With less than 30 days to go to the March presidential election, candidates from opposition parties are bringing talks to merge their campaigns to the surface. Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party expressed for the first time his openness to unifying his candidacy with Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor opposition People’s Party in a media interview Monday. Ahn, however, drew a line ...

Ahead of Tuesday morning’s press conference, the KSOC released a statement which said, “We’ll do our best to ensure our athletes won’t be treated so unfairly. ... We are hoping our latest decision will provide a momentum in preventing any repetition of similarly unfair decisions against South Korean athletes in international speedskating events.” In a statement released Tuesday, the Internationa...

US Forces Korea (USFK) chief Gen. Paul LaCamera visited an American air unit equipped with high-end guided bombs last week to ensure "fight-tonight" readiness, his office said Tuesday, amid tensions caused by recent North Korean missile launches. In a Facebook post, the USFK showed a series of photos depicting him looking at a set of formidable weapons systems, like the Joint Direct Attack Munit...

The recent surge in the number of COVID-19 cases has increased the demand for self-test kits, and is causing alarm as there are signs of another supply shortage reminiscent of the mask scarcity seen two years ago. Sales of self-test kits at convenience stores have soared since Jan. 26 when the country’s daily confirmed cases broke 10,000 for the first time. Some stores quickly ran out of stock a...

Though details have yet to be announced, local gaming giant Nexon appointed global entertainment veteran Nick van Dyk as the president of the company’s film and television division and chief strategy officer, in July 2021. The move was made in an attempt to expand its franchise IP -- Dungeon & Fighter, The Kingdom of the Winds, MapleStory and KartRider. Though video-game-to-movie franchises are ...

Samsung Biologics has won the 2022 CMO Leadership Awards in all six performance categories of capabilities, compatibility, expertise, reliability, quality and service, the company said Tuesday. The awards, presented by Life Science Leader, Outsourced Pharma and Industry Standard Research, recognize the world’s top contract manufacturing organizations based on ratings and feedback from companies ...

Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman is set to perform in Korea in the coming weeks after a couple of delays in ticketing. The celebrated pianist will visit Korea later this month with some changes in the schedule, according to Mast Media, the organizer of Zimerman‘s recitals. Previously, it was unclear whether Zimmerman, who travels with his own instrument, would be able to make it to the country ...

Asan Medical Center, one of South Korea's five major hospitals, said Tuesday it will open a separate infectious disease facility to better battle the pandemic. The Center for Infection Control (CIC), located next to the general hospital's main wing in Seoul, will begin operations Thursday. It marks the first time for a private hospital to open a separate building wholly dedicated to infectious ...

Gaming giant Krafton said Tuesday it has released artificial intelligence-based virtual human characters, who will appear as hyperreal game show hosts and virtual friends on the metaverse platform. The virtual human characters show human-like skin and hair, facial expressions and eye movements, according to the company. In Krafton’s virtual human demo video, a female character shows realistic wr...

The K-pop girl band member said she was excited about her film being presented to audiences worldwide. “I think it is meaningful that our film is Netflix Korea’s first original movie,” Seohyun said. “I am curious to find out how global audiences from 190 different countries, as well as Korean audiences, will receive our film.” The Netflix movie will be released Feb. 11.

Allegations of power abuse surrounding the presidential nominee for the ruling party and his wife continue to grow, with numerous accusations freshly presented since they were first raised on Jan. 28. A new allegation was made Monday that Lee Jae-myung‘s wife Kim Hye-kyung used a Gyeonggi Provincial Government vehicle for personal purposes, attending to private matters and parking it at a reside...

South Korea’s daily COVID-19 infections stayed above 35,000 for a fourth straight day for the 24 hours of Monday, government data showed Tuesday. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the country’s daily COVID-19 cases for the day marked 36,719, raising the total to 1,081,681. The daily infections Monday was a twofold increase from the same day of the prior week, when th...

Korean Air customers flying on domestic routes can now pass through the boarding gate empty handed -- as the airline has adopted palm vein scanning to verify passengers’ identities. According to the air carrier on Tuesday, those aged above 7 with Korean nationality can register their biometric information at Korean Air kiosks in Gimpo International Airport’s departure area. Passengers who do so ...

President Moon Jae-in called Tuesday for measures to guarantee voting rights of virus patients and people in self-isolation in the upcoming presidential election amid concerns that the ongoing COVID-19 crisis could prevent hundreds of thousands of voters from casting their ballots. Under current election rules, it is virtually impossible for those who are diagnosed with COVID-19 after the early ...

North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament gathered for two days earlier this week to discuss cabinet work and government budgets, with leader Kim Jong-un absent at the key gathering. The sixth session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly was held in Pyongyang on Sunday and Monday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday. There was no separate message toward Washington or...