The number of accidents involving e-scooters more than tripled between 2018 and 2020 in Seoul, fire authorities said Wednesday. The Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters said it responded to 366 e-scooter accidents over the three years: 57 in 2018, 117 in 2019 and 192 in 2020. The increase is in line with growing public use of the personal mobility devices. Collisions between e-scooters and cars occurred the most frequently, accounting for 107 cases, or 29.2 percent of the total.

South Korea said Wednesday it plans to provide consulting services for exporters of antivirus products in efforts to foster the biohealth sector as a new growth engine. Under the plan, the government will launch a joint consultative group with the private sector, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The country's exports of biohealth products, which include COVID-19 test kits, came to $14 billion in 2020, soaring 54.4 percent from a year earlier. The latest move came as so

South Korea's top economic policymaker said Wednesday the country will permit people who will travel overseas for business for more than a year to receive COVID-19 vaccines before their departure. Currently, the country has given priority for vaccinations to businesspeople who will stay overseas to work for less than three months. The move is aimed at helping ease the burden of companies, which may balk at planning overseas business trips due to the pandemic, according to Finance Minister Hong

A large-scale maritime defense exhibition kicked off in South Korea on Wednesday, featuring advanced defense systems from major global firms, the Navy said. The biennial International Maritime Defense Industry Exhibition (MADEX) 2021 is scheduled to run through Saturday in the southern city of Busan. The Navy organized the event along with the Busan city government and the Korea International Trade Association. This year's event brought together around 110 major maritime defense companies from

British rock band Coldplay has unveiled a music video for its new song "Higher Power" featuring South Korean dance group Ambiguous Dance Company. The 4 minute, 16 second clip, uploaded on the band's official YouTube channel on Tuesday (local time), shows lead singer Chris Martin dancing alongside members of the Korean dance group. The music video by award-winning director Dave Meyers is a short science-fiction film set in a devastated future city. The dancers appear as hologram image

A South Korean working at an American military base here has tested positive for the new coronavirus, US Forces Korea (USFK) said. The contractor at US Army Garrison Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, around 70 kilometers south of Seoul, was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 on Friday after close contact with an individual who tested positive earlier, according to the US military. The confirmed patient last visited the base on Thursday and is now in isolation at a facility designated for coronavirus

KT Corp., a South Korean telecom giant, said Wednesday it has partnered with global cloud service operator Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS) in a move to bolster its push to develop artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud technologies. The two companies agreed to pursue joint research in AI and cloud technologies as well as collaboration in media businesses, KT said in a statement. The telecom operator said it plans to launch a contact center service that combines its AI-based contact center servi

North Korea's official newspaper called Wednesday for drawing up science and technology development plans in a way that truly contributes to economic growth and production, saying some plans are put together in a "perfunctory" manner. "Some units have shown a tendency of drawing up plans for the development of science and technology in a perfunctory manner without concrete calculations," the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the ruling Workers' Party, said. "Rather than mak

South Korea's daily new virus cases bounced back to over 600 Wednesday due to sporadic cluster infections as the country's inoculation drive gains traction on increased vaccine supply. The country reported 602 more COVID-19 cases, including 581 local infections, raising the total caseload to 145,692, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Wednesday's figure was sharply up from 454 cases Tuesday. Daily cases here usually spike from Wednesday as more people get tested. Dai

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun won the 2021 Autocar Awards' top accolade, the Issigonis Trophy, for his contribution to the global automotive industry, the company said Wednesday. Named after legendary car designer Sir Alec Issigonis, the trophy is awarded by Autocar to an individual who has played a significant role in helping to shape the future of the auto industry. "Chung has overseen the Hyundai Motor Group, whose brands include Hyundai, Kia and Genesis, in transforming in

South Korea will allow overseas group tours of fully vaccinated citizens to nations with stable virus response measures as early as in July, as the COVID-19 vaccination campaign picks up speed across the nation, the prime minister said Wednesday. "Starting in July, we plan to allow group travel of fully vaccinated people through consultations between nations with stable antivirus conditions," Kim Boo-kyum said during a daily interagency meeting on the country's coronavirus response.

South Korean stocks opened lower Wednesday as the central bank revised up the country's gross domestic product, stoking market concerns of early inflation. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 6.43 points, or 0.2 percent, to 3,241.4 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Investor appetite for risk assets decreased, following the Bank of Korea's report that South Korea's economy grew 1.7 percent in the first quarter from three months earlier, 0.1 percentage point hig

South Korea's electricity demand rose more than 7 percent in May from a year earlier amid a gradual economic recovery, data showed Wednesday. The country's maximum power demand averaged 63,388 megawatts (MW) last month, up 7.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Electric Power Statistics Information System. The May tally was down a mere 0.5 percentage point from May 2019, meaning power demand in Asia's fourth-largest economy has almost recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

South Korea reported job growth for the third straight month in May, data showed Wednesday, in the latest sign that the job market is recovering from slumps caused by the pandemic. The number of employed people reached 27.6 million last month, 619,000 more than a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The May addition was lower than the previous month's 652,000 increase, the largest job growth in almost seven years. In March, the number of working people increased b

South Korea's economy grew slightly faster than expected in the first quarter, thanks to a robust recovery of exports and facility investment, inching the nation's economic growth closer to the pre-pandemic level, central bank data showed Wednesday. Asia's fourth-largest economy grew 1.7 percent in the first quarter from three months earlier, 0.1 percentage point higher than earlier expected, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The country's annualized growth in the Jan