Washington and Seoul appear to be on different trajectories on the matter of declaring a formal end to the Korean War, with a top US security official saying the allies could have “different perspectives” on the timing and conditions. 　 US national security adviser Jake Sullivan made the remarks Tuesday (US time) amid Seoul’s renewed push to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, as a way to nudge Pyongyang back to talks and ultimately to convince the regime to aband

A two-day Korean culture festival will bring together K-pop acts like NCT Dream and aespa next month to provide comfort to people around the world who are exhausted from COVID-19, the culture ministry said Wednesday. "The K-Culture Festival - 2021 World K-pop Concert" will take place at the Korea International Exhibition Center (KINTEX) in Ilsan, northwest of Seoul, on Nov. 13-14, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The event is aimed at comforting Korean Wave f

Violinist Chung Nu-rie, 16, came in second place at the 56th International Violin Competition Premio Paganini. According to the Korea National University of Arts on Wednesday, Chung won second prize at the latest Paganini Competition held in Genoa, Italy. He also won two other special prizes, including one for the youngest finalist and one for the best performance of a contemporary piece in the semifinal round. The competition, founded in 1954 and named after the legendary Italian violinist a

South Korea has reported nearly 20,000 coronavirus infections involving people who tested positive for COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated, health authorities said Wednesday. There were 19,954 breakthrough cases out of more than 26.93 million people who have received the full-dose vaccine regimen, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Since the country's nationwide inoculation campaign began in late February, 36.7 million people, or 71.5 percent of the country's 52 mil

Hong lauds policy efforts in excess liquidity management, supply expansion; skeptics say slowdown of price growth ‘temporary’

The market capitalization of K-pop powerhouses S.M. Entertainment and JYP Entertainment are anticipated to reach 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion) for the first time at the closing bell, amid growing hopes of resuming in-person performances under the “living with COVID-19” scheme. At Wednesday’s closing, S.M. Entertainment’s market value stood at 1.97 trillion won, while JYP Entertainment came to 1.9 trillion won. The entertainment firms refreshed their 52-week high closings

Fundraising activities via a company’s initial public offering rose sixfold by volume in South Korea‘s capital market during the first three quarters of this year over investors’ growing appetite for debutants on the stock market here, data showed Wednesday. The combined IPO proceeds of Korean companies, including special purpose acquisition companies, through the newly-issued shares between January and September came to 11.9 trillion won ($10.2 billion), up 478.3 percent fro

Non-financial companies in South Korea saw their combined sales shrink for the first time in 10 years in 2020 affected by an overall slump in consumption amid the coronavirus pandemic, central bank data showed Wednesday. The Bank of Korea (BOK) analyzed 2020 business performances of about 800,000 non-financial companies, including some 170,000 manufacturers, and found that their total sales contracted 1 percent from a year earlier. This marked the first contraction since the central bank bega

Ministry of Environment aims to repair 3,332 km of water pipes by 2024

Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. on Wednesday reported its third-quarter net income of 353.5 billion won ($302 million), up 47.3 percent from a year earlier. The company said in a regulatory filing that it posted 457.8 billion won in operating profit for the quarter, compared with 307.4 billion won a year ago. Revenue rose 20.6 percent to 2.68 trillion won. The operating profit was 5.6 percent higher than the average estimate, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of

South Korea is expected to be under rising inflationary pressure for a longer-than-predicted period due to the ongoing global supply disruptions and recovering consumption backed by eased antivirus rules, the country's central bank said Wednesday. "Our country needs to closely watch the possibility of a longer-than-expected period of an upward trend in high prices due to the local ramifications from the global supply bottleneck, an increase in consumption from changes in antivirus measures

Government employees will be subject to much tougher rules against drunk driving and inhumane misconduct under a soon-to-be-revised law, the Ministry of Personnel Management said Wednesday. The ministry issued an advance notice of a revision of the Decree on Disciplinary Action against Public Officials, saying any government employee caught driving drunk with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.2 percent or higher can be expelled from office. According to the revision, public officials refusing

The number of babies born in South Korea dropped to a record low in August, data showed Wednesday, underscoring the country's gloomy demographic situation with its chronically low birthrate. A total of 22,291 babies were born in August, down 0.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It marked the lowest tally for any August since the country began compiling related data in 1981. South Korea has been struggling with a constant fall in childbirths as m