SPOTLIGHT

• Technology

  

  Harman CEO: Samsung AI speaker will be better than Google’s and Amazon’s

  By Song Su-hyun

  Samsung, Harman accelerate cooperation on new AI platform

• Music

  

  ‘Culture President’ reigns once again with BTS

  By Hong Dam-young

  Pop icon Seo Taiji shows he’s still got it after 25 years

• Industry

  

  Note 8 price soars as competition heats up

  By Shin Ji-hye

  Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 8 is expected to be priced higher than 1 million won ($892) in South Korea for the first time among the company’s premium phones. Analysts predicted the prices of premium smartphones would continue to soar as handset makers competitively add advanced specifications to their devices and the industry enters a super cycle. Samsung’s mobile chief Koh Dong-jin recently changed his earlier estimation, saying, “The price of the Note 8 is likely to surpass 1 million won

• 미분류

  

  What permanent establishment means to multinational companies

  By Korea Herald

  Ask a Lawyer is a regular column written by attorneys at Yoon & Yang LLC on various legal aspects of the Korean life or business. The content provided here is general legal information, not legal advice on a specific situation. -- Ed.

LATEST NEWS

• 

  North Korea

  Kim Jong-un: Absolute power -- and an H-bomb to wield it

  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ranks among the world’s youngest heads of state, but has some of its most powerful weapons at his disposal.Sunday’s test of what appeared to be a powerful, full-fledged thermonuclear bomb, marked yet another watershed in Kim’s relentless drive as leader to turn the North into a credible -- and feared -- nuclear-armed state.In the process, he has simply shrugged off international warnings and economic sanctions, as well as bellicose threats from US President Donald

• Columnists

  China realizes need for foreign companies

  China is increasingly desperate for foreign investment. Yet foreign companies are less and less interested in what it has to offer. How this problem gets resolved may be one of the most important questions facing China’s economy.After China joined the World Trade Organization, in 2000, overseas investors couldn’t wait to jump in. Foreign direct investment grew at an annualized rate of 10.8 percent from 2000 to 2008. Enticed by China’s market size and development capacity, companies were willing

• Columnists

  Want to help American workers? NAFTA, not protectionism, is the way to go

  There are reasons to be optimistic this Labor Day. The unemployment rate is low, at 4.3 percent. Hundreds of thousands of new jobs are being created every month. Second-quarter gross domestic product was revised up to 3 percent.That said, economic anxiety still lingers. President Donald Trump, trying to ease that anxiety, talks tough about the North American Free Trade Agreement and the possibility of implementing tariffs. While it sounds good -- what American doesn’t want to boost US manufactur

• 

  Music

  BTS to hold 1st dome concert in Japan

  BTS is at it again, this time with an October concert in Japan.Big Hit Entertainment said Sunday the K-pop act would hold a concert on Oct. 14 and 15 at Kyocera Dome in Osaka, marking its first concert at a dome in the country.The boy band has enjoyed popularity in the country, with its Japanese tour gathering some 145,000 fans across Osaka, Hiroshima, Nagoya, Saitama, Fukuoka and Sapporo from May to July. A poster for BTS’ upcoming concert in Japan (Big Hit Entertainment)Its single “Blood Sweat

• 

  Columnists

  Travel barriers are worst of new Cold War

  The latest loop in the escalation of US-Russia hostilities is probably the dumbest and the most damaging: The two countries are introducing de facto travel restrictions for each other’s citizens, choking off the friendliest, most human channel of communication between them. It’s the biggest step back into the Cold War era that the two governments have taken yet.The State Department has stopped issuing visas in Yekaterinburg, Vladivostok and St. Petersburg, a response to Russian demands for drast

• Columnists

  How about that infrastructure plan?

  Suppose the US all stood up at exactly the same minute, from Maine to Hawaii, and shouted at the top of our lungs: infrastructure!Would it make any difference? Not likely.You-know-who would probably be tweeting about how badly he is treated, and we’d all be ignored. Again.As danger, misery and heartache in the form of Hurricane Harvey plague those we love in Texas and Louisiana, we hear again and again that if aging reservoirs, pot-holed roads, outmoded drains and weathered water treatment plant

• Editorial

  Clarify ordinary wages

  Their scope, criteria need to be specified in law to prevent inconsistent rulings

• 

  Economy

  Trump’s talk of scrapping FTA adds strain on Korea

  Observers remain skeptical, citing North Korea and industry backlash

• 

  North Korea

  NK nuclear test appears to be most powerful

  North Korea’s latest nuclear test Sunday is presumed to be the most powerful of all conducted by the communist regime so far. Tremors were felt by some South Koreans living about 500 kilometers away from the nuclear site. A Korea Meteorological Administration official explains the magnitude 5.7 earthquake detected at the North’s nuclear test site of Punggye-ri on Sunday. (Yonhap)The parliament’s defense committee chair, Rep. Kim Young-woo, claimed that the yield of the North’s atomic bomb test c

• 

  Finance

  Downward North Korea risks loom in Kospi

  Security tension is most likely to return to focus in South Korea’s stock markets this week following the North’s sixth nuclear test Sunday, further dampening investors’ sentiment.A 5.7 magnitude tremor was detected in northeastern North Korea on Sunday at around 12:29 p.m., which North Korea claimed to be a test of a hydrogen bomb that can be loaded into its intercontinental ballistic missile. (Yonhap)“The news would bring noise in investor sentiments and stock markets in South Korea and the Un

GRAPHIC NEWS

OPINION

• Columnists

  

  Travel barriers are worst of new Cold War

  By Bloomberg

  The latest loop in the escalation of US-Russia hostilities is probably the dumbest and the most damaging: The two countries are introducing de facto travel restrictions for each other’s citizens, choking off the friendliest, most human channel of communication between them. It’s the biggest step back into the Cold War era that the two governments have taken yet.The State Department has stopped issuing visas in Yekaterinburg, Vladivostok and St. Petersburg, a response to Russian demands for drast

• Columnists

  

  Baekbeom and NK human rights

  By Robert Park

  “It is definitely not good politics to interfere too much with the individual’s life. ... That it is extremely unnatural and dangerous to drag people along by orders of a single individual or of a few is all too well proven by the misfortunes that befell Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.” - Kim Koo (1876-1949), “My Wish”A “chinilpa” (collaborationist with Imperial Japan) he wasn’t. Neither was he especially fond of the monarchy which antedated Japan’s stealthy routing of Korea, having been judged

THE INVESTOR

• Samsung

  

  [IFA] 'Leadership vacuum deals serious blow to Samsung'

  BERLIN -- Amid mounting uncertainty over the future of Samsung, with its de facto leader Lee Jae-yong in jail, the world’s largest chip and handset maker has recently lost a business opportunity to acquire an artificial intelligence technology company, said one of the top brass of the company on Aug. 31.  Lee Jae-yongIn a rare speech, Yoon Boo-keun, president and CEO of the consumer electronics division of Samsung Electronics, expressed concerns about the unprecedented leadership

• Mobile & Internet

  

  Apple plans to launch 6-inch screen iPhone next year

   Apple has started the development of a 6-inch OLED iPhone with aims to launch the largest-ever screen iPhone next year, industry sources said on Aug. 31.The largest iPhone available now is a 5.5-inch LCD model. Sources said Apple plans to launch two OLED iPhones next year -- a 5.85-inch and 6.46-inch models. The 5.58-inch is the same size screen of the upcoming iPhone 8 this year. Apple has started development work with Samsung Display, the sole OLED supplier, and other parts makers ea

• Samsung

  

  Samsung Galaxy S9 likely to debut in Jan.

  Samsung Electronics’ next flagship smartphone Galaxy S9 is highly likely to debut earlier than usual, possibly in January, The Bell reported on Aug. 31. The report said Samsung Display’s OLED panel shipments will start in November, two months in advance of the current S8 whose display shipments started in January this year before the phone’s unveiling in March. Galaxy S8Display panels are usually shipped earlier than other parts such as camera modules and cases. After the panel sh

• Automobiles

  

  Genesis G70 to debut in the US early next year

  Hyundai Motor gave media a peek at its luxury marque Genesis’ all-new sports sedan G70, with plans to release the car in the US early next year. “We are planning to launch Genesis G70 in the North American market sometime early next year,” said Hwang Chung-yul, senior vice president at the Genesis Project Management Center, at a media preview held in Seoul on Sept. 1. “We will gradually roll out the car in other regions.” Prior to G70 global debut slated for Sept. 15, Hyundai unve

K-POP HERALD

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  EXO listed in Guinness World Records

• 

  ‘Be With You’ to be remade in Korea

• 

  Park Bo-gum in tug of war with girlfriend

HERALD INTERVIEW

• Culture

  

  BBC journalist Francine Stock talks about Korean films’ richness, complexity and honesty

• Industry

  

  ‘Smartphone OLED will face oversupply by 2020’

• Industry

  

  ‘Korea needs stronger botulinum toxin regulations’

• Diplomatic Circuit

  

  Planning for smart, sustainable future with Singapore

PHOTO NEWS

• Culture

  

  Chinatown in Incheon, still at the heart of Korea-China ties, history

  By Son Ji-hyoung

  A gold-embellished, red-lacquered pailou, or Chinese arch, looms over a street on the shore of South Korea’s port city of Incheon.The blue-colored board attached to the 11-meter high structure reads Zhonghuajia, Chinese for ‘Chinese avenue,’ marking the entrance to Incheon Chinatown, the largest Chinatown in the nation. For over 130 years, Incheon Chinatown has been standing as the only officially recognized one of its kind in Korea since 1884, when Joseon Dynasty leased parts of Incheon to Qing

VIDEO

• Social affairs

  

  Extended Deoksugung Stonewall Walkway unveiled

• People

  

  Meet Korean Billy, the internet sensation of 2017

• Culture

  

  Slimy ‘liquid monsters’ captivate Korean adults

• Industry

  

  Beauty meets IT for customized experience

FEATURES

• Finance

  

  Analysts forecast downward North Korea risks in Kospi

  By Son Ji-hyoung

  Security tension is most likely to return to focus in South Korea’s stock markets this week following the North’s sixth nuclear test Sunday, further dampening investors’ sentiment.A 5.7 magnitude tremor was detected in northeastern North Korea on Sunday at around 12:29 p.m., which North Korea claimed to be a test of a hydrogen bomb that can be loaded into its intercontinental ballistic missile. (Yonhap)“The news would bring noise in investor sentiments and stock markets in South Korea and the Un

• Defense

  

  Army to investigate ‘mystery deaths’

  By Yeo Jun-suk

  　On an afternoon in February 1998, Army 1st Lt. Kim Hun was found dead inside an underground military outpost along the border with North Korea. A gunshot wound was found on the right side of his head and a 9mm Beretta pistol was near his body. 　The South Korean military determined that the then-25-year-old Army officer had committed suicide. But questions and doubts have mushroomed that he may have been murdered because of no apparent motive for suicide and evidence of a physical fight inside t

• Industry

  

  ‘6 in 10 Koreans do overtime every other day without extra pay’

  By Kim Min-joo

  Korea’s salaried employees work an average of 2 1/2 days overtime per week, a poll showed Friday.Employment-related portal JobKorea -- citing its recent survey of 1,013 office workers -- alleged that an average worker puts in 2 1/2 days of overtime per week. The survey also showed that only 37.7 percent of the respondents are compensated properly for the extra hours.When asked whether “Overtime work should be taken for granted” 69.9 percent of the respondents said “No.” Also, 63.9 percent of the

• Industry

  

  Korea’s air transport deficit marks record high

  By Shim Woo-hyun

  South Korea’s air transport deficit marked a record high in the first six months of this year, largely due to a dramatic decline in Chinese tourists, as well as an increase in the number of Koreans traveling outside of the country, central bank data showed Sunday. The deficit of Korea’s air transport reached $248.6 million between January and June. In the previous six-month period, the figure had reached a surplus of $216.7 million, according to data compiled by the Bank of Korea. (Yonhap)Korean