Tours to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom will resume after months of suspension caused by COVID-19, the UN Command (UNC) said Thursday. The UNC said it decided to restart the tours to the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, in line with the South Korean government's continued easing of antivirus restrictions. It did not specify when the tour...

SM Entertainment, a K-pop powerhouse, said Thursday will hold the first in-person joint concert of its artists in about five years in August. The concert titled "SMTOWN Live 2022: SMCU EXPRESS @HUMAN CITY_SUWON" will take place at the Suwon World Cup Stadium in Suwon, 35 kilometers south of Seoul, on Aug. 20, SM said. The most recent in-person concert of SM-managed artists was held in Seoul in ...

Police on Thursday questioned a businessman in connection with allegations that he paid for sexual services as a bribe to now-ruling People Power Party (PPP) Chairman Lee Jun-seok about 10 years ago. The National Police Agency said a team of investigators questioned Kim Sung-jin, CEO of the tech company I-kaist, who is currently locked up at the Seoul Detention Center over a separate case. Lee ...

A ruling People Power Party lawmaker resigned as chief of staff to party Chairman Lee Jun-seok on Thursday ahead of an ethics committee meeting the party plans to hold over allegations Lee received sexual services as a bribe about 10 years ago and attempted to cover it up. In a text message to the press, Rep. Park Seong-min said he quit for unspecified personal reasons, but the resignation came ...

Japan's Oricon on Thursday named South Korean girl group ITZY the top-selling rookie of the first half of the year based on sales in the country, the band's agency said. Oricon announced the K-pop quintet as the best-selling rookie artist in the market for the Dec. 17-June 20 period, JYP Entertainment said. The Japanese pop music chart operator has annually released sales rankings by artists si...

South Korea will seek close cooperation with China to peacefully address threats posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Thursday. Han made the remarks at a forum marking the 30th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between Seoul and Beijing, amid growing concerns about the possibility of Pyongyang carrying out a nuclear test. "We will closely co...

South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. (LGES) said Thursday it has signed a non-binding agreement with a US mining company for the supply of two kinds of lithium products used in electric vehicle (EV) lithium-ion batteries. Under the memorandum of understanding, Compass Minerals, a Kansas-based provider of essential minerals, will provide LGES with 40 percent of the lithium carbonate...

South Korea has collected around 34.8 trillion won ($26.72 billion) more in taxes during the first five months of this year compared with the previous year amid growth in employment and economic recovery, the finance ministry said Thursday. In May alone, the government's tax revenue rose 300 billion won from a year earlier to come to 28.7 trillion won, as the economic recovery boosted income and...

Representatives of South Korea's labor and management have agreed to set next year's minimum hourly wage at 9,620 won ($7.41) in a 5 percent increase from this year, officials said Thursday. The Minimum Wage Commission, which is composed of nine members each from labor, business and the general public, struck the agreement Wednesday night during a plenary session held at the government complex i...

South Korea's industrial output and facility investment rebounded in May from the previous month in the latest sign that Asia's fourth-largest economy maintains mild recovery momentum amid heightened external uncertainty, data showed Thursday. Industrial production rose 0.8 percent in May from the previous month, compared with a 0.9 percent on-month fall in April, according to the data from Stat...

South Korea's new coronavirus cases fell back below 10,000 Thursday amid the slowdown of the virus. The country added 9,595 new COVID-19 infections, including 142 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,359,341, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Daily cases remained below 10,000 from June 10 until Tuesday but rose above 10,000 Wednesday before falling b...

A major expressway linking southeastern Seoul to northeastern Gyeonggi Province and a bridge over the Han River were closed off Thursday as heavy downpours pounded the capital and central regions, officials said. The city government said all entrances to the Dongbu Expressway that runs from Seoul's Songpa district to Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, have been blocked off since 6:43 a.m. as heavy ra...

From a four-day workweek to work-from-anywhere arrangements, also known as “workcations,” Korea’s big tech firms are riding on the global wave of workplace reforms toward extreme flexibility and better work-life balance for employees. The highly-enviable four-day working week experiment is to take place at Kakao. Starting from July, employees get every other Friday off. This is on top of the fu...

MADRID -- US first lady Jill Biden advised South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee on Wednesday to be herself as she talked about the pressures of being the president's wife, the presidential office said. Biden and Kim took part in an official program for spouses of leaders attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Madrid, which included visits to the Royal Palace of La Granja of S...

South Korea’s global competitiveness ranking fell four notches this year from the previous year, amid the economic slowdown and a continued rise in the national debt, a report showed. South Korea ranked No. 27 in terms of global competitiveness among 63 countries surveyed, according to the 2022 report by the International Institute for Management Development. The IMD, a Switzerland-based int...