If Friday’s IPO reaches daily upper limit, market cap of mobile-only bank might rise on par with Hyundai Motor

Seoul's temperature again remained above 25 C overnight, bringing the total number of tropical nights the city experienced this summer to 20, the state weather agency said Thursday. The capital logged a minimum temperature of 25.6 C between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). A tropical night occurs when the temperature does not fall below 25 C during the nighttime. The nighttime low was 27.4 C on the southern Jeju Island and 26.

Main opposition People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok warned the minor opposition People’s Party to not treat him like a kid as the two parties blamed each other for failing to discuss a merger. “I recommend to the People’s Party, ‘Salute the rank, not the man,’” Lee wrote on Facebook on Wednesday, quoting a line from the American war drama miniseries “Band of Brothers,” with a link to a scene in the series. “They (People’s Party) ca

GWANGJU -- A five-day funeral process began here on Wednesday for South Korean mountaineer Kim Hong-bin, who went missing in mid-July soon after becoming the world's first person with a disability to ascend all 14 eight-thousanders in the Himalayas. Kim's funeral will be held at Yeomju Gymnasium in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, until Sunday, according to the city government. Kim's memorial altar was set up on the first floor of the gym for mourners, with his mountaineering equipment

Democratic Party’s presidential hopefuls denounce Gov. Lee Jae-myung’s idea of handing out cash for all Gyeonggi residents

A pair of paintings disgracing the wife of leading conservative presidential hopeful Yoon Seok-youl have been whitewashed from the walls of a bookstore in central Seoul after they drew criticism of misogyny. Two paintings on the outer walls of the used bookstore in the district of Jongno were covered over in white paint Monday afternoon a few days after grabbing headlines for their disparaging depiction of Kim Keon-hee, wife of the former prosecutor general currently leading most presidential o

Police in the coming days will summon the head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions as they investigate the umbrella labor group’s rally last month for violating COVID-19 rules. Yang Kyung-soo, head of the KCTU, is scheduled to appear at Seoul Jongno Police Station by 2 p.m. on Wednesday for questioning, according to police on Monday. The timing of the meeting was reportedly at the request of Yang. Police asked Yang to appear for the investigation three times last month, but Yang

Ex-Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, a leading opposition presidential contender, is moving toward strengthening connections and support within the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) after becoming a member last week. Yoon, who resigned in March as prosecutor general over an extended feud with the ruling bloc over prosecution reform, signed up with the PPP on Friday after having campaigned as an independent for about a month. The PPP leadership and key members courted Yoon to join the pa

The number of Koreans who have suffered from mental disorders and eating disorders has risen in the pandemic, data showed Sunday. Last year, the number of people diagnosed with either depression, insomnia, anorexia or bulimia stood at 1,504,181, up by 67,233, or 4.67 percent, from the previous year, according to government data. The data, from the state-run Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, was disclosed by independent lawmaker Lee Yong-ho. Depression accounted for 55.7 perce

Department stores and big supermarkets will start requiring customers to scan QR codes or submit to written entry logs to shop starting from Friday in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19. The measure was drawn up and confirmed by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on Tuesday as a way to strengthen COVID-19 prevention efforts as cases continue to rise in South Korea. Stores that are bigger than 3,000 square meters are required to adopt a QR entry log system, while

Choe Jae-hyeong, former head of the state audit agency, will declare his bid to run for the presidency next week, opposition party officials said Friday. Choe will make the announcement through an online event Wednesday, about a month after he stepped down as chief of the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), hinting at his presidential ambitions. According to opposition party officials, Choe is in the final stages of drawing up his statement announcing the presidential bid. In the statement,

  South Korea’s main opposition party leader said Thursday that if former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl does not join the party next month, party members who have joined his camp will be expelled. People Power Party Chairman Lee Jun-seok said that as the party has finalized the primary in late August, he expects Yoon to join the PPP in August. “The No. 1 opposition party’s primary is like a public good. A celebrity can’t stop the bus. That’s not going to

The number of foreigners in South Korea decreased for a consecutive 19 months amid the pandemic to its lowest in five years and six months in June, according to statistics released by the Korea Immigration Service under the Justice Ministry. The foreign population in Korea stood at about 1.98 million in June, 0.3 percent less compared to May, and the lowest since December 2015 (1.89 million). The number peaked at 2.52 million in December 2019, but plunged by nearly 100,000 in January 2020 as C

The leader of the main opposition party said Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung was easier than former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon as a presidential candidate to compete against in next year’s election. Asked during a radio interview Monday evening which of the two ruling party presidential contenders he thought was “more comfortable to deal with,” People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok chose the governor. “If I say something like this, the Lee Jae-myung camp issues st

A majority of Koreans support the idea of granting parole to Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong on Aug. 15, the nation’s liberation day, a survey showed Monday. His release date is July next year. More than 66 percent of South Koreans said Lee, head of the nation’s largest conglomerate, should be released early as it would provide a boost to the economy, a nationwide survey conducted by Realmeter on Friday showed. Realmeter interviewed 500 people who were aged 18 or old