Unionized sailors and other sea-based workers of South Korea's largest shipper HMM Co. have voted in favor of staging their first-ever strike after wage negotiations with the company reached a deadlock, industry sources said Monday. Around 92 percent of the seafarers who have participated in the vote supported the proposed walkout, and they plan to hand in letters of resignation to the management Wednesday, according to the sources. The union added it is still open to reach a last-minute agree

A parliamentary committee on Monday approved a contentious bill that requires the installation of surveillance cameras in hospital rooms despite strong opposition from medical groups. The Health and Welfare Committee gave its nod to the bill to revise the Medical Service Act in a plenary session. The bill, if finally passed at the National Assembly's general meeting, would mandate the installation and operation of closed-circuit TV cameras in hospital operation rooms. The passage came nine mo

South Korean stocks steeply rebounded Monday, rising nearly 1 percent, helped by robust economic data and easing concerns about the US Fed's tapering timeline. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) advanced 29.7 points, or 0.97 percent, to close at 3,090.21 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 564 million shares worth some 13.2 trillion won ($11.2 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 788 to 94. Foreigners sold a net 31 bi

South Korean biopharmaceutical firm Samsung Bioepis Co. said Monday it has won approval from European authorities for the sale of its ophthalmology biosimilar, Byooviz. The European Commission granted the marketing authorization on ranibizumab biosimilar, previously known as SB11, which references Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis' blockbuster medication Lucentis. It is the first biosimilar referencing Lucentis to be commercialized in the European Union. The Novartis product registered $1.93

Shares of South Korean chemical firm LG Chem Ltd. plunged in the Seoul bourse Monday, following American automaker General Motors' decision to additionally recall Bolt electric vehicles equipped with its subsidiary's batteries over fire risks. LG Chem, which wholly owns battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd., saw its shares tumble about 10 percent as of 2 p.m., after GM said Friday it will recall about 73,000 Bolt EVs from model years 2019 through 2022, which is expected to cost about US$1 billi

South Korea said Monday it has received Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) worth of some $11.7 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in line with the international organization's move to allocate its new asset reserves to member countries. In early August, the board of IMF governors approved a $650 billion expansion of its reserve assets, called SDRs, to allocate to IMF member countries in accordance with their existing quotas. The move is aimed at helping countries cope with the fallo

Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., a major electronics parts maker in South Korea, is seeking to sell its Wi-Fi module business again, a company official said Monday, after its previous deal collapsed in May. "We are in talks with a potential buyer over the sale of our Wi-Fi module business," the official said on condition of anonymity. "The Wi-Fi module business is operating normally. So far, nothing has been confirmed about the deal." Samsung Electro-Mechanics reportedly put

No football coach is a fan of time-wasting tactics by opponents, and South Korea boss Paulo Bento has also publicly voiced his displeasure over them. But with his team likely to get a healthy dose of those frustrating antics in the upcoming World Cup qualifying round, Bento wants to make sure his players aren't distracted by them. South Korea will face five Middle Eastern opponents, Iran, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Syria and Lebanon, in Group A of the third Asian qualifying round fo

A heated debate is brewing in South Korea over whether the country has to accept Afghans fleeing the Taliban takeover amid a report the United States is considering using its military bases in the country and others to house Afghan evacuees. Since the Taliban took over Kabul earlier this month, some progressive politicians here have openly expressed support for taking in Afghan refugees. "As the first Asian country that legislated the Refugee Act, the Republic of Korea has a role to play,

Vice Unification Minister Choi Young-jun will meet with the visiting US nuclear envoy later Monday to discuss a coordinated approach to North Korea, the ministry said. Unification Minister Lee In-young will also hold a breakfast meeting with the US envoy, Amb. Sung Kim, Tuesday to discuss ways for bilateral cooperation on denuclearization and improving inter-Korean relations, according to the ministry. Kim's visit here comes amid chilled inter-Korean relations after the North has rejected call

A partisan showdown loomed large at the National Assembly on Monday, as the ruling Democratic Party (DP) with a controlling number of parliamentary seats was set to railroad a controversial media bill this week fiercely contested by opposition parties and media industry trade groups. The revision of the Act on Press Arbitration and Remedies, Etc. for Damage Caused by Press Reports, which was passed by parliament's culture committee last week, is expected to be put to a final vote during the N

President Moon Jae-in instructed the government Monday to maintain a firm emergency response system, as Typhoon Omais is expected to make landfall on the Korean Peninsula later in the day, his office said. Moon instructed relevant authorities to prepare for carrying out a "special response" and asked the people to pay keen attention as well, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Park Kyung-mee. The president called for thorough measures against flooding damage and landslides, as we

South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co.'s electric vehicle (EV) sales increased in the first half of the year compared with a year ago, but its global market share fell in the face of toughening competitions with Chinese rivals, industry data showed Monday. Hyundai Motor was in sixth place in terms of global EVs sales in the January-June period, one notch down from the fifth position a year ago, according to the data by industry tracker SNE Research. The automaker's global EV sales jumped 75.

Two leading contenders in South Korea's presidential race -- Yoon Seok-youl and Lee Jae-myung -- are still neck and neck, with the election less than seven months away, a survey showed Monday. In the two-day poll on 1,007 voters nationwide through last Saturday by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI), former Prosecutor General Yoon of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) had 29.8 percent of support, down 0.8 percentage point from a week earlier. Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee of the

South Korea's manufacturing workforce has been aging fast over the past 10 years, stoking concerns that it may undercut the country's growth potential drastically down the road, a report said Monday. People aged 50 and older accounted for 30.1 percent of the country's total manufacturing workers in 2020, up from 15.7 percent 10 years earlier, according to the report from the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI). In contrast, the ratio of manufacturing workers in their 30s fell to 27.8 perc