South Korean karate practitioner Park Hee-jun has earned the qualification for the Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first Korean to book an Olympic spot in the category, a sports association here said Sunday. Park, 27, qualified for the upcoming games after winning a bronze in male kata at an Olympic qualification tournament that took place in Paris on Saturday (local time), according to the Korea Karate Federation. Kata is a non-sparring karate event in which practitioners demonstrate the Japanes

South Korea's exports of automobiles jumped nearly 58 percent in May on the back of strong demand for eco-friendly cars and SUVs, data showed Sunday. Outbound shipments of automobiles reached 150,894 units in May, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. In terms of value, exports nearly doubled to reach $3.49 billion. The ministry attributed the growth to the strong performance of electric cars, along with Hyundai Motor Co.'s independent Genesis brand. The rebound also came o

South Korea's insects industry grew 2 percent in 2020 from a year earlier, data showed Sunday, amid growing popularity of insects-based foodstuffs. The combined sales of local insect-related companies reached 41.4 billion won ($37.1 million) in 2020, up from 40.5 billion won a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Around half of them were used to produce insects-based foodstuffs for people, and 10 percent of them were raised as pet

The race to take over eBay Korea, the third-largest e-commerce operator, is expected to come to an end this week, in a deal that will shake up the country's e-commerce retail segment, retail industry sources said Sunday. According to the sources, two retail behemoths -- Shinsegae and Lotte Shopping -- submitted their letters of intent (LOIs) for the Korean unit of eBay. EBay may decide to pick a preferred bidder this week. The bidding marks the second attempt by eBay to sell off its Korean uni

Middle schools in the greater Seoul area are set to increase the portion of students attending in-person classes starting Monday ahead of the government's plan to fully resume classes from the fall semester, according to educational officials. Under the plan, the cap on in-person attendance will increase from one-third of registered students to two-thirds under the Level 2 social distancing guidelines, enabling more students to take part in in-person classes, the education ministry and local ed

Budget carrier Eastar Jet Co. may pick a preferred bidder next week after reviewing plans from several investors to take over the financially troubled company, industry sources said Sunday. Easter Jet, currently under a court-led rehabilitation scheme, has received letters of intent from several companies, including a consortium led by Kanglim, a local equipment maker under underwear company Ssang Bang Wool, and other private equity funds, according to industry sources. Several companies have

The top diplomats of South Korea and the United States have reaffirmed the goal of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and agreed to deepen cooperation on vaccine distribution and Myanmar, the foreign ministry said Sunday. Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, held talks on the margins of the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Britain on Saturday to discuss an array of issues, including follow-up measures to last month' summit between Presidents Mo

South Korea's daily new virus cases dropped below 500 Sunday for the first time in four days due to fewer tests over the weekend, and health authorities plan to exempt people who were fully vaccinated overseas from mandatory two-week isolation from July. The country reported 452 more COVID-19 cases, including 419 local infections, raising the total caseload to 147,874, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Sunday's tally marked a sharp decrease from Saturday's 565 cases

The European Union's (EU) antitrust regulator has not yet resumed its review of the proposed merger between South Korea's two leading shipbuilders, putting its decision on hold for nearly a year. The EU Competition Commission has stopped the clock in its in-depth investigation into the $1.8 billion acquisition of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) by Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Co. (HHIH) since July 3, 2020. "The clock is still stopped," Maria Tsoni, a spo

South Korea is joining a trilateral air drill involving the United States and Japan that is now in full swing in Alaska after the annual exercise was scaled down last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Indo-Pacific Command said Saturday. The Red Flag exercise hosted by the US Pacific Air Forces runs from June 10-25 in Alaska to improve the three countries' interoperability and support security in the Indo-Pacific Region, the US command said. "A series of commander-directed field t

President Moon Jae-in sent a congratulatory telegram to South Korean archbishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik, who has become the first Korean appointed to a secretary position at the Vatican, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Saturday. Pope Francis appointed You, chief of the diocese of Daejeon in central South Korea, as the new prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy earlier this week. It is the first time that a South Korean has been appointed to a secretary position at the

Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine supplied to South Korea was not produced in a troubled Baltimore factory that was forced to throw out about 60 million doses over possible contamination, the health ministry said Saturday. South Korea has been administering Janssen's single-shot vaccine since Thursday to reserve forces, civil defense members and others in charge of defense and foreign affairs after the US. government donated 1 million doses to Korean armed forces. A total of 45

South Korea's daily new virus cases remained under 600 for the second straight day Saturday, as health authorities have decided to extend the current social distancing rules for another three weeks to stem cluster infections. The country reported 565 more COVID-19 cases, including 525 local infections, raising the total caseload to 147,422, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. The daily tally marked an increase of nine from Friday's 556 cases but stayed in the mid-500s for the

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has presided over a Central Military Commission meeting of the ruling Workers' Party and called for a "high alert posture" against the "fast-changing" situation on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported Saturday. During the meeting held on Friday, Kim also discussed "important tasks" to make "a fresh turn in the overall work of national defence," the official Korean Central News Agency said without elaborating on w

South Korea will offer $200,000 in humanitarian aid to Madagascar to help combat food shortages caused by a recent drought, the foreign ministry said Friday. Southern Madagascar is suffering its worst drought in about 40 years, and more than 1.3 million people, almost half of the population, are facing acute food insecurity, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). OCHA also warned that around 130,000 children aged five and younger are acutely