Seoul considering Strait of Hormuz assistance from ‘multiple angles’

South Korea is looking at ways to contribute to the security of the Strait of Hormuz off the Iranian coast from “multiple angles,” according to the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised the issue during his talks with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha in the US.In their meeting in Palo Alto, California, Tuesday (US time), which covered outstanding issues between the allies including North Korea, Pompeo urged Seoul to bear responsibility to safegu

Foreign AffairsJan. 15, 2020

Lime Asset to freeze additional W500b, FSS likely to launch new probe

Local fund operator Lime Asset Management has recently decided to freeze an additional 500 billion won ($431.4 million) of its funds, prompting the Financial Supervisory Service to launch a new probe of the firm’s risky funds.With the suspension of withdrawals, the total volume of the fund operator’s delayed payments to investors has risen to nearly 2 trillion won. In its latest notice sent to financial institutions that had worked as sales channels, Lime Asset said it has decided to

MarketJan. 15, 2020

LG Electronics to open robotics lab in Boston

LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday it will open a robotics lab in the United States to boost its competitiveness in bot technologies. LG's new robotics lab, set to open later this month in Boston, will allow its researchers to better check the latest robotics technologies. To beef up its robotics research, LG will also collaborate with Kim Sang-bae, a renowned robot scientist and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who has been leading MIT Biomimetics Robotics Lab since 2012. Using

IndustryJan. 15, 2020

National Theater of Korea celebrates 70th anniversary

The National Theater of Korea is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year by presenting numerous programs by various performing art troupes. The National Theater Center, under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, is the hub of Korea’s performing arts scene, with the National Changgeuk Company of Korea, National Dance Company of Korea and the National Orchestra of Korea under its wings. Founded in 1950, it is the oldest of its kind in Asia. To celebrate its 70 years of histor

PerformanceJan. 15, 2020

[Herald Interview] After court clears him, man vows to continue campaign to out deadbeat dads

A man who publicly identified parents owing child support on an online platform vowed to continue his campaign to raise awareness about the issue, after a local court cleared him of defamation charges on Wednesday.“Hopefully, the action for resolving unpaid child support will gain more momentum now that it is free of defamation accusations,” Koo Bon-chang, 57, told The Korea Herald on Wednesday in a phone interview. Koo was indicted in May last year after publicizing the personal inf

Social AffairsJan. 15, 2020

Genesis’ first SUV GV80 launched, threatens likes of Benz, BMW

Hyundai Motor launched Wednesday the much-anticipated first SUV from its luxury brand Genesis, the GV80, which is expected to compete with models from the likes of Mercedes-Benz and BMW. The world’s fifth-largest automaker in terms of sales aims to sell 24,000 units of the GV80 in Korea this year, with plans to launch in North America as well.  According to the company, the two-row GV80 was built on the brand’s first rear-wheel-drive platform, based on three key pillar

MobilityJan. 15, 2020

Yuhan-Kimberly donates over 5 million sanitary pads over 4 years

Yuhan-Kimberly, a Korean manufacturer of hygiene products, donated more than 5 million sanitary pads over the past four years, the company said Wednesday.The company’s donation is part of its “Cheer Up, Daughters” campaign to promote the rights of teens and the importance of hygiene for health, started in 2016 in partnership with the Korea Foundation for Women, a civic women’s group. According to the company, it donated 1.53 million pads in the first year, followed by 1 m

ConsumerJan. 15, 2020

Moon says no letup in 'peaceful Korea' bid based on alliance with US

President Moon Jae-in reaffirmed his unswerving push for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, delivering a message to ethnic Koreans living in the United States.He pointed out that 2020 marks the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War in his statement for an annual Korean American Day event held in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday (local time), according to Cheong Wa Dae. It was read by Ambassador to Washington Lee Soo-hyuck on behalf of the president."(I) feel like that all Korea

PoliticsJan. 15, 2020

Ruling party expects ex-PM to play pivotal role in general elections

Former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon returned to the Democratic Party on Wednesday, amid expectations that he will be a key candidate for the ruling camp in the general elections in April.Korea’s longest-serving prime minister wrapped up his term of two years and eight months on Tuesday, kicking off the day by attending the ruling party’s Supreme Council meeting.  Democratic Party Chairman Lee Hae-chan said he expects Lee Nak-yeon to play a core role when the party launches its in

PoliticsJan. 15, 2020

Samsung's chip revenue 2nd-largest after Intel in 2019: data

Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea's top tech firm, was relegated to second place in terms of chip sales in 2019, industry data showed Wednesday, due to the downturn in the memory chip market. Samsung's chip business logged $52.2 billion in revenue last year, down 29.1 percent from a year earlier, according to data from US-based research firm Gartner. The latest performance dragged Samsung down to the No. 2 spot in the global semiconductor market for the first time since 2016. Samsung's share

IndustryJan. 15, 2020

Hanwha Systems’ $25m Overair deal closes

Hanwha Systems reached a final close on its cross-border $25 million investment in California-based electric takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft developer Overair, the Korean aero systems firm said Wednesday.With the investment, Hanwha Systems will own a 30 percent stake in the US company, which currently runs a development project for eVTOL vehicle Butterfly. The close of Overair’s Series A funding round came immediately after it gained a “deemed export” license from the B

MarketJan. 15, 2020

Rights committee chief raises worries over eased data regulations

The head of the national human rights committee on Wednesday voiced concern over a set of bills aiming to ease regulations on the use of personal information, citing the possibility of privacy breaches.Despite opposition from some civic groups, the National Assembly passed three data-related bills last week that are intended to enable the use of personal information offered under aliases for compiling statistics and industrial research.While the identity of people whose personal information have

PoliticsJan. 15, 2020

Foreigners' buying binge of Korean stocks continuing this year: data

Foreign investors have raked in some 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion) worth of South Korean stocks this year on improved economic outlook and the imminent signing of a preliminary Sino-American trade deal, data showed Wednesday. During the Jan. 2-14 period, foreigners net purchased a total of 1.52 trillion won worth of local stocks, continuing their buying streak for an eighth straight session through Tuesday."Foreign buying has been strong on hopes for further progress in the US-China trade

MarketJan. 15, 2020

BTS' music label Big Hit expanding business portfolio after successful year

Big Hit Entertainment, the music label of K-pop super band BTS, is scrambling to expand its business portfolio of K-pop artists following a sensationally successful year in 2019.A media report said earlier this week that Big Hit is on its way to acquire and merge with Pledis Entertainment, home to an army of popular K-pop bands including NU'EST and Seventeen. Pledis was established in 2010 by Han Sung-soo, who worked as a manager of K-pop diva BoA under South Korea's biggest K-pop music label, S

PerformanceJan. 15, 2020

Netflix in Korea ordered to change unfair terms of use

South Korea’s antitrust regulator said Wednesday that Netflix would make changes in their terms of use that are deemed unfair, including changing subscription plans and prices without consent, in accordance with instructions it made to the company. The company’s revised terms of use will take effect starting on Jan. 20. This is the first time the government has ordered such changes to be made by a global over-the-top streaming service.The Fair Trade Commission also signaled that it w

IndustryJan. 15, 2020

NHN invests W5b in local ride-hailing platform Macaron Taxi

Ride-hailing platform Macaron Taxi’s operator KST Mobility said Wednesday it has received additional 5 billion won ($4.3 million) investment from NHN, capping the initial 18-billion-won investment required for its app-based service.  The two firms also agreed to collaborate on adding new services to the platform for user convenience, starting with NHN’s online payment system Payco.KST Mobility started its test run of the platform, titled “Series A,” in February last

IndustryJan. 15, 2020

[Monitor] Food takes up less in household spending

Household expenditure in South Korea logged 656.85 trillion won ($570 billion) in the first three quarters of last year, of which 11.42 percent was spent on buying food and nonalcoholic beverages. The ratio of money spent on buying food items by households was the lowest since 11.39 percent in 2014.　(khnews@heraldcorp.com)

IndustryJan. 15, 2020

S. Korea looking into 'various formats' to allow individual trips to Mount Kumgang

S. Korea looking into 'various formats' to allow individual trips to Mount KumgangSouth Korea is looking into "various formats" to allow its citizens to visit Mount Kumgang, a day after President Moon Jae-in cited individual trips as a way to expand inter-Korean exchanges, the unification ministry said Wednesday.On Tuesday, Moon said during a press conference for the new year that allowing such trips does not violate global sanctions, saying it could be one of the ways to expand inter-

North KoreaJan. 15, 2020

BOK replaces 640m damaged bills, coins in 2019

The number of banknotes and coins destroyed due to damage or contamination reached a 10-year high in 2019, with the face value of the damaged bills and coins growing slightly from a year earlier, the central bank said Wednesday.The Bank of Korea said it had to replace some 640 million banknotes and coins in the year, the most since 2009 and up 2.2 percent from about 630 million a year earlier.The combined face value of the damaged money came to a little over 4.35 trillion won ($3.75 billion), up

MarketJan. 15, 2020

Appellate court upholds suspended sentence for Hyundai scion

An appellate court on Wednesday maintained a lower court's suspended jail sentence against a scion of Hyundai Group indicted for use of marijuana, an illegal substance in South Korea.The Seoul High Court sentenced Chung Hyun-sun, a 29-year-old grandson of Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung, to one year of imprisonment, suspended for two years.Chung is accused of smoking marijuana at his home in Seoul and other places on 26 occasions from February 2018 to January last year. He was arrested in Ap

Social AffairsJan. 15, 2020