South Korea has expressed concern over the new Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's plan to release radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean, Seoul officials said Monday. Kishida on Sunday visited the tsunami-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant and said the planned disposal of wastewater stored in the facility cannot be delayed, sticking to his predecessor's plan to discharge the water into the sea beginning in 2023. "Japan's decision (to discharge the

South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor’s electric vehicle sales increased in the first half of the year compared with a year ago, but its global market share fell in the face of toughening competitions with Chinese rivals, industry data showed. Hyundai Motor was in sixth place in terms of global EV sales in the January-June period, one notch down from the fifth position a year ago, according to the data by industry tracker SNE Research. The automaker’s global EV sales jumped 75.6 pe

President Moon Jae-in on Monday ordered officials to swiftly set up a plan to provide booster shots for people who received Johnson & Johnson's one-dose vaccines. Moon's remarks came as a study showed COVID-19 protection from J&J's Janssen is weakening after a certain period of vaccination, according to presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee. Moon also instructed officials to come up with plans for patient transportation as the nation is preparing for gradually returning to normal

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. said Monday that it has signed a $1.7 billion order to provide design, parts and blocks for seven shuttle tankers. Under the deal with a company in Eurasia, Samsung Heavy Industries will supply design, parts and blocks for the vessels by January, 2027, the company said in a regulatory filing. Shuttle tankers refer to oil tankers plying between offshore oilfields and oil plants on land to transport crude. With the latest order, the shipbuilder has won a combined $1

Around 100 South Korean and Swedish maritime officials and experts will gather this week for a forum to explore ways to curb illegal fishing, South Korea's oceans ministry said Monday. During the four-day forum set to kick off Tuesday, officials from the governments and major international organizations, such as the International Maritime Organization and the Food and Agricultural Organization, and maritime experts will discuss ways to better implement international agreements on illegal, unrep

Big Hit Music, the K-pop agency behind BTS and Tomorrow X Together, said Monday it will throw a global audition to launch a next-generation boy band. Any males born after 2002 can apply from Monday through Dec. 20 regardless of their nationality and country of residence, according to the agency. Applicants are required to send a video of themselves singing, rapping and dancing along with their frontal photo to the audition website at bighitaudition.com. The video should be at least longer than

Nearly 90 small cities and counties that are in danger of extinction due to population decrease have been designated as "depopulation areas" for intensive support from the central government, the interior ministry said Monday. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said that it has designated 89 cities, counties and wards across the country as depopulation areas and a relevant public notice is to take effect Tuesday. The government plans to provide intensive administrative and finan

The first frost of the season was observed in Seoul on Monday as unseasonably cold weather continued for most parts of the country in the morning, the state weather agency said. Morning lows hovered around 5 C across the country, slightly up from Sunday, when some areas experienced record-low temperatures for mid-October, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said. The first frost of this fall was spotted in Seoul and nearby Suwon, the agency said. The weather is expected to warm up i

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has publicly mentioned the United States more often recently, drawing attention to Pyongyang's next move amid a prolonged deadlock in their nuclear talks, according to South Korea's unification ministry Monday. The ministry made the assessment in a report to lawmakers for an annual parliamentary audit, calling for an "active response" to resume dialogue in the face of growing volatility in the region. North Korea conducted four new missile tests in Sep

For the second straight year, a South Korean team will vie for the championship trophy at Asia's top club football tournament. We will find out Wednesday night which team that will be. Two K League 1 clubs and regional rivals, Ulsan Hyundai FC and Pohang Steelers, will clash in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League on Wednesday. The kickoff is 7 p.m. at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul. Ulsan won the 2020 AFC title and will

South Korea's daily coronavirus cases dropped to the lowest level in more than three months Monday as the country eased restrictions on private gatherings ahead of preparations for a gradual shift to the "living with COVID-19" scheme. The country reported 1,050 new cases, including 1,030 local infections, raising the total caseload to 343,445, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Monday's tally is the lowest daily number since July 7, when the country reporte

Seoul has the 16th-best startup ecosystem among cities around the world, an annual report by a San Francisco-based research firm showed. According to Startup Genome’s Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2021, South Korea’s capital ranked No. 16 on the list of 280 cities across 100 countries in terms of the competitiveness of its startup ecosystem, up four spots from last year. Seoul first appeared on the list in 2017 and entered the top 20 last year. San Francisco’s Silicon Val

South Korea plans to start deploying a new military mine detector capable of locating non-metal objects, such as those made of wood, in the latter half of next year, the state arms procurement agency said Monday. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) signed a contract with local developer Hanwha Systems Co. last week to mass-produce the hand-held mine detector, as the military seeks to replace its aging detectors introduced in the late 1990s. Developed in December last year, th