Lee Jun-seok, a 36-year-old politician with no experience as a lawmaker, swept to victory Friday in the primary for the upcoming election to pick the new chairman of the main opposition party. Lee was among the final five candidates selected through opinion polls to compete in the People Power Party's (PPP) chairman election on June 11, according to the party's election management committee. The former member of the party's supreme council was followed by former four-term lawmaker Na Kyung-won

South Korea plans to extend a cut in the consumption tax on passenger cars by another six months in a bid to boost domestic demand hit by the pandemic, the finance minister said Friday. A 30 percent cut in the consumption tax on the purchase of passenger cars is supposed to expire at the end of June, but the country will extend it until the end of this year, according to Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki. In July 2018, the government slashed the auto consumption tax to 3.5 percent from 5 percent an

Vice Justice Minister Lee Yong-gu offered to resign Friday, after he was embroiled in a controversy over unpunished assault against a taxi driver. The justice ministry announced the news, without detailing reasons for his abrupt resignation. In a short statement sent to reporters, Lee said he was resigning because he believed the ministry "badly" needed a "new worker" who could help the ministry to reinvent itself for the remaining one year of the Moon Jae-in government.

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) and the government on Friday decided to abolish a controversial housing supply program for public sector employees relocating to the central administrative city of Sejong, calling it an "excessive privilege." The decision was reached in a policy consultation meeting between the DP, the government and Cheong Wa Dae held at the National Assembly. The special benefit program has recently been under intense scrutiny after it was revealed that an affiliate

BTS is set to release what its label called a "Hotter" remix of its latest single "Butter" that has been making a splash around the globe. The new version leans more toward electro dance, offering a different charm from the upbeat and vibrant original track, according to Big Hit Music. The release is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday, exactly a week after the seven-piece act rolled out "Butter" globally on May 21. A music video for the remix is also set for release at 1

Samsung Electronics Co. was the world's second-largest vendor of wearable devices in the first quarter of the year, a report showed Friday, on the back of its wireless earbuds sales. The South Korean tech giant moved ahead of China's Xiaomi Corp. for the first time to take the runner-up spot with a market share of 11.8 percent, which was up 0.6 percentage point from a year earlier, according to the latest report from market researcher International Data Corp. (IDC). Samsung shipped 11.8 millio

South Korea's new daily coronavirus cases fell below 600 on Friday, but sporadic cluster infections traced to entertainment facilities still hampered the virus fight, sparking concerns over yet another uptick in additional cases. The country reported 587 more COVID-19 cases, including 571 local infections, raising the total caseload to 138,898, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The daily caseload stood at 629 cases the previous day after reporting a nearly two-week h

South Korean stocks opened higher Friday, tracking overnight Wall Street gains that stemmed from strong US economic data and upcoming federal spending plans. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 18.56 points, or 0.59 percent, to reach 3,184.07 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The Dow Industrial Average gained 0.41 percent, as jobless data declined to a fresh pandemic low, and the S&P 500 edged up 0.12 percent. The world's largest economy will soon reveal

The South Korean unit of Apple Inc. will run a trade-in program to woo LG Electronics Inc.'s smartphone users, industry insiders said Friday, in a move to expand its presence on the home turf of Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest smartphone vendor. Apple's smartphone exchange scheme with local mobile carriers will pay the trade-in value of a mobile device and an additional 150,000 won ($135) to those who replace their LG smartphones with iPhones, according to the sources in the teleco

South Korea has proposed the establishment of a multinational reserve of medical supplies to respond to future health emergencies during a regional cooperation forum, the foreign ministry said Friday. Seoul made the proposal at the third virtual session of the Northeast Asia Conference on Health Security on Thursday. The forum was launched in December based on an initiative that President Moon Jae-in suggested to foster joint efforts to handle pandemics and other challenges. Diplomatic and hea

WASHINGTON -- North Korea continues to build up its ballistic missile capability, which poses "real danger" to the US mainland, the top US military commander said Thursday. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said the North is showing no signs of giving up its efforts to bolster its military capability. North Korea "continues to enhance its ballistic missile capability and possesses the technical capacity to present a real danger to the US homeland

South Korea on Thursday launched an innovative pilot program to help non-priority people receive AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines made available from canceled appointments, but the so-called leftover vaccines can hardly be found in reality, many citizens said. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency began the test operation of the search and reservation system for AstraZeneca vaccines available from appointment no-shows through the country's largest web portal Naver and top mobile messenge

South Korean stocks closed a tad lower Thursday, as investors wait for key economic data from the United States later this week, which is widely seen as a gauge for a potential rate hike. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 2.92 points, or 0.09 percent, to close at 3,165.51 points. Trading volume was high at about 1.1 billion shares worth some 19.9 trillion won ($17.8 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 496 to 360. Fo

President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that South Korea needs to maintain expansionary fiscal policy for the time being despite a hike in national debts attributable to the response to COVID-19. He emphasized that the role of state budget spending is important amid the crisis, speaking at the outset of an annual meeting on fiscal strategy. It was convened to review fiscal policy, set the direction of next year’s budget plans and discuss midterm fiscal strategy for the period of 2021-25. He

President Moon Jae-in formally asked lawmakers Thursday to send a report on the results of their confirmation hearing on his pick to become prosecutor general. Moon requested that the National Assembly forward the report by next Monday under a related law, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Park Kyung-mee. He earlier nominated Kim Oh-soo, former vice justice minister, to lead the state prosecution service, a position that has been vacant since the sudden resignation of Yoon Seok-youl in