....

The head of South Korea's central bank said Thursday that the North Korean risk factor has raised uncertainties for Asia's fourth-largest economy. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been escalating over North Korea's long-range missile and nuclear programs. On Tuesday, North Korea fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan in what North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says ...

South Korean automaker Kia Motors Corp. will unveil its hatchback-style concept car at an international auto show next month, the company said Thursday. The "KED-12" will be presented at the 2017 Frankfurt Auto Show and its teaser image was unveiled to the public for the first time earlier in the day. (Yonhap) Kia Motors said its European Design Center, a creative research lab based in Europe,...