SK Bioscience applies for SKYCovione's WHO emergency use listing

SK Bioscience has completed the application for an emergency use listing of SKYCovione -- South Korea’s first homemade COVID-19 vaccine -- with the World Health Organization, the local vaccine developer said Thursday. The WHO’s emergency use listing is the global health body’s procedure for reviewing vaccines, therapeutics and in vitro diagnosis with the goal of expediting the availability of such products to people in case of a public health emergency. As the WHO’s asse

Sept. 8, 2022

[Herald Interview] 'COVID-19 is not over; people are still getting sick'

It has been almost 1,000 days since the first case of COVID-19 was reported from Wuhan, China, at the end of December 2019. The unprecedented pandemic swept the world. Humanity fought back fiercely. The world now appears to have an upper hand over the novel coronavirus as borders are crossed and masks are taken off. However, a global expert on immune therapies and vaccines says the COVID-19 pandemic is not done yet. “Everyone wishes (the pandemic) would go away but it really hasn’t

Sept. 8, 2022

[From the scene] Samsung's new Pyeongtaek fab ready to embrace chip design ambitions

PYEONGTAEK, Gyeonggi Province -- South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics is ready to meet the needs of the world's most ambitious chip designers technology-wise in the world's largest single chip fabrication plant. The multi-story factory, which went operational in July, used enough steel bars to build 29 Eiffel Towers to complete the construction on a plot of land about 25 times the size of a soccer field. The gargantuan facility, dubbed P3, is the first chip fab to have introduce

Sept. 7, 2022

Hongik Univ. students win top James Dyson Awards

The James Dyson Foundation, global home appliance company Dyson's charity arm, announced Wednesday the local recipients of the James Dyson Awards 2022, an engineering competition held both locally and internationally to provide opportunities for young engineers to showcase their ideas on a global stage. Of the 125 entries, a team of students from Hongik University took first place for designing a rotating safety hook. When temporary scaffolding is raised at construction sites, there are poi

Sept. 7, 2022

SK hynix to spend W15tr on new memory chip fab in Cheongju by 2025

South Korean memory chip giant SK hynix announced on Tuesday plans to build a new memory chip fab in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province by early 2025 and spend 15 trillion won ($10.9 billion) in the next five years on the new site. The new two-story fab on 60,000 square meters of land, called M15X, will start construction in October. The new plant will be an expansion of the existing M15 line built in 2018. SK hynix said the memory product manufactured by the new fab has yet to be determined

Sept. 6, 2022

Samsung families receive W235.5b in dividend in H1

Four family members of South Korea's largest conglomerate, including Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, have received a combined 235.46 billion won ($171.4 million) in dividends from Samsung Electronics in the first half, data showed Tuesday. Among them, Hong Ra-hee, Samsung Electronics' de facto leader Lee's mother and wife of the late ex-Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, fetched 84.82 billion won in dividend income, outsizing Lee's 70.43 billion won and that of his

Sept. 6, 2022

Tmax Group to launch tool that builds app without writing code

South Korean enterprise software developer Tmax Group on Tuesday unveiled plans to launch a tool through which enterprise clients can build business apps tailored to their own needs without writing code. SuperApp Studio, an app-building tool that Tmax believes can become a Korean equivalent to Microsoft's Power App or Amazon's HoneyCode, will be designed to allow people without knowledge of programming languages to skirt technology barriers in the app development process without hiring

Sept. 6, 2022

Kakao's taxi algorithm does not favor own cabs: experts

A committee of experts said Tuesday that the algorithm of Kakao Mobility’s taxi-hailing application -- Kakao T -- does not favor its affiliated cabs known as Kakao T Blue in the process of matching passengers with taxi drivers. The experts’ analysis came amid the Fair Trade Commission’s ongoing case against Kakao Mobility over allegations that the ride-calling app operator intentionally assigned passengers to its affiliated cabs first. Denying the allegations, the company dis

Sept. 6, 2022

Kakao launches Tapas Entertainment to boost US market expansion

Kakao Entertainment -- a content subsidiary of South Korean IT giant Kakao -- has launched Tapas Entertainment to accelerate the expansion of its content businesses in North America, the company said Monday. Tapas Entertainment was established after a merger between Tapas Media, the first webtoon platform in North America, and Radish Media, a leading US web novel company, was completed on Aug. 5, according to Kakao Entertainment. Kakao Entertainment acquired the two companies in May last year

Sept. 5, 2022

4 of 5 chip experts say Korea faces 'worst crisis' in decade

South Korea's chip manufacturing industry is facing the worst crisis in a decade, a survey that polled semiconductor experts showed Monday. Twenty-four out of the 30 chip experts surveyed by lobby group Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry responded that Korea is either facing the threat as grave as, or graver than, Chinese chipmakers' foray into memory chip business in 2016 or the trade war between the United States and China in 2019. Of the respondents, 13 said Korea's situati

Sept. 5, 2022

Samsung vows to take energy efficiency to next level at IFA 2022

Samsung Electronics on Monday pledged to take energy efficiency of its consumer electronics goods to the next level, supported by a combination of technologies from artificial intelligence to connected homes, during Europe's biggest tech show IFA 2022 that wraps up Tuesday. The cutting-edge technologies will allow Samsung to sell the most energy efficient refrigerators and washers among all products sold in Europe, the company claimed, using estimates from Samsung's own test results.

Sept. 5, 2022

S. Korean lunar orbiter's key trajectory maneuver proceeds successfully: KARI

South Korea's unmanned space vehicle Danuri has successfully undergone a trajectory correction maneuver (TCM), a critical procedure in the lunar orbiter's travel to the moon for the country's first lunar mission. Danuri, also known as the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, was launched last month aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the U.S. state of Florida for South Korea's first space mission beyond Earth's orbit. The orbiter is curr

Sept. 5, 2022

Samsung’s foldable R&D chief talks about balancing tradeoffs

BERLIN – Samsung Electronics will focus on upgrading foldable phones and enhancing their user experience for now, despite their extensive study on diverse smartphone form factors such as rollable and slide types, according to a senior executive who oversees research and development for mobile devices. “Technically, we are studying all form factors. But now our top priority is upgrading the current foldable phones,” Choi Won-joon, executive vice president and R＆D head of the mo

Sept. 4, 2022

LG to wide gap with rivals with enhanced OLED TV lineup

BERLIN – LG Electronics, the dominant No. 1 firm in the OLED TV market, said Saturday it aims to further widen its gap with rivals by offering a more diversified product lineup that meets different consumer demands. According to market tracker Omdia, Europe is the largest OLED TV market, making up more than 50 percent of global shipments. In the region, LG’s market share was a whopping 65.8 percent in the first half of this year, followed by Sony with 17 percent and Philips with 11

Sept. 4, 2022

Coway showcases its newest air purifiers at IFA

Coway is showcasing its latest lineup of air and water purifiers at Europe’s largest home appliances tech show IFA 2022, the South Korean company said Friday. Coway’s on-display products at the event’s exhibition booth in Berlin include 14 air purifiers and eight water purifiers with the newest air purifiers Coway Airmega taking the spotlight. “The Coway Airmega range is consistently recognized as the best-in-class, earning status as an Amazon USA top air purifier brand

Sept. 2, 2022

Irreversible climate changes expected even with decreased greenhouse gas: study

A group of researchers at Yonsei University have found that even if the concentration level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is reduced to that of the pre-industrial era, it will be difficult to restore the climate’s condition to its original state. According to Yonsei University on Friday, an in-house research team led by atmospheric sciences professor An Soon-il developed the world’s first climate recovery map, which is designed to illustrate possible improvements in global s

Sept. 2, 2022

Samsung's new foldables get warm reception in Europe

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics announced Friday that sales and shipments of its newest foldable phones have significantly increased in Europe compared with their predecessors in the first week since the release. The latest additions to Samsung's foldable lineup -- the clamshell-type Galaxy Z Flip4 and book-type Galaxy Z Fold4 -- saw all-time high sales among all foldable types in Europe, Samsung said, without disclosing the figure. Sales of the Z Flip4 and Z Fold4 began on Aug

Sept. 2, 2022

Samsung CEO hints at joining RE100 ‘soon’

BERLIN – Samsung Electronics co-CEO Han Jong-hee on Thursday hinted that the South Korean tech giant will unveil a new sustainable growth strategy soon, possibly its delayed decision to join the RE100 global initiative. “We will announce a clearer goal that is also achievable,” he said at a press conference in Berlin held on the sidelines of the IFA trade show that kicks off Friday. The RE100 initiative sets a 2050 target for using 100 percent renewable electricity. Samsung's

Sept. 2, 2022

Samsung bets big on home connectivity

BERLIN – Samsung Electronics is betting big on its SmartThings smart home platform, declaring that a connected home is now a reality that creates new value for users. “This year will mark the beginning of mass adoption of SmartThings,” said Han Jong-hee, Samsung's co-CEO who oversees the smartphone and home appliance businesses at a press conference held on the sidelines of the IFA trade show that kicks off in Berlin on Friday. The SmartThings platform aims to connect not ju

Sept. 2, 2022

LG debuts chameleon refrigerator that changes color

BERLIN/SEOUL – LG Electronics on Thursday debuted the world’s first refrigerator that changes color at the touch of a smartphone button ahead of the IFA trade show that kicks off Friday in Berlin. The chameleon four-door fridge MoodUp is a newest addition to LG’s high-end Objet Collection. The self-illuminating doors use light sources from light-emitting diodes. Users can choose one among some 170,000 color combinations, based on the 22 color options for top doors and 19 choi

Sept. 1, 2022