South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases remained above 1,600 Saturday, as the authorities struggled to stem the fourth wave of COVID-19 with the extension of the toughest virus curbs in the greater Seoul area. The country added 1,629 COVID-19 cases, including 1,573 local infections, raising the total caseload to 187,362, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The latest tally was down from 1,630 on Friday and a record high of 1,842 on Thursday, when 270 infected member

The National Assembly on Saturday gave the nod to a 34.9 trillion-won ($30.3 billion) extra budget bill aimed at propping up the economy battered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill was passed at a plenary parliamentary meeting in a 208-17 vote, with 12 abstentions. The second extra budget this year came as the country is in a semi-lockdown under the toughest Level 4 social distancing rules amid the worst, fourth wave of mass COVID-19 infections nationwide. Through the supplementary budget,

A major South Korean broadcaster apologized Saturday for using offensive images and captions to describe participating countries during the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony on Friday night. Coronavirus restrictions meant a stripped back celebration with the traditional delegations of athletes masked and far smaller than usual, ranging from just a handful of people to a few dozen. MBC -- one of the largest national television networks -- used images of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster fo