BTS rocks New York's Grand Central with debut performance of 'ON'

Putting on the debut performance of "ON," the lead track of the new BTS album "Map of the Soul: 7," the South Korean super band has rocked Grand Central Terminal, a symbolic public space in New York City.  The septet unveiled a premiere performance of "ON," pre-filmed in a deserted Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, through "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," a US late night show, on Monday (US time). With the performance, the septe

K-popFeb. 25, 2020

Membership-based Sojeonseolim library offers space for writers, readers to mix and mingle

A goose-shaped chair with a gigantic art book in front of it dominates the room. If you came expecting a typical library, you might think you came to the wrong place. Sojeonseolim, which means “forest of books covered with white bricks,” is a new library in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul, which opened Saturday. “Swiss architect Davide Macullo designed this building in 2016 as an art museum. We changed it into a library and Korean architect Choi Wook, director of One O One Ar

CultureFeb. 25, 2020

Kakao Bank expands partnerships for brokerage services

Kakao Bank, an online-only bank in South Korea, said Tuesday that stock trading services of brokerage firm NH Investment & Securities are now available on its mobile application. Since users’ personal data is already registered on the online bank’s mobile platform, Kakao Bank users can open a securities account on the mobile banking platform more easily than with other services via stock traders’ home trading systems or brick-and-mortar branches, according the banking f

MarketFeb. 25, 2020

Korean companies raise bar on coronavirus test kits

Korean companies specializing in infection test kits are exporting their new real-time PCR COVID-19 assay kits to overseas destinations. They include KogeneBiotech, Seegene and PCL. With vaccine development for COVID-19 anticipated to take at least a year, the most realistic containment measure currently is to make a speedy diagnosis and follow up with effective quarantine, experts opine. While the numbers of confirmed cases have shot up in Korea -- 977 as of Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. -- the coun

IndustryFeb. 25, 2020

National Museum of Korea presents religious implication of Buddhist sculptures at Smithsonian

The National Museum of Korea held a symposium last week at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to introduce the religious implication embedded in Korean Buddhist artifacts, the national museum said Tuesday. The symposium -- held from Thursday to Friday at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, known as the Smithsonian’s Asian art museum -- coincided with the exhibition “Sacred Dedication: A Korean Buddhist Masterpiece,” jointly organized by the Freer Gallery, Sackler Ga

CultureFeb. 25, 2020

Seoul bans gatherings of Shincheonji church to curb virus spread

The Seoul city government on Tuesday banned all gatherings of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a minor Christian sect believed to be responsible for a surge in coronavirus infections in the country. The city government has been informed there are 263 Shincheonji-related locations in the city and has shuttered and disinfected 188 of them, an official told reporters. South Korea has reported 893 COVID-19 cases and nine deaths as of Tuesday. More than half of infections are linked to the religi

Social AffairsFeb. 25, 2020

Banks initiate emergency response plans against coronavirus

As the number of coronavirus cases continued to surge in Korea on Tuesday, all major banks here launched emergency response plans to protect their core networks. Commercial banks -- including Woori, Hana, KB Kookmin and Shinhan -- have temporarily shut down around a combined 20 brick-and-mortar branches across the nation, as of Tuesday afternoon. They have been following basic quarantine procedures, such as ordering employees at branches that came in contact with coronavirus patients into se

MarketFeb. 25, 2020

Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism shuts down temple stay program due to spread of coronavirus

  The Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism announced Monday that it would suspend the operation of its Templestay program until March 20 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism, an affiliate of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, currently operates a Templestay program at 137 temples around the country. “As people’s concerns about the coronavirus rise due to the number of confirmed cases increasing day by day, we have inevitably decided to suspend o

CultureFeb. 25, 2020

[News Focus] Korea’s gender gap set to widen

SEJONG -- Women have longer lifespans than men, and a government database suggests that the gender gap in South Korea’s population will grow wider in the coming years and decades. According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, women outnumbered men by 121,783 as of January 2020. The sex ratio, or the number of men per 100 women, posted an all-time low of 99.5, down 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier. The nation’s male and female populations stood at 25.862 million and 25.

Social AffairsFeb. 25, 2020

COVID-19 found in USFK widow

United States Forces Korea said Tuesday that the widow of one of its service members tested positive for COVID-19 after she had visited a military base in Daegu. The patient, 61, is the first individual linked to USFK to test positive for the virus. Two weeks ago, she visited twice the post exchange at Camp Walker, one of three American installations in Daegu, where infections recently skyrocketed because of mass gatherings at a Shincheonji church. USFK raised the risk level to “high&rd

DefenseFeb. 25, 2020

Moon stresses need for 'clear turning point' in fight against coronavirus

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday set this week as a deadline for a "clear turning point" in desperate efforts to counter the COVID-19 outbreak on a visit to Daegu, the source of the recent rapid proliferation of the deadly virus in South Korea. He described the situation as "very grave" and said it is not enough to declare the city, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, as a "special disaster zone." His government earlier designated the city of 2.5 million people an

Social AffairsFeb. 25, 2020

Airlines extend flght suspensions, halt more amid virus fears

South Korean airlines said Tuesday they will extend flight suspensions to China and halt more flights on international routes due to the growing impact of the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak. With no end in sight for the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, Korean Air Lines Co., South Korea's biggest airline by sales, on Tuesday extended flight suspensions to China by one month through April 25. Korean Air served 204 flights per week on 30 routes to China before the new coronavirus hit the

MobilityFeb. 25, 2020

Myeondong Cathedral to suspend Masses out of coronavirus fears

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul, which has Myeongdong Cathedral under its jurisdiction, said Tuesday it will suspend all Masses and meetings of its followers as the infectious coronavirus has been spreading rapidly across South Korea. "All churches of the Archdiocese of Seoul will stop holding Masses and all indoor and outdoor events for the next 14 days from Feb. 26 through March 10," Archbishop of Seoul Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung said in a statement. "We've made th

Social AffairsFeb. 25, 2020

BTS’ management agency gears up for IPO

Big Hit Entertainment, the South Korean entertainment management agency behind K-pop sensation BTS, has selected underwriters for its initial public offering in the country’s stock market. Lead underwriters include NH Investment & Securities, Korea Investment & Securities and JP Morgan, while Mirae Asset Daewoo will also participate in the process. An IPO underwriter is responsible for offering privately held or newly issued stocks to public investors, while protecting investors

MarketFeb. 25, 2020

[Newsmaker] Gyeonggi authorities seize PCs from Shincheonji to obtain list of members

Gyeonggi Provincial authorities on Tuesday seized computers from an annex building of the Christian sect confirmed as a transmission cluster for a novel coronavirus, as part of efforts to track the potential spread of the disease and contain it. A list of 42,000 followers of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus was secured during a digital forensics investigation, according to the provincial government. The move came after a 33-year-old resident of Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, tested positive for

Social AffairsFeb. 25, 2020

KCGI opposes Delta Air Lines' Hanjin stake purchase

Activist private equity firm Korea Corporate Governance Improvement on Tuesday objected to Delta Air Lines decision to hike its stake in Hanjin KAL -- holding firm of Korean Air -- amid the escalating proxy battle that will determine the fate of its owner family. Its disapproval comes amid reports that the US carrier might act as a “white knight” to vote in favor of the Hanjin Group’s controlling family, given its ongoing partnership with Korean Air through a joint venture. K

MarketFeb. 25, 2020

Coronavirus changes South Korean workplace landscape

The new coronavirus outbreak has led to drastic changes in South Korea’s workplace culture, albeit temporarily. Many major companies are letting their employees work from home or have flexible working hours after the government raised the alert level to “serious” and the number of cases here surged. As of Tuesday afternoon, the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients stood at 977, up 84 from 10 a.m., while the death toll stood at 10. The nation’s largest conglomerat

IndustryFeb. 25, 2020

PMK appoints former Google director as new chief

Phillip Morris Korea said Tuesday that it had appointed Paik Young-jay, formerly global director of Google Korea, as its new managing director. Paik, who has a doctorate in cultural anthropology from Yale University, has worked in various industrial sectors over the past 20 years, according to the company. He started his career at McKinsey & Company Korea in 2000 and joined South Korea’s CJ Group in 2003. He also led Blizzard Entertainment Korea as country managing director from 2011

IndustryFeb. 25, 2020

Faced with shortage, Korea limits mask exports

The South Korean government has decided to restrict the export of face masks until April 30, amid concerns that supplies are running short as COVID-19 spreads nationwide.  Manufacturers will be allowed to export up to 10 percent of the masks they produce each day.  The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Tuesday that the measure is authorized under Article 6 of the Price Stabilization Act, which stipulates that regulations can be adjusted in emergency situations. Mask manufacture

IndustryFeb. 25, 2020

Threee Kumho Tire products win Good Design Award

Kumho Tire said Tuesday three of its products had won 2019 Good Design Awards in the transportation design category.  The Good Design Awards is a global design competition which began in 1950, awarded by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design for the most innovative and cutting-edge industrial products and graphic designs of the year.  The Korean tire manufacturer said its tires Majesty 9, Ecsta PA51 and WinterCraft Wi51 have won the awards.  Majesty 9 is a ne

MobilityFeb. 25, 2020