South Korean stocks closed nearly flat Wednesday as major shares ended in mixed territory. The local currency lost ground against the US dollar. Swinging between gains and losses, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 1.1 points, or 0.04 percent, to close at 2,495.38. Trade volume was slim at 384.3 million shares worth 7.51 trillion won ($5.71 billion), with winners outnumbering losers 499 to 371. Institutions scooped up a net 240.5 billion won worth of shares, while individual a

Market Dec. 6, 2023

US defense giant Boeing is seeking to win more orders from South Korea for its Chinook heavy-lift helicopters amid Seoul's efforts to reinforce readiness against North Korean threats. The company touted the CH-47ER variant for South Korea's plans to acquire new special operations choppers during a tour of its production facility in Mesa, Arizona to a group of reporters from the defense ministry's press corps last Thursday. In April, South Korea's defense authorities endorsed

Defense Dec. 6, 2023

Twitch, a popular U.S.-based live game streaming platform, said Wednesday it plans to shut down its South Korean service in February next year due to high network usage fees in the country. In an announcement posted on its corporate blog, Twitch Interactive Inc. CEO Dan Clancy said the company "made the difficult decision to shut down the Twitch business in Korea on February 27, 2024." Clancy said the cost to operate Twitch in South Korea was "prohibitively expensive" and sai

Economy Dec. 6, 2023

Erick Fedde, the reigning most valuable player award winner in South Korean baseball, has signed with the Chicago White Sox, US media reports claimed. ESPN and other outlets reported Tuesday that Fedde has agreed to a two-year deal worth $15 million with the White Sox. Fedde, 30, won the Korea Baseball Organization regular season MVP award for the NC Dinos this season, after winning the Triple Crown as the league leader with 20 wins, a 2.00 ERA and 209 strikeouts. The American right-hander becam

Baseball Dec. 6, 2023

Prosecutors on Wednesday raided the home of the head of online news outlet Newstapa in connection with its reporting of an alleged fake interview given in 2021 to discredit then opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office sent prosecutors and investigators to the residence of Newstapa's chief, Kim Yong-jin, in the morning to seize materials related to the coverage of the interview on the eve of last year's presidential election. The ca

Social Affairs Dec. 6, 2023

Eileen Gu, a two-time Olympic freestyle skiing champion for China, has been named a global ambassador for the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics opening in South Korea next month. The organizers of the Winter Youth Olympics in Gangwon Province, on the east coast of the country, announced Wednesday that Gu, 20, will serve as a mentor for young athletes and also use her considerable social media presence to drive up interest in the Jan. 19-Feb. 1 competition. Gu, 20, won gold medals in the women's bi

More Sports Dec. 6, 2023

North Korea has held a meeting to hand out gifts to participants in the latest national conference of mothers, state media reported Wednesday, in an apparent move to secure their loyalty amid a declining birth rate. The central committee of the ruling Workers' Party provided the participants with significant gifts "associated with the meticulous paternal affection" of leader Kim Jong-un. Kim did not attend Tuesday's event, but the Korean Central News Agency said he made sure

North Korea Dec. 6, 2023

South Korean stocks started a tad higher Wednesday led by gains in tech and financial shares. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 5.65 points, or 0.23 percent, to 2,499.93 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, U.S. stocks finished mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average retreating 0.2 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite edging up 0.3 percent. In Seoul, chipmakers lent support to the positive opening, with No. 1 Samsung Electronics rising 0.84 percent and

Market Dec. 6, 2023

A five-time Korean tour winner Lee So-mi is closing in on the top prize at the LPGA Tour qualifying tournament in Alabama. Lee shot a nine-under 63 in the fifth and penultimate round of the LPGA Q-Series at Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Magnolia Grove in Mobile, Alabama, on Tuesday (local time). Following the bogey-free round that matched the Q-Series course record, Lee leads Robyn Choi of Australia by two strokes at 27-under heading into Wednesday's finale. Players finishing inside the

Golf Dec. 6, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating dropped 4 percentage points from a month earlier to 33 percent, according to a survey conducted jointly by Yonhap News Agency and Yonhap News TV on Wednesday. The survey also showed that the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) would secure 31 percent and 36 percent of the vote, respectively, if the general elections were to take place tomorrow. Yonhap News Agency and Yonhap News TV jointly commissioned the survey

Politics Dec. 6, 2023

Hwang Hee-chan of Wolverhampton Wanderers has netted his eighth goal of the Premier League season, keeping pace with the league leaders in the scoring race. Hwang scored in the 42nd minute to help Wolves past Burnley 1-0 at Molineux Stadium in Wolverhampton, England, on Tuesday (local time). It snapped Wolves' two-match losing skid, as they improved to 18 points on five wins, three draws and seven losses. Hwang climbed into a three-way tie for fourth place in goals in the Premier League, jo

Soccer Dec. 6, 2023

Korea and Japan held working-level diplomatic consultations Tuesday to discuss pending bilateral issues and ways to boost bilateral ties, Seoul's foreign ministry said. Seo Min-jung, director general for Asia and Pacific affairs at South Korea's foreign ministry, met with her Japanese counterpart Hiroyuki Namazu to assess bilateral relations and exchange views on "issues of shared interest," the ministry said in a press release. The ministry didn't give details, but ther

Foreign Affairs Dec. 5, 2023

South Korean All-Star closer Go Woo-suk has been posted for Major League Baseball clubs, the league office here announced Tuesday. The Korea Baseball Organization said MLB notified its 30 clubs of Go's posting by his domestic club, LG Twins, on Monday (US time), confirming US media reports from earlier in the day. The 25-year-old right-hander is now able to sign with any big league team within the 30-day negotiating window, which opens at 8 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday and will end at 5 p.m

Baseball Dec. 5, 2023

The finance ministers of South Korea and Britain on Tuesday discussed the establishment of a bilateral economic dialogue and investment cooperation channels as follow-up measures to last month's summit of their leaders, Seoul's finance ministry said. During a video conference with Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt, South Korea's Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho voiced expectations for stronger bilateral cooperation on energy, supply chains a

Economy Dec. 5, 2023

South Korean and global security experts saw it unlikely for the growing competition between the United States and China to end soon, with some even predicting an armed conflict within the next five years, a report showed Tuesday. In the "2023 Near Global Survey Report of the World Order" released by the NEAR Foundation, an independent think tank specializing in Northeast Asia, 15 percent of the 42 experts surveyed believed a military clash between Beijing and Washington is likely to b

Foreign Affairs Dec. 5, 2023