South Korea held a public hearing on Tuesday on its bid to join a global pact on the digital trade sector that covers a wider array of issues beyond conventional free trade agreements. The hearing came as South Korea plans to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), which centers on expanding ties in the digital trade segment among its members, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The DEPA, which currently covers Singapore, New Zealand and Chile, came into eff

Yang Hyeon-jong may have to wait a few more days before making his next start for the Texas Rangers. With right-hander Kohei Arihara landing on the 10-day injured list (IL) over the weekend, Yang appeared to be in line to make a spot start this week against the Houston Astros. The South Korean left-hander pitched 3 1/3 solid innings against the Minnesota Twins in place of Arihara last Wednesday, following two bullpen appearances. Instead, manager Chris Woodward said Monday (US local time) that

North Korea has stepped up efforts to produce and distribute electricity more efficiently, state media said Tuesday, amid a chronic power shortage and challenges in meeting the country's five-year economic goals. Tongil Voice, a North Korean propaganda radio broadcast, said that the power transmission and distribution department in South Hamgyong Province has successfully established a database to introduce a geographic information system for improving efficiency in the province at the end of

The military is expected to wrap up giving the first jabs of coronavirus vaccines to service members aged 30 and older this week, the defense ministry said Tuesday. As of Monday, 93 percent of about 114,000 service members, who are eligible for the first round of vaccination and agreed to take it, have had their first jabs of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine since the campaign began late last month, according to the ministry. "The vaccine administration will be completed this week,"

South Korea said Tuesday it has decided to lower the alert level for highly pathogenic avian influenza as no new cases have been reported for more than a month. The alert level for the animal disease was lowered to "blue" from the previous "red" Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. South Korea operates a four-tier alert level system for animal diseases, namely blue, yellow, orange and red. Blue is the lowest level, while red is the hig

A state-run defense development agency said Tuesday it has developed a new technology for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to autonomously steer clear of threats and dangers. The technology allows UAVs to automatically seek flight paths to avoid threats at close distances and decide the sequence to complete their tasks, according to the Agency for Defense Development. The agency said it will continue research to upgrade the technology to meet high-level capabilities required in actual battlefie

South Korea said Tuesday eco-friendly cars, including electric models, accounted for 71 percent of the total vehicles purchased by public organizations last year, as the country continued its efforts to go carbon neutral by 2050. The country's 609 public organizations purchased 7,736 automobiles in 2020, of which 5,494 were eco-friendly models, according to the government data. Eco-friendly models include electric, hydrogen fuel cell and hybrid cars. The survey was based on public organizatio

South Korea's tax revenue increased 19 trillion won ($17 billion) in the first quarter from a year earlier due largely to an increase in the collection of income and corporate taxes, the finance ministry said Tuesday. The country collected 88.5 trillion won in the January-March period, compared with 69.5 trillion won the previous year, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The tally came as capital gains tax income rose amid increased housing transactions and stock trading. Corpora

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Tuesday that it has signed an 850 billion won ($762 million) deal to build an offshore plant. The deal is a part of a total 2.5 trillion won order to build a FPSO, which was placed by Brazilian state-owned oil firm Petrobras, KSOE said. FPSO is short for a floating production, storage and offloading vessel, a type of floating tank system used in the offshore oil and gas industry. The 2.5 trillion won deal was jointly obtained by KS

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases rose back above 500 on Tuesday, with health authorities remaining on alert over a potential spike amid spreading variant cases. The country reported 511 more COVID-19 cases, including 483 local infections, raising the total caseload to 128,283, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Tuesday's figure rebounded from 463 a day earlier but is lower than 564 Sunday and 701 Saturday. The daily caseload usually spikes after weekends as m

K-pop girl group ITZY has landed on Billboard's main albums chart for the first time in the third year of its debut. The five-piece act's latest EP "Guess Who," reached No. 148 on the Billboard 200, which compiles the week's most popular albums in the United States, according to its agency JYP Entertainment. Billboard separately shared a list of new debuts on one of its Twitter accounts. The full chart will be updated Tuesday (US time). "Guess Who" also made its first appe

North Korea has conducted coronavirus tests on around 26,000 people so far but found no infections, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday. According to the WHO's weekly report on COVID-19, 751 North Koreans underwent virus tests from April 23-29, bringing the total number of tested citizens to 25,986 so far, but none were found to have been infected. Of the 751 newly tested citizens, 139 people showed flu-like symptoms but all of them turned out to be those of acute respiratory illn

South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday after the benchmark stock index closed at an all-time high the previous session, tracking a decline on Wall Street. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 17.05 points, or 0.52 percent, to 3,232.25 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stock prices declined as investors sold stocks to lock in gains. The stock index had advanced for the past four trading sessions until Monday amid eased tapering jitters on Wall Street. In Seoul, market

Pitching in his second season for the Samsung Lions in 2020, right-hander Won Tae-in was a much different pitcher in the second half than the first half -- and not in a good way. He was 5-2 with a 3.56 ERA in his first 13 appearances, including one relief appearance, and he seemed to be on his way to a breakout campaign that many had expected from the then 20-year-old. Then things fell apart over his final 14 starts, over which Won was just 1-8 with an ugly 6.15 ERA. This year, Won is off to

Samsung Electronics Co. will skip in-person exhibitions at the upcoming mobile technologies trade fair due to novel coronavirus concerns, the company said Tuesday, although it plans to join the event online. The world's largest smartphone vendor will not showcase its products and technologies "offline" at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2021 to be held between June 28 and July 1 in Barcelona, Spain. "The health and safety of our employees, partners and customers is our number on