WASHINGTON (AP) -- As the Biden administration prepares its response to Russia's attack on Ukraine, the Treasury Department is tasked with finding ways to choke off parts of Russia's economic development. One key question for the administration is how to measure the success. With inflation already at record highs, a global pandemic that keeps businesses struggling to reopen and an energy shortage throughout Europe, the mathematics on punishing one of the world's biggest economies can be complex

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia launched a wide-ranging attack on Ukraine on Thursday, hitting cities and bases with airstrikes or shelling, as civilians piled into trains and cars to flee. Ukraine's government said Russian tanks and troops rolled across the border and accused Moscow of unleashing a "full-scale war" that could rewrite the geopolitical order and whose fallout already reverberated around the globe.    In announcing a major military operation, Russian President Vladimir

Opposition parties put blame on each other for campaign merger failure, ruling party reaches out to Ahn

Some parents protest admission of refugee kids to school in Ulsan

South Korea’s central bank on Thursday kept its benchmark interest rate anchored at the current 1.25 percent, but sharply revised its annual inflation outlook to a decade high of 3.1 percent. The Bank of Korea’s seven-day monetary policy board unanimously voted to freeze the key rate at the level it maintained since it delivered a 0.25 percentage point rate hike in January. The January decision brought back the base rate to pre-pandemic levels, before the BOK carried out a 0.5 perc

Samsung Electronics mobile head Roh Tae-moon said Thursday its use of recycled and eco-conscious materials will play a critical part in its mobile device innovations, a week ahead of the Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. Samsung’s Mobile Experience business, led by Roh, oversees operations related to smartphones, tablets, personal computers and wearable devices -- which Samsung seeks to connect under the Galaxy ecosystem that is turning greener and more inclusive. The Sou

South Korea’s Hana Financial Group has partnered up with the nation’s top university in science and technology to bolster the scientific approach toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. On Thursday, Hana said it signed a deal with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology with the goal of developing new technology based on environmental, social and governance values. The goal would be based on the institutions’ joint efforts to resolve climate change issues,

Korean embassy in Ukraine urges residents to move to safe areas

A military confrontation between Russia and Ukraine could disrupt supply of raw materials, potentially exacerbating the ongoing global chip shortage, analysts said Thursday. Russia and Ukraine produce raw materials, such as neon, used in chipmaking processes, raising concerns that the escalating tension could disrupt the supply of key materials. According to market research firm TrendForce, Ukraine supplies nearly 70 percent of the world's highly purified neon gas used to etch circuit designs in

Hyundai Motor Group said Thursday it has earned the most safety pick awards from the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), beating rivals such as Volkswagen and Volvo. Eleven models from the South Korean automotive group garnered the Top Safety Pick+ (TSP+) awards and 10 models obtained the Top Safety Pick (TSP) awards, Hyundai said in a statement. The group has Hyundai Motor Co., its independent Genesis brand, and affiliate Kia Corp., under its wing. The 11 TSP+ winners are Hyunda

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion Inc. on Thursday anticipated its antibody treatment against COVID-19 under development would show efficacy against the omicron variant. Celltrion said that CT-P63 has maintained strong neutralizing ability against the omicron variant during pseudo-virus testing. The candidate treatment is currently under clinical trials. The announcement comes after local health authorities announced Wednesday they will halt using Celltiron's COVID-19 treatment, Rekiro

A Seoul court on Thursday ruled partially in favor of a group of college entrance exam takers and their parents in a lawsuit seeking state compensation for an erroneous early "time is up" signal that shortened the exam time by two minutes. The exam time for the fourth session of the 2021 College Scholastic Ability Test, held in December 2020, was cut short for exam takers in a high school in western Seoul as the bell signaling the session's end was sounded earlier than normal by mistak

South Korean household income rose for the second quarter in a row in the fourth quarter of last year thanks to an economic recovery amid eased antivirus curbs, data showed Thursday. The average household earned 4.64 million won ($3,876) per month in the October-December period, up 6.4 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marked the largest increase for any fourth quarter since 2011 when the figure advanced 7.2 percent. But the fourth-quarter on-year in

Employment for wage workers in South Korea grew at a slow clip in the third quarter of 2021 from three months earlier amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Thursday. The number of paid employee jobs came to 19.6 million as of end-September, up 2.6 percent, or 491,000, from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The tally was much lower lower than an on-year increase of 681,000 in the second quarter of last year. In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, the accommodations

The presidential National Security Council (NSC) on Thursday expressed strong regret over Russia's attack on Ukraine, shortly after President Moon Jae-in said South Korea will join international sanctions against Moscow.    National security adviser Suh Hoon presided over the meeting after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in eastern Ukraine.    During the meeting, security officials "expressed strong regret over Russia's invasi