Hyundai Rotem delivered a donation to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs’ regional office in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Friday, the company said. The donation will be used to assist people who have been recognized for meritorious service to the country but who are having financial difficulties. The latest donation was made by Hyundai Rotem’s executives and employees to commemorate people who died serving the country. South Korea celebrated Memorial Day on June 6. Sin

Industry June 12, 2020

The ICT Ministry of South Korea has approved SK Telecom’s request to end its 2G service, putting an end to the 25-year-old service that helped the country take the lead in the mobile phone industry. The ministry held a media briefing in Seoul on Friday, saying it had approved the termination of the 2G service, citing outdated servers and mechanical failures due to the lack of up-to-date equipment. Upon receiving the approval, SK Telecom said it would wrap up the service s

Technology June 12, 2020

SK Telecom said Thursday it has signed deals with major tech firms to develop security products for self-driving vehicles, internet of things-devices and smartphones using its new quantum-powered security chipset. Names of the partners were not disclosed. Since 2018, SKT and Switzerland-based ID Quantique have been developing the quantum random number generator (QRNG) chipset for Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy A Quantum, together with fabless Korean company Btree, which specializes in des

Technology June 11, 2020

Mark Lippert, former US ambassador to South Korea, was appointed last month as YouTube Asia-Pacific’s public policy chief, Google said Tuesday. Google said Lippert would represent YouTube in the Asia-Pacific region, curate public policy strategy and coordinate communications with local governments, based on his knowledge of the region and years of experience in public policy. Lippert served as ambassador from 2014 to 2017. After surviving a knife attack in Seoul in 2015, he drew praise

Technology June 9, 2020

LG Uplus announced Sunday that it has renewed its contracts with Ubiquoss and Dasan Network Solutions to supply 5G equipment. South Korea’s third-largest mobile carrier will purchase 271 billion won ($224 million) of 5G equipment by May 2023 -- revised from the initial 155 billion-won deal set to expire on November 2021. It will buy about 90 billion won of 5G equipment a year. LG Uplus said the this will increase supplies of equipment for its 10 Gigabits per second 5G network service.

Technology June 7, 2020

US Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris said Thursday that he supports peaceful protests against racism in the United States but opposes those who condemn his country. Harris posted on his Twitter a photo of a group of Korean protestors carrying a placard, reading "US imperialism means 'I can't breathe!'" "I disagree with these protestors, but respect their right to peacefully protest here in democratic Republic of Korea," he tweeted. "The USA. will investigate full

Foreign Affairs June 4, 2020

The National Tax Service terminated the business registration of homegrown social networking service Cyworld on May 26, according to industry sources on Thursday. Meanwhile, the ICT Ministry said that Cyworld has not made a report to the NTS of a business termination and that it had expressed willingness to continue the business to the ministry. According to the Telecommunications Business Act, such an internet business is required to report to the ICT Ministry at least 30 days before perman

Technology June 4, 2020

The South Korean government on Tuesday announced that it would resume a complaint filed with the World Trade Organization over Japan’s trade curbs placed on exports to South Korea last year, deeming the bilateral dialouge to resolve the issue is not seeing progress. “The Japanese government is not showing willingness to resolve the current issue and the discussion has not seen progress. The government deemed that it was difficult to say normal dialogue was taking place, which was

Industry June 2, 2020

South Korea’s exports continued to fall in May, marking a double-digit percentage decline for the second consecutive month, according to a government report on Monday. The extended decline was largely due to the global economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the ministry explained. Shipments of semiconductor products, however, bounced back, which alleviated the extended decline, it added. The nation’s outbound shipments in May dropped by 23.7 percent on-year to $34.8 bill

Economy June 1, 2020

SK Telecom said Friday it plans to develop an artificial intelligence-based post-production platform to help local firms to export cultural content products abroad. The South Korean telecommunications firm said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with local post-production firm New ID to collaborate on the project. “The latest partnership deal will meet increased foreign demand for Korea’s cultural productions,” the company said. “The two companies expect the

Technology May 29, 2020

Naver on Thursday said that it plans to make its US-based unit Webtoon Entertainment the head office for online cartoon businesses. The latest restructuring plan comes amid the South Korean internet giant’s efforts to expand its online cartoon business abroad. As part of the plan, California-based Webtoon Entertainment will purchase all stocks of Line Digital Frontier, the company’s Japanese internet cartoon unit. It will cost the US unit some 232 billion won ($187 million). The t

Technology May 28, 2020

Hyundai Engineering & Construction said Thursday it is starting sales of units in the third Hillstate Lake Songdo apartment complex in Songdo, Incheon. The new residential complex will comprise of eight 49-story buildings with 1,100 housing units. When the construction is completed, all three Hillstate Lake Songdo apartment complexes in the Songdo area will form a residential cluster of around 5,000 households. The area has easy access to public transport, according to the firm, as Inche

Industry May 28, 2020

South Korea’s three major telecommunications firms have submitted nonbinding indicative offers to acquire Hyundai HCN, the nation’s fifth-largest cable TV operator owned by Hyundai Department Store Group, according to industry sources Wednesday. The three local firms -- KT, SK Telecom and LG Uplus -- are expected to compete for acquiring the cable TV operator, which has a 4 percent market share with 1.3 million subscribers. The cable TV unit’s total revenue last year was 292

Technology May 27, 2020

Technology May 26, 2020

LG CNS said Tuesday it is teaming up with US-based Evernym to develop blockchain-based digital identification solution. Based in Salt Lake City, the US firm specializes in developing decentralized identifier (DID) solutions. DID technology can be used to verify identities of individuals, vehicles and other entities through an online network. DID solutions, which utilize blockchain technology, are also considered more secure than existing identification systems based on centralized registrati

Technology May 26, 2020