South Korea's imports of leisure goods rose 36.5 percent last year from a year earlier as the COVID-19 pandemic boosted demand for indoor activities, customs data showed Friday. Imports of goods used for leisure activities, including tablets and TVs, came to $9.56 billion last year, compared with $7 billion a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. The 2021 reading accelerated from a 17.3 percent on-year gain in 2020. Compared with 2019, the value of imports almost

Kyobo Life Insurance, a major South Korean life insurer, said Friday that it has requested a US nonprofit watchdog to punish three accountants of Deloitte Anjin for colluding to inflate the prices of a put option exercised by one of its investors. Kyobo Life Insurance filed the petition with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, asking for their "strong punishment," according to the company. The board is a nonprofit watchdog established by US Congress to oversee the audits of

South Korea has launched a task force to prepare for potential economic impacts of ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine on the local economy and the financial market, the finance ministry said Friday. Tensions have escalated near Ukraine's border areas as the United States and its European allies have failed to reach an agreement with Russia to avert a potential military conflict. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki held a meeting with related ministers to assess the situation Friday, and anno

　Nine out of 10 South Koreans feel climate change firsthand and are willing to accept any inconvenience caused by policies to solve the problem, a poll showed. 　According to the poll of 1,000 adults nationwide by a civic group, 89.2 percent answered that they actually feel the effects of the climate crisis and 88.5 percent expressed a willingness to accept the inconvenience of policies introduced to address the crisis. 　The poll was conducted by pollster Research View from Dec. 14-18 at the r

구문이 정리되어야 골격이 튼튼해진다. 튼튼한 뼈대에 살이 붙어야 건강한 몸이 만들어 진다! 오늘은 몇 가지 핵심 문법을 정리해 보자! (1) 자동사와 타동사를 구별할 수 있어야 한다.  (2) 시간, 조건의 부사절에서는 현재시제로 미래시제를 나타낸다!  <주의사항> * 명사절, 형용사절(관계대명사절, 관계부사절)에서는 미래시제를 사용한다.  Please tell me when he will arrive tomorrow. (그가 내일 언제 오는지 말씀해 주세요.) → when 이하는 동사 tell의 직접목적어이므로 시간의 부사절이 아닌 명사절임을 파악해야 한다. 따라서 미래를 나타내는 tomorrow를 통해 종속절의 시제도 미래로 사용해야 한다. (3) 동사 원형을 사용하는 경우를 기억해야 한다. 다음의 that 절 안에는 should가 생략된 동사원형이 온다.

South Korea's daily COVID-19 cases reached yet another record high Friday, as the country grapples with the rapid spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant with a new nationwide virus response system set to come into force. The country reported 16,096 new COVID-19 infections, including 15,894 local cases, raising the total to 793,582, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The daily count broke the record for the fourth consecutive day, spiking from 8,570 on Tues

A small number of members of President Moon Jae-in's entourage for a visit to the Middle East tested positive for COVID-19 after they returned home, an official at the presidential office said Friday. Moon, who returned home last Saturday from an eight-day trip to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, worked from home for three days until Tuesday in line with the government's containment guidelines. "After returning home and taking PCR tests, a small number of accompanying per

South Korea's top trade official called on the United States on Friday to swiftly begin talks to revise the Section 232 tariff rules on Seoul's steel exports, the trade ministry said Friday. In 2018, the US waived the tariffs on South Korean steel products, but it was in return for a yearly import quota of 2.63 million tons of steel, or 70 percent of Seoul's average steel products export volume over the past three years. South Korean Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo made the request to US Trade Repr

South Korean global phenomenon "Squid Game" has been nominated for the annual Producers Guild of America (PGA) Awards. The PGA on Thursday (US time) announced nominations for this year's awards show, honoring excellence in film and TV productions. The 33rd edition will take place on March 19. "Squid Game," a Korean-language Netflix original, was listed as a contender for the category of Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television - Drama. It will vie

SK hynix Inc., South Korea's No. 2 chipmaker, on Friday reported strong fourth-quarter earnings, helped by solid memory chip demand for servers and smartphones. Net profit for the three months that ended in December leaped by 87.5 percent from a year earlier to 3.31 trillion won ($2.8 billion). Operating profit rose 340 percent from a year ago to 4.21 trillion won, the highest since the fourth quarter of 2018. Sales jumped 55.4 percent to a quarterly record of 12.37 trillion won, marking the

Increased market access may make a US-envisioned new economic framework in the Indo-Pacific region more attractive, South Korean Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo said Thursday. Yeo said the US-proposed Indo-Pacific economic framework (IPEF) may provide common goods by setting rules and standards, especially for newly emerging industries, such as digitalization, but insisted many countries would consider increased market access as a return for taking part in such an initiative. "I think market a

South Korean stocks opened higher Friday as investors sought to buy oversold stocks after the key stock index's five-day losing streak. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) advanced 12.58 points, or 0.48 percent, to 2,627.07 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks came off to a volatile start after the key stock index closed at a 14-month low due to the US rate hike concerns and LG Energy Solution's crash upon its market debut. Market bellwether Samsung Electronic

South Korea's industrial output increased by the most in 11 years in 2021 due largely to a low base effect and robust exports, data showed Friday, in a sign that the country's economy has extended recovery momentum. Industrial output increased 4.8 percent in 2021 from the previous year, a turnaround from a 1.2 percent on-year fall in 2020, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It marked the largest growth since 2010, when industrial output gained 6.5 percent. Service output, onc