Most Popular
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Ex-presidential official’s leaked phone call rattles conservative bloc
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Man escapes DUI charges by downing bottle of soju while pulled over
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Pay debate plagues foreign nanny pilot
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K-pop star lip-syncing controversy flares up again
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35% of S. Koreans view unification 'unnecessary'
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Slew of top K-pop stars ready to return from military
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S. Korea, US clinch 2026-30 defense cost-sharing deal in pre-election push
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[Reporter’s Notebook] Was Netflix film opening BIFF really a bad thing?
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N. Korean leader's sister derides Seoul's Hyunmoo-5 missile as 'useless'
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Controversial cult leader’s sentence reduced to 17 years
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[Newsmaker] Two lawmakers face uproar over kids' employment favors
A number of lawmakers are facing increasing pressure on allegations that they influenced sought-after workplaces to hire their children.Rep. Kim Tae-won of the ruling Saenuri Party and Rep. Yoon Hu-duk of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy came under fire for allegedly using their parliamentary clout to give their kids job opportunities at Korean Government Legal Service and the nation’s top display-maker LG Display, respectively Despite their plea of innocence and attempt t
PoliticsAug. 19, 2015
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Skoda likely to enter Korean market this year
Volkswagen Group’s popular brand Skoda Auto is set to launch in Korea as early as the end of the year, sources said. The arrival of the Czech brand, once dubbed the “poor man’s Porsche,” is expected to deal a blow to Hyundai Motor that is already suffering from plummeting global sales and the increasing competition from imported cars. “Volkswagen Korea has been discussing the details recently. This had been classified information among top management for months, but was recently made known to in
IndustryAug. 19, 2015
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Citibank to strengthen digital banking
Citibank Korea said Wednesday that its pillar strategies for the second half of the year are to further tighten up its signature wealth management business and focus investment into digital and mobile banking.It also dismissed rumors that it is preparing to withdraw from the Korean market.“We believe that we have a strength in wealth management, so decided to focus more on the affluent customer sector,” Brendan Carney, consumer business head and vice president at Citibank Korea, told reporters i
Aug. 19, 2015
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Lotte faces aftermath of succession war
Just a couple of days after its leadership was consolidated, Lotte Group is all-out to tackle the aftermath of an internal feud over the helm of the 90 trillion won ($76 billion)-business empire that has ignited regulatory action and public boycotts. Group chairman Shin Dong-bin tried to quell the furor with mitigating actions, including sparing billions of won from his pocket for corporate social responsibility programs, but this may fall short of easing public anxiety and anger against the re
IndustryAug. 19, 2015
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LG Chem to beef up acrylic acid, SAP production
LG Chem said Wednesday it had finished expansion work on production lines for acrylic acid and a super absorbent polymer -- two basic materials on which the company pins high hopes for market leadership.Following the expansion, its production plant in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, has an annual production capacity of 510,000 tons of acrylic acid and 360,000 tons of SAP, the world’s fifth- and fourth-largest capacities, respectively. The company predicted an additional 300 billion won ($250 milli
TechnologyAug. 19, 2015
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[Editorial] Preventing crisis
The recent devaluation of the Chinese yuan, which followed a free fall in its stock market, showcased the uncertainties surrounding the world’s second-largest economy and more broadly, the global economy. The storm from China is battering Korea and other emerging markets. The local currency and stock markets are still reeling from Beijing’s aggressive devaluation of the yuan. The currencies of emerging markets like Malaysia and Indonesia have fallen to their lowest level since 1997. This is rais
EditorialAug. 19, 2015
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Modern dance homage to Silk Road to hit Seoul stage next month
A scene from the contemporary dance production of, “Ohna II,” which will be staged as part of the upcoming 2015 Silk Road for Performing Arts cultural dance festival. (Lim AMC)Conceptually bridging the cross-cultural influences of the East and the West along the ancient Silk Road, this year’s Festival Silk Road for Performing Arts will be kicking off its festivities on Sept. 3. Slated to be held as part of the ongoing Silk Road Gyeongju 2015 -- the nearly two-month long Eurasia cultural arts fes
PerformanceAug. 19, 2015
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Asiana Airlines adopts KakaoPay for ticket purchase
Asiana Airlines announced Tuesday that it had adopted the mobile payment service KakaoPay to allow customers to buy airline tickets.Anyone with the KakaoTalk mobile app can use KakaoPay without installing additional features, company officials said.Customers who wish to purchase airline tickets using the mobile app or the Web can now do so more conveniently by simply typing in a password that they set up through KakaoPay.Asiana Airlines added that as a promotional event for implementing KakaoPay
IndustryAug. 19, 2015
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Korea, Japan reconnect through graphic design
Posters, logos, advertisements and infographic images created by Korean and Japanese designers are on view at an exhibition in Seoul that shows the transition of graphic design trends in both countries over the last 50 years. The exhibition, being held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art brings together 400 works of graphic design of 112 Korean and Japanese designers, ranging from first-generation graphic designers to emerging young designers.Viewers can find early design works
Arts & DesignAug. 19, 2015
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Blue House leak furor rekindled
A former presidential secretary reportedly claimed Wednesday that it was President Park Geun-hye’s former top aide who ordered him to conduct an internal investigation of a rumor, which later grew into the infamous “Cheong Wa Dae document leak scandal.”Cho Eung-cheon, a former Blue House secretary for civil discipline, said that the leaked documents were written after former Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon gave a direct order to probe the rumors that Park was about to “sack him” in local vernacular
PoliticsAug. 19, 2015
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Green tide threatens Seoul water safety again
Green tide returned to major water sources of the Seoul metropolitan area this week amid ongoing controversy over the ecological impact of a small dam in the Hangang River.The Environment Ministry issued a green tide advisory Wednesday for Paldang Lake in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, as the water’s chlorophyll-A concentration reached 55.8 milligrams per cubic meter along with over 4,000 blue-green algal cells per milliliter. The green tide advisory is raised when the chlorophyll-A concentration e
Social AffairsAug. 19, 2015
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[Editorial] Worse than useless
A recent OECD report grabbed headlines in the Korean media as it highlighted Koreans’ low confidence in the country’ public institutions, including the national government and the judiciary. The OECD Government at a Glance 2015 report, based on a survey of 1,000 people in each member state, found that only 34 percent of Koreans trusted the national government. This is hardly surprising, considering the rampant corruption and bureaucratic red tape that characterizes the work of government employ
EditorialAug. 19, 2015
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[Kim Myong-sik] Moving forward after Abe’s virtual apology
As it was widely known that the office of Japanese prime minister had labored a lot to produce an important statement (as a cabinet decision) on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, I gave it close scrutiny after gleaning the full English text from the website of the Japanese Foreign Ministry last weekend. Many people had taken keen interest in the document because so much noise was made in Japan over what words it should and should not include regarding Japan’s imperialist aggressi
ViewpointsAug. 19, 2015
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[Photo News] Mercedez-Benz Korea to hold circuit event
MERCEDES-AMG CIRCUIT DAY -- Mercedes-Benz Korea is holding an circuit event to offer Korean media a chance to drive its high-performance sub-brand AMG cars at the Yongin Speedway Circuit, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. The AMG cars in the circuit event include Mercedes-AMG GT S Edition 1 and the new Mercedes-AMG C 63. The company also will host the same event for 1,000 of its customers. Mercedez-Benz Korea.
IndustryAug. 19, 2015
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[Lee Sun-young] Addressing cultural divide urgent
Every year since 1976, the national Arts Council Korea publishes a yearbook on the country’s arts and culture ecosystem, tracing trends and providing valuable information for policymakers. This year’s Arts and Culture Yearbook, released Monday, goes a step further to paint a clearer picture of the cultural life in Korea, introducing for the first time the self-devised Arts Index. But the index, the first of such kind developed with the aim of gauging the disparity in arts and culture between Se
ViewpointsAug. 19, 2015
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Nearly 60,000 drunk drivers caught in morning in 4 years: report
Nearly 60,000 drunk drivers have been caught during morning hours over the last four years, a lawmaker’s report showed Wednesday.According to Rep. Kang Gi-yun of the Saenuri Party, about 59,400 drunk drivers were caught between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. from 2011 to 2014. Of these, some 33,000 went over the 0.1 percent blood alcohol level to have their driver’s license revoked.The rest had their driver’s license suspended as the blood-alcohol level recorded between 0.05 and 0.09 percent. Driving the mo
Social AffairsAug. 19, 2015
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Daewoo E&C wins Kuwaiti refinery bid
Daewoo Engineering and Construction recently won a contract as a consortium to construct new refinery facilities in Kuwait, company officials said.The consortium includes American engineering company Fluor and Hyundai Heavy Industries. They will construct Package Two and Package Three of the New Refinery Project, estimated to be worth $5.76 billion.Daewoo E&C will be in charge of engineering, procurement and construction with the other two companies and is expected to receive about a third of th
IndustryAug. 19, 2015
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‘Veteran’ surpasses 7m-viewer mark
Crime action flick “Veteran” is racing up its viewer record at a pace matching that of “Assassination,” breaking the 7 million milestone in two weeks since release Wednesday. Poster of 'Veteran' (CJ Entertainment) The film opened nationwide on Aug. 5, marking 1 million viewers by the third day, 2 million on fourth, 3 million on sixth, 4 million on ninth, 5 million on 10th, 6 million on 12th, and finally surpassing 7 million on the 14th day. “Assassination” released on July 22 and entered the 10
Aug. 19, 2015
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Girls’ Generation tops charts with new LP
K-pop girl group Girls’ Generation topped local music charts with its new LP “Lion Heart.” On Wednesday, eponymous lead track “Lion Heart,” which was released at noon on Tuesday, ranked No. 1 on five charts -- Genie, Bugs, Soribada, Naver Music and Monkey 3. Another lead track “You Think,” which was released at midnight, ranked No.1 on two other charts -- Mnet and Olleh Music -- while following a close second place on four charts. Girls` Generation (SM Entertainment)The eight-member group’s fif
Aug. 19, 2015
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Innocean, Horizon partner to launch media agency
Innocean Worldwide, a South Korean marketing communications agency under Hyundai Motor Group, has partnered with U.S.-based private media agency giant Horizon Media to form new joint media agency Canvas Worldwide. Set to officially launch in September 2015, the joint venture was established with starting capital of 11.4 billion won ($9.6 million). Innocean will hold a 51 percent stake, while Horizon will hold the remaining 49 percent. Innocean said that Canvas Worldwide is expected to rack up $4
IndustryAug. 19, 2015