Korea and the U.S. have reached an agreement for a bilateral cooperation on their space programs, the Seoul government said Monday.The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said the agreement carries the legal and institutional basis for the two countries cooperating on the use of space technology. This ranges from the exploration of outer space to the observation of earth and general scientific research. This Aug. 20, 2015 photo made available by NASA shows Hurricane Danny as the Interna

Feb. 29, 2016

DRUMMING UP COMMERCIAL WASHER BUSINESS -- Tech giant LG Electronics has recently invited partners from 12 global markets, including China and France, to Korea to showcase its latest commercial washing machine lineup. The electronics firm aims to double the global sales of the commercial washer business this year over last year. (LGE)

Feb. 29, 2016

DEBUT OF SK-SPONSORED HANDBALL TEAM -- SK hynix holds an event to celebrate the launch of the SK Hawks, SK hynix’s sponsored male handball team, on Monday in North Chungcheong Province. (From third from left, first row) Coach Hwangbo Sung-il, SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, SK hynix chief executive Park Sung-wook and head coach Oh Se-il participate in the event. (SK hynix)

Feb. 29, 2016

TWITTER COMMEMORATES MARCH 1 MOVEMENT-- In order to commemorate the "March 1 Independence Movement" in 1919, Twitter Korea runs the #Remember1919 hashtag campaign featuring an emoticon based on a caricature of female independence activist Ryu Gwan-soon. (Twitter Korea)

Feb. 29, 2016

Kakao, the nation’s largest mobile messenger operator, has been showing an endless appetite for new revenue sources by acquiring start-ups in recent months.Many of the investments were focused on the online-to-offline, or O2O, sector, which proves that Kakao has its eyes set on both the online and offline world.  A KakaoTalk messenger user initiates the mobile messenger. (Yonhap)On Monday, the mobile messenger firm announced it had taken over another fledgling start-up, called Parking Square, wh

Feb. 29, 2016

South Korea will spend a total of 746.4 billion won ($603 million) on its space program this year, as part of efforts to realize its long-cherished goal of reaching the moon. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said Sunday that it has also agreed with relevant ministries to allocate 200 billion won for the next three years to launch its first lunar exploration.An artistic rendering of a landing vessel and a lunar-rover planned to be sent to the moon by 2020. (Korea Aerospace Researc

Feb. 28, 2016

As part of Samsung Group’s efforts to streamline its complex business structure, the conglomerate is seeking to sell its security arm S-1 Corporation to Japanese security firm SECOM, according to industry insiders.“Samsung is currently realigning its businesses to improve management efficiency and is looking to sell S-1 Corporation to SECOM,” said a Samsung official who declined to be named. Samsung group vice chairman Lee Jae-yong. (Samsung Group)The Japanese security company is the largest sha

Feb. 28, 2016

Korean tech giants Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have been recognized for their excellence in design at this year’s iF Design Award, an annual design competition organized by the International Forum Design Awards. Samsung and LG picked up a total of 38 and 28 awards, respectively, for their superior design in a range of areas, including product and packaging. Global buyers and dealers look at LG Eelectronics‘ Signature washing machine, which features front-loading on top and a top-load

Feb. 28, 2016

A U.S. appeals court on Friday handed Samsung a win over Apple in a long-running patent fight, overriding a jury verdict ordering it to pay $119.6 million to the iPhone maker.The court ruled that two Apple patents at issue were not valid, according to a copy of the decision posted online.Samsung Electronics' booth at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain (Yonhap)“We are delighted with the resounding victory from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which found that two of App

Feb. 27, 2016

Shareholders of CJ HelloVision, the nation’s No. 1 cable TV operator, on Friday approved the company’s planned merger with SK Broadband, the IPTV unit of SK Telecom. More than 97 percent of the participating investors voted in favor of the 1 trillion won ($823 million) deal despite heightened resistance from minority shareholders, rival companies and advocacy groups. CJ HelloVision CEO Kim Jin-seok responds to reporters after a shareholders meeting in Seoul on Friday. Yonhap“The two companies wi

Feb. 26, 2016

Olympus, the Japanese maker of medical and surgical solutions, Thursday held a groundbreaking ceremony of its new medical training center in Songdo, Incheon. The Olympus Korea Training and Education Center aims to offer diverse training programs for health professionals on the safe and effective use of the company’s medical and surgical products, including its market No. 1 endoscopy equipment.  With a budget of 36.3 billion won ($29.3 million), the new center, the sixth of its kind globally and

Feb. 25, 2016

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it will start mass production of the industry’s first 256-gigabyte Universal Flash Storage from next month for smartphones, with twice the processing speed compared to conventional chips used in PCs. The Korean tech giant, which is also the world’s biggest memory chipmaker, said the new chip will go into high-end mobile devices but didn’t name possible products and clients.  According to the company, the chip has a reading speed of 850 megabytes per second and w

Feb. 25, 2016

SK Telecom faces another hurdle in its plan to merge the nation’s No. 1 cable TV operator CJ HelloVision with its own IPTV unit as a global corporate advisory firm has opposed the deal that is crucial for it to gain leadership in the paid TV market. The Institutional Shareholder Services claimed Thursday the changes in corporate articles of the merged entity will pose “significant dilution risk” to shareholders of CJ Hellovision.A screenshot image of a report on SK Telecom’s merger, which was re

Feb. 25, 2016

Samsung Group said Thursday Samsung Electronics vice chairman and heir apparent Lee Jae-yong has repurchased treasury shares of Samsung C&T and Samsung Engineering, worth a combined 230 billion won ($185 million). Lee acquired 1.3 million shares -- about 200 billion won -- of Samsung C&T, the de facto holding company, from Samsung SDI, the battery-making unit. Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong“The buyback aims to minimize the market impact, including any damage to minority sharehold

Feb. 25, 2016

Strada Worldwide is a smart media solutions company that merges advertisements with information and communications technology. It creates advertisements using virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) devices and installs them at airports, movie theaters and shopping malls. In December 2015, visitors were captivated by a VR “play zone” that was set up at the Pangyo headquarters of the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy & Innovation, a sponsor of Strada Worldwide. 　VR is a technology that

Feb. 25, 2016

KENYA DONATION – LG Electronics senior vice president Lee Chung-hak (left) talks with a girl who was given an artificial leg from the Korean tech giant in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday. Over the past 10 years, LG has donated prosthetic limbs for people who suffered injuries during wars in the African country. (LG Electronics)

Feb. 25, 2016

Korea’s three major telecom firms -- SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus -- clashed again over SKT’s controversial merger and acquisition plan Wednesday. SKT announced last year that it would take over CJ HelloVision, a CJ Group subsidiary that runs mobile virtual network operator, broadband and cable TV businesses, and merge it with the firm’s wholly owned subsidiary SK Broadband, a broadband and an IPTV services firm.The announcement sparked a backlash from the mobile and pay TV markets. KT and LG Upl

Feb. 24, 2016

Korean telecom operator KT is accelerating its efforts to become a dominant global player by rolling out advanced network technologies and seeking partnerships with overseas firms, its chief executive said Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.“Becoming the global No.1 is not a far-fetched dream, but a goal that we must achieve in the future,” KT CEO Hwang Chang-gyu said in a press meeting at the trade fair, adding that the Korean firm also aims to introduce its vision of “GiG

Feb. 24, 2016