In the Korea Baseball Organization this year, no lead is safe against the Kia Tigers. But on the flip side, no deficit seems too big against them either.Take last Sunday's game, for instance. The Tigers took a 7-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth against the Nexen Heroes at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. Then the Heroes put up seven runs on the board against four Kia relievers to complete the largest ninth-inning comeback victory in the KBO's 35-year history.Kia starter Hector Noesi struck out six

The American action-comedy "Hitman's Bodyguard" topped the South Korean box office on its opening weekend by selling 556,100 tickets, data showed Monday. According to the computerized box office figures from the Korean Film Council, the R-rated film starring mega-stars like Samuel L. Jackson, Ryan Reynolds and Salma Hayek outdid its South Korean rival, "Midnight Runners," which gathered 286,097 views. The Korean comedy-action movie, starring Park Seo-jun and Kang Ha-neul, revolves around two cad

Taxing religious groups will add 64.7 billion won ($57 million) to state coffers annually starting next year, a report said Monday.The Moon Jae-in government has pledged to levy taxes on the clergy from 2018 onwards as part of its drive for equitable taxation, although people working for churches and temples have been exempted from paying income tax until now, as their work has been regarded as a spiritual service, not labor."We estimate the amount of taxes to be paid by employees of religi

President Moon Jae-in's approval rating stood at 73.1 percent as of last week, even though the number fell slightly from a week earlier due in part to tensions with North Korea and problems with his nominees for senior positions.The Realmeter survey, conducted on 2,531 adults from Aug. 28 to Sept. 1, showed that Moon's ratings fell 0.8 percentage point from a week earlier. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage point.Those with negative views of his performance rose 2.1

South Korea and the United States have agreed to regularize their talks on extended deterrence to better counter North Korea's growing missile and nuclear threats, the foreign ministry here said Monday.The decision came one day after North Korea conducted what it claimed to be a successful test of a hydrogen bomb mountable onto an intercontinental ballistic missile. The allies launched the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group involving senior foreign affairs and defense officials

South Korean crime-thriller “Memoir of a Murderer” has been invited to this year‘s BFI London Film Festival, the movie’s local distributor said Monday.The movie led by actor Seol Kyung-gu will be screened in the Thrill section at the 61st edition of the festival, which is the largest film festival in Britain. This year‘s event will run from Oct. 4-15. "Memoir of a Murderer" (Showbox)Previous Korean titles that have been invited to the same category were “New World” (2013), “A Hard Day” (2014), “

The leader of the minor opposition Bareun Party on Monday hinted at resigning over an escalating graft scandal, which has threatened to derail its reform efforts and erode public support."I hope that you trust the loyalty I hold towards the party, and I will soon make a decision for the party," Lee Hye-hoon said during a general meeting of the party's 20 lawmakers."The only one who knows the actual truth behind the scandal is me. ... I will establish my innocence by verifying the truth," she add

Nearly 7 out of 10 South Koreans believe that the national football team will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a survey showed Monday.In the survey conducted by Realmeter on 501 adults nationwide, 66.2 percent of them answered that South Korea will make their ninth consecutive World Cup appearance in Russia next year. Only 21.6 percent said that South Korea will not be represented at the 2018 World Cup.The survey was conducted last Friday, just a day after South Korea had a scoreless draw wi

Asiana Airlines Inc., South Korea's second-biggest passenger carrier, is struggling to improve its business amid an ongoing diplomatic row over the deployment of a missile defense system here and increased competition with budget carriers, industry sources said Monday.Under its three-year restructuring plan that ends in December 2018, Asiana Airlines has cut costs, incorporated redundant business departments, and reorganized its fleet and routes. The airline announced the plan in December 2015 a

Nearly a quarter of salaried workers in South Korea did not use their vacation time from August 2015 through July of last year, a report by a local culture and tourism organization said Monday.The findings, based on a survey of 4,357 people nationwide by the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, showed 23.9 percent of those checked said they did not use their vacation time. The lack of free time was reflected in South Koreans putting in some of the longest work hours in the world at the time the

A few thousand union members at Korea's two biggest TV networks went on strike simultaneously on Monday to protest alleged management interference in news coverage and unfair labor practices.Union members associated with the National Union of Media Workers at KBS and MBC, two of the country's biggest terrestrial networks, started a sit-in at midnight Sunday, calling for the removal of the networks' management and the restoration of independent, fair reporting.The dual strike at both networks is

South Korea said Sunday it will continue to push for the denuclearization of North Korea through peaceful means in response to US President Donald Trump's tweet that accused Seoul of talking about "appeasement" policy. "Korea is a country that experienced a fratricidal war. The destruction of war should not be repeated in this land," the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said in a statement. "We will not give up and will continue to push for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through p

NEW YORK -- The United Nations Security Council will meet Monday to discuss a response to North Korea's most powerful nuclear test yet, the United States ambassador to the UN said.The emergency meeting will be held in the open at 10 a.m. (local time) at the request of the United States, South Korea, Britain, France and Japan, Nikki Haley said in a tweet Sunday. (Yonhap)Earlier in the day, North Korea detonated what it claimed was an H-bomb that can fit inside an intercontinental ballistic missil

The number of narcotics offenders in South Korea rose 19.3 percent in 2016 from a year earlier, due largely to the widespread use of the Internet as a channel to more easily trade the banned substances, a report showed Monday.The tally of drug offenders came to 14,214 at the end of 2016, compared to 11,916 recorded in the previous year, according to the latest white paper published by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. It is the highest figure since compilation of related data began in 1990, the o

South Korean stocks opened sharply lower on Monday after North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test a day earlier, escalating geopolitical tension in the Northeast Asian region.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index plunged 26.87 points, or 1.14 percent, to 2,330.82 in the first 15 minutes of trading.On Sunday, Pyongyang claimed it successfully conducted a test of a hydrogen bomb that can be loaded on an intercontinental ballistic missile. Tech giants lost ground, with top cap Sa