The ruling Democratic Party railroaded the last-remaining bill on prosecution reform through the National Assembly amid opposition protest Tuesday, completing its push to reduce and ultimately remove the prosecution's investigative powers. The revision to the Criminal Procedure Act, the remaining half of the ruling DP's prosecution reform legislation, was passed in a 164-3 vote, with seven abste...

The upcoming full-length album by K-pop supergroup Seventeen has sold more than 1.74 million copies in preorders, a new record for the group, its management agency said Tuesday. Preorders for the band's fourth studio album "Face the Sun" began a week ago. It became the most-preordered album from Seventeen, surpassing 1.41 million copies for the band's previous release, ninth EP "Attacca." With...

Kakao Games Corp., the gaming unit of South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., reported Tuesday its first-quarter net profit rose 54.2 percent on-year to 28.3 billion won ($22.3 million) thanks to the popularity of its mobile title "Odin Valhalla Rising" and improved cost management. Operating profit spiked 169.7 percent on-year to 42.1 billion won in the January-March period, while sales rose 104.7...

Phishing scams involving instant messages in South Korea spiked in 2021 due to increased not-in-person activities amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed. The amount in damages from messenger phishing came to 99.1 billion won ($80.3 million) last year, up 166 percent from the previous year, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The figure accounted for nearly 59 pe...

South Korean shares edged higher Tuesday, tracking a cue from overnight Wall Street gains, amid market uncertainty ahead of this week's US Federal Reserve meeting. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 0.20 points, or 0.01 percent, to trade at 2,687.65 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates by half a percentage point this ...

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases rose to over 50,000 on Tuesday from a nearly three-month low the previous day, as the country has sought to regain normalcy amid a recent gradual decrease in infections. The country reported 51,131 new COVID-19 infections, including 45 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 17,346,753, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Tuesday's...

Four South Korean players were on Opening Day rosters for their respective clubs in April. But with the first month of the 2022 Major League Baseball (MLB) season in the books, only one of them is active in the bigs at the moment: Kim Ha-seong, the second-year infielder for the San Diego Padres. Toronto Blue Jays' starter Ryu Hyun-jin (left forearm) and Tampa Bay Rays' first baseman Choi Ji-man ...

South Korea and the United States plan to kick off regular combined air force drills next week, informed sources said Tuesday, in yet another move to highlight their defense posture especially against North Korea's evolving missile threats. The allies are set to begin the two-week Korea Flying Training on Monday, the eve of the inauguration of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, who has vowed to bols...

KakaoBank Corp., a South Korean internet-only bank, Tuesday reported a 43.2 percent jump in its first-quarter earnings as its customer base continued to expand amid the coronavirus pandemic. Net income came to 66.80 billion won (US$52.8 million) in the January-March period, compared with 46.66 billon won tallied a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Operating profit also surg...

The chief nuclear envoys of South Korea and China met in Seoul on Tuesday to discuss security situations on the Korean Peninsula amid concerns about North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threats. Liu Xiaoming, Beijing's special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, was on his first visit to Seoul since assuming the post in April 2021 at a time of heightened tensions over Pyongyang's re...

South Korean information technology service provider LG CNS has kicked off the process of its initial public offering (IPO) that could take place as early as in the second half of this year, industry sources said Tuesday. LG CNS, a unit of South Korea's No. 4 conglomerate LG Group, sent a request for proposal to major domestic and overseas securities companies the previous day to choose the lead...

WASHINGTON -- The US-South Korea alliance is an incredibly important relationship that is vital to many issues in the region and around the world, a White House spokesperson said Monday of reasons for President Joe Biden's planned trip to Seoul. Jen Psaki also noted North Korea will be a "prominent part" of the agenda for Biden's upcoming trip that will also take him to Japan. "I would note tha...

WASHINGTON -- The United States is continuing to closely monitor North Korea for signs of additional provocations while sharing such intelligence with South Korea, a US Department of Defense spokesperson said Monday. John Kirby said the US is also always looking for ways to get better information about the reclusive country. US Indo-Pacific Command was ordered to intensify its intelligence, sur...

South Korea's consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in more than 13 years in April amid soaring energy costs caused by Russia's war with Ukraine and a rebound in demand from the pandemic, data showed Tuesday. Consumer prices spiked 4.8 percent last month from a year earlier, accelerating from a 4.1 percent on-year gain in March, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marked the fast...