US President Joe Biden will host a summit of leaders from U.S. allies and other democratic countries this year to promote their shared values, the White House said Wednesday. 　The leaders will discuss three key issues: how to defend against authoritarianism, fight corruption and advance human rights, according to the White House. 　 　“The president has said that the challenge of our time is to demonstrate that democracies can deliver by improving the lives of their own people and by a

Eight American service members stationed in South Korea have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Wednesday. 　Seven of them were from Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, and one was from Camp Humphreys in the same city, the U.S. military said. 　The latest cases raised the total number of infections reported among the USFK-affiliated population to 1,201. (Yonhap)

Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong will be required to abide by parole conditions after he is released later this week, the justice ministry said Wednesday. 　Under the relevant law, he should report to the parole office in advance if he plans to move his residence or leave the country for more than a month, among other things. 　The ministry can exempt certain parolees from those conditions, such as severely ill or senior inmates, but Lee is not eligible for the exemptions, the ministry said. 　The vi

South Korean stocks fell for the fifth consecutive session Wednesday as a record-high number of COVID-19 cases dented investor sentiment. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) retreated 22.57 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 3,220.62 points. Trading volume was high at 608.3 million shares worth some 18.95 trillion won ($16.5 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 563 to 299. Foreigners offloaded a net 1.6 trillion won worth o

Having had his first taste of the Olympics at age 18, South Korean swimmer Hwang Sun-woo is turning his focus to the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. Hwang competed in two finals at the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics. He set an Asian record with 47.56 seconds in the semifinals of the 100-meter freestyle and finished in fifth place in the final. He became the first Asian swimmer in 65 years to even race in an Olympic final for the 100m freestyle. In the 200m freestyle earlier in Tokyo, Hwang set

An appellate court on Wednesday upheld a four-year prison sentence for the wife of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk over academic fraud. The Seoul High Court found Chung Kyung-sim, a professor of Dongyang University, guilty of all charges related to the unfair college admission of her daughter and upheld the lower court's sentence of four years. The appellate court, however, lowered her fine from 500 million won ($433,000) to 50 million won and her forfeiture from 140 million won to 10 million

"Permission to Dance," K-pop sensation BTS' latest release, has ranked No. 27 on this week's Billboard main singles chart, spending its fourth consecutive week on the popular American music chart. The septet's third English number dropped 18 notches to No. 27 on the Hot 100 chart, refreshed Tuesday (US time), a month after its release. The song had topped the Billboard chart in the fourth week of July, replacing BTS' previous release "Butter," allowing the group to score ba

South Korean banks saw their first-half earnings jump 59 percent from a year earlier due largely to a one-off gain by state policy lender Korea Development Bank (KDB), data showed Wednesday. The combined net profit stood at 10.8 trillion won ($9.35 billion) in the January-June period, compared with a profit of 6.8 trillion won the previous year, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). The gains came as KDB reported a jump in valuation of its stock holdings and logge

South Korean banks' household loans jumped in July, fueled by demand for home-backed lending and overdrafts for stock investments, central bank data showed Wednesday. Outstanding bank loans to local households came to 1,040.2 trillion won (US$902 billion) as of end-July, up 9.7 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). It marked the largest on-month gain for any July since 2004 when the central bank began compiling related data. The BOK said July's

Heavy rain battered northern parts of North Korea on Wednesday, the North's state-run broadcaster said, after the country's eastern province was hit with torrential rain earlier this month. The northeastern province of North Hamgyong received more than 100 millimeters of rain from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., with some cities and counties recording up to 50 mm of rainfall per hour, the Korean Central Television reported. Hwadae County in the province received 209 mm of rain from midnight to 8 a.m., with

President Moon Jae-in stressed the urgency Wednesday of curbing the spread of COVID-19 as South Korea's daily count of additional cases has exceeded 2,000 for the first time. It is "of great concern" that the number has surpassed 2,000 despite health authorities' efforts and the people's cooperation in social distancing, he said during a meeting with his Cheong Wa Dae aides. Earlier in the day, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced that 2,223 new cases had

South Korea's 10th budget carrier Air Premia Co. on Wednesday began services on the Gimpo-Jeju route to meet local travel demand amid the extended COVID-19 pandemic. Last month, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport issued an air operator certificate to Air Premia to allow the carrier to use aircraft for commercial purposes. On Wednesday, Air Premia started daily flights connecting Gimpo to the country's southern resort island of Jeju with the 309-seat B787-9 passenger jet, the co

A South Korean court on Wednesday ruled against a victim of forced wartime labor in Japan in a damages suit launched against Japan's Mitsubishi Materials Corp. The Seoul Central District Court ruled against the surviving family of the late victim, surnamed Lee, who demanded 100 million won (US$87,000) from Mitsubishi Materials for the late Lee's forced labor in Japanese coal mines from 1941 to 1945. Lee claimed that he was forced to work in Japanese coal mines during those five years. The surv

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's top wireless carrier, said Wednesday its second-quarter net income rose 84 percent on-year thanks to gains in its equity ties with its chip-making affiliate SK hynix Inc. and growth in 5G users. Net income stood at 795.7 billion won ($689.2 million) in the April-June period on a consolidated basis, compared with 432.3 billion won a year earlier, according to a regulatory filing. Operating income rose 10.8 percent to 396.6 billion won over the same period, while sa

A senior Japanese diplomat stationed in Seoul returned home Wednesday, about a month after he came under fire for his remarks disparaging South Korean President Moon Jae-in's efforts to improve relations with Tokyo. Hirohisa Soma, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, took a flight home from Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, earlier in the day, according to diplomatic sources. Soma has been criticized after telling a South Korean reporter during a lunch meeting