Even after the first TV debate held Thursday, two front-runners of the presidential election are running neck and neck against each other, polls showed Sunday. Candidate Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative People Power Party earned 43.3 percent support, while Lee Jae-myung of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea earned 41.8 percent, according to a poll held by Realmeter under the request of local...

With major aspect of the Korean wave focused more on the modern aspect. Evans believed that his series presents a new slice of Korea, which presents the dance of tradition and modernity with “newtro,“ a trending keyword in Korea that is a combination of “new” and “retro.” “I personally found newtro interesting, because it was not doing the old within a modern setting, but rather fusing tradition...

Employees at South Korean financial firms will receive up to four times their monthly salary as their bonuses for 2021, backed by booming business, sources said Sunday. Woori Bank, one of the major commercial lenders here, has recently agreed with its union to hand its employees performance bonuses worth 300 percent of their monthly salaries plus some 1 million won ($830), according to industry ...

The proportion of apartments bought by people in their 30s or younger reached an all-time high last year amid "panic buying" over soaring housing prices, data showed Sunday. The buyers of this age group accounted for 31 percent of the country's total apartment sales in 2021, up from 29.2 percent in 2020, according to the data compiled by the Korea Real Estate Board. The agency began compiling t...

In the meantime, Yoon’s campaign spokesperson criticized Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Hwang Hee, who is leading the government delegation in Beijing, for reportedly refusing to officially lodge a protest with the organizers over the hanbok-clad woman. Hwang attended the opening ceremony wearing hanbok. Although the Korean government has not issued an official statement, Hwang told Korea...

South Korean speed skater Kim Bo-reum celebrated her 29th birthday in Beijing on Sunday, the third time she has gotten to mark her big day during a Winter Olympics. The three-time Olympian is the only South Korean athlete here whose birthday falls during the Feb. 4-20 competition. Before her training session on Sunday, Kim received a bouquet of flowers and a stuffed doll of the panda Olympic ma...

North Korea continued to expand its nuclear and missile programs last year despite international sanctions, while the regime relied on cryptocurrency heists as its key revenue source, according to a news report Sunday. A United Nations panel of experts monitoring sanctions on Pyongyang said the regime “continued to develop its capability for production of nuclear fissile materials,” despite n...

With the presidential election just 30 days away, South Korea's election watchdog is hastening its preparations for the March 9 vote amid a surge in daily COVID-19 infections driven by the highly contagious omicron variant. According to the National Election Commission (NEC), political parties' presidential candidates have to formally register on Feb. 13 and 14. The candidates' official 22-day ...

Korea’s major game developers are taking preemptive measures to cope with the new industrial safety law and prevent another “crunch mode” controversy. Under the Serious Accident Punishment Act, which took effect from Jan. 27, business owners can face a minimum prison term of one year or a fine of up to 1 billion won ($835,000) if a fatal accident at the workplace causes a death or more than one ...

After just more than two years of the pandemic, South Korea is considering changing the current quarantine system to manage COVID-19 like a seasonal flu, as severe cases decline despite the rapid increase in the spread. Earlier on Friday, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters said it would fully review the possibility of switching to a medical system similar to seasonal flu...

The first positive case of COVID-19 has been confirmed among the Korean delegation participating in the Beijing Winter Olympics, the national Olympic body said Saturday. According to the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, an official working for the skiing team tested positive for COVID-19 at the airport upon arrival in Beijing on Thursday. The official has been moved to a quarantine facility af...

South Korea's fisheries output rose 1.2 percent last year from a year earlier on the back of improved production from the aquaculture sector, data showed Sunday. The total fisheries output amounted to 3.76 million tons in 2021, compared with 3.71 million tons tallied a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. In terms of value, the output came to 9.2...

President Moon Jae-in will preside over a COVID-19 response meeting on Monday as the nation is grappling with a surge in daily infections driven by highly transmissible omicron variant, according to the presidential office on Sunday. It will be the first time in about six months that Moon presides over a virus response meeting. Due to the rapid spread of the highly contagious omicron, South Kor...

Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung said Sunday he aims to launch a new airport in the southern port city of Busan by 2029. In February last year, the National Assembly approved a bill on a multi-billion-dollar state project to build the new airport on Gadeok Island, the biggest island of Busan, to handle growing air traffic demand and facilitate prosperity in the country's southea...

With his confidence running high after a recent international victory, South Korean figure skater Cha Jun-hwan will try to push himself into medal contention at Beijing 2022 with three quadruple jumps. After nailing a quadruple salchow multiple times in practice on Saturday, Cha said he plans to do a quadruple salchow in the short program and then a quadruple salchow and a quadruple toe loop in ...