South Korea’s vice finance minister said Monday that the government plans to keep close tabs on the financial market for possible volatilities and woes caused by the emergence of the omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus. “There is a possibility that the volatilities in the global financial market could be expanded by the emergence of the omicron variant,” First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-won said at a macroeconomic meeting of government officials and the private sector.

SK Square invests 98 billion won for blockchain, metaverse

Presidential contenders pushed for support in the provinces Monday, with the opposition candidate visiting a key swing region and the ruling party candidate staying in a party stronghold. Yoon Seok-youl of the main opposition People Power Party chose the Chungcheong provinces as his first campaign destination after the formation of his election committee. “I am a son of Chungcheong and I can say Chungcheong is my hometown,” Yoon said before departing, speaking at the election com

Misbehavior, suspicion cloud candidates’ promises and visions

Samsung Electronics is poised to employ a new personnel management system starting in 2022 that could foster young executives, in a move to lay the groundwork for a “New Samsung” era under Samsung’s de facto leader Lee Jae-yong, the South Korean tech giant said Monday. Under the new system, Samsung will abolish a set of requirements before an employee gets promoted to a certain level, such as a minimum term of service that lasts roughly eight to 10 years. Instead, excellent em

Lee and Yoon differ on sequencing of denuclearization, sanctions relief, peace building

The business outlook of South Korea's smaller firms inched up for December on eased social distancing measures and hopes of higher year-end domestic demand, a poll showed Monday. The survey of 3,150 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) showed that the small business health index amounted to 83.5 for the coming month, up 2 points from November. It marks a turnaround from November's decrease that came after the second straight month of increase, but the reading remains below par. A reading

South Korea plans to suspend arrivals of migrant workers with records of recent visits to southern African nations in order to block the inflow of the potentially more contagious omicron COVID-19 variant, officials said Monday. The labor ministry's plan, which could affect the entry of manual workers from 16 Asian countries, is in line with the earlier restriction placed on foreign arrivals from eight African countries over concerns of the emerging virus variant first reported in Africa. "

One of the country’s biggest indoor winter music concerts, Countdown Fantasy, will take place as a two-part, in-person event on Dec. 31 at Kintex in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, just northwest of Seoul. The year-end concert, last held in 2012, will feature 14 music acts across diverse genres such as indie, hip-hop and K-pop, according to Mint Paper, organizer of Countdown Fantasy. The lineup announced Friday includes K-pop boy band Ateez, singer-songwriter Jukjae, girl group Dreamcatcher an

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education deleted a cartoon after it drew controversy for praising North Korea. The education office uploaded a cartoon on social media Friday, based on a story sent in by an elementary school teacher. The story was about what happened in class when they introduced what school life is like for North Korean students. In the cartoon, a teacher character talks about a typical school day for North Korean children, explaining that the students go home or eat lu

South Korea's female population expanded slightly over 1 percent over the past five years to surpass the 25 million mark in 2020, census data showed Monday. The number of women in Asia's fourth-largest economy stood at 25.16 million last year, up 275,000 from five years earlier, according to the 2020 census by Statistics Korea. The average age of South Korean women came to 44.2 years last year, 2.6 years older than in 2015. The median age of married South Korean women who tied the knot for th

ATKO Planning is the world’s first company to reuse leather for textiles

From Seoul to London, getting a cab home is a headache amid post-pandemic taxi shortage

K-pop sensation BTS conducted a global press conference at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Sunday, after opening the curtains to the “Permission to Dance on Stage” concert series the previous night. The seven bandmates -- RM, V, Jimin, Suga, Jungkook, Jin and J-Hope -- shared their emotions and thoughts after reuniting with their global fans, known collectively as Army, in person for the first time in two years, and shared plans for the future. Following is a full transcript of wha