South Korean government advised its nationals residing in 15 regions in Ukraine to leave amid heightened fears of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. 　 The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday additionally placed 12 provinces located in the eastern and northern regions of Ukraine, including capital Kyiv, Rivne, Sumy and Odessa, under the elevated travel alert, advising South Korean nationals to swiftly exit the region. 　 Fifteen out of Ukraine’s 25 provinces are now under a Level 3 travel ad

Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung said Wednesday he will push to shorten the workweek from five days to 4 1/2 days if elected in March. Lee of the liberal Democratic Party announced a set of campaign pledges for laborers at a workers' welfare center in Bucheon, just west of Seoul. "I will begin a social dialogue for the introduction of a 4 1/2-day workweek and push for a trial project for its phased implementation," he said, offering to provide various incentives to b

President Moon Jae-in expressed hope Wednesday for a free trade deal with Mexico as he exchanged letters with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to celebrate the 60th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between the two countries. Moon said in the letter that a free trade pact between the two countries would support a post-pandemic economic recovery. The two sides launched free trade talks in 2006, but the negotiations have been stalled since 2008 amid opposition from business

Kia Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker, said Wednesday its fourth-quarter net profit rose 30 percent from a year earlier on a weak won and increased SUV sales. Net profit for the three months ended in December jumped to 1.248 trillion won ($1.04 billion) from 961.6 billion won during the same period of last year, the company said in a statement. "A combination of a weak won, improved product mix and reduced incentives helped offset the impact of chip supply chain problems and th

South Korea's artificial intelligence (AI) defense technologies for speech, image and voice recognition are assessed to be about a year behind those of the United States, a state research institute said Wednesday. The Korea Research Institute for Defense Technology Planning and Advancement (KRIT) made the assessment as it unveiled a broad road map for the use of AI technologies in the defense sector. South Korea's AI-based defense technologies for the three high-tech areas have reached about 9

The Seoul city government will create a walking deck floating above water on the Han River by the end of next year to offer new attractions, officials said Wednesday. The 192-meter-long deck, comprising a walking trail on the first floor and an observatory deck on the second floor, will be connected to the small river island of Seonyu in western Seoul, officials said. An 80-meter-wide water screen will be set up with a fountain falling from the second floor, about 15 meters above the ground, t

This is the second installment of a two-part series on Korea‘s Chips Act and controversies surrounding a law meant to support the local chip industry amid heated competition around the world. -- Ed. To tackle a chronic workforce shortage in the domestic chips industry, Korean semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have been ramping up efforts to acquire talents even before they become an adult. Under a new law, a Korean equivalent to the CHIPS for America Act, chipmakers

Pernod Ricard’s Royal Salute 21 Year Old is British to the core. Created to mark the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Royal Salute’s every detail from its tasting note to the bottle design is dedicated to being British.  In that context, Royal Salute’s latest collaboration with London-based fashion designer Richard Quinn is more than just a collaboration between the two British icons.  Quinn captivated the British fashion scene after becoming the first recipient

The daily COVID-19 tally of Seoul shot up to an all-time high of 3,178 cases Wednesday amid the fast spread of the omicron variant, officials said. It marks the second time ever the capital's daily tally has exceeded 3,000 after 3,166 cases were recorded on Dec. 15. Wednesday's total marked a steep jump from 1,724 cases registered a day earlier, according to the Seoul city officials. The city's accumulated COVID-19 cases stood at 257,330 cases Wednesday, about two years after the coronavirus f

The number of foreign nationals staying in South Korea shrank nearly 4 percent on-year in 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Korea Immigration Office said Wednesday. The number was tallied at 1.96 million as of the end of last year, a 3.9 percent decrease from 2.04 million in 2020 and down 23 percent from a record high of 2.52 million in 2019. They include 1.57 million long-term residents and 386,000 people staying for fewer than 90 days. its data showed. It is the first time that the fo

South Korea's exports will likely lose some growth momentum in the first quarter of the year due to a string of unfavorable external factors, a state bank said Wednesday. Overseas shipments by Asia's fourth-largest economy are expected to climb 15-16 percent on-year to $169 billion in the January-March period, according to the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Exim Bank). "South Korea's exports are likely to keep expanding in the first quarter, but their growth pace may lose some steam,"

A group of South Korean scientists developed a screening biosensor that can detect COVID-19 variants within 30 minutes, whose test results are as accurate as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, a state-run science institute said Wednesday. The team led by Lee Kwan-hyi of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) developed the highly sensitive and portable biosensor to screen variants through angiotensin-converting enzyme called ACE2. ACE2 is a virus receptor shared by all known C

The daily foreign exchange (FX) trading by banks in South Korea hit a record high in 2021 amid increased demand from strong exports, imports and foreigners' investment in local financial markets, central bank data showed Wednesday. The daily FX turnover came to an average $58.31 billion last year, up 10.3 percent from $52.84 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The amount marked the largest since 2008, when relevant statistics started to be compil

The number of babies born in South Korea fell to a record low in November last year, data showed Wednesday, underpinning the country's gloomy demographic situation with the chronically low birth rate. A total of 19,800 babies were born in November, down 1.3 percent from the previous year, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It marked the lowest for any November since 1981, when the statistics agency began compiling related data. In the first 11 months of last year, 244,016 bab