S. Korea to extend online religious activity support amid pandemic

South Korea's ICT ministry said Wednesday it will extend support for online religious activities until next month due to continued COVID-19 infections across the country. The Ministry of Science and ICT first introduced support for such activities in April last year, such as providing network data and technical assistance to religious organizations, to discourage in-person meetings to prevent COVID-19 infections. Under the support measures, the ministry also plans to provide 100 gigabytes of d

TechnologyMarch 3, 2021

Actors Jo Jung-suk, Park Min-young named exemplary taxpayers

South Korean actors Jo Jung-suk and Park Min-young have received presidential citations for being good taxpayers, according to tax agency officials Wednesday. The two are among 1,057 exemplary taxpayers picked by the National Tax Service, they said, adding the actors will cooperate with the agency as public relations ambassadors this year. Jo and Park as model taxpayers are free from tax audits for three years as a reward. Other exemplary taxpayers get the same benefits, but for up to two yea

EconomyMarch 3, 2021

Regulator approves Emart's takeover of pro baseball club

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Wednesday it has approved a deal by Emart Inc., the country's biggest discount store chain, to buy the professional baseball club owned by energy and telecom giant SK Group. Emart, a unit of retail giant Shinsegae Group, agreed in January to buy the SK Wyverns of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) from SK Telecom Co., the top mobile carrier, for 135.2 billion won ($122 million). The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said it has given the green light t

IndustryMarch 3, 2021

Samsung tops Latin American smartphone market in 2020: report

Samsung Electronics Co. further expanded its presence in the Latin American smartphone market last year to cement its leading status amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, a report showed Wednesday. The South Korean tech giant accounted for 40.5 percent of smartphone shipments in Latin America in 2020, up from 38 percent from a year earlier, to remain as the region's largest smartphone vendor, according to market researcher Counterpoint Research. Samsung led all Latin American countries during

IndustryMarch 3, 2021

Seoul stocks open tad higher amid investor wariness of bond yield hike

South Korean stocks opened slightly higher Wednesday as investors took a wait-and-see mode over prospects of a post-pandemic bond yield hike. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 3.88 points, or 0.13 percent, to 3,047.75 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The KOSPI got off to a muted start after the three key stock indexes on Wall Street dipped over speculation of early inflation, heralded by a bond yield hike late last week. Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composit

MarketMarch 3, 2021

KT, LG Uplus invest in homegrown app market for minority stake

Major South Korean telecom operators KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. said Wednesday they invested a total of 26 billion won ($23.1 million) for a minority stake in the homegrown app market ONE store, bolstering the smaller local rival to Google's Play store. KT has invested 21 billion won for a 3.1 percent stake, while LG Uplus has clinched a 0.7 percent stake with 5 billion won, according to a joint statement from the mobile carriers. The two telecom operators join the existing majority sharehold

TechnologyMarch 3, 2021

Hyundai Motor's US sales dip 8.8% in Feb. on bad weather

LOS ANGELES -- South Korea's leading automaker Hyundai Motor Co. saw its US sales drop nearly 9 percent in February from a year earlier due to bad weather, company data showed Tuesday. Hyundai Motor sold 48,333 vehicles last month, down 8.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Hyundai Motor America, the firm's US subsidiary. Sales to general consumers fell 2 percent on-year, and those to companies and rental car providers plunged 47 percent. Hyundai Motor said this year's F

MobilityMarch 3, 2021

Samsung introduces 2021 TV lineup

Samsung Electronics Co. on Wednesday introduced its 2021 TV lineup, which includes new Mini LED and Micro LED TVs in various sizes, as the South Korean tech giant eyes to cement its leadership in the global TV market. The world's largest TV maker said at its Unbox & Discover online event that its new Neo QLED TV, which was first unveiled at the all-digital Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021 in January, will be launched globally starting in South Korea. The Neo QLED TV, which uses Quantum

IndustryMarch 3, 2021

S. Korea proposes W15tr extra budget for COVID-19 relief fund

South Korea proposed this year’s first extra budget worth 15 trillion won ($13.3 billion) Tuesday, to cover emergency relief funds for small business owners and the jobless population reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, sparking concerns over the quickly growing national debt. An additional 4.5 trillion won is to be carried over from previously approved budgets for the current fiscal year, bringing the total relief package to 19.5 trillion won. To finance the budget, the country will i

EconomyMarch 2, 2021

Nexon promises full disclosure of probabilities of random items

Nexon said Monday it would disclose the draw probabilities of its “random” cash items to regain trust from users, as it is engrossed in scandal over the company’s alleged manipulation of game odds. In the second apology posted on the official website of its fantasy adventure PC game MapleStory, Nexon director Kang Won-ki said the company is preparing to disclose data and records that would dispel suspicions surrounding the game’s random item draw system by Friday at th

IndustryMarch 2, 2021

FDA postpones approval of Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s novel breast cancer treatment

South Korea’s Hanmi Pharmaceutical announced Tuesday that the US Food and Drug Administration has postponed its commercialization approval of Oraxol. Oraxol is an oral formulation of paclitaxel, a drug used to kill dividing tumor cells. The novel treatment for metastatic breast cancer currently outlicensed to the company’s US partner Athenex. In a statement released Tuesday, Hanmi said its US partner Athenex received a complete response letter, in which the FDA included a review

IndustryMarch 2, 2021

GC and SK Bioscience lead early vaccines supplies

As South Korea ramps up its COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, two local biopharmaceuticals are leading the supply and distribution of foreign jabs -- Green Cross and SK Bioscience. The state-run Public Procurement Service recently announced that Green Cross has been selected as a local distributor of the mRNA-1237 vaccine developed by US biotech firm Moderna, one of the COVID-19 vaccines that needs to be kept at low temperatures. Green Cross would be in charge of the distribution of the Moder

TechnologyMarch 2, 2021

Hyundai Motor, SK chiefs herald ‘hydrogen alliance’

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won met Tuesday in a top-level talk, giving shape to the “hydrogen alliance” between South Korea’s No. 2 and No. 3 conglomerates. Their encounter came prior to and in line with the third meeting of the Hydrogen Economy Committee, a state policy panel affiliated with the Prime Minister’s Office that is devoted to adding momentum to the new energy paradigm. Also catching attention was the venue th

IndustryMarch 2, 2021

SK makes last-minute attempt to overturn import ban in US

SK Innovation has asked the US president to intervene in its battery patent fight with LG Energy Solution, saying it might have to “abandon” a $2.6 billion production base in Georgia after its defeat last month in the top US trade court. Making a case for a presidential veto of the court decision, the South Korean firm gave a presentation to US government officials, which the Wall Street Journal reported underscored that the Georgia plant will create 2,600 new jobs and contained

IndustryMarch 2, 2021

Seoul stocks up 1% on eased inflation woes

South Korean stocks rebounded from last week's sharp plunge Tuesday to end 1 percent higher on eased inflation concerns, but they pared part of earlier gains in the face of profit-taking. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 30.92 points, or 1.03 percent, to close at 3,043.87 points after rising as high as to 3,096.50. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.7 billion shares worth around 18.5 trillion won ($16.5 billion), with g

MarketMarch 2, 2021

Hyundai Motor reports change of leadership to FTC

Hyundai Motor has filed a request to the Fair Trade Commission to change the company’s leader from honorary chairman Chung Mong-koo to his son Chung Euisun, according to industry sources Tuesday. If the FTC accepts the request, the corporation would get its first new chief in 21 years. Every May, the FTC releases a list of major conglomerates with aggregate value over 5 trillion won ($4.4 billion), and also those valued at over 10 trillion won and subject to mutual investment restricti

MobilityMarch 2, 2021

Hyundai Motor Group begins construction of fuel cell system plant in China

Hyundai Motor Group began construction of its first overseas fuel cell system plant in China, holding a virtual ground breaking ceremony on Tuesday. HTWO Guangzhou is the automaker’s first foreign plant producing fuel cell systems, and the construction is expected to be complete by the second half of 2022. HTWO is the group’s fuel cell system brand. The ceremony to market the official start of the construction work connected officials at Hyundai Motor Studio Goyang in Gyeonggi P

MobilityMarch 2, 2021

Lotte Confectionery rolls out spicy tteokbokki-flavor sauce ice cream

Lotte Confectionery is launching a spicy cheese tteokbokki-flavored ice cream, the company said Tuesday. The new flavor is being introduced as a limited edition of Lotte’s Chal Tteok ice cream line. A total of 500,000 will be sold in retail channels including supermarkets and ice cream discount stores. To make the tteokbokki flavor, the company said it mixed Jalapeno into the orange-colored rice cake, which wraps around the cheddar cheese-flavored ice cream with spicy chips and cookie

ConsumerMarch 2, 2021

Coupang Inc. seeks up to $3.6b through listing on NYSE

Coupang Inc. looks to raise as much as $3.6 billion in fresh funds via an initial public offering, which would likely be among the largest deals in the US market this year. In a regulatory filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday there, Coupang Inc. said it plans to offer 120 million shares -- 100 million new Class A shares in the IPO and 20 million shares to existing investors -- in a price band between $27 and $30. The firm will consist of two classes of commo

MarketMarch 2, 2021

LG Innotek develops Wi-Fi 6E module for seamless car entertainment

LG Innotek said Tuesday it has developed the world’s first automotive Wi-Fi 6E module that would enable passengers to enjoy watching movies or playing games with seamless connections in cars. The electronic parts manufacturing affiliate of LG Group said the automotive Wi-Fi 6E module using 6GHz bandwidth boasts a data transmission speed of 1.2 gigabits per second that is approximately three times faster than the existing Wi-Fi 5. It only takes 2 milliseconds to connect to the network,

TechnologyMarch 2, 2021