The 26th Busan International Film Festival announced that it was selling tickets online for its opening and closing films, as well as its opening and closing ceremonies, from Tuesday at 2 p.m. through Oct. 15.　 This year’s opener is South Korean buddy drama “Heaven: To the Land of Happiness,” directed by Im Sang-soo. The closing film is “Anita,” directed by Leung Longman, a biopic about Hong Kong star Anita Mui. Tickets for the festival’s other films can be

The number of South Koreans in the agrofisheries sector is continuing to fall because of a rapid aging and urbanization trend in the country, government data showed Tuesday. Households engaging in the farming business totaled 1.03 million last year, down 4.9 percent from 1.08 million tallied in 2015, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The number of farmers also fell to 2.34 million in 2020, compared with 2.56 million tallied in 2015. In the fishing sector, the number of families

South Korean supergroup BTS has released a heartwarming documentary about its collaboration with British rock band Coldplay for their recent single "My Universe." The 13-minute video was posted on BTS' YouTube channel Sunday, two days after the song dropped amid high anticipation from fans worldwide. The documentary opens with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin relaying a story about how the high-profile collaboration began."About 18 months ago, I got a message from somebody. They s

Cancer remained the top cause of death in South Korea, with the number of deaths hitting a record high last year, a government report showed Tuesday. In 2020, 304,948 deaths were reported in South Korea, up 3.3 percent from a year earlier. It marked the highest annual number since Statistics Korea began compiling such data in 1983. The statistics agency said 593.9 deaths were reported per 100,000 South Koreans last year. It also said 160.1 per 100,000 people died of cancer last year. Cance

The Cabinet approved a revision to the civil law Tuesday that would grant animals legal status as individuals with lives that deserve to be protected. The revision was proposed by the Ministry of Justice in July to add the new clause, "animals are not objects," to Article 82 of the Civil Code. Currently, animals are identified as "an object that takes up space" and are not separated from inanimate things, so animal abusers have been punished only for damaging property if th

One out of 5 companies in South Korea could not meet its debt obligations for the past three years, a report showed Tuesday. According to an analysis by the Korea Federation of Industries, Korea ranked fourth among 25 member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, with 18.9 percent of its large companies classified as “marginal” as of 2020. A company is categorized as being marginal when its operating profit fails to cover interest payment obligation

  The spirit of the ASEAN Korea Center is in cooperation and mutual support, say officials selected from four among the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- Brunei, Laos, Malaysia and the Philippines -- who are working at the South Korea-based center on a three-year term. Ahead of ASEAN Week, an annual week of events to promote the association, The Korea Herald interviewed four officials representing their nations at the ASEAN Korea Center.  Siti Maisarah Haji Majid

North Korea appears to have convened a session of its rubber-stamp legislature Tuesday after firing a short-range missile earlier in the day, drawing attention to whether any message to South Korea would come out of the meeting. The meeting also comes just days after Kim Yo-jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong-un, expressed a willingness to improve inter-Korean relations and even discuss the possibility of a summit with South Korea on the condition that Seoul drops hostility. State media earlie

South Korea will continue efforts to stabilize situations on the Korean Peninsula and advance stalled inter-Korean relations through dialogue and cooperation despite North Korea's latest missile test, the unification ministry said Tuesday. Earlier in the day, North Korea fired what appears to be one short-range missile into the East Sea. The firing came days after North Korea expressed a willingness to discuss the improvement of inter-Korean relations and even a summit between their leaders.

The ASEAN-Korea Centre, an intergovernmental organization, will hold ASEAN Week 2021 online and offline Oct. 5-6 to highlight partnerships between South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. According to the center’s Secretary-General Kim Hae-yong, the flagship event will be co-hosted by the Presidential Committee on New Southern Policy and the Korea International Trade Association. Throughout the week there will be programs on trade, investment, culture and youth. The t

Three service members and a civilian worker for the Army tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Tuesday, the latest in a series of infections at barracks. One officer affiliated with the South Korea-United States Combined Forces Command in Seoul tested positive while in isolation after one of his family members was confirmed to have been infected, according to the ministry. Two Army officers, stationed in Seoul and the city of Goyang, respectively, also tested posi

President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday there will be no let-up in his administration's efforts till its last day to lay the groundwork for South Korea's "great transition" toward a better future. He cited the urgency of addressing the COVID-19 crisis, climate change and the fourth industrial revolution. "(We) are faced with an era of a great transition into digital civilization and green civilization. This is not the philosophy or choice of our government but a global trend," h