SPOTLIGHT

• Industry

  

  Coca-Cola features BTS for New Year’s special packaging

  Coca-Cola said Monday it will be releasing a New Year’s special package featuring BTS song titles.Each package option will have images of BTS as well as adaptations of song titles, such as “Your spring is today,” “You‘re my idol” and “This year is on fire.” (Coca-Cola)The company stated that the packaging intends to convey “hopeful messages to hard-working consumers that they are great the way they are.” The messages were influenced by BTS song titles as the band has been continually spreading p

• Social affairs

  

  Police blame text message reporting system for mishandling of knife incident

  The inappropriate handling of Saturday’s knife incident at Dangsan Station in Seoul was the result of the limitations of text message-based police reports, the police said Monday. According to the police, the system limits the length of a text message to 40 characters, causing longer messages to be cut off so police cannot read them in full.“The officers sent to the scene did not receive the details about the man and the incident so inevitably had to search for the person who made the report, wh

• Culture

  

  Writings by last princess of Joseon return home

  A collection of 68 writings by Princess Deokon (1822-1844), the last legitimate princess of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1897), and her family has returned home. The National Hangeul Museum and Culture Heritage Administration recently announced the acquisition of the collection, citing that it has great value as an example of court writings in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. According to officials, the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, a subsidiary of the CHA, purchased the collection from

• Social affairs

  

  Only 11 percent of graduating students have steady jobs to go to

  Only 1 in 9 university students graduating this year have been hired as regular workers, a survey conducted by the job searching portal site, Job Korea showed Monday. According to Job Korea, among some 1,112 students surveyed, only 11 percent answered that they have been hired for regular positions -- meaning full-time work with with permanent contracts. Another 10 had found work on irregular contracts, while the remaining 79 percent said that they have yet to find employment.  (Job Korea)Compar

LATEST NEWS

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  North Korea

  N. Korea, U.S. end working-level talks in Sweden

  North Korea and the United States ended their working-level consultations in Sweden on Monday (local time) to break the impasse over denuclearization talks amid apparent preparations underway for another summit of their leaders.A vehicle carrying U.S. Special Representative Stephen Biegun was seen leaving the convention earlier in the day in a remote area located northwest of Stockholm, where the two sides have held three days of negotiations since Saturday.Later in the day, another vehicle appa

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  Social affairs

  Seoul mayor hoping to show Seoul Station, Han River to NK leader

  Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said Monday he wants to introduce Seoul Station and the Han River to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un if he visits Seoul for inter-Korean summit talks. "There are many things I'd like to introduce (to Kim) if I get to guide (him)," Park said during a New Year's meeting with foreign correspondents at the Press Center in Seoul.Park said he wants to show Kim Seoul Station as it will be the starting and final station of the railroad leading to Eurasia if severed inter-Korean

• 

  Entertainment

  Hyun Bin, Son Ye-jin both deny dating rumors

  Actor Hyun Bin and his recent movie co-star, Son Ye-jin, have both denied rumors that they are romantically involved, according to their agencies, after a suspected photo of them shopping together began to circulate on the Internet. Both of their agencies said they met in the United States for a get-together with their friends and they are not dating. (Herald DB)"They are close and as far as we know they just met for a catch-up," Hyun's VAST Entertainment agency told Yonhap. Son's agency, MS Tea

• 

  Television

  Netflix's first original Korean drama 'Kingdom' unveiled to media

  Netflix on Monday unveiled to media its first original Korean drama series, which has drawn much anticipation for its big budget and acclaimed creative team."Kingdom," which premieres globally on the U.S. video streaming service Friday, is a genre-defining six-episode zombie mystery thriller set in the last Korean kingdom of Joseon. It took nearly eight years to produce the series, with its production cost reaching 2 billion won (US$1.7 million) per episode, according to the producers.Netflix ch

• 

  Foreign Affairs

  S. Korea voices "deep regrets" over Japan's announcement on radar dispute

  South Korea's defense ministry expressed "deep regrets" Monday over Japan's disclosure of new evidence related to a military radar dispute and its decision to halt bilateral consultations.Tokyo's defense ministry announced its final view on the monthlong spat, saying that bilateral working-level dialogue may not lead to "verification of the truth."Further escalating tensions, it presented two audio files as fresh evidence to back up its claim that a South Korean warship locked fire-control radar

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  Social affairs

  Poll shows 8 in 10 exposed to secondhand smoke from neighbors

  　As many as 8 in 10 South Koreans have experienced exposure to secondhand smoke from neighbors, but most refrained from complaining, a poll showed.　The survey of 1,542 residents of Gyeonggi Province -- the nation’s most populous province, which surrounds Seoul -- found that 1,197 respondents, or 78 percent, had been subjected to harm as a result of smoking by their neighbors.　The poll was conducted by the Gyeonggi Provincial Government from Dec. 21-27 last year on its online site.　Seventy-four p

• 

  Television

  Lee Na-young, Lee Jong-suk to show romance in publishing industry in new rom-com

  Actress Lee Na-young, who is more well-known in the film industry, is returning to the small screen with the new rom-com series “Romance is a Bonus Book” (direct translation), in which she stars opposite Lee Jong-suk.She plays Kang Dan-Yi, a former top copy editor at a PR firm who was happily married with a daughter but who is now divorced, with her career put on halt. She strives to excel in the workplace again, representing many South Korean women who face similar struggles. Women whose career

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  Diplomatic Circuit

  Indian cities to see fastest growth in the world

  Surat, India (Tourist Destinations)Indian cities occupy every one of the top 10 spots on a recent list of the world’s fastest-growing cities over the next two decades, according to the Indian Embassy in Seoul, citing a report from Oxford Economics.Surat, a diamond-processing and trading center in the western state of Gujarat, will see the fastest expansion through 2035, averaging more than 9 percent growth annually. As one of a handful of smart cities developed by the Indian government and the p

• 

  North Korea

  Trump touts NK developments as ‘historic result’

  US President Donald Trump identified his nuclear talks with North Korea as among his greatest achievements in the first half of his first term, amid hopes for substantial results from the second summit between Pyongyang and Washington next month. In the “historic results of President Donald Trump’s first two years in office,” issued by the White House on Sunday, the US administration said he brought the beginning of peace and denuclearization to the Korean Peninsula by holding a historic summit

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  Diplomatic Circuit

  Iran celebrates 40 years of Islamic Revolution, republic

  Saeed Badamchi Shabestari (Iranian Embassy)By Iranian Ambassador to Korea Saeed Badamchi Shabestari As the Iranian ambassador to the Republic of Korea, I am delighted to address readers of esteemed newspaper Korea Herald about our National Day.This year, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and birth of the Islamic Republic of Iran.Over the years, the spirit of the revolution has borne fruitful results in the face of great adversities and misfortunes. The event sought to p

GRAPHIC NEWS

OPINION

• Columnists

  

  Tesla doesn’t need to sell cars in China to succeed there

  When Elon Musk broke ground on Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai earlier this month, he wasn’t just thinking about how many Teslas he’ll sell in China. He was thinking about how many he might be able to share.　Musk isn’t alone. Global automobile manufacturers are scrambling to develop services that will allow Chinese car owners to rent out their vehicles when they’re not driving them. According to one recent analysis, such services could hire out as many as 2 million cars in 2020, up from roughly

• Columnists

  

  What Americans are fighting for in Manbij

  If you wonder what the four Americans who were killed Wednesday in Manbij, Syria, were doing there, let me describe a few images from a visit to that city last February that illustrate their mission of helping stabilize this area after the Islamic State group was expelled.Think of a covered market thronged with shoppers: Until the Americans and their allies liberated Manbij in mid-2016, the only color most women dared wear in public was black; now, a rainbow of dresses is displayed on makeshift

THE INVESTOR

• Economy

  

  Mega-hit ‘SKY Castle’ is a formula for killer contents

  Your straight-A high school daughter just found out she has a half-sister. That half-sister is now dead, and as much as you don’t want to call out your own flesh and blood, you suspect maybe it was the work of your little girl. But now, another boy, who just happens to be someone she has a crush on, might be punished for the crime. Last but not least, all this just might be a part of a plot brewed up by your daughter’s sinister “grade coordinator.” This is the latest update from K

• Industrials

  

  Activist fund to be more involved in Hanjin’s management

  Korea Corporate Governance Improvement, a local private equity firm, has unveiled plans to more actively participate in the management of Hanjin Group.The activist fund, led by former LK Investment Partners head Kang Sung-bu, claimed that the family-owned conglomerate has a weak governance structure, high financial leverage, as well as inertia in risk management and response to market conditions.  Hanjin headquarters building in Seoul.To fight this, KCGI suggested forming separate

• Deals

  

  Unison Capital inches closer to selling Gong Cha Korea

  Japanese buyout fund Unison Capital has inched closer to selling milk tea franchise Gong Cha Korea by choosing Goldman Sachs Seoul branch as the deal broker, according to industry watchers on Jan. 21. Beverages of Gong Cha KoreaGong Cha KoreaBased in Tokyo, Unison currently owns 76.9 percent of Gong Cha Korea through an SPC, and currently runs offices in Seoul and San Francisco. It first invested in the tea business, having bought a 65 percent stake in what used to be an offshore

• Blockchain

  

  Money20/20 Asia to include Token Day

  Money20/20, the world’s largest fintech and payment conference, said on Jan. 21 that it has launched Token Day as part of its Asian edition. During the event, taking place on March 19-21 in Singapore, industry experts including IBM CTO Stanley Yong and Ripple CTO David Schwartz, will give speeches covering the economics of tokenization, developments in cryptocurrencies and the fall of initial coin offering platforms, the organizer said. 　Token Day has been developed in response to

K-POP HERALD

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  ‘ITZY’: JYP's next girl group

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  Lee Na-young to star in new rom-com

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  Winner kicks off US tour in Seattle

HERALD INTERVIEW

• Music

  

  A rare glimpse of the ‘factorylike’ K-pop idol training system

• Film

  

  Hip-hop film seeks to show realities of life in the Philippines

• People

  

  Englishmen in Seoul, London and all over YouTube

• Automode

  

  Audi Volkswagen steps up to support Korea’s Industry 4.0 drive

PHOTO NEWS

• Industry

  

  An afternoon in a hanok

  North European and classic American styles have prevailed among interior design fanatics in South Korea in recent years.But before the invasion of Western culture, it was mostly wooden furniture -- made from either maple or paulownia -- that was favored by aristocrats in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Korea Furniture Museum in Seongbuk-dong, northern Seoul, invites visitors to take a break -- and perhaps, travel back in time -- inside hanok, or traditional Korean houses, where more than 2,500

VIDEO

• Music

  

  WJSN sings about complications of love in ‘La La Love’

• Television

  

  GOT7’s ‘Real Thai’ offers adventure, authentic side of Thailand

• Industry

  

  How Imvely became South Korean women’s fashion and beauty icon

• Music

  

  D-Crunch hopes to spread own stories around the world

FEATURES

• Social affairs

  

  Waste bin-free public restrooms get mixed response

  Japanese exchange student Aoi still remembers the “shocking moment” when she saw a trash bin in a Korean restroom stall for the first time.“As there are no such trash bins in toilets in Japan, I was shocked when I saw the bin overflowing with used toilet paper,” Aoi said.“The stink from the bin and the dirty toilet paper scattered on the ground caused panic immediately. I still have a fear of opening a restroom door, guessing whether it would be clean or not.”Aoi is one of many people who been d

• Automode

  

  Tale of two sports cars in wintery Korea

  GM’s new Camaro SS is a rough diamond to Mercedes-Benz’s refined CLS 400 d 4Matic

• Industry

  

  China, ASEAN countries emerge as biggest consumers of Korean agro-fishery products

  SEJONG -- South Korea’s agro-fishery products are gaining popularity in China and Southeast Asia on the back of their reputation for quality, freshness and safety.According to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, exports of fishery products hit an all-time high of $2.386 billion in 2018, surpassing the former record of $2.383 billion set in 2012.While the largest and second-largest export destinations for marine products were Japan with $760 million and China with $390 million, exports to Japan

• Industry

  

  Samsung Bioepis’ breast cancer biosimilar gains FDA approval

  Samsung Bioepis’ Ontruzant, a breast cancer treatment biosimilar referencing Roche’s Herceptin, won US Food and Drug Administration approval Saturday, expanding the list of Herceptin successors in the US market to three.Ontruzant is the third FDA-approved biosimilar of Switzerland firm Roche’s blockbuster breast cancer antibody. Its FDA approval is preceded by Mylan’s Ogivri in December 2017, and Celltrion’s Herzuma in December 2018.The three firms’ biosimilars are expected to simultaneously hit