S. Korea to take steps to stabilize FX market to curb market volatility: official

South Korea plans to take measures to stabilize the foreign exchange market in a timely manner if market volatility increases, driven by herd behavior or speculative bets in the currency market, a senior government official said Friday. The government will also buy back Treasury bonds and take steps to help curb a rise in bond yields, when needed, if the bond market shows jitters amid global rate hike drives, according to First Vice Finance Minister Bang Ki-sun. The finance ministry said the Sou

Aug. 26, 2022

Seoul shares open higher ahead of Powell's Jackson Hole speech

South Korea's stock market opened higher Friday as investors awaited the gathering of central bankers in the United States. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 9.82 points, or 0.4 percent, to trade at 2,487.08 as of 9:15 a.m. Investors will be closely looking for the clue into the pace and the scale of the US central bank's monetary tightening plan at the meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, slated for Friday (US time), where Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is

Aug. 26, 2022

BOK makes 4th consecutive rate hike

The Bank of Korea returned to its usual 25 basis point rate hike Thursday, half the historic size seen in July, while slashing its growth forecast for the year amid the persistent inflation forcing the central bank to back a raise for a fourth time in a row for the first time. The unanimous decision reached by all seven board members comes as the country fights inflation at an almost 24-year high. In July, prices jumped 6.3 percent on-year. The policy rate now stands at 2.5 percent, up fro

Aug. 25, 2022

Female bank worker forced to cook, wash dishes at work

A bank employee in Namwon, North Jeolla Province, was forced to cook, wash dishes and clean clothes at her workplace over the last two years, a civic group said while filing the case to anti-corruption and labor dispute agencies. According to Gapjil 119, a civic group that campaigns against workplace abuses, one of the female employees working at MG Community Credit Cooperatives said she had to cook rice at 11 a.m. and report to her branch manager how well the rice was done. She also claims sh

Aug. 25, 2022

Korea to seek joint response with EU over Biden’s bill

SEJONG -- The South Korean government is to seek a joint response with the EU to deal with the US Inflation Reduction Act that slashes subsidies to electric vehicles not made on American soil, rather than seeking dispute settlement within the bilateral trade agreement frame the two forged years ago. Seoul would continue to raise arguments that the US law goes against the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, but a joint response scenario with other countries seems more feasible to press Washington tha

Aug. 25, 2022

Tensions rise as Korea waits for verdict on Lone Star dispute

South Korea is watching closely a verdict set to be delivered by an international dispute settlement body for a decadelong dispute between the government and US private equity firm Lone Star next week. The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes’ verdict on Aug. 31 will come almost 10 years after Lone Star filed a suit against the Korean government in November 2012, seeking $4.68 billion in compensation. Lone Star claimed that the financial authorities here botched its

Aug. 25, 2022

KB launches new premium private banking brand

South Korea’s KB Financial Group on Thursday launched its new premium private banking and asset management brand to better cater to its wealthy clients. “KB Gold & Wise the First” plans to adopt a “Credit Suisse-like” model in which private bankers and asset managers from KB Kookmin Bank and KB Securities and experts from areas such as investment, tax, real estate and trusts are brought together as a single team for their clients, according to the firm. Clie

Aug. 25, 2022

‘Inflation law may disrupt Korean exports of 100,000 plus EVs’

South Korean carmakers on Thursday said at least 100,000 electric vehicles built here would face disruption in export sales annually under the new US law, which excludes battery-powered vehicles made outside of the US from tax credits. They also urged the South Korean government to revise the current subsidy law and map out temporary measures for local carmakers, such as tax credits.  According to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, of which Hyundai Motor and Kia are members,

Aug. 25, 2022

Postech chip professor wins Merck Award

Professor Noh Yong-Young of Postech won an annual award given by Merck Korea in recognition of his innovative research into the development of semiconducting materials for backplane thin-film transistor technology of organic light-emitting diode displays. His research, Merck Korea says, could contribute to the commercialization of backplane p-type thin-film transistors for high-performance OLED displays if further developed. The Merck Young Scientist Award went to professor Kang Suk-ku for prop

Aug. 25, 2022

Allink offers new NFT experience to Samsung New Galaxy NFT holders

Allink, an NFC tag-based information transfer solution company, has partnered up with Samsung Electrionics, the company said Thursday. Allink provided a non-fungible token solution that enables mobile phones to transfer information to various terminals by tapping the phone on the NFC tag. With this solution, New Galaxy NFT holders can have access to in-store benefits on their Thetadrop wallet by tapping on Allink’s tag at Samsung Digital Plaza, Shilla Duty-Free Shop, Eland Cruise, and Sh

Aug. 25, 2022

Seoul stocks end higher for 2nd day on eased uncertainty over BOK rate hike

South Korean stocks finished higher Thursday as investors gained clarity on the Bank of Korea's monetary tightening. The Korean won also gained ground against the US dollar. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 29.81 points, or 1.22 percent, to close at 2,477.26, keeping the two-day winning streak. Trading volume was moderate at 410.32 million shares worth 7.06 trillion won ($5.29 billion), with gainers far outpacing decliners 708 to 150. Institutions and foreign investors, c

Aug. 25, 2022

Samsung, Gates Foundation complete Reinvent the Toilet project

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it celebrated the completion of the Reinvent the Toilet project that has been conducted over the past three years in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation launched the “RT” project in 2011 with an aim to generate innovative solutions that can protect people and communities from human waste-borne pathogens and help underdeveloped countries deliver more inclusive sanitation services that reach the poorest co

Aug. 25, 2022

Samsung SDS to join NIST’s post-quantum cryptography project

Samsung SDS said Thursday it is joining a post-quantum cryptography project led by a cybersecurity center at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the US, along with a slew of global tech firms like Amazon Web Service, Cisco and Microsoft. The project, called Migration to PQC or post-quantum cryptography, aims to replace the current cryptographic algorithms, especially public-key cryptography, to better protect digital information in the era of quantum computing. Once access

Aug. 25, 2022

Kyobo Life builds Korean language school in Indonesia

Kyobo Life Insurance Co., a South Korean life insurer, said on Thursday it has established the Cia-Cia Hangeul School on Buton Island, Indonesia, in partnership with the Korea Cia-Cia Cultural Exchange Association. The Cia-Cia are one of Indonesia’s 350 minorities who in 2009 officially chose to use the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, to preserve its fading language. The Cia-Cia local language, also known as Butonese, does not have its own writing system. They use Hangeul to mimic the pronuncia

Aug. 25, 2022

Dokdo unlabeled on Apple Maps in 22 countries

Apple Maps, iPhone’s built-in map application, was found to have no labeling of the Dokdo islets in over 20 countries across the world, a South Korean professor claimed on Thursday. Seo Kyoung-duk, a general education professor at Sungshin Women’s University, wrote in a post on his social media accounts that iPhone’s built-in map application in 22 countries had no recognition of South Korea’s easternmost islets, citing his social media followers as sources. The list of

Aug. 25, 2022

[Exclusive] Jeju Island to launch drone taxi routes for tourists by 2025

South Korea’s resort island of Jeju will launch air routes for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and drone taxis dedicated to tourists in the island by 2025, as the first municipality in the country to do so. Aimed at offering quick and accessible air mobility in the near future, the routes will connect the island’s popular tourist spots through the coast with quick and accessible air mobility in the near future, an executive who devised the idea told The Korea Herald on Thursday.  Jej

Aug. 25, 2022

Hyundai Rotem wins W755.7b train car order in Egypt

Hyundai Rotem Co., a South Korean railway system and plant equipment maker, said Thursday it has received a 755.7 billion-won (US$560 million) order for subway train cars in Egypt. Under the deal signed with Egypt's National Authority for Tunnels (NAT), Hyundai Rotem will supply subway train cars for the No. 2 and No. 3 subway lines in Cairo by 2028, the company said in a statement. Hyundai Rotem is an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group, which has Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp. under its win

Aug. 25, 2022

Seoul shares open higher ahead of BOK rate policy meeting

South Korea's stock market opened higher Thursday as investors brace for yet another rate increase by the Bank of Korea (BOK). The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 11.02 points, or 0.45 percent, to trade at 2,458.47 as of 9:15 a.m. The BOK is widely expected to raise its policy rate by 0.25 percentage point to 2.5 percent at a policy meeting later in the day. The central bank delivered an unprecedented 0.5 percentage-point rate hike last month to tackle inflation. It

Aug. 25, 2022

Producer prices grow for 7th month in July on electricity, service costs

South Korea's producer prices increased for the seventh straight month in July as electricity and transportation service bills rose, raising worries that it could add to upward pressure on already-high inflation, central bank data showed Thursday. The producer price index, a major barometer of consumer inflation, stood at 120.47 last month, up 0.3 percent from the previous month, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). Compared with a year earlier, the index jumped 9

Aug. 25, 2022

Ramen next in line for sharp price hike

Amid soaring food costs, prices of ramen, Koreans’ most favored instant food and a common low-cost meal option, are set for an increase next month, in another blow to customers already grappling with persistent inflation. Koreans consumed the most instant noodles per capita in the world in 2020. Nongshim, a leading South Korean ramen maker, said Wednesday that it was raising prices for instant noodles and snacks, effective Sept. 15, by an average of 11.3 percent and 5.7 percent, respectiv

Aug. 24, 2022