President Moon Jae-in on Friday thanked Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for last year's return of the remains of a revered Korean independence fighter as they exchanged letters to mark the 30th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties. In August last year, the remains of Hong Beom-do, one of the most revered Korean independence fighters, were laid to rest at Daejeon National Cemetery, ...

Japan is in "final consultations" internally to press ahead with a plan to recommend a local gold and silver mine as a candidate for UNESCO world heritage despite South Korea's strong opposition, according to a news report Friday. The Japanese government is nearing a decision to recommend the Sado mine in Niigata Prefecture, where thousands of Koreans were forced into hard labor during the 1910-...

BEIJING , Jan. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- January 2022 marks the third year since Tsinghua University initiated the Global Alliance of Universities (GAUC) in 2019 in Davos, Switzerland during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. Established in May 2019 , GAUC's mission is to advance climate change solutions through research, education, and public outreach, and to partner with in...

People Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo promised Friday to push for the signing of a Korea-US nuclear arms sharing agreement in response to the threat of North Korea’s nuclear weaponss if he is elected. “We will defend Korea’s security and peace, the people’s lives and safety against such provocations in collaboration with the international community, and not shy away from resorting to military counte...

The Busan International Film Festival decided to renew Lee Yong-kwan’s term as chairman in an extraordinary general meeting held Thursday at the Busan Cinema Center‘s BIFF Hill. Lee will lead the annual film festival for the next four years. As one of the founding members of the BIFF in 1996, Lee has held several posts at the organization, including programmer-in-chief, vice-director and directo...

Police have launched an investigation Friday to nab a suspect who secretly stuck a needle into a chair in a study room in Seoul, resulting in injury to the next user of the seat. According to local reports, the victim was stabbed by a sewing needle hidden under the cushion when they sat down at a reading room in Shinlim-dong, Gwanak-gu, on Jan. 2. The victim suffered a minor thigh injury. The r...

South Korean chipmaker SK hynix announced Friday that its annual revenue surged 35 percent to 42.9 trillion won ($35.6 billion) on-year, a record figure for the company. Operating profit spiked 148 percent to 12.4 trillion won. The record performance was propelled by the robust demand in IT gadgets amid a non-face-to-face trend despite uncertainties posed by supply chain risks, the company expla...

IMM Investments Corp invests in Iyuno-SDI, joins board of directors providing further backing for Iyuno-SDI's growth strategy LOS ANGELES , Jan. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Iyuno-SDI today announced that it has secured a significant investment from IMM Investments Corp in Iyuno-SDI's latest financing round. The transaction represents the second major investment from leading global investment fu...

South Korea's consumer prices could be further under upward pressure as oil prices have spiked amid increased geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine, a senior government official said Friday. The government will step up its monitoring of prices of petroleum products and consider whether to extend fuel tax cuts, depending on oil price movements, according to Vice First Finance Minister ...

Prosecutors have indicted a vocal North Korean defector and activist known for anti-Pyongyang leafleting on charges of attempting to send propaganda leaflets and other items aboard balloons to the North last year, sources said Friday. Park Sang-hak, the head of Fighters for a Free North Korea, a North Korean defectors' group, is accused of having sent a total of 10 balloons carrying propaganda l...

Samsung Card Co., a major South Korean card issuer, on Friday reported a 169.1 percent rise in its fourth-quarter earnings as consumption rebounded from a pandemic-caused slowdown. Net income in the October-December quarter came to 129.4 billion won ($107.4 million) on a consolidated basis, up from 48.1 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Fourth-quarter operatin...

SK Innovation Co., the energy and chemical affiliate of South Korean conglomerate SK Group, said Friday it swung to the black in the fourth quarter from a year earlier on strong petrochemical demand and electric vehicle (EV) battery sales. Net income came to 163.4 billion won ($135.7 million) in the October-December period, a turnaround from a loss of 232.6 billion won a year earlier, the compan...

Americans read an average of 12.6 books during the past year, according to a new Gallup poll released. That represents the lowest number of books read compared to any previous survey dating back to 1990, Gallup said. In three polls conducted between 2002 and 2016, Gallup surveys showed that Americans read an average of 15.2 books per year. The results are based on a Dec. 1-16 poll of a random s...

The percentage of Americans who identify as Christian dropped 15 percentage points over the past 14 years, while those who consider themselves religiously unaffiliated increased by 14 percentage points, a Pew study released indicates. Pew's National Public Opinion Reference Survey found that the majority of Americans - 63 percent - consider themselves Christian, down from 78 percent in 2007. Mea...