South Korea's tax revenue rose 51.9 trillion won ($42 billion) in 2022 from a year earlier on the back of an increased collection of corporate income taxes, coupled with revitalized consumption, the finance ministry said Monday. The government collected 395.9 trillion won in taxes last year, up 15.1 percent from the 344.1 trillion won tallied in 2021, according to the Ministry of Economy and Fin...

South Korea's exports of passenger cars rose 15 percent on-year in 2022 to reach a record high, data showed Monday, on the back of robust shipments of eco-friendly models. Carmakers shipped passenger cars worth a combined $49 billion in 2022, up from $42.6 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service. The number of cars shipped reached 2.31 million...

South Korea on Monday lifted most mandatory indoor mask-wearing rules after more than two years amid a recent COVID-19 downtrend, with infections for the day falling to the lowest level in about seven months. The country reported 7,416 new cases, including 22 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 30,157,017, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. It is the lowest ...

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is set to arrive in Seoul on Monday for talks with his South Korean counterpart over deterrence against North Korean nuclear and missile threats, and other security issues, officials here said. His trip comes as Seoul and Washington are striving to sharpen deterrence through reinforced combined military drills as well as their trilateral security coordination wi...

President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating fell for the third straight week in the wake of a spike in heating bills, a poll showed Monday. In the poll of 1,504 adults conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Wednesday of last week, the positive assessment of Yoon's performance dipped 1.7 percentage points from the previous week to 37 percent. Yoon's disapproval rating was 59.8 percent, adding 1 per...

Seoul stocks opened lower Monday, as investors took to the sidelines ahead of the Federal Reserve's meeting this week. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index retreated 10.32 points, or 0.42 percent, to 2,473.7 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks got off to a weak start. The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed up 0.95 percent Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P ...

North Korea on Monday denounced a visit to South Korea by the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a "prelude" to war, saying the move could bring a "new Cold War" to the Asia-Pacific region. In an article carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Tong-myong, a researcher of the North's organization on international political study, said NATO Secretary General...

Global semiconductor revenue grew only around 1 percent on-year last year, a recent report showed, with the memory chip sector suffering the most. According to tech research firm Gartner, worldwide chip revenue is estimated to have risen 1.1 percent to $601.7 billion in 2022, a significant drop from a 26.3 percent annual growth seen the previous year. While 2022 got off to a relatively good sta...

France has waged a counterterrorism campaign in the small West African country of Burkina Faso since 2018. But on Jan. 20, hundreds of protesters in the capital city of Ouagadougou waved Russian flags and demanded the French army’s ouster. Days later, the country’s military government told the French to leave within a month. Burkina Faso is just the latest African country where the Wagner Group,...

The gusto with which Japan has embraced rearmament has surprised its allies and international partners. Last month, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida unveiled detailed plans to double defense spending over the next five years, leaving no doubt about the country’s determination to expand its military capabilities to deter China’s expansionist ambitions. Japan’s new strategic vision represents...

North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday that North Korean support of Russia in the war in Ukraine reinforces the need for the rest of the world to stay "interconnected" in their security efforts. Stoltenberg made the remark in his meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin in Seoul. "I think that in a more unpredictable and uncertain world, it'...