Polarization may grow between the greater Seoul area and elsewhere, experts say

CICA is ready to support Korea’s confidence building measures on energy security and information technologies.

ShinhanCard said Tuesday it had launched a nonfungible token service for clients to store their pictures using the digital assets -- a first by a local financial company. NFTs are authenticated by blockchain, a record of transactions kept on networked computers that serves as a public ledger for verifying ownership. Each NFT has a unique digital signature and digital objects, like images and videos, are traded as NFTs. “Our clients wouldn’t have to worry about making the actual tra

Two more members of the K-pop supergroup BTS -- RM and Jin -- were confirmed to have fully recovered from the new coronavirus and released from isolation Tuesday after Suga, their agency said. "Members RM and Jin were released from isolation at noon as they were confirmed to have been fully recovered from COVID-19," Big Hit Music said. "The two showed no serious symptoms of the virus during the isolation period," it added. "Jin had mild symptoms, such as a mild fever a

The Georgian Embassy celebrated Georgia Day at the 12th week of The Korea Herald’s Eurasian Economic and Cultural forum on Dec. 29 at Sebitseom. The embassy helped arrange a wine tasting event and showcased Georgia’s history, traditions, cultural and touristic potential through video clips to CEOs attending the forum. “Georgia counts around 8,000 years of uninterrupted viticulture and unique winemaking, and has more than 525 types of indigenous grape varieties,” said Ge

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Tuesday it will accelerate the review of a deal by Korean Air Lines Co., the country's biggest carrier, to buy the debt-ridden Asiana Airlines Inc. In November 2020, Korean Air inked a deal to acquire a 63.88 percent stake in its smaller rival Asiana Airlines, a deal valued at 1.8 trillion won ($1.5 billion) that could create the world's 10th-biggest airline by fleet. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said in its 2022 policy plan that it will "swiftly

An F-35A fighter operated by South Korea's Air Force made an emergency landing during a training session Tuesday due to avionic system issues, with its pilot having emerged unscathed, officials said. The radar-evading jet made the belly landing on a runway at an air base in Seosan, 151 kilometers south of Seoul, at 12:51 p.m. after the issues caused the landing gear to momentarily malfunction, the officials said. The pilot walked away unscathed, they added. Before the landing, the Air Force m

Ahead of the release of its final episodes later this week, Korean reality dating show “Single’s Inferno,” first released on Dec. 18, 2021, notched the 10th spot on Netflix’s global TV list as of Monday. The series became the first Korean reality show to be listed on the service’s global top 10 chart. While the streaming service had previously showcased a number of Korean reality shows -- “Busted!” (2018), travel documentary “Twogether” (20

South Korean cell therapy developer GC Cell Corp. said Tuesday that it has signed the company's first licensing agreement with India-based Rivaara Immune to develop its liver cancer treatment. Under the agreement, Rivaara Immune has obtained the exclusive right to develop and commercialize Immuncell-LC, immunotherapy for liver cancer, in India. In return, GC Cell is entitled to receive an undisclosed upfront payment, as well as payments for the achievement of commercial milestones, in addition

The North Korean defector who is presumed to have crossed the tense inter-Korean border to return home last week had received due resettlement support from the South Korean government, Seoul's unification ministry said Tuesday, amid reports he suffered economic difficulties after his defection. The man crossed the heavily fortified eastern border into the North over the weekend, about a year after he reached the South, also using an eastern front-line route in November 2020, according to the mi

Online shopping in South Korea hit a fresh record high in November, data showed Tuesday, in the latest sign that a growing number of people are using computers and mobile devices to buy things, ranging from clothes to electronic goods amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The value of online shopping transactions stood at 17.5 trillion won ($14.7 billion) in November, up 16.5 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The November data marked the highest level

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Tuesday it has received 1.67 trillion won ($1.39 billion) worth of ship orders. Korea Shipbuilding obtained an order from a Europe-based shipper to build six 15,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) liquefied natural gas-powered container ships, the company said in a statement. The container carriers will be gradually delivered to the client from the first half of 2024, it said. In other deals, the company said it will build one LN

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday instructed his aides to make utmost efforts to contain the spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant, as health authorities warned that omicron is likely to soon replace the delta variant as the dominant strain in South Korea. Moon also called for officials to spare no efforts to provide compensation to small merchants and self-employed people who were hit by the government's imposing of tighter virus curbs. "The government should make utmost effo

Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung said Tuesday he believes it will be possible to draw up a supplementary budget of up to 30 trillion won ($25 billion) before the end of January to support pandemic-hit small businesses. Lee of the Democratic Party made the remark during a New Year's press conference, referring to his party's push to create an extra budget to help small merchants affected by the government's COVID-19 business restrictions. "I think it's certainly possible b