Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung said Monday that establishing a special committee for emergency COVID-19 relief will be his No. 1 executive order if he wins the March 9 presidential election. Lee of the Democratic Party (DP) also promised that South Korea's virus response will "definitely change" from March 10 as he distances himself from the current government's COVID-19 scheme in an effort to win public support ahead of the election. "The presidential transitio

LG Energy Solution said Monday it has appointed Pyun Kyung-suk, a data scientist from Nvidia, as the new chief digital officer to lead the digital transformation of the South Korean battery giant. Before joining LG Energy Solution, Pyun was one of the five principal data scientists at Nvidia. He has over 20 years of expertise in machine learning, according to the company. “As our new CDO, Pyun will be tasked with the digital transformation of LG Energy Solution’s global battery

The top diplomats of South Korea and Armenia exchanged congratulatory messages on Monday to mark the 30th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations, Seoul's foreign ministry said. Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan exchanged the letters and welcomed the development of bilateral relations in political, cultural and economic fields over the past three decades, according to the ministry. They also expressed hope that the two sides will continue to wo

South Korea's three major mobile carriers said Monday they will participate in the upcoming mobile technology trade fair in Spain to showcase their latest technologies despite growing coronavirus woes. The three telecommunication companies -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- said their respective CEOs will participate in the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2022, set to take place from Feb. 28 to March 3 in Barcelona. The MWC is one of the top three tech events in the world, along with

South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong will head to France later Monday to participate in a forum designed to promote cooperation among countries from the Indo-Pacific region. The Indo Pacific Ministerial Forum 2022 will be hosted by France, the current chair of the Council of the European Union. It has invited ministers and other senior representatives from 56 nations for the forum slated for Tuesday (local time) to address challenges in security, economy, health and climate change in the

Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung is neck and neck with main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol with 43.7 percent against 42.2 percent, a survey showed Monday. In the survey by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI), Lee of the liberal Democratic Party gained 3.3 percentage points from last week, while Yoon of the conservative People Power Party lost 1.3 percentage points. The 1.5 percentage-point gap is within the margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage

　The 2022 Beijing Olympics ended Sunday evening despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 　South Korea finished with two gold medals and three silver medals in short track speedskating despite hurdles and added two silver and two bronze in other speedskating events. The country achieved its stated goal, as the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee previously predicted a medal target of two Olympic gold medals and to finish around the top 15 in the medal race. 　South Korea grabbed its very first

A court has ruled in favor of GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of General Motors Co., in a lawsuit filed against the government's decision to retrieve its subsidy provided for a facility the carmaker disposed of in 2019, sources said Monday. The suit was filed by GM Korea to annul the labor ministry's order for the company to return 2.23 billion won ($1.86 million) of residual value from a total of 3.25 billion won of state subsidy it received for building and operating a technology institute

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co. said Monday its earnings soared more than 42 percent in 2021 from a year earlier on the car insurance division's switch to profit. Net income came to 1.09 trillion won ($910 million) last year, up 42.5 percent from a year earlier, the leading non-life insurer said in a regulatory filing. Operating income stood at 1.55 trillion won, up 36.9 percent from a year earlier, with sales edging up 1.9 percent to 19.65 trillion won. Samsung Fire & Marine Insuran

South Korea logged fewer than 100,000 daily coronavirus cases Monday, due to less testing over the weekend, while health authorities forecast the current COVID-19 wave to peak between late February and March. The country reported 95,362 new COVID-19 infections, including 95,218 local cases, raising the total caseload to 2,058,184, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Monday's tally is down from 104,829 on Sunday when the country's new caseload surpassed 100,000

South Korean stocks opened sharply lower Monday, as investors took to the sidelines over the Ukraine risk, which stemmed from concerns about Moscow's potential invasion of Ukraine. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) lost 43.15 points, or 1.57 percent, to 2,701.37 points as of 9:18 a.m. Most large caps traded lower in Seoul due to foreign and institutional sell-offs, with tech and chemical sectors leading the KOSPI's retreat. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics decreased 2.