Mayfield Seoul offers ‘Private Party’ package Mayfield Hotel in Seoul is offering an in-room dining package called “Private Party,” for guests to enjoy gatherings in a private space instead of dining out to celebrate the end of the year. The package provides two bottles of wine – one red and one sparkling -- along with a 100,000 won dining voucher that can be used at the hotel’s restaurant, which offers a choice of steak and smoked salmon dishes. Cheese pla

Spider-Man: No Way Home (US) Opened Dec. 15 Action Directed by Jon Watts 　 With Spider-Man‘s identity now revealed, Peter (Tom Holland) asks Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help. But Doctor Strange’s spell goes wrong and dangerous foes from other worlds start to appear, forcing Peter to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man. 　 Encanto (US) Opened Nov. 24 Animation Directed by Jared Bush, Byron Howard In the deep mountains of Colombia, there is a special place call

Former President Park Geun-hye is to be pardoned in the special New Year presidential pardon granted to 3,094 individuals. Former President Lee Myung-bak was not included in the list. 　 Park, 69, has been serving a combined 22-year term since March 2017 for charges including abuse of power and bribery, after she was impeached in the year before. Her immediate predecessor Lee, who is currently serving a 17-year prison sentence for bribery and embezzlement, has not been given the special pardo

The South Korean baseball club Lotte Giants announced their signings of two new American pitchers on Friday. The Giants said former major leaguers Charlie Barnes and Glenn Sparkman will join their rotation on one-year deals. Barnes will make $610,000, with $460,000 in salary and $150,000 in signing bonus. Sparkman will earn a maximum $800,000, with $500,000 in salary and up to $300,000 in incentives. Barnes, 26, was a fourth-round selection by the Minnesota Twins at the 2017 draft. The left-ha

Sales of imported commercial vehicles in South Korea fell 23 percent in November from a year earlier amid the extended COVID-19 pandemic, an industry association said Friday. The number of newly registered imported commercial vehicles declined to 360 units last month from 468 a year ago, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement. Decreased sales of MAN, Scania, and Mercedes-Benz trucks weighed on the monthly result, KAIDA said. From January to Nov

South Korea's new coronavirus cases fell below 7,000 on Friday for the second day in a row on the back of antivirus restrictions, but critical cases surged to a record high again. The country added 6,233 more COVID-19 cases, including 6,163 local infections, bringing the cumulative total to 596,209, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Friday's tally is down from 6,918 on Thursday and sharply down from 7,434 reported on Dec. 17. The number of critically ill patients, h

Seoul shares opened higher Friday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street amid eased concerns over global economic growth next year despite the outbreak of omicron virus strain. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 26.46 points, or 0.88 percent, to 3,024.63 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Investor sentiment was buoyed as the omicron variant is highly infectious but less likely to lead to hospitalization. Most stocks advanced across the board. Market bellwe

The COVAX Facility, a global vaccine distribution platform, has assigned 1.29 million doses of additional COVID-19 vaccines to North Korea, a UN website showed Friday. According to the U.N. Children's Fund's COVID-19 Vaccine Market Dashboard, the addition increases the number of vaccines allocated to North Korea to 8.12 million doses. The number is up from the previously known 6.83 million, including 4.7 million doses of COVAX allocated to the North last month. The type of the newly allocated

South Korea's central bank said Friday that it will "appropriately" adjust its monetary policy next year, given a variety of factors that could quicken inflation, suggesting that it will maintain the move to hike the key interest rate. In a report laying out its monetary policy direction for 2022, the Bank of Korea (BOK) also expected that the country's inflation will run in its 2 percent target range next year but expressed concerns over intensifying upward pressure from global suppl

South Korea is in the final stage of signing a contract with US drug giant Pfizer Inc. to get its oral drug for COVID-19, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said Friday. "The government has been discussing a purchasing deal with Pfizer for a volume that is much more than our previously announced plan of 70,000 people," Kim said during a COVID-19 response meeting in Seoul. "We will announce the deal in detail once we confirm the contract and our drug safety agency approves emergency use