The minimum hourly wage for next year has been finalized at 9,620 won ($7.38), up 5 percent, or 460 won, from this year, unchanged from the Minimum Wage Commission’s earlier decision, the Labor Ministry said Friday. The ministry officially published the 2023 minimum wage in the government gazette at 9 a.m. The new minimum wage translates to a monthly wage of 2.02 million won, when an individual...

One in 3 parents who murdered or attempted to kill their own children since 2020 were given suspended prison sentences, while all parent killers sentenced during the same period were handed jail terms, local media reported Friday. The local Segye Ilbo newspaper said it analyzed verdicts given to 15 filicide cases and 15 patricide or matricide cases from January of 2020 to May of this year. Among...

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin will make his first official visit to China and meet with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, next week, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Friday. Park will be traveling to Qingdao, Shandong province, from Monday to Wednesday, according to the Foreign Ministry. The trip has been coordinated upon an invitation from the Chinese foreign minister. In their planned t...

South Korea’s first lunar orbiter Danuri launched into space on Friday morning, and successfully reached the ballistic lunar transfer trajectory, a path that will take it toward the moon, the Ministry of Science and ICT said. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute confirmed from its ground control station that Danuri successfully separated from the projectile and reached the target ballistic lun...

Meanwhile, Kim Hyo-eun, the ambassador and deputy minister for climate change in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also delivered remarks, stressing Colombia’s spirit of democracy and love for peace. “For Korea, Colombia is a true friend of difficult times,” said Kim referring to Colombia’s assistance during the Korean War. “Colombia sent a total of 5,062 soldiers to Korea, many of whom sacrific...

South Korean steelmaker Posco Group said Friday that it has established an advisory committee for artificial intelligence technology, to initiate an in-depth discussion on the latest technology and map out future business strategies. Comprising 20 academia representatives and industry professionals in the AI sector, the committee is divided into two separate subcommittees. The academia-focused c...

President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating has sunk to the lowest since he took office in May, amid controversies over his personnel appointments and leadership turmoil in the ruling party, a poll showed Friday. Yoon's approval rating came to 24 percent, down 4 percentage points from the previous week, while 66 percent negatively assessed his handling of state affairs, up 4 percentage points. The...

Police are investigating an Iraqi man who strewed a large amount of U.S. dollar and euro bills on a street in northern Seoul and later reported to police he lost money, officials said Friday. The Iraqi in his 30s scattered dollar, euro and Korean won bills worth a total of 22 million won (US$16,930) on a street in a residential area of Seoul's Nowon district Thursday evening, according to police...

So they meet again. Ulsan Hyundai FC and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, the two best teams in South Korean football so far this year, will square off for the third time this season on Sunday. The kickoff is 7 p.m. at Jeonju World Cup Stadium, Jeonbuk's home located some 200 kilometers south of Seoul. They split the first two meetings. Ulsan lead the K League 1 with 51 points, and Jeonbuk trail them by...

Tottenham Hotspur's South Korean star Son Heung-min will begin his chase for another piece of history when the new Premier League season kicks off on the weekend. Spurs will open the 2022-2023 campaign by hosting Southampton at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London at 3 p.m. Saturday local time, or 11 p.m. Saturday in Seoul. Last season, Son became the first Asian player to lead the Premier Leagu...

The government will resume preemptive COVID-19 tests for new military conscripts to prevent mass infections at boot camps amid a new wave of virus resurgence, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min said Friday. "The government will have new conscripts get free tests at public health centers nationwide within three days before joining the military by classifying them into the priority group for the polym...

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases exceeded 100,000 for the fourth straight day Friday amid a wave of infections driven by a highly infectious omicron variant. The country added 112,901 new COVID-19 infections, including 497 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 20,273,011, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Friday's figure is slightly up from 107,894 Thursday. O...

DRAM prices went south for the second straight month in August amid flagging demand, data showed Friday, boding ill for the chip industry down the road. The average contract price of 8-gigabit DDR4 DRAMs came to US$2.91 on the spot market Thursday, down 11 percent from $3.27 a month earlier, according to market tracker DRAMeXchange and Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency...