The Korea Herald

Regulators to punish KB Financial executives this week

The financial watchdog is expected to wrap up its delayed punishment of top executives at KB Financial Group that have been held responsible for a string of irregularities and scandals as early as this week, an official said Sunday.“The punishment against 95 executives and employees at KB Financial Group and Kookmin Bank is expected to be complete this month. The level of the punishment may be determined at an upcoming meeting on Thursday,” said an official at the Financial Supervisory Service.G

Aug. 10, 2014

Korea’s high-speed wireless Internet penetration ranking falls

South Korea saw its global ranking in the high-speed wireless Internet penetration rate drop one notch in December last year from six months earlier, data showed Sunday.South Korea’s high-speed wireless Internet penetration rate came to 103.8 percent as of December, ranking sixth among the 34 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the data by the Paris-based club of advanced economies.The figure represents a one-spot drop from six months earlier, accor

Technology Aug. 10, 2014

LG Uplus develops enterprise networks in Middle East

LG Uplus, a South Korean mobile carrier, said Thursday that it had finished developing telecommunication networks at base camps and offices of a local construction company carrying out projects in the Middle East.The company said it had established enterprise Internet lines for the builder’s camps in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Libya and Kuwait, marking the first time it has provided the service for a client in the region.It worked with Epsilon, a Hong Kong-based IT outsourcing company, to d

Technology Aug. 7, 2014

Kakao ― boon or bane to finance?

South Korean financial companies such as banks and credit card firms will have to come up with a new business model to counter Kakao’s soon-to-launch financial transaction service, Woori Finance Research Institute said.The most-used mobile messenger’s Bank Wallet Kakao, or KaTalk Bank, which is expected to launch in September, will have a limited impact on the financial services sector as it only allows users to transfer money or purchase online goods of up to 100,000 won ($97) a day.However, Ka

Aug. 7, 2014

Oldies but goodies

Smartphones have given everyone the ability to check email, browse the Web and create documents anytime and anywhere.They have also become a useful entertainment device, on which consumers can enjoy playing games.With enhanced graphics and memory, mobile games offer users almost the same experience as they had when playing on personal computers or at video arcades, even evoking nostalgia for their old favorite games. Children play the spaceship shooting game “Galaga” at Nexon’s museum on Jejudo

Technology Aug. 6, 2014

‘Uber is legal’

Uber, a taxi-hailing app based out of Silicon Valley, reiterated that it is operating in South Korea legally and denied the Seoul city government’s claim that its platform illegally connects riders with unauthorized drivers.However, Allen Penn, the head of Uber Technologies Asia, said regulations can be confusing when looking at its business from different aspects, and that the company was willing to clear up any misunderstandings.“We welcome any clarity on (regulations) from Seoul City,” Penn t

Technology Aug. 6, 2014

KAIST to host cultural festival for Asia’s top tech universities

Korean public research university KAIST said Wednesday that it would hold a cultural festival at its main campus in Daejeon with Asia’s top science universities until Aug. 9.The three-day event, called the ASPIRE League E-Olympics, will invite students from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, China’s Tsinghua University and Japan’s Tokyo Institute of Technology. ASPIRE stands for Asian Science and Technology Pioneering Institutes of R

Technology Aug. 6, 2014

KAI eyes Navy helicopter contract

Korea Aerospace Industries said it was seeking to seal a deal to develop multimission maritime helicopters for the South Korean Navy.It said that it had the technology to remodel the Surion utility helicopter into a naval helicopter equipped with high-functional sonar and radar systems for anti-submarine warfare, reconnaissance and search and rescue operations.“We are hoping to get the Navy to say, ‘Yes, we need Korean-made helicopters,'” a KAI official said.KAI seeks to remodel the Surion as a

Technology Aug. 6, 2014

Korea to ease TV ad regulations

The Korea Communications Commission said Monday that it would deregulate rules governing terrestrial broadcast advertising in line with efforts to help the saturated network advertising market and boost ultrahigh-definition content production.South Korea currently regulates the amount of time and the type of commercials broadcasters can show between TV programs and station breaks as a means to control their influence on the public.However, the KCC said it would revise this to regulate only the t

Technology Aug. 4, 2014

[Weekender] Seoul, Beijing set for further economic integration

Once foes and now friends, South Korea and China have become closer than ever, with bilateral trade increasing rapidly.Korea’s shopping districts and tourist sites ― notably Myeong-dong in Seoul and Jejudo Island ― are filled with Chinese-speaking guides and banners welcoming the largest group of visitors to the country, who are helping Korea reduce its prolonged services deficit. Some 4.3 million Chinese visited Korea last year, and the Korea Tourism Organization expects 5 million this year.Mor

Aug. 1, 2014

[Weekender] Seoul, Beijing set for further economic integration

Science Ministry to save basic science

South Korea’s Science, ICT and Future Planning Minister Choi Yang-hee said Friday that he will firmly confront the Ministry of Education and advise it not to reduce the number of science courses at schools nationwide.The minister said that as a scientist, this would be unacceptable as the study and development of science and technology is imperative to creating a creative economy for the people and the country.“I, myself, have engaged in basic science research, and will see to it that the field

Technology Aug. 1, 2014

Samsung Electronics logs W6.25tr in Q2 net profit

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s top maker of smartphones, said Thursday its second-quarter net profit fell 19.5 percent from a year earlier as its mainstay handset business suffered from rising competition in the global market.Net income came to 6.25 trillion won ($6.1 billion) in the April-June period, compared with 7.77 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Sales fell 8.89 percent on-year to 52.35 trillion won in the second quarter. Its operating profit cam

Technology July 31, 2014

Samsung SDS to raise share cap

Samsung SDS, Korea’s biggest IT solutions provider, said on Tuesday that it would raise the ceiling in the number of share issuances to secure capital for future business and acquisitions.The limit will be increased to 200 million shares from 120 million shares, of which the company added more than 70 percent shares are already being traded in the off-exchange market.Samsung SDS holds an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting in Seoul on Tuesday. (Samsung SDS)The decision came after Samsung SDS hel

Technology July 30, 2014

LG Group bets big on energy solutions

Efficient-energy management has become important for companies as they seek to reduce costs and protect the environment.LG Group affiliates, including LG Electronics, LG Chem and LG CNS, are in full swing to develop an energy solutions business, which is expected to be the group’s next growth engine after consumer electronics and smartphones.LG CNS officials inspect the company’s smart lighting system installed at LG Display’s plant in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. (LG CNS)“We should strive to shake

Technology July 30, 2014

Wearables will need more power efficiency

Application processors for wearable devices need to be more power-efficient to fit into the small gadgets, an industry watcher said. “Currently, the performance of application processers for smart watches is much lower than those for smartphones because wearables can only use small batteries,” said Lee Hyuck-jae, head of the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology’s department of system semiconductors.An application processor, which is the equivalent of a PC’s central processing unit

Technology July 30, 2014

Wearables will need more power efficiency

Articles by Park Hyung-ki