Singer-songwriter IU will release her new song "Night Letter," part of her upcoming fourth full-length album, this week, her agency said Monday. (Yonhap)The K-pop diva will release "Night Letter" on Friday, according to Loen-Fave Entertainment. The company released accompanying movie poster-like teaser images for the song on the artist's social media.IU's new album will be released on April 21. The singer is scheduled to release another song on April 7 before the entire album comes out.The upcom

Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" smashed the local box office on its opening weekend, taking up nearly 67 percent of all ticket sales, data showed Monday.The live-action version of the animated classic, starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, garnered 1.4 million views over the March 17-19 weekend, supplanting the previous No. 1, "Kong: Skull Island," according to the real-time based box office tally from the Korean Film Council. A promotional poster for "Beauty and the Beast" (Yonhap)The King Kong

South Korean idol rock band CNBLUE has unveiled a new teaser for its upcoming new song "Between Us." (Yonhap)The short clip uploaded on the website of FNC Entertainment, the group's agency, features the four band members performing the pop rock number in a live stage setting, transitioning between black-and-white and color footage. The song, part of CNBLUE's seventh EP album titled "7℃N," is about the emotional complexities two people face right before the start of a romantic relationship, commo

South Korea's defense ministry said Monday that North Korea's latest high-thrust rocket engine test was a "meaningful" advance in its weapons of mass destruction development program.The assessment came a day after Pyongyang's state media announced the successful testing of the new device at a missile site near the border with China, a move viewed as part of the secretive regime's preparations for another long-range rocket launch.A scene of North Korea's new rocket engine test.(KCNA-Yonhap) [For

South Korean footballer Heo Yong-joon said Monday he has high expectations for the national team debut in the upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifiers this month. Heo was a surprise pick by head coach Uli Stielike who announced his squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against China and Syria last week. South Korea will face China on the road on Thursday, before hosting Syria five days later for their Group A contests in the final Asian qualifying round.  South Korean footballer Heo Yong-joon s

Lee Jae-oh, a close ally of former President Lee Myung-bak, joined an already crowded field of conservative presidential candidates on Monday. The former five-term lawmaker declared his presidential bid unveiling a series of reform pledges, including reshaping South Korea's government structure criticized for giving inordinate power to a single national leader. Lee Jae-oh, a co-chair of the Ever-Green Korea Party, speaks during a press conference in Changwon. (Yonhap)Lee, a co-chair of the minor

South Korea's top mobile operator SK Telecom Co. said Monday it has decided to roll out joint marketing projects with The Pokemon Company to promote the popular mobile game that involves catching Japanese animated characters based on augmented-reality technology.In the "Pokemon Go" game, users walk around the streets to find and collect hundreds of characters called Pokemon, which combines computer-generated images with real-life backgrounds. The game has been considered a prime example of AR te

South Korea's fertility rate is one of the lowest in the world, data showed Monday, a sign that underscores a chronic problem facing Asia's fourth largest economy.South Korea's total fertility rate -- the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime -- stood at 1.25 in 2016, according to the CIA World Factbook.South Korea was ranked 220th out of 224 countries in the world in the category of birthrate. South Korea's total fertility rate is also the lowest among the Organization for Ec

Presidential frontrunner Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic Party garnered a record 36.6 percent approval rating last week maintaining his lead by a wide margin, according a poll released Monday.The former leader of the largest party in the National Assembly rose 1.5 percentage points in a weekly survey conducted by Realmeter ahead of the May 9 presidential vote.Moon has maintained the lead for 11 consecutive weeks.Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic Party (Yonhap)South Chungcheong Gov. An

Household power consumption remained almost the same for the first two months in 2017 from a year earlier despite the government lowering electricity rates in December, data showed Monday.The government reduced household electricity bills by about 11 percent in December by changing the six-tier cumulative residential electricity price system to a three-tier one to ease the financial burden on households.On-year household power consumption declined 0.7 percent to 5,602 gigawatts in December, whil

SM Group will acquire more companies, including overseas shippers, to beef up its status in the sector, its chief said Monday.The midsized South Korean shipping group has been taking over a series of financially troubled companies over the past few years, to emerge as a major player in the domestic shipping industry, currently under financial strain amid falling rates and a drawn-out slump in the global economy. SM Group chairman Woo Oh-heun (right) speaks during a press conference in Busan on J

The combined market capitalization of 23 Samsung Group affiliates has gained 12.1 percent so far this year, helped by a rally in the group's crown jewel, Samsung Electronics Co., according to the Korea Exchange on Monday. Shares of Samsung Electronics have continued to rise in the past few weeks buoyed by expectations about an improvement in its corporate governance structure, strong demand for semiconductors and an upcoming launch of the Galaxy S8 smartphone. As of last Tuesday, the combined ma

South Korean striker Lee Jeong-hyeop said Monday he is confident of scoring goals in the upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifier against China with his fine league form. Lee is one of the 23 players selected for South Korea's 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against China and Syria this month. The Taeguk Warriors will first take on China on the road on Thursday, before hosting Syria on March 28 in the final Asian qualifying round for the FIFA World Cup in Russia. Sixteen players already departed for Cha

Diesel cars are locked in a tight race with gasoline-powered models for a bigger slice of South Korea's imported vehicle market as diesel cars increasingly lose favor with local motorists following "dieselgate" in 2015, data showed Monday.According to the industry data, 8,058 imported gasoline cars were sold in January, compared with sales of 7,147 diesel vehicles. Mercedes-Benz' the new E300 sedan (Mercedes-Benz)It marked the first time in four and a half years that sales of gasoline vehicles o

South Korea's young students are roughly five times more likely to be addicted to the Internet, compared to Japanese youths, a study showed Monday, prompting calls for stronger countermeasures against the possible social repercussions in the densely wired nation.The study, conducted by a team led by Choi Jeong-seok at Boramae Medical Center in Seoul, was based on the so-called K-Scale, a checklist used to diagnose and evaluate the rate of Internet addiction throughout the population of South Kor