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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Lotte chairman tightens grip
SEOUL/TOKYO -- Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin is expected to tighten his grip on the family-run business empire in both Korea and Japan as shareholders of the group’s key holding company supported his management proposals Monday.Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin (Yonhap)In a counterattack on his elder brother’s offensive in the succession battle, chairman Shin has proposed measures to ensure a stable management structure and strengthen the group’s corporate governance. “The shareholders agr
IndustryAug. 17, 2015
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Green Cross opens 8th U.S. blood center
Green Cross, a South Korean biopharmaceuticals company, said Monday that it has opened its eighth blood center in San Antonio, Texas, aiming to strengthen its position in the U.S. market. The new blood center ― established by Green Cross America, which handles the firm’s U.S. operations ― is able to produce 60,000 liters of general and specialized blood plasma products.With the addition of the Texas center, GCAM’s eight centers are now able to supply up to 400,000 liters of blood plasma products
IndustryAug. 17, 2015
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Pharvis Korea to develop new asthma medication
Pharvis Korea, a homegrown pharmaceutical company, will start developing a new treatment drug for respiratory diseases and asthma based on a therapeutic substance in development by researchers at Korea University and Dongguk University.The Ministry of ICT, Science and Future Planning said Sunday that the firm has purchased the technology and future development rights to the drug PVS02696 for 1 billion won ($840,000). Pharvis Korea signs a deal with researchers at Korea University and Dongguk Uni
IndustryAug. 17, 2015
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Pakistan marks independence with eye on global affairs
Pakistan celebrated its national independence on Aug. 14 amid concerted efforts to eradicate terrorism and engage in global trade, Pakistani Ambassador Zahid Nasrullah Khan said last week. The Independence Day of Pakistan, which falls a day before India’s Aug. 15 Independence Day, is a commemoration of the country’s founding originating from the end of the British Raj in 1947. After a 40-year independence struggle, colonial India was separated into India, East Pakistan and West Pakistan, with Ea
Foreign AffairsAug. 17, 2015
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Samsung unveils plan to create 30,000 youth jobs in two years
South Korea’s largest conglomerate, Samsung Group, said Monday it would create about 30,000 new jobs for young workers over the next two years.For this, Samsung will make investments worth around 100 billion won ($84.5 million) to provide vocational and educational opportunities, the officials said. Samsung Group`s headquarters in Seoul. (Yonhap)Samsung’s move is in line with the government’s efforts to improve the youth job market.“Samsung will fulfill its responsibility to society by contribut
TechnologyAug. 17, 2015
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Park calls for military readiness against N.K.
President Park Geun-hye on Monday ordered the military to maintain strong readiness against North Korea’s constant threats, asserting that its land mine attack earlier this month was a “clear military provocation” intended to kill South Korean soldiers.Park made the comments at a Cabinet meeting in an underground bunker to mark the launch of the Ulchi exercise, a four-day pan-national drill against contingencies. A joint military Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise with the U.S. was also launched fo
PoliticsAug. 17, 2015
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Coex slammed for wasting W300b in renewal
The Coex Mall, Asia’s largest underground shopping center located in Gangnam, southern Seoul, is facing criticism that its ambitious 300 billion won ($250 million) renewal has led to excessive rent fees and massive sales drops. Of the 240 stores, up to 20 shops, including Giordano, Coffee Smith and shoemaker Landrover, reportedly pulled out from Coex less than a year after the mall reopened last November.Store owners in the building claim their sales reached only one-third of the initially expec
BusinessAug. 17, 2015
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Professor commits suicide over college voting system
A professor at a Busan-based university was found dead Monday in what appears to be a suicide, after protesting the university’s decision to abolish direct election of its president.The 54-year-old professor of Pusan National University, identified by his surname Goh, jumped from the fourth floor of a university building around 3:20 p.m. He died despite being immediately moved to a nearby hospital for treatment.The incident came as the PNU and its faculty members are locked in a fierce battle ov
Social AffairsAug. 17, 2015
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Market liberalization keeps law firms on their toes
As South Korea is set to enter the third stage of its opening of the local legal industry, the legal circle here remains split over the impact, with some viewing it as a chance to hone local players’ competence, while others cite rigid regulations that would hem in any drastic change. In early August, the Ministry of Justice submitted a revised draft of the Foreign Legal Consultant Act to implement what would be the final stage of the legal market liberalization under the free trade agreements.U
Social AffairsAug. 17, 2015
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Hong Sang-soo’s new film wins at Locarno
South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo has won the prestigious Golden Leopard award at the 68th Locarno International Film Festival for his 17th feature-length film “Right Now, Wrong Then,” according to the film’s distributor Finecut on Sunday. Hong Sang-soo at Locarno (Locarno International Film Festival)In addition to the top prize, the film also picked up a Best Actor award for leading man Jung Jae-young. He is the first male Korean actor to win that honor at Locarno; actress Kim Ho-jung took home
FilmAug. 17, 2015
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Korean teenage smokers heavily influenced by parents: study
A South Korean teenager whose parents are both smokers is more than four times as likely to smoke as a teenager with nonsmoking parents, a government report showed Monday. The report, released by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, anonymously surveyed 75,000 middle and high school students last year. It showed that 17.8 percent of Korean teens whose parents both smoke were smoking as of last year. Meanwhile, only 4.3 percent of teenagers with nonsmoking parents were smoking. T
Social AffairsAug. 17, 2015
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Japan must be careful in ties with neighbors
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered a speech Friday, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War. Abe expressed “profound grief” for all who perished in World War II and admitted that Japan inflicted “immeasurable damage and suffering” on innocent people during the war and apologized. The prime minister also said that future generations of Japanese should not have to continue apologizing. Japan marked VJ Day, a euphemism for the day the Pacific War ended. The Japane
ViewpointsAug. 17, 2015
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CrucialTec expects robust revenue growth in H2
South Korea’s leading fingerprint scanner maker CrucialTec said Monday that its fingerprint module business would continue to gain traction during the rest of this year thanks mainly to the burgeoning Chinese biometrics market. The Pangyo-headquartered firm said in its regulatory filing it would rake in around 285 billion won ($240 million) in revenue in the latter half of this year, up 280 percent compared to the same period last year. CrucialTec CEO Charles Ahn poses with fingerprint modules a
TechnologyAug. 17, 2015
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Court orders Korea to pay injured U.S. base worker
A Seoul court ruled Monday that the South Korean government should compensate a Korean citizen paralyzed from the waist down in an industrial accident while working at the U.S. military base.The Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of the man, whose name remained unidentified, ordering the government to pay 360 million won ($305,000) in compensation. (Yonhap)The man, who has worked for the U.S. troops in Gyeonggi Province since 1994, filed a compensation suit after he suffered injuries t
Social AffairsAug. 17, 2015
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[Justin Fox] China may have no master plan
As a long-time consumer of economic commentary about China, I can probably recite the basic narrative underpinning most of it in my sleep: Yes, China’s economy faces challenge X. But the government has a plan for getting past it, the People’s Bank of China has many tools at its disposal and, hey, look at that $3.7 trillion in foreign exchange reserves! A fine recent example of the genre comes from Zheng Liu of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. His analysis bears the provocative headline
ViewpointsAug. 17, 2015
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[Andrew Sheng] Joining SDR club gives yuan reserve currency status
As gray clouds gather over the horizon, one possible piece of good news is the prospects of the Chinese currency RMB being fully internationalized. Bankers and financial centers from Hong Kong to London salivate at the trillions of dollars of new trading that will come from the RMB becoming a full-fledged reserve currency. When will that happen? One milestone of the RMB becoming fully recognized as a reserve currency is to join the club of being a component currency of the Special Drawing Righ
ViewpointsAug. 17, 2015
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[Editorial] Trilateral summit
Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se last week pledged to make strenuous efforts to arrange for a three-way summit among the leaders of South Korea, China and Japan. He said his intention was to “host this trilateral summit at the earliest possible mutually convenient time before the end of this year” when he met with the outgoing secretary-general of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat headquartered in Seoul. Shigeo Iwatani, a Japanese diplomat who assumed the post in 2013, may not be in a position
EditorialAug. 17, 2015
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[Newsmaker] Chung Mong-joon in bid to clean up FIFA
Corruption, scandal, money laundering, internal strife, fraud, power and FBI investigations – the recent allegations surrounding FIFA have all the elements of a Hollywood movie.Chung Mong-joon (Yonhap)Oscar winner, producer and actor Ben Affleck, who is soon to be the next Batman, will produce a movie about FIFA’s alleged misdeeds over the last 20 years, recently involving the bidding processes for the Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 World Cups. The star of this drama may play Charles “Chuck” Blazer,
SoccerAug. 17, 2015
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[Editorial] Devaluation of yuan
China’s central bank put a brake on the steep decrease in the value of the yuan against the dollar on Friday. The Chinese currency depreciated by 4.5 percent in the previous three days, marking the biggest drop in decades. The surprise devaluation, which triggered concerns of a currency war, was seen as the latest measure to help boost China’s exports at a time when the world’s second-largest economy is struggling with its worst slowdown in more than two decades. China has set this year’s econom
EditorialAug. 17, 2015
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Citadines Haeundae Busan introduces upscale, convenient living
Interior view of one of the Citadines Haeundae Busan‘s one-bedroom premier suites. (Ascott Limited Group)Citadines, a global brand of well-appointed serviced apartments, officially launched its first “apart’hotel” in Korea over the weekend, smack dab in the heart of Haeundae, the country’s most popular beachside hot spot.Now accepting reservations, the 468-room Citadines Haeundae offers safe and comfortable accommodations for both tourists and business travelers, whether it be for a short weeken
TravelAug. 17, 2015