Most Popular
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Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
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S. Korea votes in favor of Palestinian bid for UN membership
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Russia's denial of entry of S. Korean national unrelated to bilateral ties: Seoul official
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Bae Doo-na shares portraying Korean identity in Hollywood's 'Rebel Moon'
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[From the Scene] Monks, Buddhists hail return of remains of Buddhas
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Medical schools granted enrollment quota flexibility for next year
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Yoon offers first one-on-one meeting with opposition leader next week
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Iran fires air defense batteries in provinces as sound of explosions heard near Isfahan
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France rejects opening Paris flight routes to T'way Air, deals blow to Korean Air merger
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Chinese man behind drug scam targeting teens nabbed in Cambodia
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Generational shift speeds up in chaebol leadership
Chaebol scions in their 40s and 50s are increasingly taking over their fathers’ sprawling business empires recently, speeding up a generational shift at South Korea’s family-run conglomerates. According to a report by chaebol tracker Korea CXO Institute on Tuesday, there were a total of 270 executives at the nation’s 200 largest companies who are scions of the ownership families born in 1970 or later. Of them, the number of those with the chairman title was 21, including tw
March 15, 2022
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Young Koreans eye Yoon‘s W100m savings account scheme
Young South Koreans are anticipating the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s version of its state-backed savings account, with a goal of helping investors accrue 100 million won ($80,500). The state-backed savings account would allow South Korean residents aged between 19 and 34 to subscribe and submit a monthly payment of a maximum 700,000 won for a 10-year term, with an annual yield of 3.5 percent, a booklet of Yoon’s presidential pledges published by the People Power Party sh
March 15, 2022
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SK Geo Centric to accelerate waste plastic recycling push with PureCycle
SK Geo Centric announced Tuesday a $55 million investment in US-based waste plastic recycling firm PureCycle Technologies, as well as plans to create a joint venture with the US firm within this year. SK Geo Centric was the new investor taking part in PureCycle‘s $250 million private fundraising via common stocks, announced March 9, along with existing shareholders including Sylebra Capital and Samlyn Capital. The net proceeds will support the construction of PureCycle plants in Ohio and
March 15, 2022
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Housing biz sentiment dips for 3rd month in March
South Korea's housing market sentiment shrank for the third straight month in March amid waning hopes of business improvements, a poll showed Tuesday. The Korea Housing Institute said its housing business sentiment index (HBSI), based on a survey of about 500 construction firms, stood at 66.2 for this month, down 1.7 points from the previous month. Yet March's on-month decrease was smaller than the previous month's decline of 9.7 points. A reading below 100 means the number of companies forecast
March 15, 2022
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SK On to beef up EV battery alliance with Ford
An upcoming electric vehicle battery plant in Turkey built by South Korean company SK On is the latest testament that its battery alliance with US carmaker Ford is ever becoming stronger. On Monday, SK On announced plans to set up a new plant on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, with an annual capacity of between 30 and 45 gigawatt-hour starting as early as 2025, in a deal with US carmaker Ford and Turkish conglomerate Koc. The battery arm of South Korea-based conglomerate SK, Ford and Koc hav
March 15, 2022
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Container freight rates skyrocket in Feb. on cargo recovery
Outbound container shipping costs shot up in February from a year earlier on a recovery in global sea cargo, government data showed Tuesday, in a big burden to South Korean exporters. The average rate for a 40-foot container from Asia's fourth-largest economy to the European Union came to 14.02 million won ($11,300) last month, up a whopping 261.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service (KCS). Compared with the previous month, the cost was up 9.5 percent
March 15, 2022
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Samsung's foundry market share rises in Q4, narrowing down gap with TSMC: report
Samsung Electronics Co. expanded its share of the global foundry market in the fourth quarter, slightly narrowing down the gap with the industry's leader TSMC, a report showed Tuesday. The South Korean chipmaker's share rose 1.1 percentage points to reach 18.3 percent in the October-December period, according to market analyst firm TrendForce, while the dominant market player Taiwan's TSMC shed 1 percent to 52.1 percent. Samsung's foundry business grew 15.3 percent from the previous quarter, com
March 15, 2022
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SK Geocentric invests $55m in US plastic waste recycling company
SK Geocentric Co., a chemical materials unit of South Korean conglomerate SK Group, said Tuesday it has acquired a stake worth $55 million in a US plastic waste recycling startup, in a step to bolster its green business. It acquired the stake in PureCycle Technologies Inc., a Florida-based plastic recycling company, through a recent rights offering, SK Geocentric said in a release, without disclosing details on the size of the stake. SK Geocentric has already partnered up with PureCycle to build
March 15, 2022
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Daewoo Shipbuilding, Babcock sign MOU for warship partnership
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., the world's fourth-biggest shipbuilder by orders, said Tuesday it has signed an initial pact with a British shipbuilder for warship technology development. Daewoo Shipbuilding has signed a memorandum of understanding with Babcock International for a "strategic partnership" in developing technologies in aircraft carriers, the company said in a statement. Babcock was involved in developing the UK aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. &quo
March 15, 2022
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[Graphic News] Monthly salary of wage workers up 3.6%
The average monthly salary of wage earners rose 3.6 percent on-year in 2020 from a year earlier despite the COVID-19 pandemic, a government report showed. South Korean wage workers earned a monthly average of 3.2 million won ($2,669) in December 2020, up from 3.09 million won a year earlier, according to the report from Statistics Korea. The figure for workers with large companies stood at 5.29 million won, with those in smaller firms earning 2.59 million won. The monthly pay for m
March 15, 2022
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Seoul stocks open lower ahead of Fed meeting
South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday, taking a cue from overnight Wall Street losses ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) had decreased 13.62 points, or 0.51 percent, to 2,632.03 points as of 9:15 a.m. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite lost 2.04 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed flat. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to start hiking the interest rates from near zero this week, as the Uk
March 15, 2022
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Korean Air suspends routes to Russia until April
South Korean national flag carrier Korean Air Lines Co. said Tuesday it will suspend routes to Russia until April due to safety concerns involving Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Korean Air will temporarily halt the operation of passenger jets to Moscow and Vladivostok and cargo planes that are bound for Europe via Moscow until the end of next month, the company said in a statement. Flights on some routes from Incheon to Europe and the United States will take a detour to avoid the Russian and Ukra
March 15, 2022
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Import prices up for 2nd straight month in February on higher crude oil prices
South Korea's import prices grew for the second straight month in February as crude oil and other commodity prices jumped, central bank data showed Tuesday. The import price index gained 3.5 percent in February from a month earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. The rise followed a 4.4 percent rise in January. The rise came as the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has sent oil and other commodity prices even higher. The average monthly import prices of Dubai crud
March 15, 2022
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Court finds Hana chairman nominee responsible for derivatives misselling
A Seoul court on Monday found Hana Financial Group Chairman-nominee Ham Young-joo responsible for Hana Bank’s improper sales of derivatives-linked products that caused a fiasco in 2019 after investors saw huge losses. Defying market expectations, the Seoul Administrative Court found the chairman-nominee and then-Hana Bank CEO guilty of failing to appropriately supervise the bank’s misselling of troubled products to its consumers. The court nodded to the financial authorities&rsquo
March 14, 2022
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Only 0.2% of Koreans avoid meat, vegans even rarer, study finds
A report released by Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation on Monday found that only 13 out of the 5,510 respondents, which represents a mere 0.2 percent, chose not to eat meat, specifically beef, pork, poultry, and fish. The questionnaire covered seven different types of vegetarian diet, from the most restrictive form, veganism, to more lenient ones along the scale. Out of the 5,510 respondents, 418 followed some kind of meat restrictive diet. These include some less restrictive p
March 14, 2022
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Celltrion shares soar on lenient penalties
South Korea’s leading drugmaker Celltrion saw its shares rise Monday after financial authorities had decided not to press charges for accounting fraud as long as the company pays fines, names an independent oversight board and removes the executives responsible. On Friday, the Financial Services Commission said Celltrion, Celltrion Pharm, and Celltrion Healthcare -- three listed firms that respectively develop anticancer drugs, make biopharmaceuticals, and distribute the products -- had o
March 14, 2022
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What to expect from Samsung’s shareholder meeting
Samsung Electronics will hold an annual meeting of shareholders on Wednesday, amid complaints growing over performance issues of its latest Galaxy phones and falling stock prices that failed to reflect the world’s top smartphone and chip maker’s robust earnings. The key agenda of the upcoming meeting is the appointment of four presidents, including Kyung Kye-hyun, co-CEO and head of chip business, and Roh Tae-moon, head of mobile business, as new internal board members. Industry w
March 14, 2022
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[Test Drive] Electrified Mini adds comfort in city driving
For Mini Cooper fans, it’s likely the car’s iconic design is enough for them to put up with the notorious bumpy ride. The electrified compact vehicle, however, dispels such worries. Like any other EVs, the Mini Cooper SE Electric offers a smooth driving experience in a quieter atmosphere. Not just because of the 32.6 kWh battery that replaces the gasoline-powered powertrain but also because of the lower center of gravity, 30 millimeters lower than the standard Cooper -- a significa
March 14, 2022
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Samsung, Posco make foray into solid-state batteries
South Korean conglomerates Samsung and Posco on Monday each announced plans to build production lines of solid-state batteries, an up-and-coming technology in making fireproof and energy-dense lithium-ion batteries that can boost electric vehicle range. Samsung SDI, a battery arm of Korea’s largest conglomerate by assets, said the company has started the construction of a 6,500-square-meter pilot assembly line for manufacturing solid-state batteries that power electric cars in Suwon, Gye
March 14, 2022
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‘More companies considering reshoring after COVID-19’
A much greater number of Korean companies are considering bringing their manufacturing and services back home compared to two years ago, the Federation of Korean Industries said Monday. According to a survey of 105 of the country’s top 500 businesses in sales, conducted for a week through Feb. 24 by a pollster commissioned by the business lobbying group, 27.8 percent said they were currently mulling reshoring. In a similar poll of Korea’s 1,000 largest firms in sales conducted in M
March 14, 2022