Japan OKs 1st shipment of liquid hydrogen fluoride to S. Korea amid restrictions

Japan has approved the first export of liquid hydrogen fluoride, one of the key materials under restriction to South Korea, to the neighboring country since it tightened related controls in July, industry sources said Saturday.Tokyo has recently given the green light to a Japanese firm to export liquid hydrogen fluoride to South Korea in the first such case since Tokyo imposed tighter regulations on exports to Seoul of materials that are critical for the production of semiconductors and flexible

Nov. 16, 2019

Ministry extends bidding for W120b public IT project

The South Korean government has extended the bidding deadline for a digital budget accounting system called “dBrain,” after LG CNS and its partner ITCEN decided Tuesday not to enter the race.Samsung SDS’s consortium with Daewoo Information System was the only participant in the bidding for the project worth 120 billion won ($102.7 million) to build the government’s digitalized budget accounting system. According to the Public Procurement Agency on Wednesday, the new deadl

Nov. 13, 2019

Samsung Electronics’ biggest trade union to launch this week

The fourth and biggest Samsung Electronics labor union will be launched under the Federation of Korean Trade Unions this week, industry sources said Tuesday.Breaking a 50-year streak of adherence to an anti-union stance, it marks the first time that the country’s largest family-run conglomerate will allow the establishment of a union under the federation. It already has three small labor unions. Around 400 Samsung employees are rumored to have signed up for the fourth union. The company di

Nov. 12, 2019

Samsung Display earns gold grade from UL for recycling

Samsung Display said Monday it has received a gold grade from Underwriters Laboratories in recognition of its efforts to recycle waste at its factory. The panel maker’s second plant in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, reached 97 percent in terms of the percentage of industrial waste recycled as of 2018. UL, a global certification organization for waste recycling with the aim of achieving zero waste to landfills, grants a silver grade to companies that reach 90 to 94 percent in recycling a

Nov. 11, 2019

LG Electronics sues China’s TCL over LTE patent in Germany

LG Electronics has filed a lawsuit with two German courts against China’s phone manufacturer TCL over patent infringement, the South Korean tech giant said Sunday. In the suits filed with the district courts in Mannheim and Düsseldorf, LG claimed the Chinese vendor infringed three standard patents owned by LG in relation to 4G Long Term Evolution telecommunications on mobile devices. The three standard patents are essential to enabling LTE communications on any phone. TCL, which

Nov. 10, 2019

Telecoms get conditional approval for M&As

The Fair Trade Commission said Friday that it has conditionally approved two separate merger and acquisition deals, one led by SK Telecom and the other by LG Uplus, reshaping the local pay TV industry as it is already undergoing a major transformation toward digital services.The decision clears regulatory hurdles for a 4.7 trillion won ($4 billion) merger between SKT’s internet protocol TV service arm SK Broadband with t-broad, the country’s No. 2 cable TV multiple system operator, a

Nov. 10, 2019

Doosan’s hydrogen-powered drone wins CES awards

Doosan Mobility Innovation, a subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate Doosan Group, has won two awards from the Consumer Electronics Show 2020 for its fuel cell drones that can fly uninterrupted for over two hours, the company said Sunday.DMI received best of innovation award in the category of drones and unmanned systems, for pushing the limit of drones relying on the short lifetime of rechargeable batteries. Drones powered by lithium-ion batteries can fly 20-30 minutes while DMI’s hydrog

Nov. 10, 2019

Global Innovator Festa selects 46 teams with entrepreneurial potential

“The most challenging part of getting something out of startup ecosystems is getting into one, and that is 100 percent dependent on you,” said Antti Hammainen from Finland, who gave a keynote speech at this year’s Global Innovator Festa held last week in Daegu. “I mean, you just have to pick yourself up and go there. No one will come and ask you to. Start from little. If you are a young student, like I was three years ago, start from basic stuff. If you already own a star

Nov. 10, 2019

Kakao posts all-time high earnings on the back of mobile ad business

　Korean internet giant Kakao announced a significant increase in its third-quarter earnings Thursday, backed by the growth of its advertisement platform on popular messenger app KakaoTalk. 　The company reported that sales in the July-September period reached a quarterly record of 783.2 billion won ($672 million) -- a 40 percent increase on-year. 　It also posted its highest operating profit since 2015 at 59.1 billion won. That was a 93 percent increase from a year earlier and 46 percent over the

Nov. 7, 2019

Samsung Display hosts OLED forum in Taiwan

Samsung Display hosted a forum on organic light-emitting diode technology for IT applications in Taiwan on Thursday as part of efforts to expand the market for OLED laptops. Around 350 officials from top-notch laptop makers, such as HP, Dell, Lenovo and Asus, attended the Samsung OLED Forum 2019 in Taipei, the company said. Taiwan is home to some of the world’s largest laptop manufacturers like Lenovo and Asus.  Samsung presented its midsized OLED display technology to clients and pro

Nov. 7, 2019

LG Chem opens Korea’s biggest petrochemical tech center in Osan

LG Chem announced Thursday it has opened a technical service and development center in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, marking the country’s largest petrochemical technology center. The chemical affiliate of LG Group invested 110 billion won ($94.8 million) in establishing the center, it said. The center will be used for developing technical solutions and offering other forms of support for the company’s contractors and clients.  The Pilot building of the center is equipped with produc

Nov. 7, 2019

Samsung, LG reach out to society by donating electronics

A trend in corporate social responsibility among South Korea’s leading businesses is to provide their signature electronics devices to improve people’s daily lives or work environments, according to the industry on Wednesday. Samsung Electronics, the nation’s top conglomerate with a range of tech affiliates, said it plans to donate a total of 1,000 sets of thermal imaging cameras and other communications equipment for emergency situations to every fire station across the countr

Nov. 6, 2019

LG Electronics sues Chinese TV maker Hisense over patent violation

LG Electronics said Tuesday it has filed a lawsuit against Hisense with a US court, accusing the Chinese TV maker of infringing four of its patents.The South Korean tech giant claims that most of the Hisense TV models being sold in the US use as many as four of its patented technologies. They include those that improve user interface and speed up data transmission based on Wi-Fi.In the suit filed with the District Court of California, LG demanded Hisense stop using its patented technologies and

Nov. 5, 2019

Samsung focusing on artificial general intelligence to innovate UX

Samsung Electronics is particularly focusing on development of artificial general intelligence technologies as part of efforts to innovate user experiences for digital customers, said the company’s mobile unit chief at a forum on Tuesday. Koh Dong-jin, CEO of Samsung’s smartphone business, opened the second day of the Samsung AI Forum with opening remarks that highlighted the importance of user experiences at the company research and development campus in Yangjae-dong, southern Seoul

Nov. 5, 2019

Samsung calls for more powerful AI at forum

Samsung Electronics on Monday hosted the third annual forum on artificial intelligence by inviting the world’s top-notch experts, calling for “more powerful and comprehensive” AI models in the future. Scholars on deep learning, the core of AI, attended the two-day forum on the first day and introduced new achievements that prove the level of deep learning is evolving. “AI technologies are already exerting a significant influence across society, as we rely pretty much on t

Nov. 4, 2019

[Newsmaker] Government mulls banning photos of celebrities on alcohol bottles

Korean liquor manufacturers may no longer be allowed to use photos of celebrities on their beverage packaging.The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday it would come up with measures banning the images of celebrities on alcohol bottles to discourage the drinking culture.The move follows Rep. Nam In-soon’s exhortation during a parliamentary audit of the ministry last month that featuring celebrities on alcohol beverages may induce more consumption, especially among teenagers, and shoul

Nov. 4, 2019

[Graphic News] Third of S. Koreans prescribed narcotics in past year: data

　A third of South Koreans were given prescription narcotics in the past year, as more people received comprehensive medical checkups, government data showed.　More than 17.8 million people received drugs like propofol and zolpidem, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said, citing some 107 million pieces of data collected from July 2018 through June this year.　The drug safety agency said pain killers, sedatives and anti-anxiety drugs were the most common types prescribed by doctors, with women ma

Nov. 3, 2019

[Herald Interview] Kotra aims to give Korean AI players more Silicon Valley exposure

SAN JOSE, California -- Many South Korean entrepreneurs with top-notch capabilities in the field of artificial intelligence should prepare themselves for Silicon Valley, California, home to many disruptive unicorn startups and global technology firms, said an official of state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra) last week.It is not enough for startups with outstanding technologies to only have exceptional talent, they also need networking skills to attract investments from ventur

Nov. 3, 2019

[From the Scene] Foreign startups, investors in Silicon Valley fear tightened US rules amid trade dispute

SUNNYVALE, California -- Sunnyvale, the once sleepy orchard turned suburb city in the heart of Silicon Valley, is a relatively new home to major US tech giants, as they gobbled up vast expanses of office space here in recent years. Bordered by San Jose to the north, Mountain View to the northwest and Cupertino to the south, Sunnyvale is also becoming a home to Korean startups and venture capital firms in search of local partners, customers and promising technologies. Unlike the bright prospects

Nov. 3, 2019

KT to build high-tech rescue center in Himalayas

South Korean mobile carrier KT is planning to establish a high-tech rescue center on a popular trekking course in the Himalayas to ensure the safety of those trekking the mountainous region in Nepal. According to the Nepal government and KT last week, the telecom firm’s information and communications technology rescue center will be built at Machhapuchhre Base Camp. The mountain campsite is located at the midpoint of 8,091-meter Annapurna mountain.Mountain climbers and rescue workers have

Nov. 3, 2019