South Korea's youth employment rose sharply in May from a year earlier despite the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Tuesday. The number of employed young people aged 15-29 reached 4.1 million in May, up 196,000 from a year earlier, according to the data released by Statistics Korea. Their employment rate came to 47.8 percent, up 3.4 percentage points from a year earlier. Of the cou...

President Yoon Suk-yeol instructed officials Tuesday to pay special attention to seriously ill COVID-19 patients amid a resurgence of the virus across the country. More than 73,000 new cases were reported Tuesday as the highly contagious omicron subvariant BA.5 continues to spread, more than double the 26,299 reported a day earlier. "COVID-19 is at a crossroads of a resurgence," Yoon said durin...

A female service member of the Air Force was found dead at the barracks of her base south of Seoul on Tuesday, a military source said, as investigators are looking into the exact cause of her death in cooperation with local police. The body of the 21-year-old technical sergeant was found by her colleague at around 8:10 a.m., according to the source. She was a member of the 20th Fighter Wing bas...

The issuance of derivatives-linked securities (DLS) in South Korea tumbled more than 40 percent on-year in the first half of the year, data showed Tuesday, amid new regulations, rising interest rates and a bearish stock market. The country's DLS sales came to 5.7 trillion won ($4.3 billion) in the January-June period, down 40.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Se...

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen toured an LG Chem battery facility on Tuesday as the United States is seeking to build resilient supply chains with its allies in an effort to address supply disruptions and tackle high inflation. Yellen visited LG Science Park, a research and development campus of LG Group's eight affiliates, in western Seoul on her first stop of a three-day trip to South Kore...

President Yoon Suk-yeol said Tuesday he believes the country has "waited long enough" for a strike at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) to end, hinting at the possibility of using force to break up the prolonged walkout. Subcontract workers at DSME have been striking since June 2, leading to a standstill in shipbuilding operations and causing up to trillions of won in losses fo...

South Korea's top financial regulator said Tuesday it is necessary to ease a rule that restricts industrial businesses from owning banks, saying that such deregulation could generate mega players like BTS in the financial sector. The government restricts industrial capital from being used to purchase stakes in banks and financial institutions in a bid to make it hard for business owners to take ...

South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday, tracking overnight falls on Wall Street amid concerns about rate hikes and slower economic growth. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 12 points, or 0.51 percent, to trade at 2,363.25 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, US stocks retreated on spreading concerns about the aggressive monetary tightening, fanned by Apple ...

A South Korean national considered to be one of the country's biggest drug traffickers based in Southeast Asia was repatriated from Vietnam on Tuesday, police said. The 47-year-old suspect, only identified by his surname Kim, was the subject of an Interpol red notice for supplying illegal substances, such as methamphetamine, through Telegram, since 2018, the National Police Agency (NPA) said. H...

South Korea and Britain had their first vice-ministerial strategic defense dialogue in London earlier this week to discuss bilateral security cooperation, Seoul's defense ministry said Tuesday. Seoul's Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul and his British counterpart, Annabel Goldie, held the meeting on Monday to implement the defense segment of the "bilateral framework for closer cooperation" ad...

North Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases dropped below 300, according to its state media Tuesday. More than 250 people showed symptoms of fever over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing data from the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters. It did not provide information on whether additional deaths have been repo...

South Korean stocks soared nearly 2 percent higher Monday, as the US Federal Reserve will unlikely deliver a full-percentage point interest rate hike amid deepening concerns over an economic slowdown. The Korean won gained ground against the US dollar. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 44.27 points, or 1.90 percent, to close at 2,375.25. Trading volume was moderate at 318.99 mil...

A member of the Seoul city council filed a petition Monday asking the state rights watchdog to get to the bottom of the previous administration's 2019 repatriation of two North Korean fishermen against their will. Lee Jong-bae, a ruling People Power Party-affiliated member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, denounced the repatriation as human rights violations as he filed the petition with the N...

South Korea's new coronavirus cases more than doubled Monday from a week earlier amid a resurgence of infections and the fast spread of a highly contagious new omicron subvariant. The country reported 26,299 new COVID-19 infections, including 319 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,788,056, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Monday's figure fell from 41,31...

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 ...