Homegrown crime thriller "Memoir of a Murderer" topped the box office for the second weekend straight, data showed Monday.The film starring Seol Kyung-gu, Kim Nam-gil and Kim Seol-hyeon added 483,237 to its domestic total of over 2 million in attendance, the real-time based box office figures from the Korean Film Council said.Based on Kim Young-ha's best-selling novel of the same name, "Memoir" depicts the story of an aged former serial killer with Alzheimer's who strives to keep his only daught

South Korea will play against the 2018 FIFA World Cup hosts Russia at a multi-use stadium in Moscow next month, the national football governing body said Monday.The Korea Football Association said the match will kick off at 5 p.m. on Oct. 7 local time (or 11 p.m. in Seoul) at the 30,000-seat VEB Arena, home of PFC CSKA Moscow.The KFA earlier this month announced that South Korea will take on Russia for their 2018 World Cup preparations. The showdown in Moscow is the first friendly since South Ko

Four US F-35B Lightning II stealth jets and two B-1B Lancer strategic bombers flew over Korea on Monday, training with South Korea's F-15K Slam Eagle fighter jets in a show of the alliance's powerful deterrence against North Korea, their militaries announced.During the mission, the aircraft "flew across the Korean Peninsula and practiced their attack capabilities by releasing live weapons at the Pilsung Range training area" in the eastern province of Gangwon, the US Pacific Command said in a sta

South Korea's financial watchdog said Monday it will present comprehensive measures later this month to give permanent jobs to temporary workers currently employed at state-run institutions.The move comes as the Moon Jae-in government is pushing ahead with the implementation of his presidential campaign pledge to reduce the number of nonregular workers and increase employment of regular workers.Officials at the Financial Services Commission said guidelines will be set for the full-time employmen

Lotte Group, South Korea's retail giant, is in negotiation with foreign companies to sell its discount store chain in China, having decided to withdraw from that market following Beijing's retaliation over Seoul's decision to deploy a US anti-missile system, industry sources said Monday.Lotte has begun talks with five to 10 foreign investors who expressed interest in Lotte Mart's infrastructure and assets in China via its lead manager Goldman Sachs, according to the sources. (Yonhap)About 80 per

Ryu Hyun-jin of the Los Angeles Dodgers has picked up another no-decision despite a solid outing, getting pulled just one out shy of qualifying for a win.The South Korean left-hander tossed 4 2/3 scoreless innings against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in Washington on Sunday (local time). He cruised through four innings, but nursing a 1-0 lead with two outs in the bottom fifth, Ryu walked the final two batters he faced before Ross Stripling came in to clean up the mess.Stripling esc

The reigning French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko said Monday she thinks the No. 1 ranking in women's tennis is open to any top-10 player in the world, saying youngsters, including herself, will emerge as powerhouses.Ostapenko, currently world No. 10, came to South Korea last Friday to compete at the KEB HanaBank Incheon Airport Korea Open, the country's only Women's Tennis Association Tour event, which starts at Olympic Park in Seoul on Monday. She is the top-seeded player of the tournament an

Hyundai Life Insurance, an insurance unit of South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group, has recently cut a third of its employees due to mounting debt, an industry source said Monday.The insurance firm has let 120 out of 450 employees go under a voluntary retirement program, according to the source.Cumulative losses at the insurer stood at 220 billion won ($195 million) at the end of June. Still, the financial health of Hyundai Life Insurance has improved, with its risk-based capital ratio standing

The South Korean government will make concerted efforts to tackle the deepening low birthrate trend in a bid to boost the growth potential of Asia's fourth-largest economy, the finance minister said Monday."The low birthrate is a pressing task that all government organizations need to join forces on," Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said during a visit to a local daycare center in southwestern Seoul. "In order to resolve the matter, the government should put all-out efforts including using fiscal

South Korea's defense minister said Monday he was told that, even if the government approves a plan for humanitarian aid to the North this week, the actual provision will be put off until a considerably later date. Seoul plans to decide Thursday whether to provide US$8 million in aid for infants and pregnant women in the North through UN organizations. Critics have raised concerns that Seoul's aid may compromise international efforts to pressure Pyongyang to give up its nuclear and missile progr

More than 70 percent of South Koreans believe the men's national football team needs to hire Dutch tactician Guus Hiddink for the FIFA World Cup next year, a survey showed Monday.In the survey of 505 adults conducted by Realmeter nationwide last week, 70.2 percent said that Hiddink should be given a job, whether as a coach or a technical advisor, within the national football team for the World Cup in Russia. Hiddink previously guided South Korea to the 2002 World Cup semifinals.The survey was co

South Korean stocks traded higher late Monday morning, hitting their highest level in more than a month, as they tracked gains on Wall Street.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index increased 23.61 points, or 0.99 percent, to 2,409.68 as of 11:20 a.m., after soaring to as high as 2,410.58 at one point. On Friday, US stocks closed at fresh record highs, with the S&P 500 inching up to surpass the 2,500-point mark for the first time. Most large caps improved, with market kingpin Sa

North Korea may conduct another nuclear or missile test going forward as it aims to advance its defense capabilities through nuclear armament, Seoul's defense ministry said Monday. In a parliamentary session, the ministry presented its analysis to lawmakers based on its assessment of the North's statement released in the wake of its latest missile launch on Friday. "North Korea flaunted having neared the final stage of securing intercontinental ballistic missile technology and how it has accompl

South Korean women in their 20s and 30s had sex less in 2014 compared with a decade ago, a survey showed Monday, amid high youth unemployment that has led to late marriage and less dating.South Korea's overall unemployment rate stood at 3.8 percent in June, up 0.2 percentage point from the same month last year. The unemployment rate for young people aged between 15 and 29 was much higher at 10.1 percent, up from 9.4 percent a year earlier. Jobless numbers have consistently outpaced those of the

HANOI -- The Vietnamese government has expelled a North Korean official put on the UN Security Council's sanctions list over its nuclear and missile development, diplomatic sources said Monday.Vietnam requested Kim Dong-ho, chief of the North's Tanchon Commercial Bank's branch, to leave the country and he returned home in mid-July, the sources said.Kim is one of 14 North Koreans designated as individual targets for travel bans and asset freezes by Resolution 2356 adopted on June 2 in the wake of