In a dramatic turn of events on the final day of the regular season, Gimcheon Sangmu FC earned a direct promotion to the top division in South Korean football on Sunday. Gimcheon defeated Seoul E-Land FC 1-0 to finish atop the K League 2 tables with 71 points and secure a spot in the top-flight K League 1 for 2024. Kim Hyeon-ug's 37th-minute goal stood as the winner. Gimcheon, a military club made up of players fulfilling their mandatory service duties, were relegated after the 2022 season

Soccer Nov. 26, 2023

South Korea's manufacturing confidence rose for the first time in four months in December, thanks to solid signs of recovery in global demand for semiconductors, a poll showed Sunday. The professional survey index for the manufacturing sector's business conditions came to 100 for next month, up from 97 for this month, according to the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade. A PSI reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists. The survey was conducted earlier this

Economy Nov. 26, 2023

Foreign Minister Park Jin held bilateral talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Busan on Sunday, hours before the two were set to meet trilaterally with their Japanese counterpart. The talks came days after North Korea said it launched a military spy satellite and successfully placed it into orbit, after two botched launch attempts in May and August, respectively. In response, South Korea scrapped part of a 2018 inter-Korean military tension reduction accord. In a tit-for-tat, North Kore

Politics Nov. 26, 2023

Japan has decided to support South Korea's bid to host the 2030 World Expo in the southeastern city of Busan, a local media report said Sunday, as the voting for the mega event is set to take place this week. The Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun said Tokyo has made the decision in consideration of President Yoon Suk Yeol's continued efforts to improve long-frayed ties between the two countries. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had reportedly notified his will to support Busan's

Politics Nov. 26, 2023

Samsung Electronics Co. has been making its final pitch for Busan's bid to host the 2030 World Expo with displays in Paris, company officials said Sunday. Samsung has displayed a message of support for the southeastern port city's expo bid across billboards at various places in France's capital, including Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, major shopping areas and tourist attractions, according to the officials. Samsung has also put up a giant advertising post promoting its latest f

Companies Nov. 26, 2023

North Korea called for residents to cast their ballots and "fulfill their duties as members of the republic" as the reclusive regime was set to hold its first local elections featuring more than one candidate Sunday. Pyongyang was set to hold local elections to pick new deputies for local assemblies of provinces, cities and counties across the nation. In what appeared to be an intention to introduce competition in the election system, some constituencies fielded two candidates. Under t

North Korea Nov. 26, 2023

Foreign Minister Park Jin held bilateral talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa in Busan on Sunday, ahead of the trilateral gathering involving their Chinese counterpart. In the talks with Kamikawa, Park was expected to discuss ways to move the bilateral relations forward amid a thaw in the ties after South Korea decided to resolve the issue of compensating Korean forced labor victims during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula without asking for contributions f

Politics Nov. 26, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol returned home Sunday from a trip to Europe that took him first to Britain for a state visit and then to France for a final campaign to bring the 2030 World Expo to Busan. Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee paid a four-day state visit to London on the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations and received a ceremonial welcome featuring a carriage procession to Buckingham Palace and a state banquet hosted by King Charles III. The visit produced a new bilateral agreement, call

Politics Nov. 26, 2023

Top diplomats of South Korea, China and Japan were set to hold talks in the southeastern port city of Busan on Sunday, with discussions on resuming the long-stalled three-way summit of the three countries' leaders expected to be in focus. The trilateral meeting among Foreign Minister Park Jin, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa also comes after about a four-year hiatus as the three neighboring countries seek to deepen the tripartite cooperation despite m

Politics Nov. 26, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol approved the appointment of new Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Kim Myung-soo on Saturday, officials said, making him the first top-ranking military officer to come from the Navy in a decade. According to the presidential office and the JCS, Naval Operations Commander Vice Adm. Kim was appointed as the new JCS chief without a confirmation report from the National Assembly. Kim underwent a parliamentary confirmation hearing earlier this month but failed to win t

Defense Nov. 25, 2023

The South Korean baseball club SSG Landers said Saturday they have stripped general manager (GM) Kim Sung-yong of his duties over a recent series of mishaps. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) team said Kim will instead lead its research & development center, which oversees player development. Kim's reassignment is the latest development in what has been a tumultuous offseason for the Landers. They abruptly fired manager Kim Won-hyong on Oct. 31, soon after the team's eliminat

Baseball Nov. 25, 2023

A former Pentagon official argued against the idea of South Korea acquiring nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) in a media contribution piece on Friday, citing high costs, operational realities and other challenges. Dov S. Zakheim, who served as undersecretary of defense from 2001 to 2004, made the case in the piece carried by The Hill, a US media outlet, as he pointed out a continuing debate in South Korea over whether the country should possess SSNs. The debate has gained traction in recent ye

Defense Nov. 25, 2023

The top diplomats of China and Japan arrived in South Korea on Saturday for trilateral talks with their South Korean counterpart on efforts to resume the long-suspended leaders' summit of the three neighbors. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa each landed in the southeastern port city of Busan, the venue for the gathering, in the afternoon. They will hold separate bilateral talks with Foreign Minister Park Jin on Sunday, before having the three-wa

Politics Nov. 25, 2023

North Korea claimed Saturday its leader Kim Jong-un observed photos taken by the country's recently launched military spy satellite of "major target regions" in South Korea, where US Army bases are located, and parts of Hawaii. Kim visited the Pyongyang General Control Center of the National Aerospace Technology Administration (NATA) on Friday to "learn about the operational preparation of the reconnaissance satellite" and looked at the aerospace photos, the official

North Korea Nov. 25, 2023

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is set to visit France next week to participate in the voting for the 2030 World Expo as South Korea vies to host the mega event in its southeastern city of Busan, his office said Saturday. The host country will be elected by the 182 member states of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the body in charge of overseeing the quadrennial event, during its general assembly in Paris on Tuesday (local time). Busan is competing against Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and

Politics Nov. 25, 2023