SPOTLIGHT

• North Korea

  

  3 endearing moments of South Korean presidential couple on Paektusan

  The candid interactions between South Korea’s presidential couple of Moon Jae-in and Kim Jung-sook are endearing in every way, and what their impact would be on their North Korean counterparts Kim Jong-un and Ri Sol-ju one could only surmise. Moon and his wife don’t put on a stuffy show for the camera. Their open dialogue invites the general public to see them more as the friendly neighborhood couple than distant rulers of the nation. Here are three moments that drew attention:"Here, let me tidy

• North Korea

  

  Will Kim Jong-un go up Jeju Island’s Hallasan?

  South Korean President Moon Jae-in had his wish granted Thursday, when he went up Paektusan in North Korea. The question now is whether North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will go up the South’s tallest mountain during his expected trip to Seoul this year. Paektusan is the highest mountain in the North, at about 2,750 meters above sea level, while Hallasan is around 1,950 meters. Abundant folklore and legends involving mythical creatures revolve around both mountains Moon is an avid hiker, whose mou

• Culture

  

  Musical Matilda packs fun, wit, impressive visuals

  “Matilda,” the Korean production of “Matilda the Musical,” provides ample doses of what you would expect of the Tony-winning musical, from witty banter, funny and likeable characters to satirical comedy just black enough to still pass for a children’s story.The musical, based on the novel of the same name by Roald Dahl, focuses on brilliant but mistreated girl Matilda, who endures obstacles in her life from her ignorant and obnoxious parents to her principal Miss Trunchbull. (Yonhap)It basically

• Book Review

  

  Film adaptation boosts sales for feminist novel

  With the novel “Kim Ji-young, Born in 1982” set to be adapted for the big screen, the book’s sales have seen a significant bump in sales. According to Kyobo Bookstore, the novel took the No. 10 spot on its best-seller list for the third week of September, jumping 22 spots. (Mineumsa)The bookstore said sales volume increased by almost three times. Women in their 20s and 30s accounted for 60.9 percent of purchasers. The novel, written by Cho Nam-ju, depicts the life of an ordinary woman named Kim

LATEST NEWS

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  World News

  5 people, 3 of them infants, stabbed at NYC day care center

  NEW YORK (AP) -- Police in New York say at least five people, including three infants, were stabbed at an overnight day care center in Queens. (AP)NBC New York reports that authorities say the stabbings happened just before 4 a.m. Friday. One of the infants, a girl, is in serious condition, but none of the injuries is considered life-threatening.A sixth person was found in the basement of the day care center in the Flushing neighborhood. Police say she had slashed her left wrist and is in custod

• 

  World Business

  WTO eyes China bid to slap stiff trade sanctions on US

  GENEVA (AFP) -- A World Trade Organization arbitrator will review Friday a Chinese request to impose more than $7 billion (nearly 6 billion euros) in annual sanctions on the United States over anti-dumping practices, a Geneva trade official said. (AFP)The decision to appoint an arbitrator was reached during a special meeting of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body convened to discuss developments in a five-year-old trade dispute between the world's top two economies.Beijing had already warned earlier

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  North Korea

  N. Korea's deputy PM admits economy in trouble: S. Korean official

  North Korea's deputy prime minister has admitted economic difficulties and called for South Korea's assistance, a South Korean presidential official said Friday, in a rare appeal by the North to try to boost its economy.Ri Ryong-nam (Yonhap)Ri Ryong-nam made the comments in a meeting with top South Korean business executives earlier this week, Kim Hyun-chul, a special economic adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, told reporters of the meeting.The executives, including Samsung Electroni

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  Industry

  LG Chem holds event for horizontal work culture

  LG Chem, South Korea’s leading chemicals company, held an event to bolster communication and understanding between millennial employees and executives, the company said Friday.The event was led by six new employees under the topic “happy companionship with millennials” during a workshop for some 300 executives, factory managers and chief researchers at its leadership center in Osan City, Gyeonggi Province, earlier this week. The participating newbies talked openly about the millennial generation

• 

  Finance

  Opposition lawmaker’s office raided for state budget information leak

  A senior lawmaker of the main opposition party faced seizure over charges of accessing and leaking confidential government data on the state budget, prosecutorial officials said Friday.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office seized and searched the office of Rep. Shim Jae-cheol, a fifth-term lawmaker of the conservative Liberty Korea Party, whose aides are suspected of leaking information from the government’s digital budget accounting system.Rep. Shim Jae-cheol of the ruling conservative

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  Industry

  US FDA delays approval of GC Pharma’s IVIG-SN again

  South Korean biopharma company GC Pharma said Friday that the US Food and Drug Administration has delayed the approval of the firm’s immunodeficiency drug IVIG-SN, demanding additional data related to the drug’s manufacturing procedures.The company had initially expected the US FDA to grant final approval for IVIG-SN, short for human normal immunoglobulin G for intravenous administration, this month.The company noted that the drug’s safety and efficacy are solid, as the product is already being

• 

  Social affairs

  Chuseok travel rush begins Friday

  The Chuseok travel rush began Friday in Korea as about 36 million travelers head to their hometowns. As of 1 p.m. Friday, a trip from Seoul to Busan took five hours and 20 minutes by car; two hours and 40 minutes to Gangneung; four hours and 10 minutes to Gwangju; four hours and 34 minutes to Daegu; and four hours and 40 minutes to Mokpo, according to Korea Expressway Corp.A survey by the Korea Transport Institute predicted that the traffic volume of cars leaving Seoul and heading back to the ci

• 

  Social affairs

  Minister: Koreas to end war status, family separation

  South Korean Unification Ministry Cho Myoung-gyon said Friday the government will redouble its efforts to end the "longest war and parting on Earth," as he spoke about the recent peace mood in Korea.He was referring to the 1950-53 Korean War, in which hostilities ended in only with an armistice, and the subsequent separation of families on the divided peninsula.Addressing a ceremony hosted by South Koreans with hometowns in North Korea ahead of next week's Chuseok holiday, the minister cited the

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  Social affairs

  Korea to lower MERS alert to lowest readiness level

  South Korea will lower its Middle East Respiratory Syndrome alert level to its lowest readiness posture, as 21 people who came into close contact with a patient all tested negative for the disease, health authorities said Friday.The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it has reached the decision to lower the readiness level from "caution" to "attention" starting Saturday.The KCDC said that people who had been placed under quarantine -- including flight attendants and passengers

• 

  Defense

  New defense chief vows to buttress Korea peace efforts

  South Korea's new Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo took office Friday, vowing to buttress Seoul's ongoing efforts to foster a lasting peace on the divided peninsula.In his inauguration speech, he also reiterated his resolve to build a robust defense posture to counter a "full range of security threats," develop a mutually complementary alliance with the United States and complete the defense reform aimed at creating a smaller yet smarter military."Now, we have removed the curtain of deep confli

GRAPHIC NEWS

OPINION

• Columnists

  

  Israeli-Palestinian peace process is dead

  This month commemorates two pinnacles for the benign, naive superpower that was America, both involving our now-lost role as Middle East peacemaker. Forty years ago, President Jimmy Carter brokered the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt; and 25 years ago, President Bill Clinton presided over the signing of the Oslo Accord between Israel and the Palestinians. As we looked this week at the old photographs of beaming American presidents grandly mediating between adversaries, what was happe

• Columnists

  

  Malaysia at 55

  Was it only 55 years ago when Malaysia was formed on Sept. 16, 1963?　On that day, I was super proud to witness at the parade ground in Jesselton (today Kota Kinabalu) the formation of an independent nation, joining Sabah and Sarawak with the 11 states of Malaya. One forgets easily today that it was a time of grave uncertainty, when the Philippines had a claim on North Borneo and Indonesian President Sukarno was actively against the idea of Malaysia.　At the middle age of 55 years, an individual c

THE INVESTOR

• Retail & Consumer

  

  Market Kurly operator secures W67b investment

  Kurly, operator of popular grocery delivery service Market Kurly, on Sept. 20 announced that it has closed its Series C round having raised 67 billion won (US$60.03 million). “Our Series C round includes around 50 billion won from a consortium led by Sequoia Capital and DST Global,” a Kurly spokesperson told The Investor. The company added that it has also secured funds from investors who had invested in previous rounds, including SEMA Translink Investment and Korea Investment Par

• Samsung

  

  Two Samsung Group affiliates sell stake in Samsung C&T

  Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance and Samsung Electro-Mechanics have announced that they will sell their stake in Samsung C&T, a key group affiliate at the center of the conglomerate’s complex cross-shareholding structure. According to their regulatory filings on Sept. 20, Samsung Fire & Marine will sell its 1.37 percent stake for 328.5 billion won (US$294 million), while Samsung Electro-Mechanics will sell its 2.61 percent stake for 642.5 billion won.The move comes amid Samsung Gro

• Mobile & Internet

  

  KT ties up with firm behind Apple’s Siri for car infotainment systems

  Telecommunications firm KT said on Sept. 21 that it has partnered with Nuance Communications, a German company behind Apple’s mobile assistant Siri, to develop in-vehicle voice recognition solutions tailored for the Korean market.Nuance is one of the leading speech recognition software developers, offering its solutions to global tech companies as well as automotive companies, including BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai Motor and Toyota Motor.  Choi Kang-rim (left), head of KT’s c

• Samsung

  

  Samsung unveils triple-lens smartphone Galaxy A7

  Samsung Electronics on Sept.20 unveiled the Galaxy A7, its first smartphone with a triple-lens camera system. The rear-facing camera and the high-resolution 24-megapixel selfie shooter will be some of the killer features of the phone, according to the Korean tech giant.The Galaxy A model sports a 24M standard lens, a bokeh lens that alters depth of field, and a 120-degree super wide-angle lens. A fingerprint scanner of the phone is what sets the device apart from other Samsung pho

K-POP HERALD

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  EXO Lay to enter US music market

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  GOT7 signs on with Adidas

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  Parody of Sunmi’s ‘Siren’ video goes viral

HERALD INTERVIEW

• Arts&Design

  

  Decorating a home, suggesting a lifestyle

• Foreign Policy

  

  ‘Denuclearization efforts on peninsula opportunity for nuclear free world’

• Diplomatic Circuit

  

  Le Havre, an ideal partner in maritime industry, public decentralization

• Technology

  

  Bluehole charms global audience with mobile strategy game ‘Castle Burn’

PHOTO NEWS

• Social affairs

  

  Chuseok travel rush begins Friday

  The Chuseok travel rush began Friday in Korea as about 36 million travelers head to their hometowns. As of 1 p.m. Friday, a trip from Seoul to Busan took five hours and 20 minutes by car; two hours and 40 minutes to Gangneung; four hours and 10 minutes to Gwangju; four hours and 34 minutes to Daegu; and four hours and 40 minutes to Mokpo, according to Korea Expressway Corp.A survey by the Korea Transport Institute predicted that the traffic volume of cars leaving Seoul and heading back to the ci

VIDEO

• Industry

  

  Lee Jae-yong’s lip balm ‘closed’ before camera

• North Korea

  

  Kim vows to visit Seoul, dismantle nuke, missile sites

• North Korea

  

  Moon Jae-in attends mass games in Pyongyang

• North Korea

  

  Moon enthusiastically received in Pyongyang

FEATURES

• Industry

  

  US FDA delays approval of GC Pharma’s IVIG-SN again

  South Korean biopharma company GC Pharma said Friday that the US Food and Drug Administration has delayed the approval of the firm’s immunodeficiency drug IVIG-SN, demanding additional data related to the drug’s manufacturing procedures.The company had initially expected the US FDA to grant final approval for IVIG-SN, short for human normal immunoglobulin G for intravenous administration, this month.The company noted that the drug’s safety and efficacy are solid, as the product is already being

• Industry

  

  Korea permits 2-year regulatory sandbox period for novel ICT innovation

  The National Assembly on Thursday passed a bill that grants a regulatory sandbox for new businesses in the information and communication technology sector, a development that is expected to speed up the adoption and commercialization of next-generation technologies in Korea. The bill to amend the Special Act on Promotion and Vitalization of Convergence of Information and Communications Technology was passed into law on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT.The changes include th

• Social affairs

  

  Death of puma triggers public protest against zoos in South Korea

  The recent death of a puma, killed by police after it escaped from its enclosure in a Daejeon zoo, has triggered a wave of criticism concerning animal rights abuses in South Korea, with some saying all zoos in the country must shut down.　　The puma, named Bbo-rong, was shot to death Tuesday, about four hours after it escaped its enclosure at Daejeon O-World through a door left unlocked by staff at 4:50 p.m. While the search was ongoing, all Daejeon residents were advised to stay indoors.　　Authori

• North Korea

  

  What is the story behind Mansudae Art Studio in Pyongyang?

  South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Pyongyang’s Mansudae Art Studio has been creating a buzz at home and overseas -- even after a UN official said the visit did not violate UN sanctions that ban international transactions with the North Korean art establishment.　So what do we know about the studio and why has it been banned by the UN?　The Mansudae Art Studio was founded in 1959. It is believed be one of the largest art production studios in the world, with some 4,000 workers. Among its