KT Corp., South Korea's biggest Internet service provider, said Friday it will provide its artificial intelligence home assistant platform to an apartment complex in the southern port city of Busan.GiGA Genie is an advanced voice recognition butler service that allows users to control home appliances and listen to music using voice commands. It is the world's first IPTV service featuring AI, the company said. (Yonhap)KT said the deep learning platform will be adopted at the Lotte Castle apartmen

Technology March 24, 2017

South Korea's two major shipbuilders -- Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. -- said Friday that they will strive to boost their profitability via increased orders and continued cost-cutting measures.At a shareholders meeting, Park Dae-young, president of Samsung Heavy, said the shipyard will continue to work toward efficient management while implementing its self-rescue measures as scheduled. (Yonhap)"In order to survive, we will make efforts to secure competitiveness a

Industry March 24, 2017

The four participants in a U-20 World Cup prep tournament in South Korea said Friday they'll try to enjoy football and gain experience ahead of the FIFA competition.With the FIFA U-20 World Cup less than two months away, South Korea have invited Honduras, Zambia and Ecuador for the tournament as a warm-up for players under 20. All four teams are participants of the U-20 World Cup that will be staged from May 20 to June 11 in six South Korean cities: Cheonan, Daejeon, Incheon, Jeju, Jeonju and Su

Soccer March 24, 2017

North Korea has been scrambling to reinforce its cyberwarfare capabilities and the number of its professional hackers is estimated to have reached about 7,700, a report issued in Seoul said Friday.The report by the Korea Institute for National Unification said that South Korea should come up with comprehensive countermeasures in the face of growing threats of cyber attacks from the North. (Yonhap)North Korea currently has 1,700 well-trained troops belonging to seven hacking organizations under t

North Korea March 24, 2017

Three South Korean films have been presold to Asian markets, including Japan, China, Taiwan and the Philippines, during the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market last week, their local distributors said Friday.The distribution rights for "House of the Disappeared" were sold to seven countries -- Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei -- at the 2017 film market, also known as Filmart, the Peppermint&Company Co. said. This is a promotional poster for "House of t

Film March 24, 2017

South Korea's finance minister pledged Friday to take actions against China amid no apparent signs of progress in ending a diplomatic row with the world's second-largest economy.China has taken a series of economic retaliations against South Korea in recent months over the ongoing deployment of an advanced US missile defense system in South Korea. (Yonhap)China has imposed a ban on Chinese sales of tour packages to South Korea in a move that dealt a heavy blow to South Korea's tourism industry t

Diplomatic Circuit March 24, 2017

The labor union of embattled Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. said Friday that it is willing to accept a proposed pay cut for workers from the shipyard's creditors, proposing four-party talks aimed at helping the shipyard stay afloat.The labor union's action came a day after the country's state-run creditors of the shipyard, the world's largest by order backlog, announced a fresh rescue package worth 6.7 trillion won ($5.98 billion) to the ailing shipbuilder, but only if all stakehol

Industry March 24, 2017

South Korea's farmland area contracted 2.1 percent in 2016 from a year earlier due to construction of buildings and other facilities, government data showed Friday.The total area of South Korea's rice paddies and fields came to 1.64 million hectares -- about half the size of Maryland -- in 2016, compared with 1.68 million hectares in 2015, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. (Yonhap)South Korea's farmland accounted for 16.4 percent of the country's total land areas in 2016, down

March 24, 2017

South Korea's Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Friday warned against North Korea's possible provocations based on its "misjudgment" of a leadership crisis in Seoul triggered by the recent ouster of Park Geun-hye as president.During a ceremony marking West Sea Defense Day, Hwang stressed the need to develop stronger armed forces, voicing concerns over the belligerent neighbor showing no signs of ceasing its "reckless" provocations. Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo

North Korea March 24, 2017

Hot flashes, a well-known symptom of menopause, can even occur among women and men in their 20s and 30s, data showed Friday, indicating that the condition can be triggered by a variety of factors, including stress.According to the data by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the number of people who visited hospitals for the condition steadily increased from 5,190 in 2014 and 5,475 in 2015 to 5,719 in 2016.(Yonhap)In 2016, 4,289 women and 1,430 men received treatment for the condi

Technology March 24, 2017

On the heels of yet another uninspired performance against a lower-ranked opponent, South Korean men's football head coach Uli Stielike finds himself in hot water again.South Korea dropped to China 1-0 Thursday in the final Asian qualifying round for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but as frustrating as it was, it wasn't so much the loss itself that has angered the football-crazed fan base here. Uli Stielike (left), head coach of the South Korean men's national football team, waits for a team bus at In

Soccer March 24, 2017

South Korea's plan to send female football players to Pyongyang for the AFC Women's Asian Cup qualifying matches does not violate international sanctions against North Korea, a government official said Friday.The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Group B qualifying games will be held in North Korea from April 3-11. South Korean players will have a match with their North Korean counterparts on April 7. This file photo taken on Feb. 29, 2016, shows a female football match between South and North

Soccer March 24, 2017

A US Air Force fighter in training in the skies over South Korea's southwestern coast jettisoned two fuel tanks due to an emergency earlier this week, US military officials said Friday.The fuel tanks fell on a fresh water lake at the Saemangeum Reclaimed Land in Gunsan, about 274 kilometers south of Seoul, but no casualties were reported, said the officials. F-16 fighter (Yonhap file photo)The incident occurred at 9:15 a.m. on Wednesday, when an F-16 fighter belonging to the US Air Force's 8th F

Defense March 24, 2017

South Korean shares traded lower late Friday morning, weighed by Samsung affiliates after Samsung Electronics said it will be difficult to adopt a holding company structure at present.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 7.54 points, or 0.35 percent, to 2,165.18 as of 11:20 a.m.Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun told shareholders earlier in the day that the company could delay a plan to adopt a holding company structure for the time being. US hedge fund Elliott Manage

March 24, 2017

Exposure to air pollution increases risk of aggravating Parkinson's disease and may cause neurological disease progression, a study showed Friday. According to the study by Kim Ho at Seoul National University, patients with the neurodegenerative disease are more likely to visit emergency rooms during days with high levels of air-pollutant particles.(Yonhap)Data for the study were drawn from 1 million cohort samples of South Koreans provided by the National Health Insurance Service between 2002 a

Social Affairs March 24, 2017