SEJONG -- A spike in import prices of agricultural, livestock and fisheries products is estimated to have propelled a recent sharp growth in the nation’s overall consumer prices, data from a research institute showed Monday. According to the Korea Trade Statistics Promotion Institute, the index for import prices of agricultural, livestock and fisheries products reached 112.6 in February, up 31.7...

“I was a bit worried over people’s reliance on disposables amid the virus crisis and its impact on future generations,” Kim said, adding that she has decided to switch over to stainless steel drinking straws for children for starters. COVID-19 has made 34-year-old kindergarten teacher Oh Hye-seung rethink her relationships with people around her. When Oh became infected in February, one of her ...

South Korean fintech company Quantit said Monday it has received the best disruptive solution award at Technology Award 2021 hosted by Asian Private Banker. The firm was recognized for its robo-adviser service, dubbed RABIT, which uses artificial intelligence to offer investment strategies that reduce volatility in the high-risk cryptocurrency market. The service allows for a relatively safe in...

SSG.com, the digital shopping platform of retail giant Shinsegae Group, said Monday it will launch a cross-border shopping service for international shoppers. The company will sell over 9.6 million fashion and beauty items, as well as processed food on Gmarket Global’s English and Chinese online malls, as part of the first collaborative project following Shinsegae’s acquisition of eBay Korea, si...

TvN coming-of-age romance drama “Twenty-Five Twenty-One” came to an end Sunday, landing top ratings for its time slot. Featuring the strong friendship of teen fencers Na Hee-do (played by Kim Tae-ri) and Ko Yu-rim (Bona) along with high school friends Ji Seung-wan (Lee Ju-myoung) and Moon Ji-woong (Choi Hyun-wook), “Twenty-Five Twenty-One” caught drama fans’ hearts with stories of teenagers purs...

Though the animation is set to be revealed via streaming and broadcast, the platforms are yet to be decided. Meanwhile, public broadcaster EBS premiered “My Daughter is a Zombie,” an animation series adapted from a webtoon of the same title by author Lee Yun-chang, on Sunday. The series revolves around Su-ah, a daughter and the last zombie on earth, and her survival in a zombie-free South Korea...

South Korean IT giant Kakao and the Seoul Metropolitan Government have signed an agreement to build the country’s first and largest arena dedicated to staging K-pop performances, officials said Monday. Called Seoul Arena, the multicultural complex will begin construction in June and is expected to be completed in October 2025. Seoul Arena will be built in Seoul’s northern Dobong-gu and will be c...

US investor Jim Rogers has been named an inter-Korean project cooperation adviser for the city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province, adjacent to the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas, officials said Monday. Rogers was tapped to give the city government policy advice on inter-Korean projects and is scheduled to visit the northern border city on Wednesday to sign the related agreement, accord...

SK Square is poised for two stock market flotations of its key affiliates -- a mobile app marketplace and a security service -- on the Korea Exchange in May, filings showed Monday. The initial public offerings of the subsidiaries will amount to up to 1.33 trillion won ($1.09 billion) if combined, in the first two attempts since SK Square was spun off from Korea’s largest telecom carrier SK Telec...

South Korea reported the lowest COVID-19 daily cases in around six weeks for the 24 hours of Sunday, according to the country’s health authorities on Monday. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the country’s daily COVID-19 infections reported for Sunday reached 127,190, bringing the total caseload to 14,001,406. This daily figure was the lowest since Feb. 22, when the ...

Mirae Asset Global Investment’s Canadian subsidiary Horizons ETFs’ assets under management have exceeded 20 trillion won ($16.4 billion), showing more than a sixfold increase in the last decade. On Monday, the Korean asset manager said Horizons ETFs’ assets under management had reached $18.1 billion, or 22.2 trillion won. The figure has increased more than sixfold since Mirae Asset acquired Hori...

Expectations were high among fans for BTS to write a new chapter in history as the first K-pop act to win a Grammy. If the boy band had won, it would have made them the first Asian artists to bag all three major US music awards, including the American Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards. BTS won three awards, including the top honor of artists of the year, at the American Music Awards in No...

The Education Ministry said Monday it will inject 600 billion won ($492.69 million) into its “education recovery” project to provide academic and psychological support for students that have had to cope with the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. With the social distancing rules in Korea expected to take a new turn in the gradual return to normalcy, the ministry is set to draw up a new guideline for i...

Blue Man Group, a nonverbal stage show that blends art, technology, music and comedy, is coming back to meet Korean audiences after a pandemic-induced delay, its Korean distribution company Mast Entertainment said Monday. The Blue Man Group features three bald and blue characters, who “explore the world and discover music, comedy and surprises at every turn.” Since its debut in 1991 in New York,...

South Korea's conservative People Power Party is preparing to elect a new floor leader that is expected to face strong opposition from the liberal Democratic Party of Korea in the following year. The party is holding an internal election on Friday, and its outcome will determine what direction the party will take with the new government and who to pick as key parliamentary supporters of the Yoon...