South Korea’s economy added the largest number of jobs in more than seven years in September, government data showed Wednesday, with officials citing a surge in contactless services backed by digitalization of industries and high vaccination rate as key catalysts. The economy added 671,000 jobs on-year to 27.68 million in September, Statistics Korea data showed. This marked the largest job growth since March 2014, when the economy added 726,000 jobs and also the seventh consecutive month

The case of a high school senior who drowned while participating in a student apprenticeship program has sparked an outrage, as safety rules were found to be loosely followed and eventually led to the student’s death. A student surnamed Hong died in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, on Oct. 6 while taking part in his school’s apprenticeship program that started on Sept. 27. The school signed a contract with a yacht business in the area that allowed Hong to gain work experience at the co

Private and public stakeholders in the development of self-driving cars have established the Korea Autonomous Industry Association on Wednesday in order to better prepare for the coming new mobility era. Some 30 government officials and company executives attended the launching ceremony held in Yeouido, Seoul, including Park Jin-kyu, the vice minister for industry, and Hwang Seong-kyu, the vice minister for transport. Aside from private firms, two state-run organizations -- the Korea Automot

South Korea's military reported 14 more COVID-19 cases Wednesday, the defense ministry said, bringing the total caseload among its personnel to 1,943. Thirteen Army soldiers, including five trainees at a boot camp, and an Air Force airman tested positive for the new coronavirus, according to military data Wednesday morning. The five Army trainees from the boot camp in Yeoncheon, 62 kilometers north of Seoul, were found to have contracted the virus while in quarantine following the COVID-19 out

New committee to review ‘vaccine pass’ despite controversy

SK Inc., the holdings firm of SK Group, said Wednesday it will form a joint venture in South Korea with Monolith, the world’s first company to have successfully mass-produced “turquoise hydrogen.” According to the strategic investment arm of the country’s third-largest conglomerate, the joint venture will produce hydrogen and carbon black products. The US hydrogen maker will provide necessary technology while SK Inc. will be in charge of production, sales and distributi

Posco, the world's fifth-largest steelmaker by output, said Wednesday its third-quarter operating income more than quadrupled to a record high on robust demand amid the global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Operating income for the three months that ended in September reached 3.11 trillion won ($2.6 billion) on a consolidated basis, sharply up from an operating profit of 670 billion won, the company said in a regulatory filing. The third-quarter operating income marks the highes

South Korean day traders are expressing frustration over the bearish domestic stock market in early October, in the belief that short selling by institutional investors is adding fuel to the market volatility. As of Wednesday, a public petition calling for a complete ban on short selling activities in Korea’s stock market had gained nearly 49,000 endorsements within a week, in another major collective action unfolding on presidential office Cheong Wa Dae’s website. The unnamed pe

The top national security advisers of South Korea and the US on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to engaging with North Korea, pledging to work together to bring Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. Suh Hoon, South Korea’s director of national security at Cheong Wa Dae, was visiting Washington to hold a bilateral meeting with his US counterpart, Jake Sullivan, amid North Korea’s conflicting messages involving back-to-back missile tests and diplomatic overtures, including the

South Korea's top economic policymaker has said the government plans to maintain expansionary fiscal policy next year in a bid to prop up the economic recovery, Seoul's finance ministry said Wednesday. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki made the remarks during his meeting with Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday on the sidelines of the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting. Hong said South Korea's central bank

  The world has marked the first rise in child labor in two decades and the coronavirus crisis threatens to push millions more youngsters toward the same fate, the United Nations said. In a joint report, the International Labor Organization and the UN children’s agency UNICEF said the number in child labor stood at 160 million at the start of 2020 - an increase of 8.4 million in four years. The hike began before the pandemic hit and marks a dramatic reversal of a downward trend that h

진행자: 임현수, Paul Kerry 1.   Kim vows to boost military capability, but says South Korea or the US are not the enemy 요약: 김정은 북한 국무위원장은  노동당 창건 76주년기념  11일 처음으로 열린  국방발전전람회 기념연설에서  주적은 남조선, 미국이 아닌 전쟁 그 자체라고 말해 [1] North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to build a powerful military to strengthen war deterrence, but insisted that the country’s main enemy is “war itself,” and not South Korea or the US. *vow: 맹세 *strengthen: 강화하다 *deterrence: 제지

South Korea's cartoon exports jumped more than 40 percent in 2020 from a year earlier amid the growing global popularity of Korean pop culture, a report said Wednesday. Outbound shipments of cartoons, including webtoons, stood at $64.82 million last year, up 40.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the report from the Korea International Trade Association (KITA). The growth rate far exceeds the 6.2 percent on-year increase in exports of the country's overall cultural content. In particu

A T-shirt with a printed portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was spotted during a public event in Pyongyang for the first time, state media showed, amid the reclusive regime's push to rev up an image of being a "normal state." According to footage released by the North's official Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station on Tuesday, an orchestra conductor was clad in the white T-shirt with Kim's face printed in black and white on the front at a defense expo the previous day. N

AI-led rearrangement of Vivaldi's 'The Four Seasons' alerts world to consequences of climate change