A court is expected to make its ruling Friday on an injunction seeking to stop a TV station from broadcasting the recordings of phone calls between the wife of opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol and a reporter. The injunction was filed by Kim Keon-hee, Yoon's wife, to stop MBC from airing recordings of her phone conversations with a staff member of the YouTube channel Voice of Seoul last year. The broadcasting was set for Sunday. The recordings, running some seven hours, reportedl

“Baby Shark Dance” a YouTube videofeaturing the titular song and playful choreography, surpassed 10 billion views Thursday. Beloved by both children and adults, the two-minute video tells the story of a shark family going on an underwater hunt. The English-language version of the video came out in June 2016, soon after its success in Korean in 2015. The English version of ”Baby Shark Dance“ record far exceeds the 2.3 billion views of the Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee&rs

Krafton’s battle royal shooter “PUBG: Battlegrounds” topped the most played games chart on Steam, a digital distribution platform for PC gaming, Thursday. According to Krafton, the number of concurrent users doubled after the game switched to free-to-play mode Wednesday, recording a maximum number of 660,000 users. “Under the new theme of ‘Battlegrounds for all,’ we believe that the switch to free service allowed many users from various backgrounds to enjoy

GWANGJU -- Search and rescue operations resumed at an apartment building collapse site in the southwestern city of Gwangju for a fourth day Friday. According to the Gwangju Fire and Safety Headquarters, the search for six missing persons resumed at 7 a.m. with 71 rescue workers aided by 43 instruments and eight rescue dogs. Exterior walls of the 39-story building under construction in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, crumbled Tuesday, trapping construction workers at the site. Three wo

South Korea's unification ministry on Friday vowed to continue efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to North Korea after the United States imposed new sanctions over the reclusive regime's recent missile launches. On Wednesday, the Biden administration slapped sanctions on six North Koreans, a Russian national and a Russian company involved in Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs. Asked to comment on the move, Cha Duck-chul, deputy spokesman for the unif

Large-scale labor rallies are set to hit the streets in central Seoul on Saturday, with police planning traffic blockades and other controls to disperse them, officials said Friday. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and other progressive groups are scheduled to launch a series of outdoor rallies in downtown Seoul, renewing calls for enhanced labor rights. According to advance declaration forms filed with the police, a total of 44 such rallies involving more than 8,000 people have been r

The government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea agreed Friday to lift the restricted military zone designation for some areas near the inter-Korean border to secure more land for civilian use and development.  The Defense Ministry and the ruling party held a consultative meeting and decided to release restrictions on about 2.74 million “pyeong” of land, equal to about 9 square kilometers, near the inter-Korean border controlled by the military.  The move will allo

South Korean materials producer Solus Advanced Materials said Friday it has won incentives worth 24 million euros ($27.5 million) from the Hungarian government for facility expansion in the Central European country. The funds will be granted in cash by 2023. The firm said the funds will be used for the expansion of its plant No. 2 in Hungary that manufactures copper foil for batteries used in electric vehicles. The new incentives come after the Hungarian government provided cash incentives w

South Korean electric vehicle battery giant LG Energy Solution and Japanese automaker Honda are in talks to form a joint venture in the US in a rare partnership between Korean and Japanese companies, according to industry sources Friday. The two companies are reportedly in the early stage of discussions to set up a 4 trillion-won ($3.3 billion) EV battery factory in the US with an annual production capacity of 40 gigawatt-hours, which is enough to power 600,000 EVs. Details such as establish

Former manager Youm Kyoung-youb was named the new technical director for South Korean baseball Friday, with his main task being assembling the national team for this year's Asian Games. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said Youm will soon fill out the rest of the technical committee and take scouting trips through KBO clubs' spring training starting next month. Youm, 53, previously managed the Nexen Heroes and SK Wyverns in the KBO and also worked as general manager of the Wyverns. The K

Samsung Electronics Co.'s all-new portable projector, unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week, has gotten off to a good start, as preorders were sold out at home and abroad, the company said Friday. The new product, The Freestyle, is a light, portable screen and entertainment device, especially aimed at Generation Z and millennials, with no separate screen required and the cradle rotating up to 180 degrees to enable users to see video anywhere from tables to ceilings. It was

South Korea's military on Friday reported 16 additional COVID-19 cases, including 15 breakthrough infections, raising the total caseload among its personnel to 3,553. Of the new cases, nine are from the Army, five from the Air Force and two from a unit under the direct control of the ministry. Currently, 199 military personnel are under treatment. Of the total military caseload, 1,733 are breakthrough cases. (Yonhap)

KF94 masks, the Korean version of an N95 mask, are gaining popularity in the United States, with experts calling for upgraded protective options over cloth masks as the omicron variant of COVID-19 continues to spread rapidly throughout the country. Michael Baym, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School shared his review of using KF94 masks produced by Korean firm Dr. Puri. “They’re very comfortable. I was also happy to see on the CDC/NIOSH testing page that they test at ove

After an ultimately unsuccessful stint in Europe, former FC Barcelona youth player Paik Seung-ho has been penning a much better chapter of his career at home. His success with the K League 1 champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors has also led to multiple callups to the senior men's national team. And Paik says there is no secret to his midcareer turnaround. "I have gotten better because I have been playing more," Paik said in an interview clip provided by the Korea Football Association (KF