S. Korean airlines expand non-scheduled flights to India this month

Korean Air Lines Co. and Asiana Airlines Inc., South Korea's two biggest carriers, said Tuesday they will expand non-scheduled flights to India this month to bring home Koreans residing there amid the spreading COVID-19 pandemic. Korean Air and Asiana said they plan to provide two and seven flights, respectively, in May to the virus-hit South Asian country. It is up from one and four flights that Korean Air and Asiana originally planned for this month. Asiana already flew two flights on route

May 11, 2021

SK Telecom Q1 net nearly doubles on equity gains, 5G growth

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's largest mobile carrier, said Tuesday its first-quarter net income nearly doubled on the back of increased equity gains and growth in its 5G subscriber base. Net profit stood at 572 billion won ($510.8 million), up 86.95 percent from a year earlier, while operating profit rose 29.04 percent to 388.8 billion won over the cited period, according to a company regulatory filing. Sales in the January-March period increased 7.41 percent on-year to 4.78 trillion won. The

May 11, 2021

S. Korea settles 53 non-tariff trade barriers in 2020

South Korea's trade ministry said Tuesday it has settled 53 cases of non-tariff trade barriers that had direct impacts on local exporters in 2020. Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) operated 3,354 technical barriers to trade (TBT) in 2020, up 30 percent from 2016, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Of them, 131 cases had adverse impacts on local exports. TBTs, which include consumer safety standards, energy and environmental requirements, a

May 11, 2021

S. Korea seeks to join DEPA, promote digital trade

South Korea held a public hearing on Tuesday on its bid to join a global pact on the digital trade sector that covers a wider array of issues beyond conventional free trade agreements. The hearing came as South Korea plans to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), which centers on expanding ties in the digital trade segment among its members, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The DEPA, which currently covers Singapore, New Zealand and Chile, came into eff

May 11, 2021

Eco-friendly cars take up 71% of new public vehicles in 2020: data

South Korea said Tuesday eco-friendly cars, including electric models, accounted for 71 percent of the total vehicles purchased by public organizations last year, as the country continued its efforts to go carbon neutral by 2050. The country's 609 public organizations purchased 7,736 automobiles in 2020, of which 5,494 were eco-friendly models, according to the government data. Eco-friendly models include electric, hydrogen fuel cell and hybrid cars. The survey was based on public organizatio

May 11, 2021

S. Korea's tax revenue rises W19tr in Q1

South Korea's tax revenue increased 19 trillion won ($17 billion) in the first quarter from a year earlier due largely to an increase in the collection of income and corporate taxes, the finance ministry said Tuesday. The country collected 88.5 trillion won in the January-March period, compared with 69.5 trillion won the previous year, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The tally came as capital gains tax income rose amid increased housing transactions and stock trading. Corpora

May 11, 2021

Korea Shipbuilding wins W850b order for offshore plant

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Tuesday that it has signed an 850 billion won ($762 million) deal to build an offshore plant. The deal is a part of a total 2.5 trillion won order to build a FPSO, which was placed by Brazilian state-owned oil firm Petrobras, KSOE said. FPSO is short for a floating production, storage and offloading vessel, a type of floating tank system used in the offshore oil and gas industry. The 2.5 trillion won deal was jointly obtained by KS

May 11, 2021

Seoul stocks open lower, tracking Wall Street decline

South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday after the benchmark stock index closed at an all-time high the previous session, tracking a decline on Wall Street. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 17.05 points, or 0.52 percent, to 3,232.25 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stock prices declined as investors sold stocks to lock in gains. The stock index had advanced for the past four trading sessions until Monday amid eased tapering jitters on Wall Street. In Seoul, market

May 11, 2021

Samsung to skip in-person exhibitions at MWC 2021 over virus concerns

Samsung Electronics Co. will skip in-person exhibitions at the upcoming mobile technologies trade fair due to novel coronavirus concerns, the company said Tuesday, although it plans to join the event online. The world's largest smartphone vendor will not showcase its products and technologies "offline" at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2021 to be held between June 28 and July 1 in Barcelona, Spain. "The health and safety of our employees, partners and customers is our number on

May 11, 2021

S. Korean snack firms log brisk overseas sales in 2020

South Korean confectionary companies enjoyed brisk overseas sales in 2020 thanks to the high popularity of Korean pop culture and food abroad, industry sources said Tuesday. Overseas sales of industry giant Orion Corp. stood at approximately 1.5 trillion won ($1.34 billion) last year, accounting for 65.6 percent of its overall top line. Last year's figure was up from 1.3 trillion won in 2019, 1.2 trillion won in 2018 and 1.06 trillion won in 2017. China was Orion's largest overseas market, wi

May 11, 2021

Exports soar 81% in first 10 days of May

South Korea's exports soared 81.2 percent on-year in the first 10 days of May as shipments of chips, autos and petroleum goods remained robust amid a global economic recovery, customs data showed Tuesday. The country's outbound shipments stood at $12.5 billion in the May 1-10 period, compared with $6.9 billion a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. Imports rose 51.5 percent on-year to $14.6 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $2.1 billion during the cited pe

May 11, 2021

[Market Close-up] Korean brokerages in race to lure sleepless US stock traders

South Korea’s securities brokerage houses are in a heated race to attract retail stock investors with an interest in the US stock market, providing more cost-competitive services and enhancing those services with technology. Their services sweeten the deal for day traders here, who are increasingly fond of US stocks such as Tesla, Apple, Amazon.com, Alphabet, Nvidia and Microsoft, as the brokerages even buy and sell stocks overnight. With the start of daylight saving time in the US, regu

May 10, 2021

Moon admits failure of real estate policy

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday said that the government’s efforts for the past four years have fallen short of cooling down the heated real estate market. His remarks come after the government rolled out more than 20 sets of real estate regulations to rein in the overheated property market for the past years.　 “Real estate is one of the issues that I wish I had solved in the past four years,” said President Moon, in a media interview to mark his fourth year in

May 10, 2021

[Herald Interview] Cosmetic surgery review app aims to capitalize on K-beauty boom

When walking into a restaurant, people usually have a sense about how expensive the food would be. But when it comes to cosmetic surgery clinics here, it is a different story. Not many -- perhaps none -- openly display the price of their services or procedures, not to mention the specs of medical equipment they use. “Say that I want to receive a skin toning laser treatment and there are two hospitals. One uses equipment that costs 200 million won (about $180,000), and the other uses o

May 10, 2021

Celltrion to export COVID-19 treatment to Pakistan

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion clinched the first overseas supply deal for its COVID-19 antibody treatment Regkirona, according to Celltrion Healthcare’s announcement on Monday. Celltrion Healthcare, which is in charge of Celltrion‘s overseas business, signed a contract with a state-run company in Pakistan to export 100,000 vials of Regkirona, enough for around 30,000 people. The firm will dispatch its experts to Pakistan to train medical workers who will administer t

May 10, 2021

GM Korea denounces exit ban on CEO Kazem

US carmaker General Motors and its domestic affiliate GM Korea on Monday blamed the South Korean government for handing down another exit ban on the GM Korea chief. Calling the ban an abuse of power and discrimination against foreign businesses here, the carmaker vowed to take legal countermeasures. “(The government’s exit ban order) is an arbitrary administrative measure which may lead to an abuse of legal procedures,” said GM Korea in a statement. “In order to respe

May 10, 2021

Advisory panel gives nod to Moderna vaccine

A panel of medical experts here gave a nod to US pharmaceutical company Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Monday. The advisory panel’s review is the first of the three-stage evaluation process before South Korea gives final approval. The next stage of the evaluation is scheduled on Thursday. If finally approved, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine would become the fourth COVID-19 vaccine to receive an approval from the South Korean govern

May 10, 2021

Kospi closes at fresh high of 3,249.30

South Korea’s benchmark Kospi set a fresh record at Monday’s closing, backed by foreign and institutional investors’ massive buying on eased inflation worries around the globe. The key stock index closed 1.63 percent higher at 3,249.30 points, breaking its previous record of 3,220.70 points from April 20. The Kospi got off to a solid start at 3,201.46 and soared to 3,255.90 at one point during Monday’s trading. It was the second time the index surpassed the 3,250-poin

May 10, 2021

Postech introduces LiDAR sensor smaller than thumb

Pohang University of Science and Technology has developed a nanotechnology that can reduce the size of a LiDAR sensor to smaller than that of a thumb. LiDAR, short for light detection and ranging, is considered a key device to enable self-driving technologies. Typically mounted on the roofs of autonomous vehicles, conventional LiDAR sensors rotate and emit lasers to surrounding objects. By measuring the return time of light pulses, the sensors construct a 3D image of the surrounding environm

May 10, 2021

Ashley Madison reveals dating trends among married people amid pandemic

Global dating site Ashley Madison announced that despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, interest and desire for married people to find new relationships grew over the last year. In addition, the dating site plans to strengthen customer service in Korea with a goal of achieving 1.2 million domestic users by the end of 2022. According to the company‘s 2020 Membership Report, 5.5 million new members joined the service last year. In Korea, an average of 512 new members joined each month. In

May 10, 2021