BEIJING/SEOUL, July 27 (Korea Bizwire) — China has agreed to resume visa issuance for South Korean students, employees hired to work in the country and those with residence permits, Seoul’s top envoy in Beijing said Monday. Ambassador Jang Ha-sung told reporters that the two countries have recently agreed on visa issuance for the three groups: [...]
SEOUL, July 27 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent smartphone app upgrade means that passengers won’t have to struggle over people refusing to wear masks on subway trains in Seoul. Starting on Aug. 3, Seoul will add a new function to Seoul Metro’s smartphone app that will enable passengers to report those who refuse to wear [...]
SEOUL, July 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Duty-free sales rose for the second straight month in June, but their sales still remained half of pre-pandemic figures, industry data showed Monday. Combined sales at duty-free shops in South Korea reached 1.11 trillion won (US$923 million) in June, up 9.3 percent from a month earlier, according to the [...]
SEOUL, July 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s auto output sank nearly 20 percent to an 11-year low in the first half of the year due to the coronavirus outbreak, industry data showed Monday. Industry leader Hyundai Motor Co. and four other automakers produced 1.63 million vehicles in the January-June period, down 19.8 percent from [...]
SEOUL, July 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has sent a letter to President Moon Jae-in to express hope to beef up joint work between South Korea and his foundation in responding to the new coronavirus, the presidential office said Sunday. The chief of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said in the [...]
SEOUL, July 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Outdoor swimming pools located along the Han River that runs through Seoul will remain closed this summer due to the coronavirus, the metropolitan government said Sunday. The Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Hangang Project Headquarters announced the decision not to operate all seven riverside pools and water parks this summer, citing [...]
SEOUL, July 25 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul International Book Fair (SIBF), South Korea’s largest annual publication trade show, will be held in October and will consist of both online and in-person programs, according to its organizers Saturday. Under the theme “XYZ: Entanglement,” SIBF 2020 will take place from Oct. 16-25 and will consist of [...]
BEIJING, July 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Korean Air Lines Co. said Friday it will resume flights to Tianjin, northeast China, next week after five months of suspension due to the new coronavirus outbreak. The flights between Incheon, west of Seoul, and Tianjin will run every two weeks on Tuesdays during July and August and every [...]
SEOUL, July 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea has granted marketing authorization to use remdesivir for coronavirus treatment, the country’s drug safety agency said Friday. The drug that is sold as Veklury and made by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences Inc. contains the antiviral substance that has been shown to help COVID-19 patients, the Ministry [...]
SEOUL, July 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Two South Korean military planes arrived back home Friday, carrying some 290 people from Iraq amid the worsening outbreak of the new coronavirus in the Middle East country. The KC-330 air refueling tankers touched down at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, completing their dayslong mission to bring back [...]