Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Corp. said Wednesday their combined sales in the United States fell 11 percent last month from a year earlier amid the prolonged global chip shortage. Hyundai and Kia sold 123,080 vehicles in the world's most important automobile market in July compared with 138,599 units a year ago, according to the companies' sales data. Hyundai's sales declined 11 perc...

President Yoon Suk-yeol has ordered the education ministry to swiftly put to public debate the government's proposal to lower the elementary school starting age by one year to 5, an official said Tuesday. Yoon also instructed the ministry to play a role in facilitating bipartisan discussions about the plan in the National Assembly because the plan is subject to parliamentary approval, said senio...

Board members of South Korea's central bank underlined the need for raising the policy interest rate to a neutral level as quickly as possible to curb fast-rising inflation pressure as they delivered a first-ever "big-step" rate increase last month, minutes from their latest rate-setting meeting showed Tuesday. In the meeting on July 13, the monetary policy board of the Bank of Korea (BOK) voted...

Seoul shares ended lower Tuesday, snapping a six-day winning streak, as investors remain watchful on escalating US-China tension over Taiwan amid global recession worries. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 12.63 points, or 0.52 percent, to close at 2,451.5 points. Trading volume was moderate at 539.85 million shares worth 7.2 trillio...

A presidential official said Tuesday it will look into an allegation of influence peddling by a Buddhist figure, who has reportedly claimed close ties with President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee. The official made the remark after a Chosun Ilbo newspaper report that the Buddhist figure allegedly claimed he can use his connections with the first couple to help people get out of tax p...

South Korea's electricity consumption reached a record monthly high last month, as the country was gripped by a sweltering heat wave, the power operator said Tuesday. The country's average maximum power consumption came to 82,007 megawatts (MW) in July, up 1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Power Exchange (KPX). It marked the highest level since the government began compiling...

A police bureau came officially into being at the interior ministry Tuesday, marking the first time in 31 years for the ministry to have an organization overseeing the law enforcement agency. The bureau's establishment came after some front-line police officers protested strongly against the envisioned organization that they claim would put police under political influence and compromise their p...

In the midst of his strong first season in South Korea, former FC Barcelona player Lee Seung-woo is apparently drawing interest from Europe. Edinburgh Evening News reported Sunday (local time) that Heart of Midlothian FC, commonly known as Hearts, had offered Lee a three-year deal to leave Suwon FC and join the Scottish Premiership club. For days leading up to that report, there had been whispe...

South Korea's Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup is set to depart for Australia on Tuesday for talks with his Australian counterpart on arms industry cooperation and regional security, his ministry said. Lee plans to meet Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles in Canberra on Thursday to discuss two-way defense cooperation as part of follow-up measures to the summit between President Yoon Suk-yeol...

K-pop boy group BTS has announced the return of its own variety show, titled "Run BTS," after 10 months. "'Run BTS' will finally make a return after a 10-month break," the band said in a teaser video it shared on social media Monday. "Please look forward to the release, because the show would be more fun after being recharged." "Run BTS" is a South Korean web-based series starring the septet, w...

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases sharply rose to over 110,000 on Tuesday as a highly infectious omicron variant has fueled a surge of new infections. The country added 111,789 new COVID-19 infections, including 568 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 19,932,439, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Daily cases tend to increase through the mid-week before fallin...

Seoul shares opened lower Tuesday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street, with investors keeping a watchful eye on escalating US-China tension over Taiwan amid global recession woes. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 5.10 points, or 0.21 percent, to trade at 2,447.15 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly plans to visit ...

Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup has said there could be a way to allow members of K-pop supergroup BTS to perform overseas while carrying out their mandatory military service. Lee made the remark during a parliamentary defense committee meeting Monday, saying the issue can be handled without breaching the principle of "fairness and equity." "I believe there is a way to give BTS an opportunity to ...

Wolverhamton Wanderers' South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan spoke up against racism Tuesday, some 24 hours after being subjected to discriminatory abuse during a preseason friendly in Portugal. "We are all the same human beings. We all need to have a mature attitude on enjoying sports," Hwang wrote on his Instagram page. "I really hope today could be the last day of people's suffering from racis...

South Korea's consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in almost 24 years in July due to high energy and food prices, data showed Tuesday, raising expectations that the central bank will continue to raise the policy rate to tame inflation. Consumer prices soared 6.3 percent last month from a year earlier, accelerating from a 6 percent on-year spike in June, according to the data from Statistics ...