Most Popular
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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Samsung chief bolsters ties with Germany’s Zeiss
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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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Med schools expect 1,500+ new admission slots next year
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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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KT launches new mobile plans for foreign residents
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Three-way race begins for SsangYong Motor acquisition
A takeover battle for SsangYong Motor, the debt-ridden carmaker owned by India’s Mahindra Group, has kicked off between three rival bidders: two medium-sized enterprises and a private equity firm. KG Group, Ssangbangwool and Pavilion PE each submitted a letter of intent to acquire SsangYong Motor to the lead manager of the deal, EY Hanyoung, industry sources said Tuesday. After South Korean electric carmaker Edison Motors’ deal to purchase SsangYong Motor went up in smoke, Seoul Ba
April 19, 2022
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[Newsmaker] Large retailers jump into e-commerce market for designer goods
Large retailers including Hanwha and Shinsegae are keen to jump into the e-commerce market for designer brands as existing online platforms are struggling to beat off a counterfeit luxury goods scandal. Online shopping malls for designer brands such as Mustit, Balaan and Trenbe have enjoyed a boom in Korea by offering convenience and prices lower than department stores or duty-free shops to the country’s growing number of luxury consumers who spent more during the pandemic. These online
April 19, 2022
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Korean Air celebrates 50 years of serving American routes
South Korea’s flag carrier Korean Air said Tuesday that it has celebrated its 50th anniversary of operating American routes, stressing its role of bridging the countries both physically and culturally. A Korean Air Boeing 707 was the first aircraft operated by a Korean airliner to fly across the Pacific on April 19, 1972. It then made stops in Tokyo and Honolulu before landing in Los Angeles, officials recalled. The airline had two destinations in the US — LA and Honolulu —
April 19, 2022
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LG CNS to build AI-powered smart farming platform
LG Group’s IT solutions unit LG CNS said Tuesday that it has joined the government’s new smart farming project to build an artificial intelligence-based platform that offers the ultimate guidelines for more efficient and high-yield farming. The project, launched by the Agriculture Ministry and the local government of South Jeolla Province, aims to create a 543,000 square-meter intelligent farm land in the rural city of Naju, some 355 kilometers south of Seoul, by 2023. Unlike mos
April 19, 2022
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Central bank chief nominee hints additional rate hikes
South Korea’s central bank plans to give appropriate “signals” to quell inflationary pressure, the nominee for the Bank of Korea chief said Tuesday, confirming his stance for further rate hikes in months to come. Rhee Chang-yong, former director of the Asia and Pacific department at the International Monetary Fund, told lawmakers that the central bank will focus on placing a cap on the high inflationary pressure through “signals” at the moment, even if the move may
April 19, 2022
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Samsung offers pickup repair service in Ukraine
Samsung Electronics is offering free pickup and delivery repair service for customers in war-torn Ukraine. According to its Ukraine unit on Tuesday, the Korean tech giant will pick up mobile devices to be repaired for customers living in areas where its service centers cannot be operated, and then deliver the devices to their homes. All of Samsung’s mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, are subject to the pickup service, with all costs being covered by the com
April 19, 2022
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Number of food service employees rises amid economic recovery
The number of employees in the food service segment rose 1.2 percent on-year in October last year as the job market improved amid the economic recovery, data showed Tuesday. The number of people employed at restaurants and eateries reached 1.56 million last October, up 19,000 from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. The tally slowed from an on-year increase of 65,000 six months earlier. But it marked an improvement from October 2020, when such workers fell by a record number of 179,00
April 19, 2022
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Banks' foreign currency deposits down in March amid strong US dollar
Foreign currency deposits at banks in South Korea fell in March as South Korean companies withdrew US dollars for their planned overseas investments and individuals sold their dollars for profit-taking, central bank data showed Tuesday. Outstanding foreign currency deposits held by banks in South Korea reached $92.71 billion as of end-March, down $5.43 billion from a month ago, according to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea (BOK). Foreign deposits include those held by foreigners who have s
April 19, 2022
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Hite Jinro to strengthen marketing in Japan for soju sales
Hite Jinro Co., South Korea's leading beverage company, said Tuesday it will strengthen marketing efforts in Japan to boost sales of the traditional Korean liquor soju. Japan is Hite Jinro's second-biggest market for soju after the United States. Soju exports rebounded in 2020 and jumped 27 percent in 2021 from a year earlier amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said in a statement. The company didn't provide the value of exports. Hite Jinro advanced to Japan with its soju products in Novembe
April 19, 2022
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Seoul stocks open higher despite Wall Street losses
South Korean stocks opened higher Tuesday despite overnight losses on Wall Street as foreigners and individuals picked up large-cap shares. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 25.21 points, or 0.94 percent, to reach 2,718.42 in the first 15 minutes of trading. On Monday (local time), US stocks fell in volatile trading amid the possibility of monetary policy tightening by the US Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.11 percent, the S&P 500 lost 0.0
April 19, 2022
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Air Busan to open 5 new intl. routes next month
Air Busan Co., a budget carrier unit of Asiana Airlines Inc., said Tuesday it will open five new international routes next month as the easing of travel restrictions unleashes pent-up demand. On Jan. 23, Air Busan began to offer one flight per week on the Saipan route following a travel bubble agreement with Saipan, a quarantine-free travel partnership between two or more cities or countries with similar levels of COVID-19 cases. Air Busan added one more flight on the Busan-Saipan route from Mar
April 19, 2022
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Yoon vows economic plan to protect national interest
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol said Monday that he would work to bring a stronger economy to protect South Korea’s national security interests once he takes office on May 10, at a roundtable with academics, industry leaders and former high-level government officials. “We will lay the groundwork for ‘economic security,’” Yoon said, referring to a strategy to deal with fallout from the unprecedented economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 and the Ukraine war, at a
April 18, 2022
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Hyundai Motor becomes first carmaker to issue community-based NFTs
Hyundai Motor is issuing community-based non-fungible tokens as part of efforts to enhance its brand experience and customer community, becoming the first carmaker to enter the community NFT marketplace, the South Korean auto giant said Monday. Hyundai released a short film introducing the “Metamobility Universe,” the carmaker’s NFT universe concept that was first unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The film, featuring Meta Kongz, a popular NFT gorilla cha
April 18, 2022
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Transition team fine-tuning Yoon’s housing policy
SEJONG -- The first phase of real estate policy of the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration will be unveiled in an appropriate timing, said Ahn Cheol-soo, chairman of the presidential transition team, on Monday. But the transition team said that the unveiling timing will be later than this week, suggesting that internal discussions were still underway. It also denied the rumors that the comprehensive housing policy will be publicized before lawmakers at the National Assembly. Spokespeopl
April 18, 2022
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[Newsmaker] Retailers hope for sales recovery as social distancing rules removed
With the government lifting nearly all social distancing measures, retailers in South Korea are now pinning high hopes on a business recovery after enduring two years of strict pandemic restrictions that limited operating hours, private gatherings and even food tasting at the grocery store. Supermarkets, which have been hit hard due to pandemic restrictions, are in talks with the government to return to offering in-store samples, which has been banned since last July. An Emart official and a
April 18, 2022
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Korean researchers develop robotic catheter
South Korean researchers have developed the country’s first robotic catheter system that can be inserted into human organs to perform interventional therapies, the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials said Monday. A catheter is a thin tube-like medical device that can be inserted in the body to treat diseases or perform surgical procedures. Interventional therapies, which refer to treating surgery-requiring-diseases through non-surgical procedures, have been implemented in a wide r
April 18, 2022
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‘Seoul has full potential to become Asia’s next financial center’: deputy mayor
It was 2003, with South Korea still clinging to the euphoria of the 2002 World Cup, when the official road map to making Seoul Asia’s financial center was first announced. Hope was in the air and it quickly became a key task for current Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who previously served as the city’s mayor from 2006 to 2011. But the hurdles were too high. Global financial institutions were put off by Korea’s rigid labor market and tight, yet somewhat vague regulations, despite the geopo
April 18, 2022
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ArkData completes disaster recovery system for Kyungpook Univ.
Local data replication solution provider ArkData said Monday that it has successfully completed the development of a disaster recovery system for Kyungpook National University in the southeastern city of Daegu. The project aims to protect the school’s student database and prevent business disruptions caused by data center failures or natural disasters. ArkData, specialized in data replication and integration, provides business continuity planning and disaster recovery solutions. The c
April 18, 2022
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SK Telecom’s digital remastering technology Supernova going global
SK Telecom’s artificial intelligence-powered digital remastering technology Supernova is going global in a new partnership with France’s Verimatrix, a leading provider of content security solutions, the Korean telecom giant said Monday. Supernova aims to recreate digital content by using AI-powered colorization tool, called DeOldify. The technology has already been widely used in remastering classic content or restoring historic records here. Its smartphone app made its global debu
April 18, 2022
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Regulator to delay review of punitive actions against shippers for price fixing
South Korea's antitrust regulator plans to put off its review of punitive measures over shippers' alleged collusions to fix freight rates as some foreign players have faced difficulty in doing business amid COVID-19 lockdowns in China, industry officials said Monday. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has been investigating allegations that around 20 domestic and foreign shippers colluded to fix higher freight rates for the Korea-China and Korea-Japan sea routes since early 2000. The FTC was suppos
April 18, 2022