Air Busan Co., a budget carrier unit of Asiana Airlines Inc., said Monday it has opened the Busan-Saipan route following a travel bubble agreement. On Sunday, Air Busan began to offer one flight per week on the Saipan route to preemptively respond to pent-up travel demand amid rising vaccinations and eased virus curbs, the company said in a statement. A travel bubble refers to a quarantine-free travel partnership between two or more cities or countries with similar levels of COVID-19 cases. O

　Foreign direct investment pledged to South Korea's free economic zones surged 42.8 percent in 2021, led by the overseas investment in bio and other new industry sectors, data showed. 　The country’s nine FEZs received $1.31 billion worth of FDI commitment last year, up from $910 million a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. 　It is the first time in three years that the figure marked an on-year growth. 　The amount of foreign direct

The number of discouraged workers in South Korea touched a fresh all-time high in 2021 due to a weak job market amid the prolonged coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Monday. Asia's fourth-largest economy had 628,000 discouraged workers, the largest tally since related data tracking began in 2014, according to the data from Statistics Korea. Discouraged workers refer to those who are currently unemployed and have not sought to find jobs in the last four weeks due to no suitable job op

South Korean stocks opened lower Monday, as investors took to the sidelines ahead of the US Federal Reserve's policy meeting this week. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 18.49 points, or 0.65 percent, to 2,815.8 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks traded bearish, led by losses in chemical and tech companies that are usually more sensitive to borrowing costs. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise its policy interest rate in March. It is to

Firefighters have been trying overnight to put out a blaze that broke out at a synthetic fiber manufacturing factory in the southeastern city of Ulsan on Sunday, authorities said. The fire broke out at 6:55 p.m. at a combined seven-story factory of Hyosung TNC Corp. and has not been contained for over 11 hours, according to the Ulsan Fire Department. Two of the factory's workers were sent to a hospital after inhaling smoke while trying to extinguish the fire at an early stage. The fire is ass

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea has started a test run for “The More, The Better,” the largest installation work by video art pioneer Paik Nam-june after it initiated a restoration project in 2019. The national museum has finished the overall restoration work and began the test run on Jan. 17, which will continue for six months. Comprising 1,003 picture tube monitors, the video tower was installed in 1988 at MMCA Gwacheon, becoming the world’s larg

The “New World Symphony” by Dvorak has been performed at the most New Year’s concert series around the world. I think this is why. When I was studying in the United States, I often felt lonely and missed my family and friends who were in South Korea. Whenever I encountered any issues or problems, I had to solve them on my own. Since I was a graduate student, I had to prepare to face the real world. I applied for many auditions and college-level teaching jobs. Despite applying

In the war on disinformation, the enemy can be hard to determine. Journalists, politicians, governments, and even grandparents have been accused of enabling the spread of online falsehoods. While none of these groups is entirely innocent, the real adversary is more mundane. As Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified late last year, social media’s own algorithms are what makes disinformation accessible. Since its launch in 2004, Facebook has grown from a students’ social net

BEIJING -- People in a Beijing district with some 2 million residents were ordered Sunday to undergo mass coronavirus testing following a series of infections as China tightened anti-disease controls ahead of the Winter Olympics. The government told people in areas of the Chinese capital deemed at high risk for infection not to leave the city after 25 cases were found in the Fengtai district and 14 elsewhere. The ruling Communist Party is stepping up enforcement of its "zero toleranc

North Korea's foreign ministry on Sunday criticized Japan's moves to revise a set of key security documents as "extremely dangerous" steps away from its long-held defense-oriented policy. Japan has reportedly been moving to revise its national security strategy and other key defense documents this year as it confronts an increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-ambitious North Korea. "What is extremely dangerous is that Japan is poised to include in these documents capabilitie

Queens of the Joseon era (1392-1910) had an average life span of 51 years and were outlived by royal concubines by an average six years, a new study has found. According to Lee Mi-seon, a researcher at the Academy of Korean Studies, queens lived longer than kings, whose average life span has been estimated to be 47 by other scholars. Compared to women from the noble class of that era, who lived to 45 on average, the queens also had a considerably longer life. But they were outlived by the

Beginning next year, South Korea will work on the restoration of the pylon and the access road of the Ramesseum, a mortuary temple of Pharaoh Ramses 2, located across from the modern city of Luxor in Upper Egypt, according to the Cultural Heritage Administration on Sunday. Kim Hyun-mo, head of the Cultural Heritage Administration and Mostafa Waziry, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, signed a memorandum of understanding for exchanges and cooperation on the two n

For SsangYong, Rexton is not simply a flagship SUV model that has significantly pulled up its sales among its complete lineup of SUVs ranging from those in the small segment to pickup trucks. Following an unprecedented bumper year in 2015 for the small SUV model Tivoli, SsangYong needed to continue the momentum to keep the nickname “leader of SUV.” The fourth generation Rexton, launched in 2017, recorded a 200 percent growth rate that year. A year later, SsangYong took its well-se

Hyundai Motor said Sunday it has won five US News and World Report 2022 Best Cars for the Money Awards, outpacing rivals in the awards that put a spotlight on cars and SUVs that represent the best combination of long-term value and excellent ownership experience. The Hyundai winners include: the Elantra hybrid, Tucson hybrid, Kona subcompact SUV, Tucson compact SUV and Santa Fe 2-row SUV. Its smaller sibling Kia Motors’ Telluride also topped the best 3-row SUV for the money category. T