South Korean renewed its all-time record for the second straight day Tuesday, backed by investors' optimism for the US Federal Reserve meeting this week. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 6.5 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 3,258.63 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.7 billion shares worth some 14.5 trillion won ($13 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 443 to 399. Foreigners sold a net 154 billion won

Financially troubled SsangYong Motor Co. said Tuesday it will launch its first electric vehicle (EV) in Europe later this year as it seeks to speed up its sales process and survive in the changing business environment. SsangYong said it named the EV variant of the Korando EV the Korando Emotion and has begun domestic production to first target the European market in October. SsangYong said it has also been developing an all-electric SUV with a goal of launching it next year to join the global

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) said Tuesday it will seek to pass legislation this month to expand alternative statutory holidays. The legislative initiative, if approved, will enable the designation of official alternative holidays for a broader range of national holidays that fall on weekends, according to party officials. Currently, alternative statutory holidays are allowed only for Chuseok, Korea's autumn harvest celebration, Lunar New Year's Day and Children's Day in May in the case th

Japan committed a "discourtesy" by canceling agreed-upon talks between President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga during the recent Group of Seven (G-7) summit in Britain, the head of South Korea's state diplomatic academy said Tuesday. Kim Joon-hyung, chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, also said on a local radio station that it is "diplomatically impolite" for Japan to press the South to accept its demands in a row over wartime forced

South Korea plans to deploy moving robots on guard missions and establish an artificial intelligence (AI)-based surveillance system in border areas to beef up border security, the arms procurement agency said Tuesday. Under the "rapid acquisition" project worth 2.8 billion won ($2.5 million), the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) decided to introduce the two items this year that employ state-of-the-art technologies. The robot is designed to move along a rail at a spee

SEJONG -- Teachers punished for sexual misconduct will be banned from becoming homeroom teachers for a maximum of 10 years, the education ministry said Tuesday. According to the ministry, the Cabinet approved revised enforcement decrees of the Educational Officials Act and the Private School Act to enhance students' safety and prevent secondary damage from sex-related crimes at school. Under the revision, teachers who have been dismissed or expelled from their posts due to sex offenses, inclu

South Korea's money supply continued to grow in April, as loans to households and firms increased amid the COVID-19 pandemic, central bank data showed Tuesday. The country's M2 stood at 3,363.7 trillion won ($3 trillion) as of end-April, up 1.5 percent from a month earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). From a year earlier, M2 jumped 11.4 percent, the BOK said. A key economic indicator closely monitored by authorities, M2 is a measure of the money supply that

The unification ministry urged North Korea on Tuesday to restore inter-Korean communication lines immediately as this week marks one year since the cross-border communication lines were suspended. On June 16 last year, the North vowed to cut off all communication lines with the South and even blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in its border city of Kaesong in anger over anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets coming in from the South. "The inter-Korean communication channel must be immedia

South Korea's exports of strawberries rose nearly 25 percent on-year in the first five months of this year on the back of robust output and rising demand amid the pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The country's exports of strawberries reached $49 million in the January-May period, up 24.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The gain was mainly attributable to an increase in strawberry output and the use of chartered flights for outbound s

Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday released a new multi-chip package (MCP) memory product for use in 5G smartphones as the South Korean tech giant tries to better target the fast-growing handset market. The world's largest memory chip producer said it has begun mass-producing low-power double data rate 5 (LPDDR5) universal flash storage (UFS) MCP that integrates high-performance DRAM and NAND flash memory chips in a single compact package. The latest MCP comes with Samsung's LPDDR5 mobile DR

Seven soldiers from the same Army base in the central city of Nonsan tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Tuesday. They were confirmed to have been infected while being in isolation after coming into contact with a colleague who earlier tested positive, according to the ministry. "All of them tested negative in a test carried out upon their enlistment and have been quarantined at the same space. But one of them tested positive in a second test last week, and

Military prosecutors questioned 10 Air Force service members and officials in connection with the suicide of a sexually harassed noncommissioned officer amid suspicions they mishandled the sexual abuse case or attempted to hush it up, the defense ministry said Tuesday. The ministry also said that about 100 people at the two Air Force units, where the victim had worked, went through internal probes last week in an indication that more people would be formally called in for questioning. The fema

South Korea on Tuesday extended its special advisory against overseas travel for another month amid the continued spread of the new coronavirus, the foreign ministry said. The measure, which calls for citizens to cancel or postpone trips abroad, will remain in effect until July 15. The current advisory was set to expire Tuesday. The extension came as many countries around the world continue to restrict the entry of people arriving from overseas amid the continued spread of COVID-19, the minist

South Korea plans to expand investment in research and development (R&D) of key future technologies, such as system semiconductors, as part of the country's key digital policy projects, a senior government official said Tuesday. Without elaborating on the amount of the investment, First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon said the country will focus on sharpening its competitive edge in new industries, including artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors and super high speed computers. Sou

LG Uplus Corp., a major South Korean mobile carrier, said Tuesday it has joined hands with IT affiliate LG CNS Co. to develop call center services that use artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The service incorporates AI technology, such as speech recognition and synthesis as well as natural language processing, to respond to user questions and requests and can replace simple, repetitive tasks handled by call center agents. LG Uplus said it has accumulated the technology through its automa