As he finished a gratifying day of work on the mound, St. Louis Cardinals' starter Kim Kwang-hyun flashed his signature smile. The South Korean left-hander is an expressive one on the field, with his aw-shucks grins often accompanying his performances. Against the major league-leading San Francisco Giants on the road on Monday (local time), Kim had plenty to smile about. He twirled seven shutout innings, giving up only three singles on just 89 pitches in a 5-3 victory at Oracle Park in San Fra

South Korea will lower the maximum interest rate this week as part of efforts to ease financial burdens on low-income people, the financial regulator said Tuesday. The maximum legal interest rate that private lenders can charge will be cut to 20 percent from the current 24 percent Wednesday, according to the Financial Services Commission. It will mark the second cut in the maximum legal interest rate in three years. In 2018, the government cut the lending rate ceiling to 24 percent from 27.9 p

JYP Entertainment, the K-pop agency-label that represents acts like TWICE, Itzy and Stray Kids, said Tuesday it has opened a pop-up store in Tokyo for fans there. The venue set up in the Ginza neighborhood of the Japanese capital opened Saturday and is set to run until Aug. 31, the company said. In addition to selling merchandise related to the agency's artists, an exhibition marking boy band 2PM's 10th debut anniversary in Japan is also taking place. The company said costumes that girl groups

The number of counterfeit South Korean banknotes dropped to a new record low in the first half as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the decline of cash use, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Tuesday. In the January-June period, the number of fake banknotes found here came to 38, down from 161 a year earlier and marking the lowest since the BOK began releasing such data in 2000. By denomination, 5,000-won counterfeit bills accounted for more than half of all counterfeit bills found here, with 22 bil

Online shopping in South Korea hit a record high in May as more people used e-commerce shopping platforms amid the pandemic-induced contactless trend, data showed Tuesday. The value of online shopping transactions stood at 16.1 trillion won ($14 billion) in May, up 26 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The May reading marked the largest since November 2001, when the statistics agency began compiling related data. Amid an economic recovery and a non-conta

A total of 80 listed companies in South Korea changed names in the first half of the year largely as part of efforts to burnish their corporate image, data showed Tuesday. Twenty-seven companies listed on the main Kospi market renamed themselves in the January-June period, with 53 firms registered with the tech-laden Kosdaq market changing names, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository. The total number was up 45.5 percent, or 25 corporations, from the same period a year ear

The Seoul metropolitan government said Tuesday it is developing augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) platforms to enable the public to virtually experience a government office and historical palace rituals from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). The city government will develop the platforms in partnership with the Cultural Heritage Administration, Woomi Construction Corp. and Cheil Worldwide Inc. under an agreement signed Tuesday, and unveil them to the public next year. The project w

SEJONG -- South Korea's exports of agricultural products shot up to set a new record in the first six months of 2021, data showed Tuesday, on the back of stronger global demand for healthier foodstuffs amid the new coronavirus pandemic. Outbound shipments of such goods in the January-June period came to $4.15 billion, up 15.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. Exports of fresh products advanced 11.4 percent over

Four Army soldiers and an Air Force officer have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Tuesday. Two soldiers in Dongducheon, 40 kilometers north of Seoul, were confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 after one of them first developed symptoms, while another soldier and an officer in Paju, some 35 km northwest of the capital, were found to be infected, also after one of them first tested positive, according to the ministry. The officer received the second dose of Pfi

LG Electronics Inc. said Tuesday it will expand cloud-based call centers to offer better customer care services and protect its workers from the novel coronavirus outbreak. With its recently launch of cloud-based call centers in the United States, LG said they will be also available in 10 more countries, including Brazil, France, Vietnam and South Korea, by the end of this year. Cloud-based call centers allow employees to work wherever internet is connected, which will promote a work-from-home

Heavy rains that hit the southern parts of the country overnight flooded houses and farmland, and disrupted the power supply and train services, leaving two dead and forcing 120 people to evacuate, authorities said Tuesday. The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said the downpour swept away a woman, in her 60s, in the southwestern county of Haenam early in the morning. The authorities said she was found dead from drowning. In the nearby counties of Gangjin and Jindo, 47 p

INCHEON -- More than 20 students of an elementary school here have been infected with the new coronavirus, authorities said Tuesday, ordering emergency COVID-19 tests for all its students and teachers and their families. According to the municipality of Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul, 23 sixth graders of Inju Elementary School in the city's central ward of Michuhol have been diagnosed with COVID-19 this week. The municipality plans to install a walk-through screening station at the schoo

Hyundai Motor Co. said Tuesday its independent brand Genesis' domestic vehicle sales jumped 33 percent in the first half compared to a year earlier amid tougher competition with imported brands and the COVID-19 pandemic. Hyundai sold 72,710 Genesis vehicles from January to June, up from 48,886 units a year earlier, the company's sales data showed. Genesis models accounted for 19 percent of Hyundai's domestic sales of 386,095 units in the first six months of this year. On the overseas front, t

South Korea's daily new virus cases stayed in the 700s for the fourth day in a row Tuesday, as health authorities struggle to prevent infections from spreading further amid concerns about a spike in cases of the contagious delta COVID-19 variant. The country reported 746 more COVID-19 cases, including 690 local infections, raising the total caseload to 161,541, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The latest figure is compared with 826 on Friday, which marked a nearly s

South Korean stocks opened higher Tuesday amid strong advances by large tech and auto caps. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 11.06 points, or 0.34 percent, to trade at 3,304.22 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks got off to a solid start on expectations of improved corporate earnings. Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are scheduled to report their quarterly earnings guidance Wednesday. Market kingpin Samsung Electronics rose 0.5 percent, and LG Electro