K-pop sensation BTS' new album, "Proof," has placed fourth on the US Billboard's main albums chart for this week, staying in the top 10 for two straight weeks since its debut, the chart's operator said. The anthology album fell three notches after hitting the top spot in the previous week, Billboard said Sunday (US time). Billboard 200 ranks the most popular albums of the week in the US, measur...

BTS going on a hiatus was expected. Like many other male celebrities in South Korea, the band members must fulfill their mandatory two-year military service, with the oldest, Jin, obliged to enlist by the end of this year. It is a fate many K-pop boy bands have faced before. In a country where military duty is compulsory for all able-bodied men, failure to serve can have consequences ranging fr...

Seoul shares opened higher Monday, tracking gains on Wall Street last week, with investors staying cautious about high inflation and further rate hikes. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 10.35 points, or 0.44 percent, to 2,376.95 in the first 15 minutes of trading. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.7 percent to 31,500.68 points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed...

South Korea's financial regulator has launched a probe into Woori Bank for its alleged involvement in irregular foreign currency transactions worth billions of won, industry sources said Monday. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) carried out a spot inspection into one of the bank's branches last week after the bank found in a recent internal audit that foreign currency deals that go beyond ...

National Police Agency Commissioner General Kim Chang-yong offered to resign Monday, days after President Yoon Suk-yeol strongly chastised police over a recent personnel reshuffle flip-flopping. Police released the names of new senior superintendents general a week earlier, only to reverse seven of the selections two hours later. Yoon rebuked police, calling the flip-flopping a "serious disturba...

South Korea have collected a well-earned 0-0 draw against Olympic champions Canada in a women's football friendly match, their latest prep for an upcoming regional tournament and then the World Cup in 2023. Despite being outshot 13-3, world No. 18 South Korea held the sixth-ranked Canada without a goal at BMO Field in Toronto on Sunday (local time). Canada started attacking from early on, with ...

Even in her darkest moments, Chun In-gee never lost sight of her goal -- to return to the winner's circle on the LPGA Tour. The 27-year-old South Korean has finally accomplished that by capturing the KPMG Women's PGA Championship in Bethesda, Maryland, on Sunday (local time). The one-stroke victory over Lexi Thompson of the United States and Minjee Lee of Australia was Chun's third career LPGA m...

South Korean Chun In-gee has captured her third career LPGA major in Maryland, ending the country's drought in big tournaments at seven in the process. Chun won the KPMG Women's PGA Championship in wire-to-wire fashion, as she closed out her victory with a final round of 3-over 75 at the Congressional Country Club's Blue Course in Bethesda, Maryland, on Sunday (local time). At 5-under 283 for th...

North Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases have remained below 10,000 for the third consecutive day, its state media said Monday. More than 7,300 people showed symptoms of fever over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing data from the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters. It did not provide information on whether ...

DAEGU -- The iconic Daegu International Musical Festival kicked off Friday, returning in full blast for the first time in three years. The opening event took place at Kolon Bandstand Stage, joined by generation-spanning musical actors as well as aspiring students, including Nam Kyeong-ju, Choi Jung-won, Michael Lee, Park Gun-hyung and Kim So-hyang. This year’s iteration brought back foreign mus...

Choi Myung-jae, the founder of a renowned elite private high school in South Korea, died Sunday at age 95, people closed to him said. Choi is known for establishing the Korean Minjok Leadership Academy (KMLA), also known as Minsago, a highly selective co-educational boarding school in the eastern rural county of Heongseong, Gangwon Province, in 1996, with an aspiration to "nurture future global ...

The leaders of South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet together for the first time in around five years on the sidelines of the upcoming NATO summit to discuss coordinated ways to address North Korea’s mounting threats, the South Korean presidential office announced Sunday. But President Yoon Suk-yeol will not have bilateral face-to-face talks with his Japanese counterpart, although h...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Joe Biden on Saturday signed the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades, a bipartisan compromise that seemed unimaginable until a recent series of mass shootings, including the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at a Texas elementary school. "Time is of the essence. Lives will be saved," he said in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Citing the families ...

Standard Chartered Bank Korea is offering a special interest rate of up to 1.9 percent per annum, before tax, to new customers opening a checking account by the end of this month. Account holders are eligible for the special rate up to 60 days from opening the account, as long as they keep the balance between 100 million won ($77,200) and 2 billion won. The rate is adjusted each day depending on...