Most Popular
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Seoul Fireworks Festival ends smoothly, but leaves piles of trash
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[AtoZ into Korean mind] The price of numbers: How rankings shape lives in Korea
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Can Jennie break the K-pop solo artist slump?
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Yoon set for talks with Marcos in Philippines
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[Exclusive] Korea’s defense acquisition agency fails to meet legal standard for women representation
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First lady’s Dior bag scandal to be at center of Assembly audit
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Seoulites celebrate coexistence at Wellness Seoul 2024
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Ex-president's daughter investigated for drunk driving accident
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Yoon honors veterans of Korean War in trip to Philippines
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'Culinary Class Wars' producers deny trying to spice up results
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[News Analysis] Cost of scaling up EV industry: Short-term profitability
Economics 101: price goes up when there’s more demand than supply. In the case of electric vehicle batteries, the current supply crunch is only to intensify, with the demand of 916 gigawatt-hours is to overtake the supply of 776 gigawatt-hours in 2023, according to SNE research. However, the prices have been going down 18 percent every year. Ironically, it’s the battery makers that are bringing down the price of their own products. “When battery prices fall to $100 per k
July 27, 2020
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LG Electronics won’t quit solar module biz, refutes rumors
LG Electronics said Monday it won’t quit its solar module business, denying rumors that it has been searching for a financial advisor since last year to sell off the business. In response to recent local media reports that it is considering to sell off its solar module business due to a lack of price competitiveness against cheaper Chinese modules, the home appliance giant said such claims are unsubstantiated. “LG Electronics is currently injecting tens of millions of dollars i
July 27, 2020
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KT set to further solidify No.1 pay-TV operator status via acquisition
KT Skylife Co., a satellite broadcasting affiliate of local telecom giant KT Corp., was chosen as the preferred bidder to buy cable TV operator Hyundai HCN Co., the company said Monday, beating out rival telecom operators. The country's three major mobile carriers, including SK Telecom Co. and LG Uplus Corp, have been racing to acquire the cable TV operator which has been put up for sale since late March, as they look to strengthen their presence in the local pay TV market. The acquisition dat
July 27, 2020
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LG chairman donates W1b to IVI for coronavirus vaccine
The International Vaccine Institute, a Seoul-based independent nonprofit agency, said Monday that LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo has personally donated 1 billion won ($836,120) to develop therapies for the new coronavirus. Koo hopes his donation would help speed up the development of vaccines to tackle the unprecedented pandemic, the organization said. The donation will be used to study methods to prevent infections, improving the human immune response to COVID-19 vaccines and for strengthen
July 27, 2020
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Yuhan-AbClon’s COVID-19 antibody therapy revs up for trials
Yuhan and AbClon have joined the list of companies that are in the race to develop a therapy for COVID-19. Although they are still in the animal-testing stage, they have identified a multifariously adaptive candidate for COVID-19 therapy which they plan to begin testing on humans before the year-end. Since February, AbClon had been running its Novel Epitope Screening Technology platform to identify antibody candidates for the epidemic. The company has identified 20 antibodies that wholly cuts
July 27, 2020
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[Monitor] Share of employed workers with disabilities stands at 35% in Korea
The employment rate for people with disabilities stood at 34.9 percent -- less than half the ratio for people without a disability -- according to data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Statistics Korea. The portion of employed workers with disabilities was calculated based on the total people with disabilities being 2.61 million as of 2019, which accounted for 5.1 percent of the entire Korean population. Compared to the disabled group, the employment rate for normal people was 60
July 27, 2020
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Two-thirds of major companies beat forecasts in Q2
Nearly two-thirds of major listed businesses in South Korea reported forecast-beating results in the second quarter of the year despite the coronavirus pandemic, a market tracker said Monday. According to an analysis of 33 major corporations by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency, 66 percent of them, or 21 companies, posted earnings that beat market estimates. Of them, 12 pulled off earnings surprises as their results exceeded market expectations by 10 percent or more
July 27, 2020
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Antitrust watchdog fines HHI W970m for misappropriation
South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Friday it has decided to impose a fine of 970 million won ($808,000) on Hyundai Heavy Industries for misappropriating technical data from a subcontractor. The Fair Trade Commission said HHI “forcibly obtained” the technical data of pistons for its diesel engine from a subcontractor. HHI had maintained a close partnership with the company for over two decades in its move to localize key components, the watchdog explained. It also did not
July 26, 2020
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Vaccine developer SK Bioscience plans 2021 IPO
SK Group is pushing for another initial public offering of its health care affiliate SK Bioscience, just a month after SK Biopharmaceuticals’ record-breaking stock market entry last month. SK Bioscience, a vaccine developer that was spun-off from SK Chemical in July 2018, will reportedly file for listing next year. Both NHIS and KIS were underwriters responsible for the blockbuster IPO of SK Biopharmaceuticals, a drug company that specializes in research and development of treatments f
July 26, 2020
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Nexon launches open-world role-playing game V4 in 150 countries
Nexon on Friday announced the launch of its open-world MMORPG game V4 in 150 countries. Standing for “Victory For,” V4 is a mobile MMORPG made using Unreal Engine 4. It boasts high-end graphics, a vast virtual combat field and character customizing features. According to the South Korean game company, V4 supports six languages including English, German and Thai and is available in some 150 countries including in North America and Europe. As a “one-build” game, user
July 24, 2020
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Smilegate’s drama series ‘CrossFire’ tops 100m views in China
Smilegate said Friday that its 36-episode drama series based on its first-person shooter game CrossFire has recorded 100 million views in China. According to the South Korean game company, the drama series, also named as CrossFire, recorded the milestone on China’s biggest over-the-top platform Tencent Video as of Thursday. ‘Though only two episodes have been broadcast, CrossFire enjoyed more than 100 million views on Tecent Video, ranking as the second-most popular drama series
July 24, 2020
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Kakao Games’ IPO application gets greenlight
Kakao Games said Thursday its application for initial public offering has received the greenlight from the Korea Exchange (KRX), the nation’s sole bourse operator. According to the South Korean game company, the KRX approved Kakao Games’ application for preliminary qualification examination for listing on the second-tier Kosdaq. “As Kakao Games’ stocks are evaluated as blue chip stocks, the IPO will be fast-tracked, cutting the review period from 45 working days to 3
July 24, 2020
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S-Oil’s operating loss shrinks 85% in Q2 thanks to rebound in demand
S-Oil on Friday posted an operating loss 164.3 billion won ($136.7 million) in the second quarter this year, getting back on its feet after suffering its worst-ever operating loss of 1 trillion won in the previous quarter. According to regulatory filings, the Korean refiner witnessed its operating loss decline 84.6 percent to 164.3 billion won in the second quarter compared to an operating loss of 1 trillion won in the previous quarter. In the same period, its net loss dropped 92.4 percent t
July 24, 2020
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UNDP shares Korea’s COVID-19 fight for SMEs
United Nations Development Program’s Seoul Policy Centre on Friday co-hosted a webinar with the Trade Ministry and the Korea International Trade Association to share the efforts to support small and medium-sized enterprises and businesses impacted by COVID-19. Participants included representatives from the private sector, government officials, civil society and UN practitioners. The webinar brought together participants from 21 countries for an exchange of insights and sharing of inform
July 24, 2020
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Golden Blue renews scholarship partnership with Heriot-Watt University
South Korean liquor company Golden Blue said Friday it has renewed its agreement with Scotland-based Heriot-Watt University and held a scholarship ceremony for students selected for a blender promotion project. Golden Blue has conducted the project since 2016 to discover and foster brewing and distillation experts for the advancement of the Korean liquor industry. Every year, two students are selected to support their master’s degree in Heriot-Watt University. Founded in 1821, Heriot-
July 24, 2020
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[Monitor] Yongsan Family Park set to expand
The South Korean government and civilian experts earlier this week passed a revised plan to further expand a national park in Yongsan, central Seoul, on land returned by the US Forces Korea. The panel decided to move the proposed site for new headquarters of the National Police Agency to a different location, and extend Yongsan Family Park to the area spanning 13,200 square meters. The park, encompassing the War Memorial and the National Museum will ultimately stretch nearly 3 million squa
July 24, 2020
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Hyundai, Kia suffer sharp drop in Q2 earnings on COVID-19 impact
Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors -- South Korea's two biggest carmakers -- on Thursday reported a sharp drop in their second-quarter earnings as the new coronavirus outbreak drove down overseas demand for their vehicles. But on their home turf, Hyundai and Kia performed well helped by new models and tax cuts. For the three months that ended in June, Hyundai's net profit fell 62 percent to 377.27 billion won ($315 million) from 999.30 billion won a year earlier, and Kia's declined 76 percent to 12
July 23, 2020
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LG Display CEO says Guangzhou plant will be new driver for OLED biz
LG Display on Thursday heralded the much-awaited opening of its new organic light-emitting diode panel manufacturing plant in Guangzhou, China. The Guangzhou plant enables full-fledged mass-production of 8.5-generation OLED panels for LG Display, and increases the company’s monthly OLED production capacity to 130,000 panels. LG Display’s CEO Jeong Ho-young flew to China to attend the kickoff ceremony in Guangzhou. Jeong arrived a day ahead of the event, and was exempt from the
July 23, 2020
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NCSoft navigates pandemic with renewed corporate identity
When NCSoft changed its corporate identity to “NC” at the start of the year, it had no idea what was coming. However, it couldn’t have chosen a better time to do so, as its new corporate identity serves as a compass to navigate the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. In January, the Korean game company dropped “Soft” and renewed its company logo to “NC.” The new logo represents the company’s three core philosophies of craftsmanship, enthusiasm and en
July 23, 2020
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Smilegate launches tank battle game Super Tank Blitz in 142 countries
Smilegate said Thursday that it has officially launched its mobile tank battle game Super Tank Blitz in 142 countries. According to the South Korean game maker, the casual sandbox game is the follow-up to Super Tank Rumble, launched in 2017, which scored more than 20 million downloads worldwide. In the game, users can make their own tanks with different parts and engage in battles with other users. They can also share the blueprints of their tanks. A sandbox game is a video game with a game
July 23, 2020