The employment rate of North Korean defectors in South Korea fell 3.8 percent last year amid the coronavirus pandemic, the unification ministry said Tuesday. The ministry released the latest data in a new master plan on settlement support for North Korea defectors for 2021-2023 and the implementation plan for this year. The employment rate of North Korean defectors last year was 54.4 percent, down from the previous year's 58.2 percent, behind that of South Korean-born citizens (60.4 percent).

One member of the South Korean national women's hockey team tested positive for the new coronavirus Tuesday, a local government said. The athlete, in her 20s, received the positive result while training in Jecheon, about 170 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to the city government. On Monday, she got tested for the virus after being notified that she had come into contact with a COVID-19 patient living in Goyang, just north of Seoul. The national team has been training at a hockey stad

Hybe Edu, an affiliate of K-pop powerhouse Hybe, plans to develop learning material for Korean classes at overseas elementary and middle schools, the company said Tuesday. The company said it recently signed a business partnership with the International Korean Education Foundation to develop support material for Korean language classes at overseas schools. The new learning material will be distributed at elementary and middle schools abroad through Seoul's education ministry starting early nex

South Korean President Moon Jae-in will make a five-day trip to the United States this week for his first face-to-face summit talks with his American counterpart, Joe Biden, Cheong Wa Dae announced Tuesday. Their summit will be held at the White House on Friday afternoon (local time) followed by a joint press conference, according to Chung Man-ho, senior Cheong Wa Dae secretary for public communication. Moon plans to leave for the US capital on Wednesday afternoon. He is scheduled to begin hi

Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday unveiled new power-controlling chips that minimize overall power consumption while boosting performance of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). The world's largest memory chip producer said its three power management integrated circuit (PMIC) products -- S2FPD01, S2FPD02, and S2FPC01 -- are available for DDR5 DRAM modules. A PMIC is an integrated circuit that receives the main power input and distributes the power to each electronics part with efficiency an

A civilian worker for the military tested positive for the new coronavirus even though he received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, marking the fifth such case among the military population, the defense ministry said Tuesday. The employee working on an Army base in the southern city of Busan was confirmed to have been infected after coming into contact with one of his colleagues who earlier tested positive, according to the ministry. He got the first jab of AstraZeneca's vaccine late la

A North Korean propaganda outlet on Tuesday described a 1980 pro-democracy uprising in South Korea as a "historic event" in the anti-fascism movement, highlighting people's fearless fight in the face of a bloody crackdown. On Tuesday, South Korea marks the 41st anniversary of the May 18 uprising in the southwestern city of Gwangju quelled ruthlessly by the military junta led by then Gen. Chun Doo-hwan. The crackdown left more than 200 people killed and 1,800 others wounded. "The

Audio-based social networking service Clubhouse will launch on Google's Android operating system in South Korea this week, its US-based developer Alpha Exploration Co. said Tuesday, in a move to expand its growing user base. While the app had previously been available only on iPhones, the company said it will upload a beta version of the app available for download on Google Play in South Korea on Wednesday. The audio social media app, in which users enter rooms to chat with one another by voic

With his first career PGA Tour win in the bag, South Korean golfer Lee Kyoung-hoon will be chasing another victory of sorts: a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics in summer. By winning the AT&T Byron Nelson in Texas on Sunday, Lee soared from 137th to 59th in the world rankings. That massive jump made Lee the third-highest ranked South Korean player, behind Im Sung-jae (No. 23) and Kim Si-woo (No. 50). That's an important development because Lee is now in the mix for one of two South Korean spots

When Texas Rangers' South Korean pitcher Yang Hyeon-jong makes his next appearance this week, he'll once again be asked to eat up multiple innings out of the bullpen. In his pregame Zoom call before hosting the New York Yankees in Arlington, Texas, on Monday (local time), Rangers manager Chris Woodward said Yang will take the mound Wednesday for the third game of the four-game series -- not as a starter but as a "bulk" guy, a fairly new term for a pitcher who takes the ball in the sec

K-pop supergroup BTS is set to appear as the first performer on a summer concert series hosted by the popular American TV show "Good Morning America." The seven-piece act is among a lineup of more than 20 musicians who will be performing at this year's series that will run through August. BTS will perform on May 28. BTS is not a new comer to the annual summer concert series. In 2019, the group put on a live performance of two hit tracks, "Boy with Luv" and "Fire,"

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases fell below 600 on Tuesday on fewer tests over the weekend, but health authorities remained alert over a potential hike amid continued cluster inflections and spreading variant cases. The country reported 528 more COVID-19 cases, including 506 local infections, raising the total caseload to 132,818, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. There was one additional virus death, raising the total to 1,904. The fatality rate came to 1.4

South Korean stocks opened higher Tuesday as institutional investors sought to pick up oversold shares after the index declined the previous session amid lingering inflation concerns. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 16.13 points, or 0.51 percent, to 3,150.65 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The local index rebounded, led by institutional buying, after the KOSPI dipped 0.6 percent the previous session, shrugging off an overnight decline on Wall Street. In

President Moon Jae-in commemorated the anniversary of a 1980 pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju on Tuesday with a call for finding the truth behind the bloody crackdown by soldiers and recovery of victims' honor. Thanks to "courageous" testimonies by some of those involved, "We are coming close to the truth of Gwangju," Moon wrote on his Facebook and Twitter accounts in commemoration of the May 18 Democratization Movement. In Gwangju, 329 kilometers south of Seoul, at that t

South Korea's low-cost carriers suffered an extended loss in the first quarter as the coronavirus continued to weigh on travel demand, data showed Tuesday, raising concerns over their ability to stay afloat even after the pandemic. Budget carriers have grounded most of their flights on international routes since early 2020 as many countries placed restrictions amid virus fears, facing cutthroat competition for cheap domestic flights. While the nation's full-service carriers have managed to ma