SPOTLIGHT

• People

  

  YouTube becomes platform for diversity

  Minority YouTubers earn empathy from peers, improve awareness among non-peers

• Social affairs

  

  Man arrested for working with fake pharmacist license

  A man who worked at eight pharmacies over a four-month period with a fake pharmacist license has been arrested for violating pharmaceutical laws and fabricating official documents, according to police Monday.The 31-year-old is reported to have worked as a short-term pharmacist dispensing medicine at eight pharmacies located in Ulsan, Busan and South Gyeongsang Province from August to November last year.  (Yonhap)The offender reportedly pretended to be pharmacist with knowledge he gleaned from wo

• Social affairs

  

  Bad welding 27 years ago caused Ilsan hot water pipe rupture

  The pipeline rupture on Dec. 4, 2018 that killed one person turned out to be the result of weak welding when the pipeline was first installed in 1991, according to police Tuesday.“We have received results from the National Forensic Service that say the underground pipe burst due to weak welding done 27 years ago when it was first installed. Bearing water pressure for many years, it seems a piece of welding fell off,” said an official from Ilsan Dongbu Police, adding that police are tracking down

• Industry

  

  Fine dust pollution reshapes local home appliance market

  Amid deteriorating air quality in South Korea, air purifiers and clothes dryers have become more popular in the nation’s home appliance market, market data showed Tuesday. According to local discount store chain E-mart, sales of air purifiers from Jan. 1 to 20 jumped 180 percent compared to the same period last year. Sales of air purifiers ranked eighth this month in the home appliance category.In light of concerns over air quality, home appliances that reduce exposure to dust, such as air purif

LATEST NEWS

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  Politics

  EU presses Seoul to take meaningful steps for ILO ratification by April

   The European Commission urged South Korea on Tuesday to take meaningful actions over the next three months to resolve the long-pending ratification of key international labor conventions.Madelaine Tuininga, unit head in the Directorate-General for Trade of the EU's governing body, made the remark in the meeting with South Korean labor union representatives earlier in the day, according to the Federation of Korea Trade Unions (FKTU) and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), two major

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  Technology

  Don’t date, network: Tinder tries to woo Korean users indifferent to online dating

  Chief of world’s most popular dating app says company will expand service to social networking for millennials in South Korea

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  National

  Eating out declined in 2018: survey

  　South Koreans dined out less frequently in 2018 compared with 2017, according to a recent survey.　The survey involved 3,014 people aged 20-69, and revealed that Koreans dined out an average of 20.8 times per month last year. The comparable figure a year earlier was 21.8.　They made an average of 13.7 visits to restaurants per month, with delivered or takeout meals accounting for the remainder.　Average spending on eating out stood at 292,689 won ($260.40) per month, about 11,000 won lower than la

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  Social affairs

  Sejong City strives to provide offices for lawmakers, president

  SEJONG -- Two ministries, the Ministry of Interior and Safety and Ministry of Science and ICT, will join the Government Complex Sejong this year via relocation of their offices in Seoul and Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, to Sejong.While more than 2,000 civil servants from the two ministries will move to temporary buildings around the Complex Sejong by September 2019, new building construction is scheduled for late 2021.With their relocation, the number of ministries headquartered in the administra

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  Foreign Policy

  US ambassador puts pressure on Cheong Wa Dae over USFK costs: report

  The Foreign Ministry confirmed Tuesday that the US ambassador to South Korea visited Cheong Wa Dae last month, but declined to comment on a news report that the top envoy’s visit was designed to pressure Seoul to pay more for the US troops stationed here. “Our government is making efforts to reach a reasonable agreement, mutually acceptable, as early as possible on the basis of mutual respect and understanding (with the US ally),” ministry spokesperson Noh Kyu-duk said at a regular press briefin

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  North Korea

  Ex-Unification Ministry official sentenced to prison for leaking N. Korean defector information

  A former Unification Ministry official who leaked personal information about North Korean defectors living in South Korea was sentenced to six months in prison, two years of probation and a 15 million won fine on Tuesday.The 48-year-old, identified only by the surname Lee, was removed from office by the ministry in July 2017 for having passed on private information about North Korean defectors, such as addresses and phone numbers, to another North Korean defector surnamed Bae, 38. Bae, a broker

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  Industry

  GS Caltex, LG team up for EV charging stations

  Seeking the efficient utilization of existing infrastructure for new technologies, GS Caltex and LG Electronics have agreed to work together to provide various next-generation charging services at gas stations, the companies said Tuesday.The two sealed a memorandum of agreement to build energy and mobility convergence charging stations, which will have all the previous services offered by GS Caltex-run gas stations. New services will encompass electric vehicle charging, rental and maintenance. L

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  Finance

  Lessons from latest market tantrum

  By Steve BriceThe fourth quarter of 2018 was the second-worst quarter for global stocks since the 2008 financial crisis. No major equity market was spared. A benchmark of global stocks dropped 13 percent during the quarter, and 11 percent in all of last year, recording its biggest annual loss in a decade, as investors were spooked by the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes amid slowing global growth and corporate earnings. What can we learn from the latest market tantrum and how do we use t

• Columnists

  China’s plan to end US trade surplus is red herring

  There has been an unexpected development in the US-China trade war. Chinese trade officials apparently offered a huge concession earlier this month: a promise to completely eliminate its trade surplus with the US by 2024. The offer was off the record, but it’s still a huge surprise, especially given the haphazard and clumsy way that President Donald Trump has chosen to fight his trade war.　Why is China making this proposal? One possibility is that the government is afraid that the trade war is h

• Columnists

  Europe has a China problem, too

  The US push to “decouple” its economy from China’s is causing ripples in Europe. The Federation of German Industries, the most influential industrial lobby group, has proposed a vision for keeping Europe’s important economic relationship with China alive and preventing the country’s state-owned and state-supported firms from competing unfairly.　As President Donald Trump has intensified his war against the established rules of global trade, the European Union has increasingly found itself on the

GRAPHIC NEWS

OPINION

• Columnists

  

  Society that invites a Mona Lisa smile

  Leonardo Da Vinci’s monumental painting “Mona Lisa” is one of the most widely discussed paintings of all time because of its subject’s ambiguous smile. People have argued that depending on the viewer’s distance and angle, her smile looks different. Sometimes it looks happy, other times sad. Some people find the smile to be deriding and sarcastic, while others perceive it as a smile of condescension, like someone who knows everything. That is why Mona Lisa’s smile always refers to an enigmatic sm

• Columnists

  

  Tesla doesn’t need to sell cars in China to succeed there

  When Elon Musk broke ground on Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai earlier this month, he wasn’t just thinking about how many Teslas he’ll sell in China. He was thinking about how many he might be able to share.　Musk isn’t alone. Global automobile manufacturers are scrambling to develop services that will allow Chinese car owners to rent out their vehicles when they’re not driving them. According to one recent analysis, such services could hire out as many as 2 million cars in 2020, up from roughly

THE INVESTOR

• Samsung

  

  Samsung Galaxy S10 leaks, accident or publicity stunt?

  Rumors of Samsung Electronics’ flagship smartphone Galaxy S are usually rampant this time of the year, with media outlets and well-known tech leakers competitively churning out alleged specifications and images.Most recently, Evan Blass, a well-known leaker and journalist, tweeted a picture of what he alleged to be the Galaxy S10 models. In the picture, the smallest model, presumably the lower-end Galaxy S10E, is fitted with two camera modules on the back while two other larger-si

• Mobile & Internet

  

  Tinder, not just a dating app in Korea

  Tinder wants to be more than an app for hooking up in Korea. Instead, it is hoping to build a community, according to its chief executive on Jan. 22. “There isn’t just one culture for Tinder,” said CEO Elie Seidman during his first press conference in Korea. “What we see around the world is that the main thing you get is a reflection of the local culture.”  Tinder CEO Elie SeidmanTinderIn Korea, the culture Tinder wants to help mold is based on open communication made possible by

• Mobile & Internet

  

  Sandbox Network aims to go public by 2021

  Sandbox Network, one of Korea’s top YouTube management companies, is eying an IPO within the next couple of years, according to a top executive. “We are looking at the year 2021 or 2022 to go public,” Sandbox CEO Lee Pil-sung said in a recent interview with The Investor. “According to our analysis, we believe we will grow big enough to float our shares by that time. To help reach this goal, Sandbox Network is aiming to stabilize its business by generating revenue of 50 billion won

• Industrials

  

  Activist fund to be more involved in Hanjin’s management

  Korea Corporate Governance Improvement, a local private equity firm, has unveiled plans to more actively participate in the management of Hanjin Group.The activist fund, led by former LK Investment Partners head Kang Sung-bu, claimed that the family-owned conglomerate has a weak governance structure, high financial leverage, as well as inertia in risk management and response to market conditions.  Hanjin headquarters building in Seoul.To fight this, KCGI suggested forming separate

K-POP HERALD

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  Suga’s duet partner Lee So-ra explained

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  Hyun Bin, Son Ye-Jin deny dating rumors

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  Heechul raids office of show producers

HERALD INTERVIEW

• Music

  

  A rare glimpse of the ‘factorylike’ K-pop idol training system

• Film

  

  Hip-hop film seeks to show realities of life in the Philippines

• People

  

  Englishmen in Seoul, London and all over YouTube

• Automode

  

  Audi Volkswagen steps up to support Korea’s Industry 4.0 drive

PHOTO NEWS

• Industry

  

  An afternoon in a hanok

  North European and classic American styles have prevailed among interior design fanatics in South Korea in recent years.But before the invasion of Western culture, it was mostly wooden furniture -- made from either maple or paulownia -- that was favored by aristocrats in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Korea Furniture Museum in Seongbuk-dong, northern Seoul, invites visitors to take a break -- and perhaps, travel back in time -- inside hanok, or traditional Korean houses, where more than 2,500

VIDEO

• Food

  

  Seoul’s sweet rendezvous with chocolate, ‘Salon du Chocolat’

• Music

  

  WJSN sings about complications of love in ‘La La Love’

• Television

  

  GOT7’s ‘Real Thai’ offers adventure, authentic side of Thailand

• Industry

  

  How Imvely became South Korean women’s fashion and beauty icon

FEATURES

• Social affairs

  

  Waste bin-free public restrooms get mixed response

  Japanese exchange student Aoi still remembers the “shocking moment” when she saw a trash bin in a Korean restroom stall for the first time.“As there are no such trash bins in toilets in Japan, I was shocked when I saw the bin overflowing with used toilet paper,” Aoi said.“The stink from the bin and the dirty toilet paper scattered on the ground caused panic immediately. I still have a fear of opening a restroom door, guessing whether it would be clean or not.”Aoi is one of many people who been d

• Automode

  

  Tale of two sports cars in wintery Korea

  GM’s new Camaro SS is a rough diamond to Mercedes-Benz’s refined CLS 400 d 4Matic

• Industry

  

  China, ASEAN countries emerge as biggest consumers of Korean agro-fishery products

  SEJONG -- South Korea’s agro-fishery products are gaining popularity in China and Southeast Asia on the back of their reputation for quality, freshness and safety.According to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, exports of fishery products hit an all-time high of $2.386 billion in 2018, surpassing the former record of $2.383 billion set in 2012.While the largest and second-largest export destinations for marine products were Japan with $760 million and China with $390 million, exports to Japan

• Industry

  

  Samsung Bioepis’ breast cancer biosimilar gains FDA approval

  Samsung Bioepis’ Ontruzant, a breast cancer treatment biosimilar referencing Roche’s Herceptin, won US Food and Drug Administration approval Saturday, expanding the list of Herceptin successors in the US market to three.Ontruzant is the third FDA-approved biosimilar of Switzerland firm Roche’s blockbuster breast cancer antibody. Its FDA approval is preceded by Mylan’s Ogivri in December 2017, and Celltrion’s Herzuma in December 2018.The three firms’ biosimilars are expected to simultaneously hit