[THE INVESTOR] Hyosung Group president Cho Hyun-joon appears to be upping the ante to further expand into the Chinese textile market where his firm already has a growing presence. Cho -- one of Hyosung chairman Cho Seok-rae’s sons -- is mainly in charge of the conglomerate’s textile and IT sectors.Hyosung is currently No. 1 in terms of market share in China’s spandex industry.   Hyosung Group President Cho Hyun-joon (second from right) / Hyosung GroupTo seal this position, Cho has recently been

IndustryJuly 21, 2016

Korea's ruling Saenuri Party said Thursday that the alliance between Seoul and Washington is vital to stop Pyongyang's missile provocations, adding that the opposition parties should also support the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system here."Those protesting the most against the deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense is North Korea's Kim Jong-un regime," Chung Jin-suk, the party whip said. "That proves the deployment is essential for South Korea."Earlier this month,

PoliticsJuly 21, 2016

The bus driver involved in a recent pileup on Yeongdong Expressway has admitted to dozing off on the road, said the police Wednesday. The Gangwon Pyeongchang Police are seeking an arrest warrant for the driver surnamed Bang. Bang had changed his statement twice. He initially gave false information that the accident occurred as he was changing lanes from the second lane to the first. However, recordings surfaced on social media showing that he had only driven on the first lane. Bang changed his s

Social AffairsJuly 21, 2016

Labor strife in the country's shipbuilding segment seems to be fizzling out as employees' participation in the pan-industry strike, in protest against massive restructuring moves, is far lower than expected, industry sources said Thursday.According to the sources, the coalition of unionized workers from eight shipbuilders, including Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., threatened last week to hold a joint strike on Wednesday where it said some 30,000 wor

IndustryJuly 21, 2016

Iris recognition is the new "in" feature for smartphones that has yet to take off with consumers, and Samsung Electronics’ new flagship set to be unveiled next month may set the standard for the technology, industry watchers said Thursday.Samsung has disclosed in its invitations to the uncloaking of the Galaxy Note 7 in the New York on Aug. 2 that the new big-screen gadget will have an iris scanning feature for recognition, a step above fingerprint identification. Iris scanning is hailed as more

TechnologyJuly 21, 2016

[THE INVESTOR] Hyundai Mobis, South Korea’s largest automotive parts supplier, has decided to recall 120,000 car air-conditioning filters after octylisothiazolinone, a toxic chemical substance, was detected, the company said on July 21.“We decided to pull every product from the shelf to put our customers at ease,” the company said. On July 20, the Ministry of Environment released a list of filters containing OIT levels that may be harmful. These filters, which were mostly manufactured by 3M, wer

MobilityJuly 21, 2016

Korea is moving to require automakers to install seatbelt alarms for all passengers in passenger cars, in line with its efforts to spearhead the move at the international level, the government said Thursday.According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe was widely expected to adopt the South Korea-proposed change to its recommendations for car safety that will advise automakers to install seatbelt alarms for all seats in all pas

Social AffairsJuly 21, 2016

KT&G Corp., Korea's state-run tobacco producer, on Thursday said its net profit gained 11.9 percent in the second quarter from a year ago on the back of brisk sales in the domestic market. Net profit came to 291.6 billion won ($2.55 million) on a consolidated basis in the April-June period, compared with 260.7 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Operating income jumped 14.5 percent on-year to 354 billion won, and sales rose 5.4 percent to 1.08 trillion won over t

IndustryJuly 21, 2016

Korea's antitrust watchdog on Thursday said it conducted an investigation into Google Inc. over allegedly forcing smartphone makers to use its operating system in their handsets.The Fair Trade Commission conducted the inspection of Google's local headquarters in southern Seoul last week, two years after the commission acquitted the global giant of the same charge.In 2013, after two years of investigation, the FTC acquitted Google of hurting fair market competition by obliging mobile phone makers

IndustryJuly 21, 2016