Samsung Group heir Lee Jae-yong was sentenced to a 70 million won ($60,055) fine Tuesday for illegally using propofol, an anesthetic medication, dozens of times over a period of years. The Seoul Central District Court also ordered an additional forfeiture of 17 million won as it convicted Lee of violations of the Narcotics Control Act. The fine and the forfeiture are the same as what prosecutors had demanded for Lee. In June, prosecutors indicted the Samsung Electronics Co. vice chairman on

The proportion of temporary workers in South Korea rose to over 38 percent of all salaried workers in August in the wake of the fallout from the pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The number of non-regular workers, including part-timers and outsourced laborers, came to 8.07 million as of August, up 640,000, or 8.6 percent, from the previous year, according to the data by Statistics Korea. They accounted for 38.4 percent of the country's 20.99 million salaried workers. The percentage was up from 36

Police will ban late night questionings and minimize the use of handcuffs and ropes in an effort to improve human rights of detainees, officials said Tuesday. The measures are among the recommendations that a civic human rights panel made to police as part of a program that the National Police Agency (NPA) launched in 2018 to study ways to improve rights conditions throughout the police institution. In announcing the results of the program, police said they have decided to prohibit in princip

South Korea and the United States have decided to set up a new director-level dialogue channel for regular discussions on semiconductor issues, Seoul's industry ministry said Tuesday. The agreement was reached during a video conference on Monday between Choi Woo-Seok, director general for materials and components industries at Seoul's industry ministry and Monica Gorman, US deputy assistant commerce secretary for manufacturing, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. "Giv

South Korean oil refiners posted the first on-year, third-quarter increase in exports in about 18 months, data showed Tuesday, on the back of reviving global demand amid an easing of COVID-19 pandemic curbs. The combined shipments of oil and petroleum products by SK Energy Co., GS Caltex Co. S-Oil Corp. and Hyundai Oilbank Co., reached 111.8 million barrels in the July-September period, up 0.6 percent from a year earlier, according to a report by the Korea Petroleum Association. This marked a

Some 2.4 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine that Samsung Biologics has helped manufacture are being supplied for domestic use for the first time, South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare said Tuesday. The ministry said the 2.4 million doses are among the first batch of Moderna’s vaccine from the plant in Incheon. The country’s drug regulators authorized the Samsung Biologics-produced doses for emergency use Monday, the ministry said, which differs from th

Lee Jae-myung, the presidential nominee of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), registered with the national election watchdog as a preliminary presidential candidate on Tuesday. Lee's aides, DP Reps. Park Hong-keun and Park Chan-dae, filed the registration on the candidate's behalf at the National Election Commission's office in Gwacheon, 18 kilometers south of Seoul. The move came the same day Lee stepped down as governor of Gyeonggi Province to focus on his presidential campaign. "I begi

A Seoul court questioned a prosecutor Tuesday to determine whether to issue an arrest warrant for him over allegations he conspired with the main opposition party to investigate pro-government figures when opposition presidential contender Yoon Seok-youl was in office as prosecutor general. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) sought the warrant for Son Jun-sung on charges of asking a prosecutor-turned-lawmaker of the main opposition People Power Party to file co

South Korean construction equipment maker Hyundai Doosan Infracore Co. said Tuesday it has won orders for 138 units of construction equipment from South America. Under a deal with Chilean wood maker Arauco, Hyundai Doosan Infracore will provide 60 excavators, the company said in an emailed statement. Another deal with Chile's major mining and construction company Besalco calls for Hyundai Doosan Infracore to ship 28 units of construction equipment, including excavators and wheel loaders. Hyun

South Korea and Chile will hold their sixth round of negotiations this week on updating their bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) that went into effect in 2004, Seoul's trade ministry said Tuesday. The three-day talks, set to begin later in the day via teleconferencing, will focus on expanding the scope of free trade and updating terms of the 15-year-old FTA to better reflect changing trade and economic circumstances, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The two sides will

South Korea's military reported six additional COVID-19 cases Tuesday, bringing the total caseload among its personnel to 2,017, the defense ministry said. A Navy officer and a draftee stationed in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, tested positive after a virus case was reported at their base, according to the ministry. An officer of a unit under the direct wing of the defense ministry in Nonsan, some 200 kilometers south of Seoul, tested positive after a family member was infected.

South Korea said Tuesday it plans to resume discount coupon programs aimed at boosting domestic demand as the country is preparing to move into a phase of "living with COVID-19" in early November. The country has suspended the coupon programs in six sectors, including sports, accommodations, tourism and cultural performances, due to the resurgence of virus cases. Only online use of some discount coupons, such as food delivery and agricultural products, has been allowed. Finance Minis

South Korea said Tuesday it will enforce stricter lending rules based on borrowers' repayment capability at an earlier date than initially scheduled to curb soaring household debt that has emerged as one of the most serious potential risks on the economy. Loans for home rentals, however, will not be subject to the government's tightened lending rules until the end of this year as part of efforts to supply credit for those in actual need of borrowing. Those are part of a string of measures the