Over 1,900 police detectives lost their qualification this year to lead investigations after refusing field assignments too long, the National Police Agency said Monday. Detectives are reviewed yearly for renewal of their qualifications under a system introduced in 2005. This year’s number of investigators losing their status is the highest since the system was introduced, the NPA said. The total number of qualified special investigative officers now stands at 31,659, down from 3

Samsung Display, the display panel maker arm of Samsung Electronics, said Monday its latest quantum-dot organic light emitting diode display technology was certified by evaluation services provider SGS. The QD-OLED, touted as the technology to support next-generation TV picture quality, had received three certifications for True Color Tones, Pure RGB Luminance and Ultrawide Viewing Angle upon performance testing by the Switzerland-based SGS. Samsung Display said in a statement the certificati

Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol said Monday that computer programming should be dealt with as a school subject that's more important than mathematics, English and Korean in order to meet a need for digital-savvy human resources. "I think it will only be possible to supply ample digital-savvy human capital to the market by allotting a greater weight to coding than those to the subjects of the Korean language, mathematics and English in evaluation for school admissions,

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Monday it has received 1.33 trillion won ($1.1 billion) worth of ship orders. Korea Shipbuilding obtained three separate orders from shippers in Europe and Latin America to build four 16,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container carriers, four 2,500-TEU container ships and one liquefied natural gas carrier, the company said in a statement. The 2,500-TEU and 16,000-TEU container ships will be delivered to the unidentified clien

SK Geocentric Co., a chemical materials unit of South Korean conglomerate SK Group, said Monday it will build a plastic waste recycling factory in South Korea jointly with a U.S. startup as part of efforts to advance its green business. SK Geocentric said it signed an initial terms agreement with Purecycle Technologies Inc., a Florida-based plastic recycling company, to construct a polypropylene recycling factory in the industrial city of Ulsan, about 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul. The sig

Sales of short-term corporate bonds in South Korea jumped more than 20 percent in 2021 from a year earlier amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday. Local companies issued 1,243.7 trillion won ($1.04 trillion) worth of short-term bonds, up 20.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository (KSD). Short-term bonds refer to those that come due within one year, with the minimum amount of 100 million won or more per issue. Sales of general short-

Fine dust plagued most parts of South Korea on Monday due to air stagnation caused by the high atmospheric pressure in the west, weather authorities said. As of 8 a.m., the density of ultrafine dust, called PM 2.5, had hit the "very bad" level for the greater Seoul area, North Chuncheong Province and the central city of Sejong, and the southeastern city of Daegu, according to the Comprehensive Air-quality Index. The level for other parts of the country was "bad," except for

Oh Young-soo of “Squid Game” won the best supporting actor in television category at the 79th Golden Globe Awards, held Monday, Korean time. Referred to as Player 001, Oh played an ordinary old man Oh Il-nam, who wished to have fun before his death, in the global sensation “Squid Game.” The 79-year-old actor was nominated for the best supporting actor prize along with Brett Goldstein of Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso,” Billy Crudup and Mark Duplass of Apple TV

Foreign direct investment (FDI) pledges made to South Korea surged 42.3 percent in 2021 from a year earlier to reach an all-time high, data showed Monday. Foreigners pledged to invest $29.51 billion in South Korea in 2021, compared with $20.7 billion a year earlier, according to the data by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The 2021 figure hit an all-time high, beating the previous record of $26.9 billion logged in 2018, it added. The amount of investment that actually arrived in So

LX International Corp., the general trading arm of LX Group, said Monday 1,100 tons of urea will arrive in South Korea from China this week. The shipment -- the first batch from an import contract with China for 10,000 tons of urea -- will arrive in the southeastern port city of Busan on Tuesday, LX International said. In November, the trading company secured the amount in a move to help address a supply crunch of urea solution, a key fluid needed in diesel cars to cut emissions. The firm sai

South Korea's military on Monday reported four additional COVID-19 cases, all of which are breakthrough infections, raising the total caseload among its personnel to 3,444. Of the new cases, three are from the Army and one from a unit under the direct control of the defense ministry. Currently, 191 military personnel are under treatment. Of the total military caseload, 1,631 are breakthrough cases. (Yonhap)

South Korea's daily coronavirus cases stayed below 4,000 for the fourth straight day Monday amid tightened distancing rules to curb the spread of COVID-19. The country added 3,007 new COVID-19 infections, including 2,768 local infections, raising the total caseload to 667,390, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). South Korea reported 34 more COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 6,071, the KDCA added. The fatality rate was 0.91 percent. The number of crit

　The percentage of Americans who identify as Christian dropped 15 percentage points over the past 14 years, while those who consider themselves religiously unaffiliated increased by 14 percentage points, a Pew study released indicates. 　Pew‘s National Public Opinion Reference Survey found that the majority of Americans - 63 percent - consider themselves Christian, down from 78 percent in 2007. Meanwhile, 29 percent of adults list their religion as “none,” meaning they conside

South Korean stocks opened lower Monday as investors took to the sidelines in the wake of the US Federal Reserve minutes last week that signaled possibilities of aggressive tapering policy. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 24.17 points, or 0.82 percent, to 2,930.72 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 0.96 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.01 percent amid concerns that the Fed may push harsher-than-expe

Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung is leading his main opposition rival Yoon Suk-yeol by 6 percentage points with the election less than two months away, a survey showed Monday. Lee of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) garnered 40.1 percent, while Yoon of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) gained 34.1 percent, according to the Realmeter survey of 3,042 adults conducted last week. Lee's support edged down 0.8 percentage point from a week earlier, and Yoon's support fel