As rumors of Kim Jong-un’s death circulated in April, some speculated that his sister and confidant, Kim Yo-jong, might soon succeed him as North Korea’s Supreme Leader. Perhaps still auditioning for the role, she has recently become North Korea’s chief saber rattler. Earlier this month, she escalated tensions with South Korea by cutting communications with Seoul and threatening military action over defectors’ distribution of anti-Pyongyang leaflets from across the border

Like the leading character in a long-running television series, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has kicked off the latest crisis on the Korean Peninsula with familiar theatrics. After cutting off all communications with South Korea earlier this month, the Kim regime bombed the building in which it had previously hosted South Korean diplomats. It has redeployed troops into demilitarized border areas and issued renewed threats of violence against the South. The latest displays of bombast follow

Countries all over the world have been rolling out large fiscal stimulus packages in response to the COVID-19 economic crisis. Some are using this as an opportunity to promote policies linked to environmentally sustainable growth, and build a greener, cleaner, and more resilient economy. The European Union announced a COVID-19 recovery package that places climate change at the center of what is considered the largest green stimulus program in history. By recently announcing its own recovery pl

US imports of automotive tires manufactured in South Korea fell by 2.2 percent on-year at $1.2 billion, data from Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency showed. Compared to Korea, countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico and Japan saw their exports of tires to US increase by 23 percent, 14.7 percent and 13.6 percent on-year, respectively. Earlier this week, the US Commerce Department announced that it has kicked off anti-dumping investigations on imports of tires from Korea, Taiwan, Thaila

About half of married couples in South Korea earned two incomes in 2019, data from Statistics Korea showed. Among 12.305 million households led by married couples, 5.662 million were dual-income, while 6.644 million were single-income. The ratio of dual-income families had inched down by 0.3 percentage points to 46 percent from 2018. The agency said although there was a slight decrease, the overall ratio of dual-income couples has been high in recent years. Last year’s decline is attr

This year’s gathering of world leaders for the United Nations General Assembly in New York has been called off. The news of the cancellation -- the first in the UN’s 75-year history -- came a week after a planned G-7 meeting at Camp David was scrapped, and a month after the G-20 abandoned plans for a virtual summit. At a time when the global nature of today’s most pressing challenges is more apparent than ever, the instruments of multilateralism are not just underperforming. Th

Nearly half of the manufacturing firms in South Korea feel that business conditions have deteriorated further compared to March-April, when the COVID-19 spread was at its peak, a survey by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry showed. The survey on 308 companies showed that 45.2 percent felt business conditions were harsher this month. Some 46.3 percent said they were similar, while only 8.5 percent saw an improvement. Automobiles and shipbuilding felt the strain the most in securing

The United States has for decades deployed large numbers of its military forces overseas. Today, some 170,000 troops are stationed in more than 150 countries. But the vast majority of them are based in just three nations: Germany, Japan and South Korea. That is no coincidence. During the last century, the United States fought devastating wars in all three countries, and its continued military presence there has ensured an enduring peace ever since. That peace has been the foundation of prosperi

Sherlock Company said it would continue to produce creative advertising campaigns that help resolve social problems through cutting-edge technology. The company was recently selected as a finalist in integrated marketing and environmental effort categories at the 2020 New York Advertising Festival, which is considered one of the world’s top three international advertising festivals. The New York Advertising Festival, started in 1957, is a major advertising awards event that attracts pa

According to Digieco, an economic research institute affiliated with KT, the size of mobile shopping in South Korea in the first quarter this year reached an all-time high at nearly 25 trillion won. The report was based on DMC Media’s data. Online transactions for food delivery services, in particular, showed a large growth reaching 3.5 trillion won as of the first quarter, compared to around 500 billion won in the first quarter of 2017. (khnews@heraldcorp.com)