South Korea has clinched new investment deals totaling $600 million with firms in European Union countries, achieving the annual target for foreign direct investment, Seoul’s trade ministry said Monday. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it secured the new deals with four EU-based companies at the investment roundtable it held in Paris. It came on the sidelines of South Korean Presi...

CHEONAN, South Korea -- South Korea football coach Paulo Bento on Monday hinted at making lineup changes for an upcoming friendly match against Panama. South Korea, 55th in the latest FIFA rankings, will face 70th-ranked Panama, at Cheonan Stadium in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, on Tuesday. The two sides are meeting for the first time. Since he took the helm in August, Bento has been st...

South Korean police said Monday they have busted the largest-ever operation to smuggle drugs into the country, a scheme they say involves Taiwanese and Japanese organized crime rings and Korean dealers. Six people were arrested in the attempted trafficking of 112 kilograms of methamphetamine, an amount that is enough to be used simultaneously by 3.7 million people, according to police. It is est...

The National Police Agency mobilized about 1,500 officers to write nearly 38,000 Internet and Twitter comments in favor of the government and police during the administration of Lee Myung-bak, an in-house investigation team said Monday. The team announced that the 1,500 or so police officers wrote an estimated 37,800 Internet comments and Twitter posts between February 2010 and April 2012 in an ...

South Korea's land minister will help Korean construction companies win projects in the Middle East during her business trip to the region, the government here said Monday. Kim Hyun-mee will promote Korean builders' expertise and advanced know-how in the field of smart cities, airports and intelligent transport systems (ITS) when she meets officials in Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates,...

Hanjin Group and Korean Air Lines Co. Chairman Cho Yang-ho was indicted for embezzlement, breach of trust and other charges on Monday without detention. The prosecution announced the result of its five-month probe into the 69-year-old business mogul, the father of the woman who was jailed in the notorious "nut rage" case. Cho is suspected of causing 19.6 billion won ($17.3 million) in losses to...

A US State Department official met with South Korean foreign ministry officials in Seoul on Monday, apparently for discussions on North Korea and pending alliance issues, a government source said. Marc Knapper, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for Korea and Japan affairs, was returning to South Korea several months after finishing a stint here. He is in charge of coordinating a strate...

The overall number of hospital beds and medical equipment in South Korea exceeded other major economies, while the number of doctors was among the lowest, data showed Monday. South Korea had an average of 12 beds per every 1,000 people in 2016, compared with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average of 4.7, the data showed. The data was provided by the Ministry of Health ...

South Korea's defense ministry said Monday it has decided to put off the testing of a new surface-to-air interceptor missile due to technical, not political, reasons. The military has sought to develop the L-SAM missile system aimed at shooting down ballistic missiles from North Korea. If deployed, it's expected to serve as a key element of the Korean Air and Missile Defense in the making, alon...

South Korea's Olympic gold winning skeleton slider Yun Sung-bin on Monday received a sports award from his country for his sporting excellence. Yun, who won gold in the men's skeleton at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, was honored by South Korea's sports ministry with seven other recipients at the 56th Korea Sports Awards in Seoul. The 24-year-old won the presidential honor in the spo...

North Korea's official newspaper on Monday urged its people not to have illusions about imperialism in order to safeguard socialism. The Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the ruling Workers' Party, said in an editorial that capitalism and a bourgeois life fundamentally go against socialism and are "like a cancer." "Imperialists are desperately touting peace campaign and appeasement policy after their...

South Korean stocks traded lower on Monday as investor sentiment remained subdued over the lingering trade tensions between the United States and China and rising US nterest rates. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index dropped 6.34 points, or 0.29 percent, to 2,155.51 as of 11:20 a.m. Market heavyweights were seeing bearish trade across the board as foreigners and institutions remaine...

South Korea's ruling party members are set to visit the local unit of Google Inc. on Monday to request that the company delete more than 100 YouTube videos which they claim contain malicious fake information. Rep. Park Kwang-on, the chief of the Democratic Party's special panel fighting fake news, said that its recent initial probe has found 146 pieces of false, manipulated information, includin...

Airbnb Inc. launched a campaign on Monday to call for a revision to the law to allow South Koreans to share their homes with domestic travelers in the country's major cities, it said. Under South Korea's Tourism Promotion Act, residents in urban areas, excluding rural communities defined by law, can only share their homes with foreign tourists. Two relevant revised bills proposed since 2016 are...

South Korea's oceans ministry said Monday it will look into the feasibility of developing a port in Russia's Far East to help local companies take advantage of its strategic location. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said it will carry out the feasibility study until September 2019 on the Port of Slavyanka, which borders North Korea and China. The ministry said the project is aimed at provi...