What has largely been a successful season as a new ace for the Toronto Blue Jays has ended on a bitter note for Ryu Hyun-jin. Ryu was torched for seven runs on eight hits in his season-low 1 2/3 innings against the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 2 of the American League wild-card series at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Wednesday (local time). The Blue Jays lost 8-2 and were eliminated from the best-of-three series 2-0. They lost the opener 3-1 on Tuesday. This was the Blue Jays' first

South Korean boy group BTS topped two of Billboard's main charts with its new single "Dynamite" this week, Billboard said Tuesday. "Dynamite" returned to the top spot on Billboard's main singles chart, the Hot 100, after spending two seeks at No. 2. The song had spent two weeks at the top of the singles chart after debuting at No. 1, becoming the 20th song in Billboard's history to spend the first two consecutive weeks of its debut at the top spot. With the rebound of its

Google says only 2% of Korean developers will have to change payment system according to new policy

A North Korean defector who collected information for North Korean authorities after being blackmailed has been given a suspended sentence. The defector, identified by the surname Han, was sentenced to an eight-month prison term suspended for two years for violating the National Security Act. The Seoul Central District Court ruled that Han’s actions represented a clear danger of damaging South Korea’s democratic order and national security, as the information Han provided is lik

A state-owned property developer in Korea is introducing QR code-based entry systems at public women’s bathrooms in a bid to ward off spy camera crimes. Korea Land and Housing Corp. said in a press release Sunday that smartphone-generated QR codes containing personal data will be scanned at entry points with the aim of protecting against sex crimes occurring inside bathrooms. The pilot project is slated to kick off later this year at six public women’s bathrooms in two cities of

Opposition lawmakers are stepping up attacks on President Moon Jae-in over the killing of a South Korean civil servant by North Korea, framing the incident as a case of mishandling or even neglect of duty by the top office. 　 Five members of the People Power Party took turns holding one-person protests outside Cheong Wa Dae, each staging an hourlong rally with a sign that read “President Moon Jae-in, where are you now,” denouncing the president and the government for a “dela

President Moon Jae-in was briefed on four occasions between Tuesday and Thursday on developments concerning the South Korean civil servant killed by the North Korean military, Cheong Wa Dae said. According to the presidential office, Moon was first briefed on the matter at 6:36 p.m. on Tuesday in the form of a written report. The report was made about three hours after the South’s military obtained intelligence that the civil servant was spotted by the North Korean military. At 10:30

The National Assembly of South Korea has selected the chiefs of Google and Netflix’s Korean operations as witnesses at the upcoming audits scheduled for October to ask questions about their business practices. According to the country’s legislative body Thursday, Nancy Mable Walker, who represents Google Korea, will be asked to testify at the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee’s first audit on Oct. 7. The committee’s decision to summon Walker co

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court's prison sentences for Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon, two South Korean singers convicted of rape and other crimes. In May, Jung, a disgraced singer and TV personality, and Choi, a former member of boy band FT Island, were sentenced to five years and 2 1/2 years, respectively, in prison by an appeals court on charges including sexually assaulting women in 2016. Jung and Choi received prison terms of six and five years, respectively, from

US President Donald Trump made no mention of North Korea in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday (US time), for the first time in any of his four UN speeches since taking office.  In a prerecorded address from the White House, Trump focused his seven-minute speech on attacking China for “unleashing” COVID-19 onto the world and touched on various foreign policy issues, but did not say a word about Pyongyang.  It was the first time Trump has not me

The Foreign Ministry has resumed mediation between one of its diplomats and a male staffer in New Zealand who accused the diplomat of groping him in late 2017. 　 The ministry said it has informed the purported victim of its mediation on the case, and is awaiting his reply.　 Under New Zealand labor law, an employee can seek a settlement for an employer’s misconduct against him through the help of a mediator.　 In this case, the administrative staffer, a New Zealander, is the employee, and

Temporary contract workers were more susceptible to job loss due to the coronavirus pandemic than full-time workers, with one in every three irregular workers losing their jobs over the past eight months, a survey showed Monday. According to a survey of 1,000 workers conducted by advocacy group Gabjil 119, 15.1 percent of respondents said they lost jobs during the coronavirus outbreak. Some 31.13 percent of contract workers lost their jobs, much higher than the 4.3 percent of full-time employee

Schools in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province will resume in-person classes Monday after South Korea eased its social distancing measures in the capital region. To minimize the risk of infection in classrooms, kindergartens and elementary and middle schools must limit attendance to one-third of the student body until Oct. 11, and high schools must limit attendance to two-thirds, the Education Ministry said. For the next several months, the measures will also apply to high school seniors und

For the late SK Group Chairman Chey Jong-hyun, the 1970s oil shock was a wake-up call, a moment of reckoning that a petrochemical company cannot and should not let its destiny be dictated by the price of oil. When SK Group acquired domestic petrochemical company Yukong in 1980, which later became today’s SK Innovation, Chey had a clear vision that reaped rewards for decades. “Countries all over the world are trying to develop alternative energy after suffering from the 1970s oil c

Two foreign workers were killed as a fire gutted a waste recycling facility located south of Seoul, authorities said Saturday. The incident occurred at around 4 a.m. inside a plastic waste recycling plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeongggi Province. The blaze appears to have been started by the explosion of a transverse kiln, firefighters said. The fire killed two foreign workers, whose identities were withheld, and burned down two buildings. About 100 tons of plastic waste were apparently stored in th