Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., a major shipyard here, said Monday that it has secured a 470 billion won ($420 million) order to build five very large crude carriers. Under the deal with Hyundai Merchant Marine Co., South Korea's top shipping firm, Daewoo Shipbuilding, said it will deliver the vessels by September 2019. Last week, Hyundai Merchant said it plans to spend 470 billio...

North Korea may fire an intercontinental ballistic missile on a standard trajectory toward the North Pacific around its key anniversary following its sixth nuclear test, South Korea's spy agency said Monday. The National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in a closed session that Pyongyang may lob the missile around the anniversary of the regime's foundation slated for Saturday or the establish...

North Korea's nuclear program will top the agenda of the upcoming summit between South Korea and Russia this week, a Seoul presidential official said Monday. President Moon Jae-in and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are set to hold talks Wednesday, shortly after Moon's arrival in Vladivostok to attend the Eastern Economic Forum to be held the following day. "Because of North Korea's nucl...

President Moon Jae-in urged the main opposition party to end its ongoing boycott of the parliament Monday, calling for bipartisan efforts to overcome what he called a grave threat created by North Korea's nuclear test. "The security condition is very serious right now, and I believe we urgently need bipartisan measures to deal with such security conditions. Also, the establishment of a consultat...

Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy Note 8 is expected to come with a price tag of 1.09 million won ($962) here, industry sources said Monday, hovering above that of the device's predecessor. According to the sources, the 64 GB Galaxy Note 8 is expected to come with a factory price of 1.09 million won here, while that of the 256-GB edition is expected to be priced at 1.25 million won. The ill-fated...

South Korea's defense ministry announced Monday that the US Forces Korea will soon install four more THAAD missile defense launchers at its new southern base. The announcement came as the environment ministry accepted the results of an environmental impact survey of the THAAD system partially operational at the former golf course in Seongju, some 300 kilometers south of Seoul. Two THAAD rocket ...

South Korean stocks sank by more than 1 percent Monday as the escalating geopolitical tension following Pyongyang's nuclear test soured investor sentiment, analysts said. The Korean won sharply fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index dropped 28.04 points, or 1.19 percent, to 2,329.65. Trade volume was low at 244 million shares worth 4.32 trillion won ($3.81 bi...

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said Monday that South Korea should offer sincere explanations to China about its decision to host the US THAAD missile defense system that Beijing sees as a threat to its national security. Lee issued the instruction during a meeting with senior aides, saying China has pent-up disappointment with Seoul as the previous administration of former President Park Geun-hye d...

South Korea's state-run atomic energy institute said Monday it has signed contracts with several local firms for the development of the technology to dismantle the country's first decommissioned nuclear reactor. The Moon Jae-in government announced the shutdown of the Kori-1 nuclear power plant in the southeastern port city of Busan in June amid concerns over possible power shortages and increas...

South Korea's top security officials are beginning to lean towards strengthening military measures rather than dialogue with North Korea in response to the wayward regime's latest nuclear test, Seoul's defense minister said Monday. His remarks came amid growing calls for President Moon Jae-in to make a course correction of his rapprochement policy that seeks to address the decadeslong nuclear st...

Prosecutors said Monday they launched an investigation into allegations that the head of the conservative opposition Bareun Party received kickbacks from a businesswoman in return for favors. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said it will look into the suspicions raised against Rep. Lee Hye-hoon by a 65-year-old surnamed Oak, who claims to have given her cash and gifts worth about 6...

South Korean builders' business confidence touched a 19-month low in August due mainly to government measures to cool the housing market, a poll showed Monday. The construction business survey index stood at 74.2 last month, down 11.2 points from the previous month and at its lowest level since January 2016, according to the survey by the Construction and Economy Research Institute of Korea. A ...

The United States has confirmed in an official letter that there is no gap between Washington and Seoul on how to denuclearize North Korea, Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Monday, partly dismissing concerns of what many view as an imminent US attack on the communist North. "We received a reply from the US National Security Council last night, and it noted there was no difference o...

Corporate mergers and acquisitions by South Korean firms more than tripled in the first half of this year as a global economic recovery encouraged companies to expand their business spheres, the antitrust watchdog said Monday. The value of reported M&As reached 41.5 trillion won ($36.6 billion) in the January-June period, up sharply from 13 trillion won tallied a year earlier, according to the F...

Purchases made through mobile devices in South Korea hit a fresh record high in July as smartphones are widening their presence in the world's most wired country, government data showed Monday. Mobile transactions through smartphones and tablets reached a record 4.01 trillion won ($3.6 billion) in July, up 35.1 percent from a year earlier, according to data from Statistics Korea. The total amou...