An LG Electronics worker is busy manufacturing washing machines ahead of a year-end spending spree at the firm’s factory in Clarksville, Tennessee, Friday.  The company’s lines of key products such as washing machines and refrigerators are running full throttle 24/7 to meet soaring year-end demand in the market. (Yonhap)

Experts weigh in on key facts, analyses of ongoing race

The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation will release the answers for this year’s Suneung, or college scholastic ability test, on Monday, after reviewing 1,014 complaints filed against this year’s exam questions. The institute, which organizes the standardized exam required for university application, will post the answers on its website on Monday at 5 p.m. The 1,014 complaints submitted more than double the 411 complaints made last year. The institute received objections

The Korea Creative Content Agency and state-run broadcaster KBS are joining hands to present immersive K-pop shows for Hallyu fans around the world, featuring augmented reality and extended reality content. The state agency and broadcaster presented Friday’s episode of the popular KBS K-pop program “Music Bank” to 114 countries on KBS 2TV, KBS World TV and the KBS World YouTube channel. The title was “Music Bank With K-Content,” and the live show featured 18 K-pop

One day, out of nowhere, a son receives a very generous, unexpected bequest from a stranger. One day, out of nowhere, a daughter receives a very generous, unexpected bequest from a stranger. The stranger’s will contained no conditions to the bequests. One day, the father announces that he is taking the bequests from his children. He declares that since the children are part of the family and he is the head of the household, it is within his rights to do as he pleases with what was given

Candidate accused of downplaying crimes, wrongfully using mental illness as defense

South Korean brokerage firms saw their combined net profits rise 10.5 percent in the third quarter from three months earlier, due to increased income from their proprietary trading, data showed Sunday. The combined net profit of 58 brokerages stood at 2.52 trillion won ($2.1 billion) in the July-September period, compared with 2.28 trillion won three months earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The gain was mainly driven by profits from proprietary trading, tra

South Korea's exports of agricultural and fishery goods exceeded the $10 billion mark for the first time this year, led by the popularity of "hallyu," the Korean wave of pop culture, data showed Sunday. Outbound shipments of foodstuffs came to $10.13 billion in the Jan. 1-Nov. 25 period, up 16.1 percent from the previous year, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. It marked the first time that exports of agricultural and fishery goods

South Korea said Saturday that it will restrict visa issuance and arrivals from eight African nations, including South Africa, starting the next day to block the inflow of the new Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus. It said South Africa and seven other nearby countries -- Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi -- will be re-listed as closely watched nations, subject to visa restrictions and tougher quarantine requirements. All arrivals from those regions m

MADRID -- National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug held meetings with his counterparts from Oman and Bahrain on Saturday during which he asked the two Middle East nations to export urea solution to South Korea. The meeting came as South Korea is scrambling to secure urea solution, the essential fluid used in diesel vehicles to cut emissions, after China imposed export curbs on urea to ease domestic supply bottlenecks. Park, who is in Madrid to attend the 143rd Inter-Parliamentary Union Asse

South Korea's new coronavirus cases dropped below 4,000 on Sunday, but the number of deaths and critically ill patients hit fresh highs, spawning concerns about the further spread of COVID-19 under eased virus restrictions meant for a gradual return to normal life. The country reported 3,928 new COVID-19 cases, including 3,893 local infections, raising the total caseload to 440,896, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The tally was down from 4,068 on Saturday b

On Black Friday, which refers to the day after Thanksgiving in the US, stores there typically offer goods at highly discounted prices. In recent years, retailers have tended to prolong the duration of the promotion, cutting prices before Thanksgiving even starts. Korean online shoppers have bought enormous amounts of products directly from foreign websites in the past few days. Due to the Black Friday shopping spree, packages containing a variety of goods shipped from the US were piling up at

For the past 100 years, researchers have been speculating on the meaning of the smile on National Treasure No. 83, the Gilt-bronze Maitreya in Meditation, a statue of what is believed to be the future Buddha, known as “Mireuk” in Korean. The gilt-bronze statue of a young future Buddha in a contemplative state is considered the epitome of Buddhist artwork. The beauty, the gentleness and the peaceful smile of the gilt-bronze Maitreya in Mediation, known as the Bangasayusang Mireuk st

The US state of Kentucky is well reputed for its bourbon. However, during the holidays, something quite unexpected but still related to bourbon is what entertains the people of Kentucky. Instead of the liquor itself, a gigantic Christmas tree made of bourbon barrels is on display in Smiths Grove, a small town of not much over 700 people nearby Mammoth Cave National Park. This interesting tradition began in 2020 when Cody Vincent and his family made a tree out of bourbon barrels they sold t

This year’s Suneung had questions about Hegel’s dialectics and Bretton Woods. But do they really matter?