Yonhap News Summary

The following is the second summary of major stories moved by Yonhap News Agency on Thursday.

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(LEAD) Yoon to visit Japan next week for summit with Kishida
(ATTN: UPDATES with details, background)

SEOUL -- President Yoon Suk Yeol will visit Tokyo next week for a summit with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, his office said Thursday, the first bilateral presidential trip to Japan in 12 years made possible after Seoul announced a solution to a dispute over wartime forced labor.

The March 16-17 trip will be the first such visit since former President Lee Myung-bak traveled to the neighboring country in 2011. Former President Moon Jae-in visited Osaka in 2019, but that trip was for a summit of the Group of 20 nations, not a bilateral visit.

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(LEAD) Main opposition tables bill to launch special counsel probe into allegations involving first lady
(ATTN: UPDATES with ruling party's response)

SEOUL -- The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) on Thursday submitted a bill calling for a special counsel investigation of first lady Kim Keon Hee over allegations of stock manipulation and bribery.

The DP had tabled a similar bill last year, but proposed a new one that excludes a probe into allegations that Kim falsified her academic credentials when she applied for a teaching job at a university in Seoul in 2014.

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(LEAD) Main opposition tables bill to launch special counsel probe into allegations involving first lady
(ATTN: UPDATES with ruling party's response)

SEOUL -- The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) on Thursday submitted a bill calling for a special counsel investigation of first lady Kim Keon Hee over allegations of stock manipulation and bribery.

The DP had tabled a similar bill last year, but proposed a new one that excludes a probe into allegations that Kim falsified her academic credentials when she applied for a teaching job at a university in Seoul in 2014.

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(News Focus) multiplex-transformation
(News Focus) CJ CGV transforms multiplexes into sports, entertainment venues

SEOUL -- Park Se-yeon visits a theater complex in downtown Seoul twice a week but doesn't sit in front of the big screen to watch movies. She goes down to the fourth basement level and heads to an indoor climbing gym.

The office worker in her late 20s has been taking climbing classes at Peakers, which opened in January 2022 after the renovation of two auditoriums of the CGV Piccadilly 1958 multiplex in the Jongno district.

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(LEAD) Seoul stocks down for 2nd day on foreign sell-off, rate hike woes
(ATTN: ADDS bond yields, photo in bottom)

SEOUL -- Seoul stocks closed lower for a second straight session Thursday on heavy sell-offs by foreign investors and renewed fears the Federal Reserve will accelerate its pace of rate increases. The Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed down 12.82 points, or 0.53 percent, to 2,419.09. Trading volume was moderate at 465.3 million shares worth 10.2 trillion (US$7.7 billion), with decliners outnumbering gainers 478 to 396.

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