Most Popular
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Russia sent more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to N. Korea in March: White House
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Seoul to more than double military drones by 2026 to counter NK threats
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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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Seoul alerts overseas missions to NK terror threats
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Over 60% of S. Koreans support W100m childbirth incentive: survey
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‘Inside Out 2’ adds four new emotions, explores teenage life
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Questions raised over fair promotion of RM, NewJeans
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Kia Motors mulls suspending three domestic plants due to coronavirus disruptions
Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker, is considering temporarily suspending some of its plants in the country later this month due to the fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic, industry sources said Sunday. It is planning to halt operations of three factories -- two in Gwangmyeong, south of Seoul, and one in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul -- from April 23-29, according to the sources. The company runs nine domestic manufacturing facilities, including one as a j
April 12, 2020
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[Newsmaker] SsangYong Motor to receive W40b from Mahindra & Mahindra
SsangYong Motor will receive 40 billion won ($32 million) in special funds this month from its major shareholder, Indian carmaking conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra, to urgently address liquidity issues, the Korean automaker said Sunday. SsangYong said it finalized its plan to raise 40 billion won in new funds at an extraordinary general meeting Friday. Mahindra will first invest in SsangYong as a loan, which will be converted to equity later upon Indian and Korean government agencies&rs
April 12, 2020
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Hyundai, Kia set to report poor Q1 results on virus impact
Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. are set to suffer a sharp decline in their first-quarter earnings due to a growing coronavirus impact on production and sales, data showed Sunday. Hyundai Motor is expected to post an operating profit of 700 billion won ($577 million) for the January-March period, down 15 percent from 824.9 billion won a year earlier, according to data from Yonhap Infomax, a financial service arm of Yonhap News Agency. Before the outbreak of the new coronav
April 12, 2020
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Renault Samsung, union tentatively OK wage deal for 2019
Renault Samsung Motors Corp. said Friday it has reached a tentative agreement with its union over wages for last year as the automobile industry tries to cope with the coronavirus outbreak, the company said Friday. Renault Samsung workers accepted a wage freeze and will be paid cash bonuses of 8.88 million won ($7,320) per person for 2019, the company said in a statement. "The company and the union have reached a consensus that they will have to make joint efforts to weather an industry-
April 10, 2020
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Porsche Korea donates W200m for COVID-19 relief efforts
Porsche Korea said Friday that it has donated 200 million won ($166,000) to ChildFund Korea with its four authorized dealer partners -- Stuttgart Sports Cars, Autostadt, Deutsch Auto Co. and Yongsan Sports Automobile -- for coronavirus relief efforts. The donation will be used under two categories “Porsche Do Dream Safe Kit” and “Porsche Do Dream Safe Fund.” Recipients will be children in low-income families and vulnerable groups who have been experiencing difficulties
April 10, 2020
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Busan mayor visits Renault Samsung’s Busan plant to encourage workers
Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don visited Renault Samsung’s Busan plant Friday to encourage workers amid the continued economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the automaker, Oh also met with Renault Samsung CEO Dominique Signora and the labor union, vowing to support them to overcome the current crisis. Renault Samsung said that he appreciated workers at the facility for working hard and focusing on manufacturing major vehicle lineups. He also discussed with Signora
April 10, 2020
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Kia’s midsized SUV Telluride named 2020 World Car of Year
Kia Motors’ midsized, eight-seat sport utility vehicle the Telluride is the 2020 World Car of the Year. This is the first time the Korean auto brand has won the top award. The automaker also took home the World Urban Car award for its subcompact crossover the Soul EV, which beat the Volkswagen T-Cross and the Mini Cooper SE Electric. The Toronto-based World Car Awards, launched in 2004, are one of three major global automotive award programs, the others being the North American Ca
April 9, 2020
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[News Analysis] If not India’s Mahindra, what can save SsangYong Motor?
Despite SsangYong Motor’s decision to go ahead with a self-rescue plan after its largest shareholder Mahindra & Mahindra scrapped the cash-strapped Korean unit last week, some experts say the South Korean automaker’s weak exports may have led to the latest crisis. On Friday, Indian auto empire Mahindra & Mahindra said it won’t invest 500 million won ($410 million) for a turnaround, as requested, considering the global economic downturn due to COVID-19. The pare
April 8, 2020
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Airlines struggle to tide over virus impact
South Korean airlines, one of the hardest-hit industries by the outbreak of the new coronavirus, are taking unprecedented measures, such as unpaid leave, job cuts and asset sales, to overcome the COVID-19-triggered crisis, industry sources said Wednesday. Korean Air Lines Co., the country's biggest airline, said Tuesday it will have 7 out of 10 workers take paid leave for six months beginning April 16 as part of the company's self-help efforts. In other self-rescue plans announced last month
April 8, 2020
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[Behind the Wheel] New Sorento’s spaciousness threatens other family SUVs
Kia Motors’ mid-sized sports utility vehicle Sorento means a lot to the automaker, considering that its SUV lineup ranging from Niro to Mohave has begun to receive attention with popularity of Sorento. The first Sorento was launched in 2002, with the third generation of the car released in 2014. Six years later, an all-new Sorento was unveiled on March 17. The Korea Herald had the chance to test drive the fourth-generation Sorento on March 23 on a 25 kilometer route from Yeouido in Seou
April 7, 2020
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[Feature] Used car sales become lucrative business for imported automakers
South Korea’s used car market has doubled in size over the past decade, with about 3.7 million vehicles registered for transfer last year. With tech advancements, cars can be analyzed and auctions are made online, inviting more customers to sell and purchase secondhand cars. As the market grew, so did the market for imported cars, which are much coveted in the second-hand market. According to the country’s largest second-hand car company SK Encar, about 26 percent of used c
April 6, 2020
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Eastar Jet to cut 20% of workforce on virus impact
Eastar Jet Co., a South Korean low-cost carrier, said Monday it will cut one-fifth of its workforce as it strives to stay afloat amid the growing impact of the coronavirus on the airline industry, but the proposed layoffs are smaller than originally thought. The planned job cut at Eastar raises concerns over the possibility of industrywide restructuring. The airline originally planned to cut some 750 employees out of its total 1,680-person workforce. Eastar Jet said it also plans to return 1
April 6, 2020
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[News Focus] SsangYong Motor back on the brink after Mahindra scraps investment plan
Indian carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra has rejected a call for fresh funding for its cash-strapped Korean unit SsangYong Motor, leaving its future uncertain after 12 consecutive quarters of losses. According to the board of directors of Mahindra, which has a 74.65 percent stake in Ssangyong, they held a special meeting in Mumbai on Friday and decided to reject SsangYong Motor’s request to invest 500 billion won ($404 million) over the next three years. Instead, it urged the Korean
April 5, 2020
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Air passengers drop to record low in March amid virus woes
The number of air passengers in South Korea fell to a record low last month due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, data showed Sunday, as countries around the globe impose lockdowns and restrict travel and people shun travel. The number of air passengers stood at 1.74 million in March, according to industry data, marking the first time that the figure has fallen below 2 million since the country started to record such statistics from 1997. The passenger number was 10.62 million in January bu
April 5, 2020
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Antitrust watchdog approves HDC-Asiana Airlines merger
South Korea’s antitrust watchdog has approved HDC Hyundai Development Company’s acquisition of shares of Asiana Airlines, officials said Friday. HDC signed a deal to acquire 61.5 percent of the airline’s shares on Dec. 27 and reported it to the Fair Trade Commission on Jan. 30. “There is no concern of restricting competition,” after reviewing the effect of the tie-up on competition in related markets, the FTC said. “(We) judged that the major sectors of
April 3, 2020
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Airlines call for immediate govt. support on bigger virus impact
South Korean airlines pressed the government Friday to take immediate action to help the financially troubled airline industry stay afloat amid the growing coronavirus impact. The Korea Civil Aviation Association (KCA) asked the government to offer massive low-rate loans, payment guarantees for airlines' corporate bonds and steep tax cuts to airlines as the airlines' self-rescue measures won't be of a big help in the unprecedented crisis. "The airline industry is collapsing, with 840,000
April 3, 2020
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Virus-stricken air carriers tighten belts with reconstructing, downsizing
Korean air carriers that have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic are undergoing restructuring to downsize the workforce amid continued losses from reduced passengers and suspensions of international routes, according to industry sources on Thursday. Eastar Jet, a local budget carrier that halted all services from March 23 for a month, said Thursday it will send 45 percent, or 750 employees, of its total workforce home from April 24. The air carrier said it will first receive applica
April 2, 2020
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Korean Air pilots to take 3 months of unpaid leave
Korean Air Lines Co. is set to put all of its non-Korean pilots on a three-month unpaid leave starting next month in a self-rescue effort amid worsening business conditions caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Under the measure, 387 pilots are expected to go on mandatory unpaid leave from April 1 to June 30, an industry source said Tuesday. Around 60 of them have already been off without pay, the source added. "(The measure) is aimed at adjusting workforce following a sharp reduction i
March 31, 2020
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Hyundai Motor to open mobility innovation center in Singapore by 2022
Hyundai Motor Group said Tuesday that it would open a mobility innovation center in Singapore to focus on developing and producing future mobility solutions by 2022. The automaker’s new global lab called Hyundai Mobility Global Innovation Center in Singapore (HMGICs) will be located in Singapore’s Jurong Innovation District, an advanced technology manufacturing hub comprised of tech companies, factories and researchers. The establishment of the automaker’s lab over the
March 31, 2020
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Government lifts sanctions against Jin Air amid pandemic crisis
The South Korean government lifted its sanction on budget airline Jin Air on Tuesday, after having prohibited the company from expanding new flight routes and adding new planes for 20 months. The Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport said it would remove the sanction against the budget carrier, a move that is seen to reflect the company’s recent efforts for improved management, but also comes in time when the airline industry is into a desperate situation in the wake of the COVI
March 31, 2020