SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will come under the direct influence of Typhoon Jangmi, the season's fifth typhoon, this week, which will bring heavy rain to the country's flood-hit southeastern region, the state weather agency said Sunday. The tropical storm, which formed early Sunday southwest of Okinawa and started to move northeast, is expected to pass waters 350 kilometers south of Jeju Island around 10 a.m. Monday, according to the Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA). Around 3 p.m. on the same day, it is predicted to arrive in waters 30 km southwest of Busan, some 325 km southeast of Seoul, it said. South Korean will experience rain over the coming days, while the typhoon will strike the southeastern region of South Gyeongsang Province and Jeju Island, with strong winds and heavy downpours. The KMA advised people on the southeastern seaside to take extra precautions and be prepared for dangerous tides. South Korea has been suffering from dayslong to

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SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's public health authorities said Monday they have found three new mutated genome sequences of the novel coronavirus among imported cases. Genetic mutations were detected to "spike protein," the major surface protein of the virus, from the three COVID-19 imported cases -- two from Pakistan and one from Uzbekistan -- according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). The KCDC said the new mutations are different from 78,810 viral genome sequences registered at the GISAID database on the virus run by the World Health Organization. The finding was based on the KCDC's analysis of sequenced genomes of a total of 776 COVID-19 patients, including 597 local infections and 179 imported cases. The new coronavirus is classified into seven strains -- S, V, L, G, GH, GR and the rest -- in accordance with an amino acid, according to the GISAID database. The GH clade was detected in 437 local infections, with most linke

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(ATTN: RECASTS headline; ADDS details in paras 6-7, 12-14, photos) SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- Typhoon Jangmi, the season's fifth typhoon, moved closer to the country's southern resort island of Jeju on Monday while the country's first monsoon season to extend into mid-August in decades showed no signs of letting up. Entire town submerged over weekend as heavy rain continues to batter Korea[https://youtu.be/pDOIBNOzmPk] Rain was forecast for all regions of the country as Jangmi was traveling northeastward at a speed of 38 kilometers per hour at seas some 210 kilometers southeast of Seogwipo in Jeju as of 7 a.m. More than 40 millimeters of rain per hour was forecast for South Gyeongsang Province, and showers of around 15 millimeters were forecast for parts of the southern coastal areas and Jeju. Precipitation on Monday and Tuesday was expected to reach 50-150 mm for Chungcheong provinces, the southern region and Jeju, while up to 250 mm of heavy rain was expected for

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SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- Eight merchants working at Namdaemun Market in central Seoul and at least one family member have tested positive for the new coronavirus, officials said Monday, raising concern about a fresh cluster of pandemic infections at the nation's largest traditional market. According to municipal officials, eight merchants who belong to the sprawling market's women's fashion shopping mall, called Kennedy Complex, had been found to be infected with COVID-19 as of Sunday afternoon. The latest cluster of infections appears to be traced to a female Kennedy Complex employee, a resident of Goyang, just northwest of Seoul, who tested positive last Friday, the officials speculated. Soon after, quarantine authorities conducted coronavirus tests on 20 merchants who were working on the same floor as the Goyang resident, and seven of them produced positive results, they said. The Goyang woman's child was additionally found to be infected, they added. The auth

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SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's position in global gross domestic product (GDP) rankings is expected to rise three notches to ninth in 2020 despite a virus-caused economic contraction, a report showed Monday. According to the report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation (OECD), Asia's fourth-largest economy is forecast to see its nominal GDP to decline 1.8 percent on-year to about US$1.54 trillion this year. The amount would be the ninth-largest among 37 OECD members and nine non-member countries for which the Paris-based club has put forward growth outlooks. GDP, the broadest measure of an economy's performance, refers to the total value of goods and services produced within the economy in a given period. South Korea is expected to leapfrog Brazil, Canada and Russia -- which ranked ninth, 10th and 11th last year, respectively -- as those economies are feared to be hit harder by the coronavirus pandemic. Canada is projected to suffer an economic c

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(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; ADDS more info in paras 2-3, 5, 7-8) SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will come under the direct influence of Typhoon Jangmi, the season's fifth typhoon, which will bring heavy rain to the country's southeastern region already hammered by downpours and floods, the state weather agency said Sunday. Formed early Sunday southwest of Okinawa, the tropical storm with a radius of 200 kilometers started to move northeast at a speed of 34 kilometers per hour, with an atmospheric pressure of 1,000 hectopascals at its center and a maximum wind speed of 18 meters per second. It is expected to pass waters 350 km south of Jeju Island around 10 a.m. Monday, according to the Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA). Around 3 p.m. on the same day, it is predicted to arrive in waters 50 km southwest of Busan, some 325 km southeast of Seoul, it said. It will be this summer's first typhoon to come to the Korean Peninsula. The name of Typhoon Jangmi was

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SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- The total value of unemployment benefits paid out by the government set a new record for the sixth consecutive month in July, data showed Monday, due largely to the persistent negative economic impact from the coronavirus outbreak. The amount of state allowances paid to those unemployed or seeking jobs soared to a record high of nearly 1.2 trillion won (US$1.01 billion) last month, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor. The ministry said the government paid 1.189 trillion won in allowances to those struggling to find jobs in July, which marked an increase of 56.6 percent from 429.6 billion won paid in the same month last year. The previous monthly record for job seekers' allowances, also dubbed unemployment allowances, was set in June, when the amount reached 1.11 trillion won. The figure has broken record after record since February, when the COVID-19 pandemic started battering the economy and forcing businesses to fire employee

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SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- Big Hit Entertainment, the label-management agency of K-pop group BTS, said Monday it has launched a new character brand called TinyTAN, inspired by and modeled after the band's seven members. TinyTAN, consisting of BTS-inspired animated characters, revolves around a fictional universe in which the alter egos of BTS members are personified into adorable figurine-like characters representing the group, according to Big Hit. Big Hit IP, a character-merchandise subsidiary of Big Hit Entertainment, said it plans to present various content and products using the TinyTAN brand. A teaser video for TinyTAN was unveiled on Saturday. "In TinyTAN, not only are the distinct characteristics of the seven members reflected but also the music, performance and the good-minded influence of the band are encompassed as well," Big Hit IP said. Big Hit plans to roll out TinyTAN products through the company's mobile fan community-commerce platform Weverse in the fu

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(ATTN: ADDS more info in paras 4, 6) SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's public health authorities said Monday they have found three new mutated genome sequences of the novel coronavirus among imported cases. Genetic mutations were detected to "spike protein," the major surface protein of the virus, from the three COVID-19 imported cases -- two from Pakistan and one from Uzbekistan -- according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). The KCDC said the new mutations are different from 78,810 viral genome sequences registered at the GISAID database on the virus run by the World Health Organization. "(Three people) were self-isolated upon entering the country. There were no people who had contact with them in the country," KCDC chief Jeong Eun-kyeong said in a press briefing The finding was based on the KCDC's analysis of sequenced genomes of a total of 776 COVID-19 patients, including 597 local infections and 179 imported cases. Jeong sai

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(ATTN: UPDATES headline, lead, first eight paras with details, photos) SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- Typhoon Jangmi, which landed in South Korea on Monday afternoon as the season's first typhoon, is expected to weaken to an extratropical cyclone before moving away from the country. The typhoon was moving northeast at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour after landing on the southern tip of Geoje Island near Tongyeong in South Gyeongsang Province at 2:50 p.m. after forming at seas some 600 kilometers southwest of Okinawa, Japan, the previous day. The Korea Meteorological Administration said while strong winds accompanied by the typhoon will weaken, heavy rain will fall on some parts of the country, including the Seoul metropolitan area and Gangwon, Chungcheong and Gyeongsang provinces. On the eastern coast of Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces, wind speed was forecast to reach up to 35-60 km per hour, peaking at 90 km per hour. The weather agency projected clouds and rain to hove

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