Unionized financial workers staged a one-day nationwide strike Friday calling for a wage hike and a 4.5-day workweek. The strike, called by the Korean Financial Industry Union, caused minimal disruption to operations of five major commercial banks, including KB Kookmin and Shinhan, with about 1 percent of union members participating, according to the companies. In three major state-run banks, i...

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), South Korea's sole aircraft maker, signed a US$3 billion contract with Poland on Friday to follow up on an earlier basic deal to export 48 FA-50 fighter jets, Seoul's arms procurement agency said. KAI inked the "executive" contract with Warsaw's Armament Agency as a follow-up to the "framework" contract signed in July to supply the fighters to the European count...

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Seoul, during his meeting with Li Zhanshu, China's top legislator. Yoon said Xi's visit will "serve as important momentum to open a new chapter in Seoul-Beijing relations for the next 30 years," according to the presidential office. In response, Li, China's third-highest-ranking official and chief of th...

President Yoon Suk-yeol and US President Joe Biden could discuss the possibility of a currency swap deal between the two countries when they meet in New York next week, a presidential official said Friday. Choi Sang-mok, senior presidential secretary for economic affairs, told reporters he would not get ahead of the meeting slated to take place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, but th...

South Korean stocks retreated 0.79 percent Friday, extending a losing streak to a third straight day, as the latest US economic data supported the view that the Federal Reserve will deliver another steep interest rate hike in next week's policy meeting. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 19.05 points to 2,382.78. Trading volume was moderate at 432.5 million shares worth...

Heavy rains may soak South Korea's southeast coast early next week under the influence of Typhoon Nanmadol, which is currently moving northwest from waters near Japan's Okinawa, the weather agency said Friday. With a central atmospheric pressure of 955 hectopascals and a maximum wind speed of 40 meters per second, this year's 14th typhoon was passing over waters 860 kilometers east-southeast of ...

South Korea on Friday authorized the use of SKYCovione, a homegrown COVID-19 vaccine developed by SK Bioscience Co., for booster shots against the coronavirus in addition to its use as primary inoculations. The decision was announced by Second Vice Health Minister Lee Ki-il at the meeting of the government's Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters. Hospitals and clinics will be ...

South Korea's car exports jumped 35.9 percent on-year in August on brisk global demand for eco-friendly cars, data showed Friday. The value of outbound shipments of automobiles came to $4.12 billion last month, the largest ever figure for any August, according to the data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. In terms of volume, a total of 168,155 vehicles were sold last month, up 29...

Prosecutors raided Doosan Engineering & Construction Co. and 20 other institutions Friday in connection with allegations of opposition leader Lee Jae-myung's third-party bribery surrounding a corporate donation to a football club years ago. The case centers on the allegations that the city government of Seongnam, just south of Seoul, had attracted hefty donations from Doosan Engineering and othe...

North Korea argued formally Friday that Japan should be held accountable for "nullifying" a joint declaration issued two decades earlier in a bid to improve bilateral ties, according to Pyongyang's state media Friday. Song Il-ho, ambassador of the North's foreign ministry, directed the criticism against Japan in a statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on t...

SEOUL/WASHINGTON -- A senior South Korean diplomat had meetings with US government and congressional officials in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, during which he delivered Seoul's concerns about the impact from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that excludes Korean-made electric vehicles from tax credits, according to his ministry. Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong was on a visit to the US capi...

South Korea's currency fell to a new yearly low in intraday trading Friday amid worries the US Federal Reserve will continue monetary tightening to tame inflation and its negative impact on the global economy. The local currency was trading at 1,396.1 won per dollar as of 9:50 a.m., down 2.4 won from the previous session's close. The won fell to as low as 1,399.0 won at one point, flirting with ...

South Korea's Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul has received a briefing on key US nuclear assets, including a strategic bomber and "low-yield" weapons mountable on it, during a visit to a military base in the United States, his ministry said Friday. His tour of Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, D.C., on Thursday (local time) followed North Korea's recent codification of an assertive nucl...

North Korea convened a national conference of judicial officials earlier this week for the first time in five years to discuss ways to uphold the country's socialist laws, state media reported Friday. The two-day Seventh National Conference of Judicial Officers opened Wednesday in Pyongyang with top officials in attendance, including Choe Ryong-hae, head of the Standing Committee of the country'...

Health authorities on Friday issued an advisory over a possible seasonal influenza outbreak across the country, the first of its kind since 2019, amid growing concerns of a possible "twindemic" -- a simultaneous outbreak of COVID-19 and the flu -- this fall and winter. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said the advisory was issued after the national influenza-like illness (I...