SEOUL South Korea's finance minister, the architect of rules aimed at protecting tenants and slowing deposit increases, has himself been forced to look for a new home as landlords react to the rules by quickly replacing tenants so they can bump up deposits.
* Analysts say monetary policy likely to stay on hold for a while (Adds vice finance minister's comments in the eighth paragraph)
SEOUL South Korean retail investors ponied up over $50 billion as they sought to lay their hands on shares in Big Hit Entertainment, the management label of K-pop sensation BTS - more than 600 times the value of shares on offer. | Video
SEOUL Big Hit Entertainment, the management label for K-pop sensation BTS, saw robust but not spectacular demand in the first of two days of share offerings for retail investors, with sentiment hurt by increasing talk that the band's members may have to complete military service.
* China's Huawei stockpiling ahead of U.S. sanctions boosts S.Korea chip sales (Adds details)
SEOUL Kim Eun-hee wants to complete her collection of memorabilia of Korean boy band BTS by bidding more than $120,000 to buy shares in the group's music label Big Hit Entertainment in South Korea's hottest IPO, which could even shake money markets. | Video
SEOUL South Korea on Sunday extended level 2 social distancing for a week until Sept. 27, which limits indoor gatherings to below 50 and outdoor to less than 100, and may tighten limits for the Chuseok holiday when people traditionally reunite with families.
SEOUL South Korean police said on Sunday they had arrested a defector who tried to return to North Korea after a similar, successful crossing in July escalated tensions on the peninsula.
Europe became the second region after Latin America to surpass 250,000 deaths on Saturday, according to a Reuters tally, with record numbers of daily COVID-19 infections reported in the past two weeks.