SPOTLIGHT

• Music

  

  BTS’ ‘Fake Love’ enters Spotify’s Global Top 200

  K-pop heavyweight BTS once again reached a new milestone by entering Spotify’s Global Top 200 Chart at No. 17, the highest ranking for any K-pop act to date.According to the global music streaming service Sunday, “Fake Love,” the group’s single from its recently released “Love Yourself: Tear” album, was the top ranking song from the album. BTS (Big Hit Entertainment)With the new ranking, BTS also broke its own record on the list. Its previous hit “DNA” made it to No. 41 in September last year, m

• Film

  

  ‘Burning’ gets critics’ approval with Fipresci prize at Cannes

  Despite failing to win the top prize at the 71st Cannes Film Festival, Lee Chang-dong’s “Burning” was recognized with the Fipresci International Critics’ Prize for best film in the main competition.The mystery drama was considered one of the favorites to win the Palme d’Or, along with “Capernaum” by Nadine Labaki, “BlacKkKlansman” by Spike Lee and “Shoplifters” by Hirokazu Kore-eda, which took home the top prize.However, the Korean auteur’s masterful depiction of the insecurity, anxiety, pent-up

• Social affairs

  

  Woman refuses to pay, drives car into designated driver

  The Ulsan District Court said Sunday it sentenced a woman to six months in prison suspended for two years on charges of physical battery, violation of the Road Traffic Act and destruction of public property. According to police, the 37-year-old woman used a designated driver service after drinking in Jung-gu, Ulsan, at 12:10 a.m. on Jan. 26. When the driver asked her to pay for the service, she reportedly refused and tried to leave the scene. (123RF)The driver said he tried to stop the customer

• Industry

  

  LG to face new management centering on heir Koo Kwang-mo

  Junior Koo may face W1tr inheritance tax if he receives father’s entire stake

LATEST NEWS

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  Social affairs

  Cheong Wa Dae says employment situation to improve from June

  South Korea's employment conditions will show signs of recovery starting next month, as a slew of government policies are set to be put into practice, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Sunday. "Considering the rising trend in the number of the employed and what we can expect from new policies, we can predict that employment conditions will improve in earnest from June," Bahn Jahng-shik, the presidential secretary for job creation, told reporters.  Bahn Jahng-shik, the presidential secre

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  Economy

  Number of new hires in small retail, wholesale jobs falls in Q1

  The total number of people finding work in the country's small retail and wholesale sectors fell in the first quarter, a report by a local think tank showed Sunday. (Yonhap)The findings by the Korea Institute of Finance said that the number of jobs in the key service sector was down 86,000 from a year earlier. Small businesses refer to businesses that employ one to four workers, and have generally been seen as reflective of the number of people setting up their own businesses.KIF said that this

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  Finance

  Sizable number of companies struggling to repay debt: think tank

  A sizable number of South Korean companies are hard pressed to repay their outstanding debt with the profit they make, a situation that could expose them to more risks amid a steady rise in interest rates, a local think tank said Sunday. (Yonhap)The LG Economic Research Institute said 11.8 percent of local businesses are not able to effectively pay back their dues with their earnings from normal business operations.It said this percentage had actually fallen from 14.2 percent in 2012 to 8.8 perc

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  Finance

  Loan-deposit spread of local banks hit 3 1/2 year-high in Q1: BOK

  The average loan-deposit spread of local lenders reached a 3 1/2 year high of 2.35 percent in the first quarter of this year, the central bank said Sunday.   According to the Bank of Korea, the spread is the largest since the 2.44 percent tallied in the third quarter of 2014. It said the gap between interest paid by banks to their savings account holders and the interest rate for outstanding loans had fallen to 2.14 percentage points in the July-September period of 2016, but the numbers have wid

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  World News

  68% of world population will live in urban areas by 2050: UN

  　Sixty-eight percent of the world‘s population will live in urban areas by the year 2050, the United Nation said Wednesday, up from the current 55 percent.　The UN report predicted an extra 2.5 billion people living in ever-expanding cities in the next 30 years, with as much as 90 percent of the urban growth centered on Asia and Africa.　The boom in city-dwellers will be concentrated in certain countries, with 35 percent of urban expansion occurring in India, China and Nigeria alone between 2018 a

• Columnists

  A tale of two peace processes: Korea and Cyprus

  All peace processes are different, different peoples, histories, places, time lines and how they got in the mess they are in and how to get out of it. This is true of Cyprus and Korea but there are also some similarities and if we focus and those there may be some peace making lessons each side can learn from the other. Both Korea and Cyprus are “frozen conflicts,” Korea since the armistice in 1953 and Cyprus since the Turkish invasion in 1974. Although not all conservatives are intransigent, in

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  Columnists

  Truth about Gaza: 3 myths keeping US, Jerusalem from owning up to their roles in the crisis

  The knee-jerk reaction in the White House and Israel to the recent violence in Gaza is to blame Hamas and be done with it. The radical Hamas organization that controls Gaza drove thousands of Palestinians toward the fence, the argument goes, so it is wholly to blame for the 62 killed by Israeli snipers, the bulk of them Hamas members.　But this PR blame game obscures the bigger picture.　Two million Gazans, imprisoned in a tiny strip of land with a collapsed economy, see no political and economic

• Columnists

  Furor over Trump’s ‘animals’ remark misses the point

  One of the oddities of our political moment is how frequently we are asked to tease out the layers of meaning of remarks by President Donald Trump as though he had chosen them with the care of a good poet. The latest controversy -- although by the time this appears it may have been overtaken by another one -- concerns the president’s comment, “These aren’t people. They’re animals.”　The New York Times and USA Today were among the media outlets that suggested that Trump had referred to illegal imm

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  Columnists

  China’s economy is too frail to force open

  The US demands that China either open up to increased foreign competition or agree on hard targets for boosting imports that overlook the weakness of that nation’s economy. If President Donald Trump’s team doesn’t recognize this fragility and Beijing’s wariness, it overlooks a profound unspoken worry.　Few are inclined to think of the Chinese economy as wobbly. According to official data, 2017 marked the first acceleration in real gross domestic product growth, to 6.9 percent, since 2010. Nominal

• Columnists

  Trump is fomenting a trans-Atlantic rift

  President Trump’s dismissive treatment of Europe is beginning to erode the trans-Atlantic alliance, which for many decades has been the central pillar of US national-security policy. The growing European-American rift may be the most important but least discussed consequence of Trump’s foreign policy. His disruptive style is usually seen as destabilizing distant adversaries in Pyongyang, Tehran and Beijing. But the diplomatic bombs have also been exploding here in Brussels, the capital of the Eu

GRAPHIC NEWS

OPINION

• Columnists

  

  Truth about Gaza: 3 myths keeping US, Jerusalem from owning up to their roles in the crisis

  The knee-jerk reaction in the White House and Israel to the recent violence in Gaza is to blame Hamas and be done with it. The radical Hamas organization that controls Gaza drove thousands of Palestinians toward the fence, the argument goes, so it is wholly to blame for the 62 killed by Israeli snipers, the bulk of them Hamas members.　But this PR blame game obscures the bigger picture.　Two million Gazans, imprisoned in a tiny strip of land with a collapsed economy, see no political and economic

• Columnists

  

  China’s economy is too frail to force open

  The US demands that China either open up to increased foreign competition or agree on hard targets for boosting imports that overlook the weakness of that nation’s economy. If President Donald Trump’s team doesn’t recognize this fragility and Beijing’s wariness, it overlooks a profound unspoken worry.　Few are inclined to think of the Chinese economy as wobbly. According to official data, 2017 marked the first acceleration in real gross domestic product growth, to 6.9 percent, since 2010. Nominal

THE INVESTOR

• The Boardroom

  

  [URGENT] LG Group chairman Koo passes away at 73

  LG Group chairman Koo Bon-moo died on May 20 at the age of 73 after suffering illnesses for the past year. "The funeral will be held privately at an undisclosed location as requested by his family, and the details of the funeral will not be made public," the conglomerate said in a statement.Related:Late LG chief noted for foresight and perseveranceLG to face new management centering on heir Koo Kwang-moHe had been hospitalized at Seoul National University Hospital for a year due,

• LG

  

  Late LG chief noted for foresight and perseverance

  Third-generation chaebol successor also praised for humble character and pragmatic lifestyle

• The Boardroom

  

  LG to face new management centering on heir Koo Kwang-mo

  Junior Koo may face W1tr inheritance tax upon inheriting all of father’s stake

• LG

  

  LG Group’s low-profile heir steps into the limelight

  LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo’s hospitalization on May 17 has pushed his low-profile son Koo Kwang-mo into the limelight. LG Corp., the holding unit, said it has decided to put the junior Koo’s board membership for approval at a shareholders meeting on June 29. The 40-year-old LG Electronics executive is the third-largest shareholder with 6.24 percent in the firm after the chairman with 11.28 percent and Vice Chairman Koo Bon-joon with 7.72 percent. “As it is inevitable that the h

K-POP HERALD

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  'Fake Love’ enters Spotify’s Global Top 200

• 

  ‘Infinity War’ continues to be successful

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  Mino to share goals as Winner member

HERALD INTERVIEW

• Industry

  

  ‘Korean women are underestimated in leadership’

• Technology

  

  ‘Father of the internet’ says IoT both a ‘big opportunity and risk’

• Politics

  

  ‘Migrant families should contribute to Korean society for equal share’

• Film

  

  Isabella Eklof takes no breaks in ‘Holiday’

PHOTO NEWS

• Industry

  

  Late LG chief Koo Bon-moo’s life in photos

  Koo Bon-moo, chairman of South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate LG Group, died Sunday at the age of 73.  LG Chairman Koo (second from left) and then-LG Cable Chairman Huh Chang-soo (third from left) visit LG Electronics’ factory in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, for an inspection in October 1995. (LG)Koo (far left) inspects products at LG Display’s liquid-crystal display production line in October 1996. (LG)Koo (left) speaks with former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch during a meeting in

VIDEO

• People

  

  Polyglots, businesswomen among winners of 10th Miss SuperTalent pageant

• Industry

  

  Matching unique beer with Korean BBQ

• North Korea

  

  What people in Korea think about Kim Jong-un

• Social affairs

  

  Intentional crash on highway saves lives

FEATURES

• Industry

  

  Korea Gas Corporation to take lead in LNG bunkering

  Korea Gas Corporation, a public natural gas company, said Sunday it is aiming to take the lead in liquefied natural gas bunkering by naming it a new strategic business in response to the nation’s move to foster eco-friendly energy business. LNG bunkering, which uses LNG as vessel fuel, is emerging as an eco-friendly business in response to the government’s regulations on marine environment. An employee supplies LNG to a vessel using a tank lorry. (Korea Gas Corporation)“We will expand the supply

• Automode

  

  Renault Clio forays into local compact car market

  Renault Samsung Motors, the local unit of French carmaker Renault S.A., has launched the Clio hatchback with an aim to start a new boom in the local compact car market, the company said Sunday.Clio is Renault’s best-selling car with about 14 million units sold worldwide since its release in 1990. Due to a lack of demand for hatchbacks here, where sedans and sport utility vehicles are highly preferred, Clio was introduced to Korean drivers last week. Renault Samsung Motors’ hatchback Clio (Renaul

• Film

  

  ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ second-most successful foreign film in Korea

  Now the highest-grossing comic-based film of all time in Korea and around the world, “Avengers: Infinity War” has become the second-most successful foreign film at the Korean box office with 10.57 million tickets sold. According to data from the Korean Film Council on Sunday, the film sold 128,294 tickets on Saturday, which took it to the No. 2 spot after “Deadpool 2.” It reclaimed the spot from Lee Chang-dong’s critically acclaimed “Burning,” which won the Fipresci International Critics’ Prize

• Technology

  

  Daejeon offers to partner with Adobe to bolster digital literacy

  The Daejeon Metropolitan City Government offered to partner with US computer software company Adobe Systems, seeking to bolster the digital literacy of its citizens, officials said Sunday.Han Sun-hee, director-general of the city government’s science and economy bureau, suggested Adobe establish a digital literacy education center in Daejeon, in a meeting on May 14 with Adobe Systems Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen at the US company‘s headquarters in San Jose, California.　 Han Sun-hee (third fr