Lee Seung-hoon, a member of K-pop boy group WINNER, tested positive for the new coronavirus Monday, the group's agency said. "WINNER's Lee Seung-hoon was confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19 today," YG Entertainment said, adding the other three members -- Kang Seung-yoon, Kim Jin-woo and Song Min-ho -- have tested negative. Lee first received a positive test result from a self-diagnosis kit Sunday, which was conducted preemptively ahead of his personal filming schedule, acco

Seven confidants of ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung said Monday they will not take any appointed post even if Lee is elected, as they appealed for support for Lee amid sluggish support. The pledge from the seven former and current lawmakers, including the ruling Democratic Party's secretary-general Rep. Kim Young-jin and Rep. Jung Sung-ho, came as main opposition rival Yoon Suk-yeol has overtaken Lee in opinion polls. Earlier in the day, a survey showed Yoon is leading Lee wi

South Korea's unification ministry said Monday it is keeping tabs on North Korea's nuclear and missile activities after Pyongyang hinted last week at lifting its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests. On Wednesday, North Korea held a politburo meeting of its ruling Workers' Party, presided over by leader Kim Jong-un, and decided to consider restarting "all temporally-suspended" activities, citing Washington's "hostile policy" against its regime. As

Prosecutors have opened a probe into allegations that main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, while serving as prosecutor general, refused to conduct a raid on a religious sect accused of spreading COVID-19 following advice from a shamanic adviser, sources said Monday. The Segye Times daily carried a report on the allegations last week, saying Yoon refused to carry out a prosecution search into the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in February 2020 over quarantine violations, upon a rec

Jeju Air Co., South Korea's biggest low-cost carrier, said Monday it will adopt a cargo plane for the first time among local LCCs to ride out the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Jeju Air plans to begin operating a cargo plane in the first half of this year to offset a sharply declined passenger travel demand amid the pandemic, the company said in a statement. Korean Air Lines Co. and Asiana Airlines Inc., the country's two biggest and full-service carriers, have focused on winning cargo deals to

Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung said Monday he will push for a "transportation revolution" to reduce commute times in the Seoul metropolitan area to less than 30 minutes by investing heavily in high-speed trains. Lee of the Democratic Party (DP) said he will pay particular attention to improving the job-housing proximity for residents of Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul, by expanding the construction of Great Train Express (GTX) commuter rail networks, subway

Curbs on business operation hours have resulted in the biggest shrinkage in the "consumption of in-person services" among various antivirus measures introduced to combat the coronavirus pandemic, an internal central bank report showed Monday. The report suggests that easing a curfew on business operations while imposing a stricter ceiling on the number of people at private gatherings could be more conducive to consumption than the current measures at a time when the government has bee

South Korean listed companies' rights issues nearly doubled in 2021 from a year earlier, data showed Monday. Companies listed on the country's main and other stock markets raised a combined 50.6 trillion won ($42.4 billion) through 1,346 rights offerings last year, up 97.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository. The number of last year's rights offerings was up 19.3 percent from the previous year. Rights issues by companies listed on the main K

South Korea's public institutions plan to hire more than 26,000 new regular workers this year in an effort to help buttress job creation, the finance minster said Monday. The move is aimed at meeting growing demand in the public service sector, including public health, safety and New Deal policy initiatives, according to Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki. He said the public firms also plan to hire around 22,000 interns to help them build work experience. "The government will spare no effort t

South Korea's romantic TV series have recently made their global presence strong through Netflix, prompting global streaming services to expand their 2022 slate with romances. The romantic comedy "Our Beloved Summer," starring Choi Woo-shik of "Parasite" and Kim Da-mi, has been on the top 10 of Netflix's official weekly viewership chart for non-English TV series for four weeks in a row. The 16-episode series, which premiered on Dec. 6 on SBS and Netflix, debuted at No. 9 on

South Korea's military plans to beef up its COVID-19 testing capacity amid the emergence of the omicron variant as the dominant strain in the country, according to the defense ministry Monday. Health authorities said omicron took up 50 percent of newly added variant infections last week, sparking concerns over the spread of the more infectious strain in the country. In response, the military said it plans to enhance its polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing capacity by increasing the number

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., a South Korean plant builder, said Monday its German subsidiary has received a 160 billion-won ($134 million) order for a waste processing plant in Germany. Doosan Lentjes obtained the order from MHKW Wiesbaden GmbH to build a waste-to-energy plant in Wiesbaden, Germany, by 2024, the company said in a statement. Doosan Heavy said it aims to win more waste-to-energy plant deals in Europe as European countries are expected to place about 80 waste-t

South Korea's daily coronavirus cases stayed above 7,000 for the third straight day Monday amid deepening concerns over the fast spreading omicron variant that has become the dominant strain in the country. The country added 7,513 new COVID-19 infections, including 7,159 local infections, raising the total caseload to 741,413, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The latest tally almost doubled from last Monday's 3,857. It marks the fourth-largest daily figure s

Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol is leading his ruling party rival Lee Jae-myung with 42 percent public support against Lee's 36.8 percent, a survey showed Monday. Yoon of the People Power Party (PPP) gained 1.4 percentage points from the previous week, while Lee of the Democratic Party edged up 0.1 point, according to the Realmeter survey conducted on 3,046 adults from Jan. 16 to 21. Yoon led Lee by 5.2 percentage points, which was outside the margin of error of plus or mi