US pharmaceutical company Moderna plans to provide South Korea with 7 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in the coming two weeks, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said Sunday, following a supply disruption due to a production issue at the company. "Moderna has notified the government that it will provide a total of 7 million vaccine doses over the next two weeks," Kim said during a daily interagency meeting on the government's coronavirus response. The announcement was made following a

The government on Sunday raised the typhoon advisory by one notch to "caution" as Tropical Storm Omais was soon expected to land in the country's southern regions. The interior ministry issued the second-tier warning against Omais, forecast to enter the waters south of Jeju Island early Monday, up one notch from the previous entry-level "attention" warning. Weather authorities predict Omais to land near the southern coastal region near Gwangju late Monday and make its path

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung, the front-runner in the ruling Democratic Party's presidential primary race, pledged Sunday to meet with US. President Joe Biden and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to broker a step-by-step deal to resolve the North Korea nuclear issue. In a press conference on his Korean Peninsula peace policy, Lee said it was "realistic" and "practical" for both Pyongyang and Washington to "seek an agreement and implementation of denuclearization

The volume of container cargo processed at South Korea's seaports rose 7.2 percent in July from a year earlier, data showed Sunday, as trade increased amid the global economic recovery. Container cargo processed at the seaports reached 2.58 million twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) last month, compared with 2.4 million TEUs the previous year, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. The ministry attributed the increase to an accelerating global economic recovery from the fallout of

South Korean fashion company Handsome Corp. said Sunday it will launch a cosmetics brand for the first time. Handsome, an affiliate of Hyundai Department Store Group, said high-end skin care brand oera will open its first store at the department store's Apgujeong outlet in southern Seoul. The skin-care line with lotion, skin, serum and cream are all manufactured in Switzerland, Handsome said, adding it will add more beauty products to the lineup later this year. Major products come with a hef

The Seoul city government said Sunday it will remove fare collection boxes from more than 170 Seoul city buses starting in October to test the operation of an all-digital fare payment system. Fare boxes from 171 buses on eight Seoul city lines run by two companies will be removed from October until March, while new mobile QR codes will be placed at stations to allow purchases of digital bus cards, according to city officials. The number of bus units subject to the all-digital trial program rep

Foreign investors have been on a selling spree of South Korean stocks so far this year, selling nearly 31 trillion won ($26 billion) of local shares, data showed Sunday. Offshore investors sold a net 30.72 trillion won between Jan. 1 and Friday, compared with net selling of 24.7 trillion won for the whole year of 2020, according to the data compiled by the bourse operator, the Korea Exchange (KRX). Offshore investors have been net sellers of local shares for seven straight months this year, ex

The United States is considering using American military bases in South Korea as one of the housing sites for evacuees from Afghanistan, along with other overseas bases, including those in Japan, the Wall Street Journal has reported. The Pentagon is "looking at American bases in Japan, Korea, Germany, Kosovo, Bahrain and Italy" as existing housing sites in Qatar and elsewhere are filling up quickly, the paper reported Saturday (US time), citing unidentified officials. The report also

Pope Francis on Saturday thanked the South Korean Catholic community for sharing donations to provide COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries and prayed for the continued efforts toward the reconciliation of the Korean Peninsula. In a special papal message delivered by South Korean archbishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik, Pope Francis praised the generosity of Korean Catholics' vaccine-related donations recently delivered to the Vatican, saying, "This is a strong invitation for a greater commitment t

South Korea's daily new coronavirus fell back to the 1,600s on Sunday due to fewer tests over the weekend, health authorities said, yet tough restrictions are to be extended to battle the fast surge of the outbreak driven by the more transmissible delta variant. The country added 1,628 more COVID-19 cases, including 1,590 local infections, raising the total caseload to 236,366, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Sunday's tally was down from 2,052 on Friday and

South Korea is in vaccine swap talks with Romania, the foreign ministry said, denying a news report that the European country plans to provide the South with coronavirus vaccines for free. Romanian national news agency Agerpres reported earlier that the country decided to give South Korea 450,000 doses of Moderna's vaccine on humanitarian grounds. Seoul's foreign ministry said the two countries are in talks about vaccines but denied that vaccines will be provided for free. "Reports about

Kim Sei-young will need some final round magic to capture the last major tournament of the 2021 LPGA season. Kim found herself three strokes off the lead in a tie for eighth place at the AIG Women's Open at Carnoustie Golf Links in Carnoustie, Scotland, on Saturday (local time). The South Korean shot an even-par 72 in the rainy third round, after trading in her four birdies with four bogeys. She entered the third round in third place but is now tied for eighth with six other players at six-und

With his first scoreless outing in more than a month, Toronto Blue Jays starter Ryu Hyun-jin has pulled into a tie for the American League (AL) lead in victories. Ryu tossed seven shutout innings against the Detroit Tigers at Rogers Centre in Toronto on Saturday (local time), helping the Blue Jays to a 3-0 victory. Ryu scattered five hits and struck out five, while walking one batter and inducing three double plays. Ryu is now 12-6 for the season, and his ERA dropped from a season-high 3.72 to

Six presidential hopefuls from the ruling Democratic Party (DP) have embarked on a collective online campaign following the opening ceremony of their metaverse camp last week. Metaverse, a combination of meta (meaning beyond) and verse (from universe), refers to a three-dimensional virtual shared world in which all activities can take place with the help of augmented- and virtual-reality services. The DP has leased parts of "Metropolis," a metaverse program developed by South Korea's

American automaker General Motors said it will expand the recall of Chevy Bolt electric vehicles equipped with South Korean supplier LG's batteries over fire risks, which is expected to additionally cost about US$1 billion. The latest recall covers 73,000 Bolt EVs and EUVs from model years 2019 through 2022 sold in the United States and Canada to replace the defective battery modules. It is on top of about 69,000 Bolt EVs from 2017-2019 model years included in the previous recall in July over