South Korea and Britain have agreed to launch talks this year to upgrade their free trade deal in a move to deepen ties in digital trade and other new issues, Seoul's trade ministry said Tuesday. The agreement was made during an initial meeting of the South Korea-Britain free trade agreement (FTA) committee in London on Monday. The meeting was attended by South Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo and Britain's Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan. The two nations cli

BEIJING -- The international skating governing body has rejected a South Korean protest following the disqualification of its short track speed skater at Beijing 2022. The International Skating Union (ISU) said in a statement on Tuesday that decisions regarding disqualification for rule violations cannot be challenged. South Korea had filed its protest Monday after Hwang Dae-heon was penalized during his semifinal heat in the men's 1,000m race at Capital Indoor Stadium. He was called for what

BEIJING -- South Korea has been uncharacteristically shut out of short track speed skating medals after two days' worth of races at Beijing 2022. Its skaters will be hoping the third time will be the charm Wednesday, when the final for the men's 1,500m will take place. It will start with the quarterfinals for Hwang Dae-heon, Lee June-seo and Park Jang-hyuk, with the final set as the last race of the night. There will also be heats for the women's 1,000m and semifinals for the women's 3,000m re

A suspect in a notorious double murder case has tested positive for COVID-19 at a Seoul detention facility where a large number of cluster infections have been reported, officials said Tuesday. The 56-year-old suspect, Kang Yoon-seong, was confirmed to be COVID-19 positive at Dongbu Detention Center in eastern Seoul where he has been under detention on charges of killing two women in August. Officials said the Seoul Eastern District Court handling Kang's murder case has decided to delay a jur

　South Korea’s defense technologies were assessed to be the world’s ninth most advanced as of last year, a triennial government report showed, noting progress in artillery, submarines and other sectors. 　According to the report by the Korea Research Institute for Defense Technology Planning and Advancement, South Korea ranked ninth among 16 countries, compared with the previous report in which the country tied with Italy for ninth place in 2018. 　The institute has published the re

South Korea's new COVID-19 infections stayed at more than 35,000 cases for four days in a row Tuesday as the highly infectious omicron variant has become the country's dominant strain.  The country reported 36,719 new COVID-19 infections, including 36,619 local cases, raising the total to 1,081,681, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The accumulated virus caseload surpassed a grim milestone of 1 million on Sunday, two years after South Korea reported its

North Korea had a two-day session of its rubber-stamp legislature earlier this week to discuss budgetary and other pending issues, with the country's leader Kim Jong-un not present, according to its state media Tuesday. The 6th session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) was held in Pyongyang on Sunday and Monday, attended by senior ruling party and Cabinet officials, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. The major event has drawn keen attention from the outs

Three South Koreans were gone early from the men's 1,000m short track speed skating event at Beijing 2022 on Monday, with one suffering an injury in a collision and two others penalized for causing contact with other skaters. Hwang Dae-heon, the world record holder in the event, crossed the line first in his semifinal heat at Capital Indoor Stadium but was disqualified for making "an illegal late passing" that caused contact. Hwang was in the middle of the pack before moving out into

Painter Moon Sung-sic sticks with using pencils in creating his art. Inspired by daily life, he represents the mundaneness of everyday by scratching the thick oil paint surface with pencils as if striving to show his perseverance as an artist. “Pencils are the most basic materials in painting, spontaneous and simple. I think this resembles my unexaggerated and unpretentious personality,“ Moon told reporters at Kukje Gallery’s Busan venue on Jan. 21. He said he felt that his

BEIJING -- South Korea is taking its appeal of Olympic short track speed skating refereeing to the top international sports tribunal. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) announced Tuesday that it will file an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to "publicize the unfairness" of officiating during short track races involving South Korean athletes at Beijing 2022 on Monday. "We will do our best to ensure our athletes won't be treated so unfairly in inte

WASHINGTON -- Trilateral cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the United States is one of the most important and effective tools to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, State Department Press Secretary Ned Price said Monday. He made the remarks as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to hold a trilateral meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts later this week. "I can be confident that one of the priority issues of discussion in that setting will be the recent provo

South Korean oil refiners' key profitability measure has been rising sharply this year on a global economic recovery, boding well for their earnings, industry sources said Tuesday. The benchmark Singapore complex gross refining margin (GRM) stood at $7.5 per barrel for the first week of this month, up sharply from the $1-2 range a year earlier. Usually, South Korean refiners turn a profit if the refining margin is above at least $4 per barrel. Hit by a plunge in oil demand due to the coronavi

The Gwangju Biennale Foundation and GIZI Foundation will launch the “Gwangju Biennale Park Seo-bo Art Prize” at the 14th Gwangju Biennale scheduled to open in April next year to recognize a promising artist participating at the biennale. GIZI Foundation, established by Korean contemporary artist Park Seo-bo, has committed $1 million to the prize, with $100,000 in prize money to winning artists or collectives through 2042. The winner will be selected among those who participate in t