South Korea's antitrust regulator plans to take stern actions against unfair business activities by online platform operators in a bid to protect small merchants and consumers, its chief said Monday. Concerns have mounted that powerful online platform operators, such as Naver Corp. and Kakao Corp., have abused their dominant market status and engaged in unfair business practices against contractors, posing a threat to the survival of small merchants. "The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) will

A former national security adviser to Donald Trump slammed Joe Biden’s foreign policy, saying North Korea is a year closer in perfecting its nuclear and ballistic missile technology as a result of Biden’s diplomacy on Pyongyang -- or lack thereof. 　 In an op-ed published by Washington-based news outlet the Hill on Sunday, John Bolton identified Iran and North Korea as the Biden administration’s nuclear proliferation failures in 2021. 　 Bolton, who championed a hawkish policy

Hyundai Motor Group chief said Monday that the automaker will materialize its vision of becoming a smart mobility provider in autonomous driving and urban air mobility this year, attempting a shift in its focus from manufacturing to auto software. In his New Year‘s address, Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Euisun said the company will make no delay to its plan to mass produce the Ioniq 5 loaded with Level 4 technology by 2023. He said the Ioniq 5’s Level 4 autonomous driving will test o

NK should also take corresponding measures if US takes forward-looking steps

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases among young students has been on the decline in accordance with their rising vaccination rate, the beginning of winter break and a downward trend in the nation's total infections, the government said Monday. According to the education ministry, the daily average of virus infections among kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school students from last Thursday to Sunday was 487.3. The daily average for students peaked at 963.9 from Dec. 9-15 before dec

South Korea's low-cost carriers said Monday they have delayed or reduced their flights on international routes due to the spread of the omicron variant. Air Seoul Inc., a budget carrier unit of Asiana Airlines Inc., has delayed its planned flights to Guam from Jan. 29 to March 27. Air Seoul has offered one flight a week, respectively, on the routes from Incheon to Qingdao and Yantai in China since the summer of 2020 to meet business travel demands. Jeju Air Co., the country's biggest low-cost

Rapper-songwriter B.I will be performing in the Grammys’ digital performance series titled “Global Spin,” according to the artist’s agency IOK Co. He will be the first Asian artist to perform on the music show. “Global Spin” highlights the diversity of noteworthy music from around the world. Each episode of the biweekly performance series features performances by artists and groups and celebrates both the creators and their home countries. After receiving t

Suga of K-pop supergroup BTS has fully recovered from the new coronavirus and been released from isolation, his agency said Monday. "Suga was released from isolation at noon as he was confirmed to have fully recovered from COVID-19," Big Hit Music said on the agency's fan community platform Weverse. The rapper tested positive for the virus on Dec. 24 after returning home the previous day from Los Angeles, where the group had large-scale live concerts between late November and early D

The 2022 “Global Seoul Mate” project, jointly initiated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Tourism Organization, is recruiting members to produce and promote Seoul’s tourism-related digital content, the STO announced Monday. The Global Seoul Mates are a delegation of foreigners living in Seoul who have both expertise and passion in producing digital content and utilizing social media, looking to introduce and promote Seoul’s attractions, festivals and ev

Six Afghan evacuees airlifted to South Korea from Afghanistan taken over by the Taliban last year have found jobs, the justice ministry said Monday. The six recently got employed at a manufacturer in Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul, and other companies, while another person was admitted to a graduate school in an unidentified regional city. Accordingly, a total of 20 evacuees from seven households will start leaving their temporary residences in the southwestern city of Yeosu early this m

The upcoming expansion of South Korea's vaccine pass requirement to big box and department stores is inflaming protests that the measure represents discrimination against unvaccinated people and a breach of their right to basic needs. Under a revised vaccine pass scheme announced Friday, people will be required to present proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result to shop at discount or department stores measuring 3,000 square meters or more, starting Jan. 10. The fresh addition o

Two deaths in connection with the omicron variant of the coronavirus were reported in South Korea on Monday, reportedly the first deaths in the country linked to the highly transmissible variant, officials said. Health authorizes in Gwangju, 329 kilometers south of Seoul, said two recently deceased coronavirus patients in the city, both in their 90s, have posthumously tested positive for the omicron variant. The patients, who died last Monday and Wednesday, respectively, both tested positive f

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) on Monday promised a sweeping overhaul of its campaign committee and shed a feminist politician unpopular among young male voters as the party scrambled to stop the declining support of its presidential nominee Yoon Suk-yeol. The party's floor leader, Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, and its chief policymaker, Rep. Kim Do-eup, also offered to leave their positions in a demonstration of their commitment to overhauling the campaign plagued by factional feuding. The

South Korea's defense ministry said Monday the person that crossed the eastern inter-Korean border into North Korea over the weekend is presumed to be a North Korean defector. The ministry's statement came amid reports the man appears to be the one who crossed a barbed wire fence on the heavily fortified border to enter the South in November 2020. "Regarding the border crossing, the authorities presume the person is a North Korean defector and are in the process of verifying related facts