A revision bill will take effect this week to allow a police officer to go undercover when investigating online sex crimes against minors, police said Thursday. The Korea National Police Agency (KNPA) said investigators can hide or disguise their identities to approach potential offenders to secure criminal evidence under the revised Act of the Protection of Children and Youth Against Sex Offenses, which will go into effect Friday. With a court warrant, undercover operatives can also use fake id

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki will hold a four-party meeting next week with the governor of the central bank and two chiefs of financial regulatory authorities to discuss household debt and other economic issues, officials said Thursday. Hong will preside over the gathering on Sept. 30 with Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Lee Ju-yeol, Koh Seung-beom, new head of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), and Jeong Eun-bo, new chief of the Financial Supervisory Service, according to the finance ministry.

South Korean stocks retreated Thursday after the three-day Chuseok holiday in the face of comments by the US Federal Reserve's chief that it could start tapering its stimulus as early as November, as well as growing woes over a default of a giant Chinese real estate developer. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 12.93 points, or 0.41 percent, to close at 3,127.58 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 612 million shares

Two allied opposition parties on Thursday proposed a bill for a special counsel probe into growing corruption allegations against Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung, the front-running presidential contender for the ruling party. The main opposition People Power Party and the conservative minor People's Party together said they submitted the bill to the legislature earlier in the day, along with a letter officially requesting a parliamentary investigation into the allegations. The bill, propose

South Korea will join international efforts to help Afghanistan overcome the humanitarian crisis and other hardships in the wake of the Taliban takeover, the foreign ministry said Thursday. Ham Sang-wook, deputy foreign minister for multilateral affairs, made the remark during a virtual ministerial meeting of the Group of 20 nations (G-20) held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday. In the meeting, Ham voiced concerns over the current situation in Kabul and called for concer

A 2.6 magnitude earthquake struck South Korea's southeastern region Thursday afternoon, the state weather agency said. The quake occurred about 14 kilometers south of Changnyeong, about 350 kilometers southeast of Seoul, at 12:02 p.m., according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). It was the sixth strongest quake to hit the Korean Peninsula to date this year. The epicenter was at 35.42 degrees north latitude and 128.49 east longitude at a depth of 16 km. The quake's tremor was reco

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday expressed his wish for his country and the United States to further enhance their combined defense capabilities to ensure permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. Moon made the remarks during his meeting with Adm. John C. Aquilino, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, where the two earlier attended a ceremony to transfer the remains of Korean and American soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War. Moon

The government has come up with a set of special measures to boost the COVID-19 vaccination rate among migrant workers here as fears of a possible crackdown on unregistered immigrants are holding back their vaccination turnout, officials said Thursday. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Justice and other related government agencies discussed the measures in an interagency pandemic response meeting held a day earlier in a bid to help ease the hesitation many migrant workers

South Korea's leading internet-only lender Kakao Bank said Thursday its customer number has surpassed the 17 million mark nearly four years after its launch. Kakao Bank, led by Kakao Corp., the operator of the country's dominant messaging app KakaoTalk, said its customers numbered 17.17 million as of the end of August. Kakao Bank said slightly over 15 million customers have accounts at the online lender, with 2.15 million people using its services. Kakao Bank has achieved the milestone four year

The defense ministry on Thursday declined comment on North Korea's branding of South Korea's new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) as a "clumsy product," only saying that the country has been steadily strengthening defense capabilities. On Monday, Jang Chang-ha, the chief of the North's Academy of National Defense, said in a statement South Korea's newly unveiled SLBM looked like a "poor weapon without all its shape," questioning its underwater capabilities. Asked f

South Korea and the United States will hold biannual defense talks in Seoul next week to discuss regional security situations and pending alliance issues, the defense ministry said Thursday. During the 20th Korea-US Integrated Defense Dialogue (KIDD), which will kick off Monday for a two-day run, the two sides will discuss "major pending security issues," such as the assessment of the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and the policy coordination on North Korea, according to th

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has received the remains of 68 Korean soldiers, killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, from the United States in a ceremony in Honolulu. South Korea also handed over five sets of American service members' remains to the US during the joint repatriation ceremony held at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) hosted the event, along with the South Korean defense ministry's Agency for KIA Recovery and Identification, and Moon &quo

The foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan plan to hold talks in New York this week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in what would be only their second one-on-one meeting amid strained relations between the two countries. The talks between Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and his Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi, are expected to take place Thursday (New York time), a day after the two held trilateral talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, officials said. It will ma

South Korea's daily coronavirus cases stayed above 1,700 for the third day in a row Thursday due to fewer tests during the three-day Chuseok holiday, the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, but concerns run high over a potential resurgence across the country down the road. The country reported 1,716 new COVID-19 cases, including 1,698 local infections, raising the total caseload to 292,699, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.  The latest caseload was slightly d

South Korean stocks opened steeply lower Thursday after the three-day Chuseok holiday, following comments by the US Federal Reserve's chief that it could start tapering its stimulus as early as November and growing woes over a default of a giant Chinese real estate developer. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 17.83 points, or 0.57 percent, to 3,122.68 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The key stock index plunged as investors digest the overnight US FOMC mee