Two lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), considered closest confidants of President Yoon Suk-yeol, clashed Monday over the controversial hiring of a presidential office employee, with one of them warning the other to watch his mouth. Rep. Chang Je-won opened fire on PPP floor leader Kweon Seong-dong after Kweon said he "pressured" Chang to have a person from his constituency in the ...

The South Korean Air Force's aerobatic flight team received two top awards at the world's largest military air show in Britain over the weekend, the armed service said Monday. The Black Eagles team clinched the King Hussein Memorial Sword for the best overall flying demonstration and the As the Crow Flies Trophy at the three-day Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) at Fairford, Gloucestershire,...

Indonesian President Joko Widodo plans to visit South Korea late this month for summit talks with President Yoon Suk-yeol, according to Yoon's office on Monday. South Korea and Indonesia have been in consultations about the summit's agenda and the itinerary of Widodo's planned visit to Seoul, according to the presidential office. Yoon and Widodo are expected to hold in-depth discussions about e...

K-pop boy group Seventeen will return Monday with a repackaged version of its fourth studio album, "Face the Sun." The new album titled "Sector 17" is to hit online music services at about 6 p.m., according to the band's agency, Pledis Entertainment. "Sector 17" will have four new songs, including "_World," "Fallin' Flower" and "Cheers," in addition to nine tracks off "Face the Sun," the agency...

South Koreans' transactions of foreign stocks fell sharply in the first half of the year from six months earlier on bearish overseas equity markets, with their bond trading edging up, data showed Monday. Local investors' transactions of overseas shares were valued at $167.99 billion in the January-June period, down 12 percent from the second half of 2021, according to the data from the Korea Sec...

k"Girls," the second EP from South Korean girl group aespa, landed at No. 3 on US Billboard's main albums chart. Billboard has said in an article Sunday (US time) that the quartet reached the milestone on the upcoming Billboard 200 chart for this week by earning 56,000 equivalent album units in the United States. "Girls" became the second highest-charted album by a K-pop girl group after BLACKP...

South Korea and the United States have been conducting combined military drills, involving a high-tech training system, Seoul official said Monday, amid the allies' stepped-up efforts to sharpen deterrence against North Korea's evolving security threats. The 11-day training got under way at the Army's Korea Combat Training Center (KCTC) in Inje, 165 kilometers east of Seoul, on July 11. It invol...

Sales of K-pop albums have once again renewed their all-time-high level in the first half of this year, with the music continuing to be in its heyday, a local market tracker said. According to Kim Jin-woo, head researcher of Circle Chart, which reports accumulated sales and streams, on Sunday, combined sales of the nation's top 400 physical albums have risen to 34.9 million copies in the first h...

President Yoon Suk-yeol said Monday that probes into the previous administration's 2019 repatriation of North Korean fishermen must be conducted "in accordance with the Constitution and laws." Yoon made the remarks upon arrival at his office in response to a question about ongoing probes by prosecutors and the spy agency into the Moon Jae-in administration's repatriation of two North Koreans to ...

Seoul shares opened higher Monday tracking strong gains on Wall Street last week. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 20.48 points, or 0.88 percent, to trade at 2,315.46 in the first 15 minutes of trading. On Friday, US shares closed sharply higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 2.15 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 1.79 percent. In Seoul, most big...

A freshman at Inha University in Incheon, west of Seoul, has been formally arrested on charges of raping a schoolmate and causing her to fall to her death, officials said Monday. The Incheon District Court issued an arrest warrant for the 20-year-old suspect late Sunday after arraigning him earlier in the day, officials said. He was detained Friday after the victim was found dead earlier in the...

North Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases dropped below 400, according to its state media Monday. More than 310 people showed symptoms of fever over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, the official Korean Central News Agency said, citing data from the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters. It did not provide information on whether additional deaths have been reported. As...

A freshman at Inha University in Incheon, west of Seoul, appeared at a court Sunday to answer questions over charges that he raped a female schoolmate and caused her to fall to her death. "I am sorry," said the 20-year-old suspect wearing a cap and a mask upon arrival at the Incheon District Court when reporters asked him if he has anything to say to the victim. The court was to arraign him to ...

South Korea will push to exempt taxes on interest income and capital gains from foreigners' investment in government bonds and monetary stabilization bonds in a bid to help stabilize the debt market, the finance minister has said. Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho made the remarks on the details of the government's planned tax code revision at a meeting with reporters Saturday (local time) in Bali ...

Samsung Electronics Co. said Sunday its accumulated wind-free air conditioner sales have exceeded 7 million units in the domestic market since its launch six years ago. Samsung launched the "no-wind" air conditioner for the first time in the world in 2016 and has expanded its lineup of the product both for commercial and household use, the company said in a statement. The company has been fully...