Between various scandals, the leaking of private conversations and talks of possible unified candidacies, support for the three major candidates in Korea’s ongoing presidential race has fluctuated unpredictably throughout. But there are those who believe that hints lie in the faces of the three – the ruling party’s Lee Jae-myung, and opposition parties’ Yoon Suk-yeol and Ahn Cheol-soo -- and one can read them through the art of fortunetelling known as “gwansang.&r

South Korean stocks extended their losing streak to a fifth consecutive session Wednesday as rising US yields and rate hike forecast weighed on investor sentiment. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. After a choppy session, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) declined 21.96 points, or 0.77 percent, to close at 2,842.28 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 457 million shares worth some 9.6 trillion won ($8.1 billion), with losers far outnumbering gainers 653

South Korea's Defense Minister Suh Wook called on all armed services Wednesday to unify their "will and efforts" to ensure this year's planned assessment required for the envisioned transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) will proceed successfully. Suh made the remarks during a meeting of top commanders to evaluate South Korea's efforts to retake OPCON from the United States, as the allies are set to stage the full operational capability (FOC) assessment later this year. Duri

Ruling party’s Lee offers swift apology to contain fallout

The viewership of the SBS drama “Our Beloved Summer” might have been disappointing, but the sales of its scripts are telling another story. The scripts of the TV show have topped the bestselling lists of local online book stores Aladin and Yes24, proving the growing popularity of the 16-part series that is scheduled to end on Tuesday. The success of a TV series has been judged largely by its viewership rating, but the growing popularity of over the top platforms and services have le

The South Korean government is on alert as the omicron cases increase

Nearly a decade after winning a historic Olympic football medal together in London, veteran forward Park Chu-young and longtime coach Hong Myung-bo have been reunited on the perennial K League contender, Ulsan Hyundai FC. After Park left FC Seoul, the only K League club he'd ever played for, in December, Hong and Ulsan reached out and signed him on Sunday. Park, a 36-year-old forward who didn't score in 17 matches in 2021, suddenly had a lifeline to continue his playing career. He'd turned down

NIKL plans to carry out major revamp of dictionary

South Korea's state intelligence agency said Wednesday it has identified more than 100 sets of Internet of Things (IoT) equipment in the country that have been infected with malware. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it has detected the Mozi botnet infection after cooperating with Russian authorities in December last year. It has found a total of around 12,000 devices exposed to the malware in 72 countries. The infected equipment, which can be used in distributed denial-of-service (

Over 114 trillion won ($95.5 billion) in cash deposits from about 4.4 million retail investors flowed into a mega initial public offering by LG Energy Solution during a two-day subscription that ended Wednesday, reflecting explosive interest in the company’s market debut. The world’s second-largest battery maker has already attracted the highest amount of deposits from a total of 1,988 domestic and foreign institutional investors, which pledged some 15,000 trillion won in total to b

Despite stagnant smartphone biz, Samsung still seen tied to mobile while others on race to new market

‘Since Lotte has outbid other contenders, there’s a 99.9 percent chance of Lotte becoming the preferred bidder.’

Allegation of proxy legal payment for Lee Jae-myung comes back into public focus

Former Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, who is running to be the next director general of the International Labor Organization, will face a public hearing to present her candidacy and take questions from the organization’s governing body on Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland. 　 The ILO on Wednesday said public dialogues with five candidates for its top job will be held on Thursday and Friday. A Foreign Ministry official said Kang’s meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. (Geneva time) on Thur