Moving from one Spanish club to another, South Korea international Lee Kang-in has joined RCD Mallorca. RCD Mallorca announced Monday (local time) that Lee, 20, has agreed to a four-year contract that will keep him on the club's namesake island through 2025. Lee spent the past 10 years with Valencia CF, all the way from their youth academy to their first team. The midfielder had been rumored to be on his way out of Valencia for days, if not weeks. Spanish media reported earlier that Valencia

The United States continues to seek negotiations with North Korea to discuss a range of issues related to denuclearization, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki affirmed Monday. Her remark comes after the UN nuclear watchdog said the North appears to have restarted its plutonium-producing nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. "We continue to seek dialogue with the DPRK so we can address this reported activity and the full range of issues related to denuclearization," Psaki said at a daily pr

Home transactions in South Korea tumbled 37 percent in July amid government efforts to rein in soaring housing prices, government data showed Tuesday. The number of homes changing hands nationwide stood at 88,937 last month, down 37.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The July reading was little changed from the 88,922 deals registered in the prior month. The number of home transactions in the South Korean capital of S

South Korea's industrial output decreased in July from the previous month in the latest sign that the country's economic recovery momentum slowed amid the fourth wave of the pandemic, data showed Tuesday. Industrial output fell 0.5 percent in July from the previous month, a turnaround from a 1.6 percent on-month gain in June, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. From a year earlier, it increased 4.7 percent. Retail sales, a gauge of private spending, declined 0.6 percent in July

South Korean government agencies agreed Monday on the need to extend its peacekeeping missions in Lebanon and South Sudan, the foreign ministry said. Officials from the foreign, defense, finance and interior ministries as well as the military and police participated in a virtual consultative meeting to discuss extending the presence of the Dongmyeong Unit in Lebanon and the Hanbit Unit in South Sudan, the ministry said.  In the meeting led by Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon,

A panel of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials on Monday issued an opinion in favor of indicting the chief educational official of Seoul over his suspected abuse of power in the reinstatement of fired teachers. Cho Hee-yeon, superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, has been under investigation by the government's independent corruption investigative body on suspicion of illegally influencing the process of reinstating five dismissed teachers, incl

President Moon Jae-in said Monday that South Korea's successful operation to evacuate Afghan people last week is expected to serve as a chance to further enhance its global stature. In the emergency move, codenamed Operation Miracle, South Korea brought nearly 400 Afghans fleeing the Taliban-controlled nation to its territory on its military aircraft. They have been allowed to stay here with legal status on par with that of a refugee. It is unprecedented in South Korea's diplomatic history to

South Korean stocks gained for a second consecutive session Monday as investors remained optimistic about the US Federal Reserve's cautious stance on withdrawing its ultra-easing monetary policy. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) advanced 10.29 points, or 0.33 percent, to close at 3,144.19 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 595 million shares worth some 11.6 trillion won ($9.9 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers

Kia Corp. and its labor union on Monday signed a wage agreement for 2021 without an industrial action occurring for the first time in a decade. On Friday, 68 percent of 26,945 Kia workers voted in favor of wage offers that include an increase of 75,000 won ($64.30) in basic monthly pay, two months of wages in performance-based pay and cash bonuses worth 5.8 million won. More than 1,600 out of the 28,604-member union abstained. But the company rejected the union's demand to extend the retiremen

DAEJEON -- Public outrage has been boiling in South Korea over a man who allegedly abused and murdered a baby girl in June, with some people planning to stage rallies calling for the death penalty. The 29-year-old man, surnamed Yang, was recently indicted on charges of sexually assaulting and abusing the 20-month-old toddler to death at his home in Daejeon, about 165 kilometers south of Seoul, on June 15. A little past midnight on that day, Yang, who was drunk at the time, allegedly covered t

The number of newly established companies in South Korea declined nearly 10 percent in the first half of the year due to a one-off factor, government data showed Monday. A total of 730,260 new businesses were set up in the January-June period, down 9.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Startups. The ministry attributed the drop to a base effect. A year earlier, there was a sharp increase in the number of real e

South Korea's trade ministry on Monday launched a new task force that will establish a long-term strategy to help Asia's No. 4 economy emerge as a global vaccine production hub amid the protracted COVID-19 pandemic. "Based on South Korea's various free-trade networks with 57 countries, the country will bolster ties with major partners in terms of the global vaccine supply chain," Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo said in a statement during a meeting with related organizations. During the me

The National Assembly on Monday is set to vote on a string of contentious bills in a plenary session. The ruling Democratic Party (DP), holding an absolute parliamentary majority, initially planned to push a highly contested media reform bill through the meeting scheduled for 5 p.m., but the prospect of its imminent passage remains slim amid the main opposition's threat to launch a filibuster. Among the bills likely to be submitted to the session are one to block US tech giant Google's upcomin

South Korea's combined area of rice paddies moved up 0.8 percent on-year in 2021, data showed Monday, with the country expected to maintain a stable supply of the staple grain despite heavy rains. The combined size of rice paddies is estimated at 732,000 hectares -- slightly more than half the size of the US state of Connecticut -- compared with 726,000 hectares last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The producer price of rice per 20 kilograms came to 55,3

The Ministry of Justice said Monday it will devise measures to step up monitoring of convicts wearing electric ankle bracelets, following the incident over the weekend where a man, who had cut off his monitoring device and took off, turned himself in to police and said he killed two women. The ministry said at a briefing it will make the device harder to cut off, enhance cooperation with police by swiftly sharing information on criminals wearing such a device and introduce an improved system to