The American Chamber of Commerce in Korea elected a new board chair and three new members to lead the group next year, the organization said Friday. Following the annual election, the AMCHAM Board of Governors is now made up of 41 members, including seven women. This is the largest and most diverse group in the organization’s history, it said. Henry An, Senior Partner at Samil PricewaterhouseCo...

SEJONG -- South Korea was found to have conducted longer closures of on-the-spot classes at schools than other countries amid the pandemic situation, a state-run statistics agency said Friday. According to Statistics Korea, Korea closed elementary, middle and high schools for 68 weeks (77.3 percent) of the 88 weeks from March 2020 to October 2021. The closure includes partial or full-fledged (al...

The head of a municipal development company, who was facing prosecutorial questioning for allegedly taking bribes in a massive land development corruption scandal, was found dead in an apparent suicide, police said on Friday. Police discovered the body of Yoo Han-gi, head of the Pocheon Urban Corp., who was reported missing by his family early Friday near his home in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. Y...

Carmakers in South Korea -- Hyundai Motor and GM Korea -- appear to be concerned as hardline union leader came back to negotiation tables, amid prevailing uncertainties at manufacturing facilities hit by the pandemic and supply crunch woes. According to Hyundai Motor branch of Korean Metal Workers’ Union, Ahn Hyun-ho has received 53.3 percent of approval from some 48,000 member union to reign ov...

South Korean stocks ended their seven-session winning streak on Friday as investor sentiment was hurt by concerns that the latest spike in COVID-19 cases could sap an economic recovery. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) retreated 19.34 points, or 0.64 percent, to close at 3,010.23 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 444 m...

Five of Hyundai Motor Group’s affiliates have been listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, three of which were added for the first time. Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Hyundai Steel have been recognized on the world’s first sustainability index for 12 and four consecutive years, respectively. Hyundai Motor, auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis and logistics company Hyundai Glovis were n...

A high-school student and others filed a constitutional petition Friday against the government's plan to expand the COVID-19 vaccine pass program to teenagers next year. Starting February, the government plans to require not only adults but also children aged 12 to 18 to present COVID-19 vaccination or negative test certificates at multiuse facilities, including public study rooms and cram schoo...

South Korean steelmaker Posco Group’s plan to set up a holding company, Posco Holdings, was approved by the board Friday, buoying expectations that the steelmaker will extend its business areas to hydrogen fuel cells, advanced materials and renewable energy. Under the plan, the group’s steelmaking arm will be physically split off and will be placed under the planned holding company. The envision...

Krafton Inc., a South Korean gaming giant, said Friday that its global smash hit "PUBG: Battlegrounds" will be going free to play starting next month. The game will start a free-to-play mode on all platforms, including computers and consoles, on Jan. 12, 2022, to enable more people to enjoy the battle royale style game, Krafton said. The global-hit game, in which users fight to remain the last ...

South Korea has successfully conducted key performance tests of a homegrown ship-based guided missile ahead of its deployment next year, the state-run defense quality assessment agency and Navy officials said Friday. The Defense Agency for Technology and Quality (DTaQ) said that the missile, called the Haegung, hit the intended target in two tests, one conducted on Wednesday and one Friday. Haeg...

INCHEON -- Prosecutors sought a five-year prison sentence Friday for a former high school teacher charged with luring one of her students into having sex with her. The former teacher at a high school in Incheon, west of Seoul, was indicted on charges of sexually abusing the student by having sex with him multiple times between 2019 and 2020 when she was the student's homeroom teacher. In April ...

Hanwha Engineering and Construction Corp. has been picked as the preferred bidder for a project to build a new major sports and convention industry complex in southeastern Seoul, the city government announced Friday. Seoul aims to develop some 350,000 square meters around Jamsil Sports Complex in Seoul's southeastern Songpa Ward into a comprehensive commercial complex encompassing a wide range o...

South Korean boy group Monsta X released a new English-language album Friday for its international fans, the group's management agency said. The full-length album titled "The Dreaming" hit various music services at midnight, Starship Entertainment said. It is the group's second English album after "All Above Luv" released in February 2020. "This album will once again make us realize that all o...

Police on Thursday transferred to the prosecution a man who recorded a video that created a controversy over the unsanitary conditions of a factory baking products for Dunkin’ Donuts. The Anyang Dongan Police Station in Gyeonggi Province has been investigating the worker who took the video of the factory in Anyang for suspicions of business obstruction after BR Korea, an affiliate of the SPC Gro...