North Korea has notified South Korea that it will dispatch an advance team over the weekend to inspect details for its art troupe’s performance during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Friday. Hyun Song-wol, leader of the Moranbong Band (left) and Kwon Hyok-bong, director of the Arts and Performance Bureau in North Korea`s Culture Ministry (right). YonhapAfter Monday’s working-level talks, the two Koreas agreed that a 140-member art troupe, including an 80-strong

Two Koreas’ decision to use the North’s Masikryong Ski Resort as training facility draws flak

South Korea’s second-tier Kosdaq hit a 16-year high, crossing 900 points at Tuesday’s close for the first time since ...

The two Koreas on Monday reached an agreement to send a 140-member team of performers to the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics. While it will be the biggest group of North Korean musicians ever to set foot south of the DMZ, there is scant information about the Samjiyon Orchestra and what it will perform in the South. It is to perform in Seoul and Gangneung, Gangwon Province, which is hosting Olympic events.  Samjiyon Band performs in this Jan. 3, 2017 file photo. (Yonhap)At a briefing held fo

Amid inter-Korean talks on North Korea’s participation in the PyeongChang Olympics on Monday, attention has turned to Hyon Song-wol, who leads the Moranbong Band, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s favored performance troupe. 　Inter-Korean working-level talks on North Korean art troupe’s participation in the Winter Games convened at the northern side of the truce village of Panmunjeom after Pyongyang last week agreed to send a delegation including athletes, an art troupe, journalists and high-ran

Seoul seeks sanction on US with WTO as trade disputes pile up

South Korea’s government came under fire Friday for sending out confusing policy signals on bubble-prone cryptocurrency transactions, vexing investors and paralyzing market functions.While the Ministry of Justice reiterated its latest pledge to seek for the shutdown of cryptocurrency operators, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance put the brakes on drastic actions in an attempt to steady the market.“The shutdown of (cryptocurrency) exchanges,

LAS VEGAS -- LG Electronics’ chief said it will no longer set a regular timeline to launch smartphones as it has done over the past years, in an apparent strategic move to help its struggling smartphone business, which has been losing money for 11 straight quarters. “We will unveil new smartphones when it is needed. But we will not launch it just because other rivals do,” said LG Electronics Vice Chairman Cho Sung-jin on Wednesday during a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las

With North Korea set to join next month's Winter Olympics in the South, the Seoul government appears to be struggling with how to accommodate a large-scale delegation of North Korean officials and athletes without violating multiple-layered sanctions against Pyongyang.Some say that the government should consider easing sanctions temporarily as a way to facilitate a thaw in inter-Korean relations through the sporting event. There are still calls to not go so far as to undermine the international

As fan of Porsche, Tesla, Hyundai’s future leader says carmaker should make speedier decisions, like tech firms

The South Korean government said Tuesday that it will not seek to renegotiate the 2015 Korea-Japan deal on Korean victims of Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement, but reiterated that the controversial agreement cannot resolve the “comfort women” issue.　Sticking to the deal under which Japan apologized to the victims and provided 1 billion yen ($8.8 million) to a fund to support them, the Foreign Ministry said that it will replace Japan’s money for the victims from the government’s budget. 　“We can

Intel chief Brian Krzanich said Monday the impact of a recently discovered vulnerability in computer chips has been limited due to "remarkable" collaboration by the tech industry.Krzanich took the unusual step of addressing the security issue as he delivered a keynote ahead of the opening of the huge Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, an industry event expected to draw some 180,000 people from the sector. Intel chief Brian Krzanich (AFP)As yet, Krzanich said, there is no information to sugg

South Korea is expected to focus on North Korea’s participation in the PyeongChang Olympics, while seeking to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula during Tuesday’s inter-Korean meeting.Last week, North Korea accepted South Korea’s offer to hold their first high-level talks in more than two years. The meeting will take place at 10 a.m. on Tuesday at the truce village of Panmunjeom near the border after the North Korean delegates cross the military demarcation line around 9:30 a.m., according to

South Korea’s environmental quality, particularly air quality, is among the worst in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to its latest report. Seoul’s Namsan Tower is blanketed in thick smoke. (Yonhap)The report, titled “How’s Life,” pinpoints that Korea’s long-term unemployment rate also marks the lowest in the OECD, while labor market insecurity is also low. The country’s life expectancy at birth is high, at 82 years, but barely a third of people consider their

Young mobile shoppers in their 20s and 30s are increasingly choosing to open their wallets for products and services that offer small, instant pleasures rather than self-improvement products, data showed this week.According to social commerce firm Tmon, sales over the past two months shifted from self-improvement products such as health supplements and exercise equipment associated with New Year‘s resolutions to items that offer entertainment.In particular, board games and remote-controlled elec