WASHINGTON -- US President Joe Biden currently does not have a trilateral summit planned with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, but such a meeting could be possible as he will join a small group of global leaders in Britain, Biden's top security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Monday. The remarks came as Biden is set to head for Britain on Wednesday for the Group of 7 (G7) summit in Cornwall. South Korea is not a G7 member but is invited to this year's meeting as a guest, along with Aus

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a consultative meeting with top officials to discuss economic policies for the second half of the year ahead of a key party meeting, state media said Tuesday. Kim urged the officials to make "devoted efforts" to improve the economy at the meeting Monday with senior officials of the Central Committee and provincial committees of the ruling Workers' Party, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). "The consultative meeting, o

Jeju Air Co., South Korea's biggest budget carrier by sales, said Tuesday it has resumed flights to Saipan in a preemptive measure to absorb post-coronavirus travel demand. Jeju Air started to provide one flight a week on the Incheon-Saipan route on the day following permission from the transport ministry, a company spokesman said over the phone. "We expect most of the initial passengers to be businessmen, Koreans residing overseas and their family members. But pent-up demand for travel (

South Korea's current account surplus sharply narrowed in April as higher oil prices increased the country's import bill, the central bank said Tuesday. The current account surplus reached $1.91 billion in April, narrowing from a surplus of $7.82 billion the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade. Since the country logged a deficit of $3.33 billion in April last year, the largest in almost a decade, on faltering e

The state anti-corruption watchdog said Monday it has identified 12 ruling party lawmakers suspected of having engaged in illegal real estate dealings, following a party-wide probe conducted in the wake of a public sector land speculation scandal in March. The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced that it identified 16 alleged speculation cases linked to 12 members of the Democratic Party (DP) and that it has relayed the information to a separate police-led special government in

Yang Hyun-suk, former CEO of K-pop powerhouse YG Entertainment, will face a criminal trial for allegedly attempting to cover up a drug scandal involving a singer-rapper, judicial sources said Monday. According to the sources, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office indicted Yang on May 28 on charges of having threatened and coerced an informant who testified to police about drug suspicions surrounding B.I, the former songwriting leader of YG's boy band iKON, in August 2016. At the time,

The Gyeonggi provincial government's plan to turn an inter-Korean border area into a "farmland of peace" and grow rice there for North Korea could create positive conditions for further inter-Korean cooperation, the unification ministry said Monday. The provincial government is pushing ahead with the project in cooperation with the Korean Peasants League to transform the area near the Gunnam Dam built in the South Korean border town of Yeoncheon, 62 kilometers north of Seoul, to cope

The culture ministry on Monday unveiled a plan to introduce a self-rating system for online video streaming service providers so they can shorten the time needed to circulate new releases. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said it will propose a law revision to allow video content service providers to evaluate and classify their soon-to-be-released series and shows, based on criteria set by the state-run Korea Media Rating Board (KMRB). Currently, all motion pictures and creative wor

Thousands of unionized parcel delivery workers arrived late at work Monday and refused to sort packages as they urged logistics firms to quickly finalize a deal on their working conditions. The Parcel Delivery Workers' Solidarity Union said that starting Monday, around 6,500 couriers nationwide would start work at 9 a.m. instead of 7 a.m., and head out to make deliveries at 11 a.m. instead of after noon, without sorting parcels in between. Between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., the workers will load parc

South Korea's stock market closed at an all-time high Monday as weaker-than-expected US jobs data helped ease concerns over the potential rollback of the country's expansive monetary policy. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) advanced 12.04 points, or 0.37 percent, to close at 3,252.12 points, marking the highest closing ever. Trading volume was high at about 1.7 billion shares worth some 18.8 trillion won ($16.9 billion), with lo

South Korea remains open to discussing solutions for wartime forced labor issues with Japan, the foreign ministry said Monday, after a local court dismissed a compensation lawsuit filed by a group of victims. The Seoul Central District Court dropped the case filed by 85 plaintiffs against 16 Japanese companies, including Nippon Steel Corp. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp. It ruled that while their individual rights to damage claims may not be precluded by the 1965 bilateral agreement that inclu

President Moon Jae-in said Monday that 36 million South Koreans will get at least the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines by September. The number represents 70 percent of the nation's population. Moon raised the possibility that more than 14 million people will be inoculated by the end of June, chairing a special interagency meeting on the coronavirus prevention and control at Cheong Wa Dae, the third of its kind. If achieved, fatality rates and the number of additional infections would decline

A local court on Monday dismissed a damages suit launched by 85 South Korean victims of wartime forced labor in Japan and their families against 16 Japanese companies, saying the plaintiffs don't have litigation rights. The Seoul Central District Court said South Korean wartime forced laborers cannot claim individual legal rights to damages from Japan, while deciding to reject their collective suit. The 85 forced labor victims and their families started their damages suit against 16 Japanese c

South Korean retail giants Shinsegae and Lotte Shopping submitted their bids to take over South Korea's third largest e-commerce retailer, eBay Korea, a deal that will shake up the country's e-commerce retail segment, retail industry sources said Monday. According to the sources, the two retail behemoths submitted their letters of intent (LOIs) for the Korean unit of eBay. SK Telecom, South Korea's No. 1 mobile carrier, and MBK Partners, private equity firm and largest shareholder of discount s

Police said Monday they have started to regulate life-size sex doll "experience" shops, popping up around the country following court decisions to allow the import of the sex toys. The National Police Agency said the crackdown will continue for two months, jointly with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and local governments. As the import of sex dolls, as well as running shops that allow customers to use the sex toys, is all legal under the current laws, however, the police