South Korea plans to extend $300,000 in humanitarian assistance to Sierra Leone where massive mudslides killed hundreds of people, the foreign ministry said Monday. Downpours and following mudslides resulted in the deaths of some 350 people in the capital of Freetown a week earlier. Some 600 people remain missing, while 2,000 others have been left homeless, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here. (AP-Yonhap)"The latest damage was done as Sierra Leone was struggling to recover from the

The South Korean economy will face some downside risks going forward due to possible labor strikes at local carmakers and a cooldown in the local property market, a vice finance minister said Monday."The economy is on an upside cycle for the most part. But the upturn is largely driven by robust overseas sales of semiconductors and brisk facility investment," Vice Finance Minister Ko Hyoung-kwon said in a press briefing in Sejong, an administrative city some 130 kilometers south of Seou

South Korean stocks closed lower Monday as foreigners and institutions scaled back on their stockholding on profit taking. The Korean won rose against the US dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 3.37 points, or 0.14 percent, to close at 2,355.00. Trade volume was moderate at 204.5 million shares worth 3.753 trillion won ($3.3 billion), with decliners outnumbering advancers 478 to 308.Institutions dumped a net 103.98 billion won worth of stocks and foreigners also sold a ne

South Korea will raise the monthly basic pension to 250,000 won ($219) in 2018 and to 300,000 won in 2021 in a bid to help buttress elderly people's income, the health ministry said Monday.Under the basic pension system introduced in July 2014, the government pays 200,000 won a month to every senior citizen belonging to the bottom 70 percent of the country's income bracket. The inflation-adjusted amount of basic pension was set at 206,050 won for a single elderly household this year. The Ministr

FC Barcelona's South Korean prospect Lee Seung-woo is nearing a move to Italy, a source close to the player said Monday.The source said FC Barcelona are in talks with Italian club Hellas Verona FC over Lee's transfer and added the move could be finalized sometime this week.Lee has been training with Barca's "B" team, the Spanish giants' reserve squad, but he wasn't expected to receive much playing time. With Honduran forward Choco Lozano and Brazilian attacking midfielder Vitinho having filled B

President Moon Jae-in on Monday nominated an incumbent head of a district court as the new chief justice of the Supreme Court.Kim Meong-su, the head of the Chuncheon District Court in Gangwon Province, was designated the top court's new chief justice, according to the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae. This photo provided by Cheong Wa Dae shows Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee Kim Meong-su. (Yonhap)The 57-year-old has been working as a judge since passing the national bar exam in 1983.Kim, if

China strongly warned North Korea against additional provocations during a foreign ministerial meeting held in the Philippines earlier this month and immediately informed South Korea of the result of the talks, the foreign ministry here said Monday.Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-ho in Manila on Aug. 6 on the sidelines of a string of meetings hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Wang also met with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang

South Korea's unification ministry said Monday that it plans to pursue dialogue with North Korea in non-political sectors, including sports exchanges, as it seeks engagement with the repressive regime.The Ministry of Unification said in a report to the National Assembly that Seoul will make efforts to restore now-suspended communication channels with North Korea under a peace initiative unveiled by President Moon Jae-in earlier this year in Berlin."The government will focus its efforts on resumi

Jeju Air Co., South Korea's leading budget carrier, said Monday it will add another route to Japan to offset falling demand on Chinese routes.Jeju Air plans to operate flights on the Incheon-Matsuyama route from Nov. 2, bring the total number of Japanese cities it serves to seven, the company said in a statement. The low-cost carrier currently serves routes to Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo and Okinawa, it said. (Yonhap)In 2016, Jeju Air served 1.97 million passengers on 11 routes to the

Global equity funds have posted a net outflow from South Korea for the first time in 32 weeks amid foreign investors' massive profit-taking, industry data showed Monday. Four international funds investing in South Korea withdrew a net 55 billion won ($48.3 million) from the local stock market in the week to Wednesday, according to the data by Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities Co. and global fund tracker Emerging Portfolio Fund Research.The equity funds, including US investment fund Global Emerging M

Police on Monday raided an animal medicine shop accused of illegally manufacturing a pesticide and selling the banned chemical to chicken and egg farms, amid a public outrage over contaminated eggs.Police seized two boxloads of computer hard disks and security camera recordings at the store in Pocheon, north of Seoul. The shop, whose name was withheld, allegedly imported 50 kilograms of fipronil from China and diluted it with 400 liters of water before selling the product to five chicken and egg

KCON, a global Korean pop music and culture convention, wrapped up its Los Angeles event Sunday, bringing together tens of thousands of fans of cutting-edge South Korean musicians, fashion and other Korean-related cultural content.A crowd of 80,000 gathered at the three-day KCON LA 2017 held from Friday at the Los Angeles Convention Center and the Staples Center in the American west coast city, according to CJ E&M, organizer of KCON. (Yonhap)First launched in Irvine, California, in 2012, KCON is

Compared to their peers, idol band Red Velvet's ascent to stardom has been a slow burn. The five ladies, who debuted in 2014 under K-pop titan S.M. Entertainment, didn't have a genuine megahit for the first few years while rivals GFriend and TWICE became overnight sensations.That changed in February 2017 after the success of its catchy pop funk track "Rookie" from the fourth EP album, also titled "Rookie." Last month, Red Velvet dropped another chart-topping number, "Red Flavor," which drove the

President Moon Jae-in apologized Monday over an escalating contaminated egg scandal, calling for fundamental measures to enhance food safety and the livestock farming environment."I feel deeply sorry for causing concern to citizens due to the insecticide-tainted egg scandal," Moon said during a Cabinet meeting. "This has affected not only consumers, but also good-hearted farmers, restaurant owners and the food manufacturing industry."While noting ongoing efforts to promptly deal with the public

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump's former chief strategist undermined his boss by saying there is no military solution to the nuclear standoff with North Korea, a Republican lawmaker has said.Steve Bannon, a key architect of Trump's presidential campaign, left the White House on Friday.In an interview that aired Sunday on New York's AM 970, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said Bannon had become a part of the reason the White House "has just not been functioning." This AP file photo shows Steve Ban