Furniture retailers eye online biz amid consumer pattern change

Visiting traditional brick-and-mortar stores for furnishing shopping still remains mainstream as consumers tend to prefer a tactile experience when purchasing big furniture.As an increasing number of people are making purchases using the internet and mobile devices, furniture retailers have beefed up their e-commerce businesses so that customers can enjoy seamless experiences online and offline.According to data by Statistics Korea, an accumulated 2.45 trillion won ($2.06 billion) worth of purch

IndustryDec. 16, 2019

Top diplomats of S. Korea, Japan hold talks in Spain

The top diplomats of South Korea and Japan held one-on-one talks on the sidelines of a multilateral meeting in Spain on Sunday (Spain time) and discussed key bilateral issues related to the ongoing row over trade and wartime history, Seoul's foreign ministry said. During the 10-minute talks, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told her Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi, that South Korea welcomes the meeting that trade officials of the two countries plan to hold in Tokyo on Monday (Seoul time)

Foreign AffairsDec. 16, 2019

Socially responsible investments grow rapidly in S. Korea

South Korea is catching on to the global trend of socially conscious investments. There are currently seven listed funds in the country categorized as ESG funds, standing for environmental, social, and governance. Among them, five were launched this year by local asset management companies, including Korea Investment Management, KTB Asset Management, Koreit Asset Management, KB Asset Management and Kiwoom Asset Management.Last month, Samsung Asset Management also launched KODEX 200ESG -- an ETF

MarketDec. 15, 2019

Posco's reform tasks save W1.2tr so far

Posco has saved 1.2 trillion won ($1 billion) so far in the process of achieving 100 reform tasks highlighted by the firm’s chairman in November last year, the steelmaker said Sunday. The reform tasks included reinforcing premium steel product sales, enhancing cost competitiveness, establishing a growth foundation for energy materials and building a shared growth ecosystem based on fairness, transparency and ethics. The project was shared publicly in time for the 100-day anniversary o

IndustryDec. 15, 2019

[Graphic News] S. Korea’s labor force to shrink 17% by 2040: WTO

　South Korea’s labor force is projected to decline 17 percent by 2040, a report showed, a development that could undermine the potential growth of Asia’s fourth-largest economy.　The report from the World Trade Organization showed that Korea’s labor force faces the steepest decline in the world between 2018 and 2040. The corresponding figure for both Japan and China, whose labor forces are also expected to contract, was 14 percent.　The report said the US labor force can be expec

Social AffairsDec. 15, 2019

Diabetes association urges authorities to test metformin drugs for cancer-causing contaminant

Metformin, a drug used to treat Type 2 diabetes, was once heralded as a first-in-class treatment for which there was no substitute. Now it is sparking international concerns over a contaminant that may cause cancer.The debate has taken off in South Korea as well, and on Friday the Korean Diabetes Association urged the nation’s drug safety authority to test every drug containing metformin. The potentially carcinogenic impurity, called N-nitrosodimethylamine or NDMA, had previously been dete

IndustryDec. 15, 2019

[Simon Kilmurry] New US visa requirement is silencing foreign filmmakers

Social media are indispensable to many foreign documentary filmmakers. They are the way they connect with the subjects of their films, research the stories they are telling and share their work with global audiences. But the Trump administration’s new visa application requirements are now leaving these filmmakers with little choice but to censor their online speech if they ever want to be able to present their films in person to US audiences.To stop this dangerous and unconstitutional over

ViewpointsDec. 15, 2019

[Noah Smith] LBJ’s Great Society won War on Poverty

In 1964, speaking at the University of Michigan, President Lyndon Johnson called for the US to become a “great society.” That term came to be synonymous with the Johnson administration’s raft of antipoverty programs, sometimes known as the War on Poverty. The Great Society initiative led to the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, the modern version of food stamps, Head Start, various jobs programs, expansion of many kinds of Social Security benefits, urban renewal spending and a

ViewpointsDec. 15, 2019

[Herald Review] Eternal romance of ‘Phantom’ touches hearts of Koreans

Musical “The Phantom of the Opera” is set in the iconic Paris Opera House in central Paris, also known as the Palais Garnier. Built in the late 19th century by Charles Garnier, the establishment is one of the city’s must-see spots to this day. A mysterious figure referred to as the phantom lives beneath the opera house, away from others. He wears a mask to hide his scarred face. He falls in love with young soprano Christine Daae. Christine comes to believe the phantom is her &l

PerformanceDec. 15, 2019

Chandelier crashes, ‘Phantom’ returns to Korea

BUSAN -- Musical “The Phantom of the Opera” has finally landed in Korea, kicking off in Busan and taking the audience into the haunting love story set in Paris in the late 19th century. This is the first time the international tour of the opera is visiting Busan, having already performed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. After Busan, the tour moves on to Seoul and Daegu.  Based on the novel of the same name written by Gaston Leroux, &

PerformanceDec. 15, 2019

[Feature] When parents become perpetrators

On Sept. 26, a boy was killed by his stepfather after being beaten for about 20 hours. The boy’s arms and legs were tied up during the beating. It was later revealed that the police had investigated the man three times for child abuse. He had even received a suspended sentence in 2017, and his stepson had been sent to live at a child care institution. At the time of his death, the boy had been back in the home for less than a month.In a country with deeply rooted Confucian values, stressin

Social AffairsDec. 15, 2019

Police crack down on irregularities ahead of April parliamentary elections

Police will crack down on violations of the election law starting Monday, ahead of the general elections for the 21st National Assembly in April.The National Police Agency on Sunday said it will launch an exclusive investigation team to crack down on election irregularities, at each of the 255 police stations across the nation. Preliminary candidate registration for the general elections begins Tuesday. Police will create a special investigation system to monitor and react to cybercrimes related

Social AffairsDec. 15, 2019

[Monitor] One-person households in Korea suffer from low income

About 36 percent of one-person households earn less than 2 million won per month, data from Statistics Korea showed last week.One-person households, which take up one-third of all households in South Korea, tended to show low satisfaction in their type of residence with only 23.3 percent answering they were content, compared to 30.8 percent of those in multiple-households that said the same.The Seoul Institute, a research center, said that while 1 in 3 households in the country were one-person h

EconomyDec. 15, 2019

Biegun arrives in Seoul amid deadlock in NK-US nuclear talks

US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun arrived in Seoul on Sunday for a “close coordination” with allies amid the deadlock in the denuclearization talks with Pyongyang just weeks before the communist regime’s year-end deadline. A day before, North Korea issued statements to announce that it had carried out “another crucial test” at a satellite launching site, warning the United States to “hold off” any action to “rattle&

North KoreaDec. 15, 2019

[Newsmaker] Ex-Ulsan mayor questioned over Cheong Wa Dae’s alleged election meddling

Former Ulsan Mayor Kim Gi-hyeon, who raised allegations about Cheong Wa Dae’s suspected meddling in regional elections last year, appeared before the prosecution Sunday to be questioned as a witness. Kim, who is affiliated with the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, says that the Ulsan Metropolitan Police Agency deliberately investigated suspicions surrounding his brother and close aide a few months ahead of the elections last year, to sway the vote in favor of the ruling Democratic

Social AffairsDec. 15, 2019

Activities resume on NK naval shipyard, SLBM demonstration should not be ruled out: think tank

Minor activity has resumed at a submersible test stand barge at Nampo Naval Shipyard in North Korea, and there is the possibility that Pyongyang might test a submarine-launched ballistic missile before its year-end deadline, a US-based think tank said Sunday.Satellite imagery collected in the last several months indicate that minor activity has resumed as of Dec. 2, after a two-month hiatus since September, said Joseph Bermudez and Victor Cha of Beyond Parallel, a team that specializes in North

North KoreaDec. 15, 2019

LG Group mourns death of honorary chairman

South Korea’s business world, government and the families over the weekend mourned the death of LG Group Honorary Chairman Koo Cha-kyung, who as the second-generation leader of the conglomerate, had led the rise of the group’s global expansion. Koo was 94 when he passed away from an illness on Saturday.At a funeral altar set up at an undisclosed hospital in Seoul, Koo’s second son Bon-neung, the chairman of Heesung Group, greeted mourners. The deceased’s fourth son, grand

IndustryDec. 15, 2019

S. Korean rookie upsets reigning US Open champ in Presidents Cup singles

South Korean rookie Im Sung-jae defeated the reigning US Open champion Gary Woodland in the singles match at the Presidents Cup on Sunday, though Im's effort wasn't enough to get his International Team over the hump.Powered by a back-nine charge at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, Im beat the American veteran 4 & 3 for his third win in five matches in his first Presidents Cup appearance.The biennial Presidents Cup pits a team of non-European international golfers against Americans in match play. A

GolfDec. 15, 2019

Exhibition looks at overarching presence of virtual reality

In a video introducing Niantic’s mobile game Pokemon Go, which uses augmented reality, Pikachu is running around in an open-air cafe, past real people. The uplifting yellow creature even plays hide-and-seek using real-world objects like flower pots. “Watching the video, I thought this real world has become an image -- in an allegorical sense. It was somewhat scary too when I thought about how the real world and virtual reality overlap with one another, the one with Pikachu and the ot

Arts & DesignDec. 15, 2019