South Korea's total arable land dropped for the ninth consecutive year in 2021 as rice paddies shrank amid falling consumption of rice, data showed Friday. The country's arable land totaled 1.55 million hectares -- slightly more than three times the size of the U.S. state of Delaware -- as of end-2021, down 1.2 percent or 18,000 hectares from the previous year, according to the data by Statistic...

“Sado Kinzan Gold Mine, located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, is a collection of historic relics depicting the 400-year history of Sado‘s gold and silver mines. A guided tour, which includes facilities such as ‘the Best Gold Processing Plant in Asia’ and ‘Japan‘s First Western-Style Vertical Tunnel,’ will cause visitors to marvel at the impressive scale.” The introduction of the tourist site, wh...

The Bank of Korea (BOK) said Friday it has invested part of the country's foreign exchange reserves in a green bond fund for central banks in a bid to expand its investment in green projects. The BOK said it took part in the Asian Green Fund that was launched by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) on Thursday to invest in dollar-denominated green bonds issued in the Asian region. The BO...

South Korea's terms of trade fell for the 10th straight month in January as import costs rose at a faster clip than export prices, central bank data showed Friday. The nation's net terms-of-trade index for goods -- a gauge of overall trade terms -- stood at 89.42 last month, down 6.8 percent from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The figure has marked o...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has propelled national security issues to the fore of South Korea's presidential campaign as the two front-runners have seized on the crisis to highlight their own visions for defending the country and peace. The competing claims from the leading presidential candidates came as the Ukraine crisis has underscored the security challenges South Korea faces against a pro...

By Team Konnect Kim Min-jung ( minjung.kim@heraldcorp.com ) Jung Ji-eun ( jungje@heraldcorp.com ) Choi Jeong-yoon ( jychoi@heraldcorp.com ) Kim Jeong-ryul ( ryul@heraldcorp.com )

Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung and main opposition rival Yoon Suk-yeol are running neck and neck at 38 percent and 37 percent support, respectively, a poll showed Friday. Lee of the liberal Democratic Party gained 4 percentage points from last week, while Yoon of the conservative People Power Party lost 4 percentage points, according to Gallup Korea, which polled 1,000 adults ...

The number of bookstores in South Korea exceeded 2,500 at the end of last year, increasing by more than 200 from two years prior. The yearly increase in bookstores was the first recorded since 2003, when the tally began. According to the Handbook of Korean Bookstores, a biyearly publication by the Korea Federation of Bookstore Association released Thursday, the number of bookstores recorded 2,52...

The septet also released its Japanese-language greatest hits album, “BTS, the Best,” which topped the Oricon’s Year-end Albums Chart -- marking the first time a nondomestic act had done so in its 37 years of history. The CD release of “Butter” further topped Gaon’s Year-end Chart here, the group’s sixth consecutive year with separate releases. “BTS’ phenomenal success over the last year is a tes...

Samsung Electronics on Friday launched its latest flagship smartphone Galaxy S22 as well as its tablet Galaxy Tab S8 in some 40 countries. According to the South Korean tech giant, the new devices will be available in major markets including Korea, the US, Canada, the UK and France. In March, the high-tech gadgets will be available in more than 130 countries. The Galaxy S22 and the Galaxy Tab S...

“There were times when I wanted to ask her more questions but I could not,” he said. “For instance, in her record, she talks about several suicide attempts. But she did not exactly explain why. It is a big decision to make so there must have been a reason. It could have been due to economic reasons, but I will never know.” “On the other hand, even if I could ask her, I am not sure that I would u...

North Korea has been rated as one of the worst countries in terms of freedom, a recent report by a US-funded freedom watchdog showed Friday. In an annual Freedom House report titled, "Freedom in the World 2022," the North received a combined freedom score of 3 out of 100 -- zero points for political rights and 3 points for civil liberties. It ranked only above Turkmenistan at 2 points, and Sout...

A constitutional appeal has been filed against the Immigration Control Act that allows only those from eight English-speaking countries to work as native English instructors in South Korea, officials said Friday. Migrants Center Friend, an immigrant rights' group, filed the petition after a Ugandan was denied a visa to work as an English teacher, contending that it is wrong to limit such job opp...

Tickets to remotely watch the upcoming BTS concert at movie theaters have nearly sold out, reflecting the high fan interest in the group's first in-person concert in Seoul in two years, officials said Friday. Some 36,000 tickets for "live viewing" of the K-pop superstars' concert on March 12 at the theaters of CJ CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox nearly sold out in minutes, according to the multiple...

South Korea's daily COVID-19 cases fell below 170,000 Friday but critical cases and deaths from the virus rose at a fast pace amid the continued spread of the highly contagious omicron variant. The country reported 165,890 new COVID-19 infections, including 165,749 local cases, raising the total caseload to 2,665,077, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). It is sl...