Yuju of GFriend held an online media conference Tuesday to introduce herself as a solo musician. 　 She is the first to strike out on her own from the group, which disbanded in May last year. 　 “I’ve gone through a lot of new experiences preparing for this album, and I’m excited and nervous at the same time,” she said. The album contains the pang of tension she feels from watching the light go red whenever an audio recording or video shooting starts, explained the singer

The Korea Exchange on Tuesday announced its decision to delist biotech company SillaJen, 20 months after the biotech company’s market transactions were stopped due to breach of trust and embezzlement charges. The stock market operator will hold a Kosdaq market committee within the next 20 business days to finalize whether it will push ahead with the delisting decision or give SillaJen a second chance at revival. Although the company can raise an objection to the market committee if it o

Omicron will dominate in South Korea in a matter of mere days, top health officials say. Minister of Health and Welfare Kwon Deok-cheol said during a government meeting Tuesday that based on internal models omicron was “predicted to assume a dominant role by this weekend.” The upcoming Seollal holiday is feared to expedite its spread, he said. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s data, omicron appeared in 26.7 percent of all analyzed samples in the

The Ministry of Education will support medical costs for students who experience adverse events from being vaccinated or are experiencing mental health issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “As many students and parents are worried about children and youths experiencing adverse events from vaccination, we have came up with measures that can relieve the concerns,” Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said at a press briefing held at the Sejong Government Complex on Tuesday. The ministry wi

Hyundai Heavy Industries’ failed acquisition of its smaller rival Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering may be a boon for the nation’s largest shipbuilder as it has secured abundant cash to focus on new growth engine businesses such as hydrogen, autonomous driving and robots. Last week, the European Commission disapproved the merger plan of the two Korean shipbuilders over monopoly concerns. With the veto by the world’s largest shipbuilding market, Hyundai Heavy saw it

Nearly 400 empty school buildings, chiefly in rural areas, are sitting idle after closing their doors due to lack of students, government data showed Tuesday. The Ministry of Education has a thorny task of giving new life to abandoned classrooms. As of May last year, a total of 3,855 schools have closed across South Korea in nearly 40 years since 1982, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Education, as the number of students declined to just 60.3 percent of 1990 levels. The data on

Customers must pay deposit for disposable cups at coffee or fast food franchises starting in June

For actor Cho Yi-hyun, 22, “School 2021” was like a gift. Speaking to the Korea Herald on Monday, she said she had a lot of new experiences through the drama as she took another step to becoming a better actor. “‘School 2021’ was my first television series, in which I took in charge of the drama’s storyline from the beginning to the end as a lead character. I felt a little bit of pressure in performing more than 30 scenes and huge amount of lines in an episo

The work sold some 300,000 copies in 10 different languages over five years

Kazakhstani Damir Kusheyev, a former professional cyclist, has finished a 793.8-kilometer bicycle trip across Korea, which he embarked on to commemorate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and Kazakhstan and to support Busan in its bid to host the World Expo 2030. Kusheyev began his trip at Haeundae Beach in Busan on Jan. 8. He cycled over nine days, passing through Samnangjin, Daegu, Mungyeong, Jeungpyeong, Daejeon and Jincheon, before arriving in Seoul. In Seoul, Kush

Number of pandemic-hit self-employed surviving on multiple debts surges

Russian avant-garde modern art started to flourish in the early 20th century with artists beginning to explore new abstract styles, rejecting conventional academic tradition in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in 1917 that overthrew the Russian Empire. While the avant-garde artists -- most famously Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich -- are widely known today, many of them were oppressed in the 1930s after Stalin, who stigmatized their works, took power. Many artists fled to Europe a