The South Korea women's national football team will play friendly matches against the United States in October, the sport's national governing body said Thursday.The Korea Football Association confirmed it reached an agreement with its American counterpart to have two friendly matches in the US The two sides will first meet at Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans on Oct. 20 (Korean time), and will square off again three days later at Sahlen's Stadium in Cary, North Carolina. The South Korean w

South Korea women's football coach Yoon Duk-yeo has signed an extension that will keep him at the helm for two more years, officials here said Thursday.Yoon, 56, signed a new two-year contract with the Korea Football Association that will see him lead the women's national football team through the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, should South Korea qualify for the tournament."I want to thank the KFA and my players for giving me an opportunity to lead the national team for two more years," he said. "

South Korean athletes competing at this year's Summer Universiade departed for Taiwan on Thursday.South Korea will be represented in 22 sports by 319 athletes and 96 officials at the Aug. 19-30 competition in Taipei. Some university athletes are already in the Taiwanese capital due to the schedule of their competition. On Thursday, the main delegation of some 110 athletes flew to Taipei. This photo provided by the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee shows South Korean athletes and officials posing

President Moon Jae-in on Thursday reaffirmed his election campaign pledge to rewrite the Constitution by next year to strengthen regional autonomy and citizens' fundamental rights.His government is currently pushing for a referendum on the revision of the decades-old Constitution in tandem with the local elections slated for next June, amid parliamentary panel discussions on the highly divisive issue. "The pledge to time a plebiscite to coincide with next year's local elections remains unchanged

JEJU ISLAND -- A Chinese expert warned Thursday that the ongoing deployment of a US missile defense system to South Korea will likely spark a "vicious cycle" that could lead to a regional arms race. Jiang Yuechun, head of China Institute of International Studies, still expressed hope that there are still windows of opportunity for the two neighbors to find middle ground and restore strained relations. Jiang was visiting the southern resort island of Jeju to attend a forum jointly organized by So

Foreign currency deposits held by banks operating in South Korea rose in July from a month earlier as exporters increased their deposits of dollar-denominated earnings, central bank data showed Thursday.Outstanding foreign currency deposits held by local lenders, domestic and foreign, reached $69.11 billion in July, up $5.5 billion from a month earlier, the Bank of Korea said in a statement.Broken down, foreign currency deposits held by domestic banks came to $59.38 billion in July, up from $54.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday ruled out the possibility of war on the Korean Peninsula, saying the United States has agreed not to take any military action against North Korea without Seoul's consent.He warned Pyongyang against crossing a "red line," by which he meant the weaponization of nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles."I say this with confidence that there will be no war on the Korean Peninsula ever again," the president said in a press conference mark

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon ordered the government Thursday to conduct an all-out inspection to make sure that chickens and processed foods are safe from insecticide-contaminated eggs even after all tainted eggs are removed from the market.Lee also said that the egg scandal can be brought under control before the end of this week, even as eggs from dozens of more farms were found to have been contaminated with chemicals, including those producing environment-friendly eggs."After this insecticide

South Korean shares traded higher late Thursday morning on the back of gains in technology firms and steelmakers.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 11.69 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,359.95 as of 11:20 a.m.Tech shares continued to trade higher, with Samsung Electronics moving up 1.82 percent and LG Display advancing 2.2 percent.Chipmaker SK hynix climbed 1.36 percent.Steelmakers were also among winners, with POSCO increasing 4.08 percent and Korea Zinc moving up 4.61 percent. H

The South Korean men's national football team will face a local professional club later this month to fine-tune its preparations for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers, an official with the Korea Football Association (KFA) said Thursday.South Korea will test their readiness for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers with a friendly against Suwon Samsung Bluewings at the National Football Center (NFC) in Paju, north of Seoul, on Aug. 26, according to the official. Suwon are currently third in th

Eggs from 23 more farms in South Korea were found to have been contaminated with harmful insecticides, the government said Thursday, fueling nationwide concerns over food safety.Some eggs from five farms were found to contain the pesticide fipronil, which was banned from being used at poultry farms, while 18 farms were polluted with bifenthrin and other pesticides, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said.Fipronil is used to control ants, cockroaches and other insects, while bife

South Korea and China held a joint forum on public diplomacy Thursday aimed at expanding exchanges between their people amid recently strained ties over Seoul's move to install a US missile defense system on its soil. The forum deemed to be a "1.5 track" event was held on this southern resort island, led by South Korea's public diplomacy envoy Park Enna and former Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing.Private-sector experts from diverse areas also attended the gathering.It has been held annually

Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea's top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, said Thursday that it has decided to merge its game business unit into Kakao Games Corp., a game company under its arm, in an effort to boost competitiveness."It was a strategic decision to strengthen the game business unit," said Rim Ji-hoon, CEO of Kakao, said in a press release.The game unit under Kakao has so far carried out game publishing and intellectual property affairs of Kakao Friends, characters based on KakaoT

Major flagship smartphones to be unveiled this year are anticipated to come with dual-lens cameras, industry watchers said Thursday, seeking to grab larger slices of the market by promoting top-notch photography features.Industry watchers said Samsung Electronics Co.'s new flagship smartphone set to be showcased next week, presumably the Galaxy Note 8, will come with a dual-lens camera. It will mark the first time for the tech giant to apply the feature on its flagship models.The South Korean te

Samsung Electronics Co. topped the global smartphone market in the second quarter, data showed Thursday, with the Galaxy S8 series emerging as the most-sold Android-powered models.According to the data compiled by industry tracker Strategy Analytics, the South Korean tech giant stood as the No. 1 player in the area with a combined market share of 22.1 percent. Samsung's US archrival Apple Inc. followed with 11.4 percent. (Yonhap)China-based Huawei Technologies Co. and OPPO Electronics Corp. trai