President Yoon Suk-yeol said Wednesday that South Korea cannot provide North Korea with security guarantees, but he does not want the status quo changed "unreasonably or by force." The remark, made in a press conference marking his 100 days in office, was seen as yet another olive branch to Pyongyang, days after he unveiled what he described as an "audacious" offer to rebuild the North's economy...

A top financial regulator said Wednesday that it is necessary to step up global cooperation in effectively responding to crimes involving digital assets as transactions take place across borders with their impact on traditional financial markets fast expanding. Kim So-young, vice chair of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), highlighted the need in the inauguration meeting of the recently la...

Prosecutors will determine this week whether to suspend the prison term of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk's wife, who was convicted of college admission fraud involving their daughter and financial misconduct, sources said Wednesday. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office will hold a meeting Thursday to determine whether to grant a request by Cho's wife, Chung Kyung-sim, to suspend her f...

The justice ministry has proposed a law requiring convicted stalkers to wear electronic monitoring devices for up to 10 years, officials said Wednesday. The ministry unveiled the proposal in a pre-legislation notice. Currently, high-risk convicted murderers, sex offenders, burglars and child kidnappers are subject to the use of devices such as ankle bracelets, which use GPS technology to monito...

A United Nations Security Council committee on North Korea sanctions has approved a sanctions exemption for a US-based aid group to send spine-related rehabilitation equipment to the impoverished country, its website showed Wednesday. Under the decision, Ignis Community will be exempt from UN sanctions to send medical and rehabilitation equipment for the Pyongyang Spine and Rehabilitation Centre...

Korea Line Corp., South Korea's No. 2 bulk carrier, said Wednesday its earnings reached a new all-time high in the first half of the year amid high freight rates. Net income came to 144.2 billion won ($110 million) in the January-June period, the shipping company said. The on-year growth rate was not disclosed. Sales spiked nearly 58 percent on-year to 778.9 billion won, with its operating inco...

SEJONG -- South Korea's contraband trade shot up 60 percent in the first half of the year on a spike in tariff evasion and country-of-origin violations, the customs agency said Wednesday. The Korea Customs Service (KCS) said it detected and confiscated about 3 trillion won (US$2.3 billion) worth of illegal goods and unlawful transactions in the January-June period, compared with 1.9 trillion won...

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) was set Wednesday to endorse a revision to its charter aimed at raising the bar for party membership suspension for those facing criminal charges amid criticism it is aimed at shielding former presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung. The party's national convention preparatory committee adopted the envisioned revision a day earlier to state that only those ...

In a bid to sign with a major league club, South Korean high school pitching prospect Shim Jun-seok has decided to skip the annual rookie draft in the South Korean league. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced Wednesday that Shim, the third-year right-hander for Duksoo High School in Seoul, did not register for the Sept. 15 draft. The deadline to enter the draft was midnight Tuesday. ...

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors' Brazilian forward Gustavo was announced South Korean football's best player for July on Wednesday, becoming the third foreign player to capture the monthly award this season. The Korea Professional Football League (K League) said Gustavo beat out three candidates for the Player of the Month award for July. Gustavo had four goals and an assist in five matches last month, ...

The South Korean legal drama "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" has topped Netflix's latest weekly viewership chart of non-English TV shows for the third consecutive week, the global video streaming service said Wednesday. The TV series, which has aired every Wednesday and Thursday on the cable channel ENA since June 29, marked 69.4 million hours of viewing for the week of Aug. 8-14 to lead Netflix's ...

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases jumped to a four-month high on Wednesday following the extended weekend amid the continued spread of a highly contagious omicron subvariant. The country added 180,803 new COVID-19 infections, including 567 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 21,682,816, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). It is the highest figure ...

Seoul shares opened higher Wednesday as investors await the latest Federal Reserve's minutes that will give them an idea of its future rate policy to combat inflation. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 6.71 points, or 0.26 percent, to trade at 2,540.23 points as of 9:15 a.m. The main index got a boost amid market speculation that inflation pressure is peaking, making ...

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases surged to an 18-week high of about 180,000 on Wednesday amid a new resurgence of the virus, a government official said. The number of seriously ill COVID-19 patients came to 469 with the daily death toll reaching 42, Kim Sung-ho, the head of the interior ministry's disaster management office, said during a government COVID-19 response meeting. "An increase in tr...

"Hunt," the directorial debut of Lee Jung-jae of "Squid Game," has topped 2 million admissions, box-office data showed Wednesday. The espionage film drew 146,000 people the previous day, bringing its combined total to 2.1 million, according to the data by the Korea Film Council. Released Aug. 10, it took seven days to reach the 2 million level, becoming the fourth most-viewed Korean film in 202...