South Korean speed skater Kim Bo-reum celebrated her 29th birthday in Beijing on Sunday, the third time she has gotten to mark her big day during a Winter Olympics. The three-time Olympian is the only South Korean athlete here whose birthday falls during the Feb. 4-20 competition. Before her training session on Sunday, Kim received a bouquet of flowers and a stuffed doll of the panda Olympic mascot, Bing Dwen Dwen, from the head of the athletic delegation, Yoon Hong-geun. Speaking to reporter

North Korea continued to expand its nuclear and missile programs last year despite international sanctions, while the regime relied on cryptocurrency heists as its key revenue source, according to a news report Sunday. 　 A United Nations panel of experts monitoring sanctions on Pyongyang said the regime “continued to develop its capability for production of nuclear fissile materials,” despite no reported nuclear tests or launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles last year, in

With the presidential election just 30 days away, South Korea's election watchdog is hastening its preparations for the March 9 vote amid a surge in daily COVID-19 infections driven by the highly contagious omicron variant. According to the National Election Commission (NEC), political parties' presidential candidates have to formally register on Feb. 13 and 14. The candidates' official 22-day campaign period is set to kick off on Feb. 15. Three rounds of TV debate among candidates have been

Korea’s major game developers are taking preemptive measures to cope with the new industrial safety law and prevent another “crunch mode” controversy. Under the Serious Accident Punishment Act, which took effect from Jan. 27, business owners can face a minimum prison term of one year or a fine of up to 1 billion won ($835,000) if a fatal accident at the workplace causes a death or more than one injured person. The punishment depends on whether the owners are found guilty of n

Daily cases continue to surge, but severity remains low

The first positive case of COVID-19 has been confirmed among the Korean delegation participating in the Beijing Winter Olympics, the national Olympic body said Saturday. According to the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, an official working for the skiing team tested positive for COVID-19 at the airport upon arrival in Beijing on Thursday. The official has been moved to a quarantine facility after receiving a positive test result again early Saturday from a retest on Friday. “We

South Korea's fisheries output rose 1.2 percent last year from a year earlier on the back of improved production from the aquaculture sector, data showed Sunday. The total fisheries output amounted to 3.76 million tons in 2021, compared with 3.71 million tons tallied a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. In terms of value, the output came to 9.24 trillion won ($7.7 billion), up 5.6 percent on-year, the data showed. The aquaculture sector led t

President Moon Jae-in will preside over a COVID-19 response meeting on Monday as the nation is grappling with a surge in daily infections driven by highly transmissible omicron variant, according to the presidential office on Sunday. It will be the first time in about six months that Moon presides over a virus response meeting. Due to the rapid spread of the highly contagious omicron, South Korea has set daily records, but deaths have remained relatively low. The daily cases exceeded 38,000 o

Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung said Sunday he aims to launch a new airport in the southern port city of Busan by 2029. In February last year, the National Assembly approved a bill on a multi-billion-dollar state project to build the new airport on Gadeok Island, the biggest island of Busan, to handle growing air traffic demand and facilitate prosperity in the country's southeast region. Unveiling campaign pledges for Busan, Lee said he will speed up procedures for constructi

With his confidence running high after a recent international victory, South Korean figure skater Cha Jun-hwan will try to push himself into medal contention at Beijing 2022 with three quadruple jumps. After nailing a quadruple salchow multiple times in practice on Saturday, Cha said he plans to do a quadruple salchow in the short program and then a quadruple salchow and a quadruple toe loop in the free skate. The salchow jump has the base score of 9.70 points and the toe loop has a 9.50 base

South Korea's daily virus cases hit another high Sunday, exceeding 38,000, as the highly transmissible omicron variant rages across the country following a holiday season. The country reported 38,691 new COVID-19 infections, including 38,502 local cases, raising the total to 1,009,688, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The accumulated virus caseload surpassed 1 million on Sunday, two years after the country reported its first COVID-19 case. The daily tally s

At the tender age of 16 in his first Olympic appearance at PyeongChang 2018, South Korean speed skater Chung Jae-won willingly played a supporting role for older teammates. Stronger and better than before, Chung is now ready to take up a more prominent position on the national team at the Beijing Winter Olympics. "I will be asked to handle more responsibilities," Chung said after his first training session at the National Speed Skating Oval on Saturday. "I will have to do much m

So what do you do when you can't beat them or join them? You bring in someone from them. That's what China did in short track speed skating before hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Kim Sun-tae, who coached South Korea to six medals, including three gold medals, at the 2018 Winter Games, is now the head coach for China. Kim's top assistant is the six-time Olympic champion Victor An, who was born Ahn Hyun-soo in South Korea but later became a naturalized Russian citizen. He's the mos

Short track speed skaters Choi Min-jeong and Hwang Dae-heon will try to shake off disappointments from an early relay race as the two South Korean stars chase individual medals at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Monday. Choi will be competing in the women's 500m, starting with the quarterfinals and, if she keeps advancing, in the final at Capital Indoor Stadium. Hwang and two other South Koreans, Park Jang-hyuk and Lee June-seo, will be in the quarterfinals in the men's 1,000m, with the final sc

South Korean speed skater Kim Bo-reum had barely arrived in Beijing on Thursday evening, when she studied her dinner options at the cafeteria inside the Olympic village. And her reaction? "I wanted to go home right then and there," Kim quipped Saturday after a training session at the National Speed Skating Oval. Kim didn't find the Chinese food spread to her liking and she was far from alone. One of her teammates, Kim Min-sun, had also traveled to Beijing on Thursday and had her fir