Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung asked Tokyo's top envoy to Seoul on Monday to help arrange a meeting between him and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, a campaign official said. The Democratic Party nominee expressed the wish during a meeting with Ambassador Koichi Aiboshi at the party's headquarters, Kim Joon-hyung, a foreign policy adviser for Lee's campaign, told reporters after attending the meeting. The ambassador promised to convey the request, he said. "Candid

The reigning South Korean baseball champions KT Wiz re-signed its free agent third baseman Hwang Jae-gyun on Monday. The Wiz said Hwang agreed to a four-year deal worth 6 billion won ($5.1 million). He will earn 2.9 billion won in total salary, 2.5 billion won in signing bonus and up to 600 million won in incentives. Hwang's previous four-year contract, valued at 8.8 billion won, expired at the end of the 2021 season. As captain of the Wiz in 2021, Hwang batted .291/.358/.402 with 10 home run

South Korea's exports to the so-called New Southern and Northern regions are likely to touch all-time highs in 2021 on Seoul's efforts to deepen economic ties with those regions, the trade ministry said Monday. Seoul's overseas shipments to the New Southern Region -- the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India -- reached $111.9 billion in the first 11 months of this year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. In light of that, exports to the region are proje

The number of franchise outlets in South Korea rose more than 9 percent in 2020 despite the coronavirus pandemic, but their sales dropped for the first time since 2013, data showed Monday. Franchise stores numbered 235,709 as of end-December last year, up 9.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. Food and beverage franchise outlets expanded at double-digit numbers as demand for home delivery services grew sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.

LG Display on Monday unveiled four new concepts using its transparent panel solutions to be premiered at its hybrid CES 2022 exhibitions in January. The new concepts feature screens that look like normal transparent glass windows, allowing users to see objects on the other side. But the screens can display images or deliver information while remaining transparent at the same time. These concepts aim to achieve spatial innovation at home, the office and commercial facilities including department

Kim Beom-su, the founder of South Korean internet giant Kakao Corp., and members of his family were accused by a civic group Monday of a massive tax evasion in a past corporate merger process. Spec Watch Korea lodged the accusation against Kim and his family members, including his brother-in-law, with the National Police Agency, alleging they evaded a total of 886.3 billion won ($747.6 million) of taxes in the process of Kakao's merger with internet portal Daum Communications Corp. in 2014. Th

SEJONG -- The gross regional domestic product (GRDP) for provinces and cities in South Korea inched up in 2020 from a year earlier amid restrictions on business operations caused by the pandemic, data showed Monday. According to the data provided by Statistics Korea, the GRDP came to 1,936 trillion won ($1.63 trillion) in 2020, up 0.4 percent or 9 trillion won from a year earlier. The greater Seoul area -- which covers Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital Seoul, and the western port ci

South Korea's unification ministry on Monday urged North Korea to start the new year with a step for dialogue and cooperation, as Pyongyang is set to convene a key party meeting this week to discuss domestic and foreign policy issues. North Korea earlier announced the ruling Workers' Party will hold a plenary meeting of its central committee "in the last third of December" to "discuss and decide on work plans for the new year." "The plenary has been usually held for on

Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung on Monday launched a new committee with former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon in a display of internal unity ahead of the March presidential election. The Democratic Party presidential nominee has sought to add the former prime minister to his campaign in order to heal an internal rift that followed their bitter primary battle and rally the support of voters in the southwestern Honam region, where Lee Nak-yon is popular. The two met last week and a

Discourse with Kim Ki-jung, president of Institute for National Security Strategy

The Kia Tigers announced their signings of two new foreign players on Monday, adding a former major league outfielder and a career minor league pitcher to their roster. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club inked outfielder Socrates Brito to a one-year contract at $900,000. The 29-year-old from the Dominican Republic will get $500,000 in salary, $100,000 in signing bonus and up to $300,000 in incentives. Ronnie Williams, a 25-year-old right-hander from Miami, agreed to a one-year deal at

South Korea will push to submit an official application to join a mega Asia-Pacific free trade agreement in April next year by speeding up the process of collecting public opinions and building social consensus, the country's top economic policymaker said Monday. The government earlier said that it had begun the process to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) involving 11 nations as part of efforts to diversify its export portfolio. Finance Mi

SM Entertainment, a leading K-pop agency, formed a new supergroup Monday with seven of its top female artists. GOT the beat consists of diva BoA; Taeyeon and Hyoyeon of Girls' Generation; Seulgi and Wendy of Red Velvet and Karina and Winter of aespa. It is the first group formed under SM's broader project titled "Girls On Top (GOT)" for debuting new female units with leading artists managed by the company. The new septet will debut at a free online concert titled "SMTOWN Live 2

Samsung Heavy Industries Co., the world's second-biggest shipbuilder by orders, said Monday it has received a 240 billion won ($202 million) order to build a liquefied natural gas ship for a shipper in Latin America by 2024. The company did not provide the name of the shipper. With the latest order, Samsung Heavy has achieved $12.2 billion worth of orders this year, exceeding its annual order target of $9.1 billion amid the pandemic. This year, Samsung Heavy said it has received orders to