Most Popular
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Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
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Bae Doo-na shares portraying Korean identity in Hollywood's 'Rebel Moon'
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S. Korea votes in favor of Palestinian bid for UN membership
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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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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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[Graphic News] French bulldog most popular breed in US, Maltese most popular in Korea
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Iran fires air defense batteries in provinces as sound of explosions heard near Isfahan
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Seoul stocks open steeply higher on Wall Street rallies
South Korean stocks opened sharply higher Thursday, tracking overnight rallies on Wall Street that stemmed from a plunge in oil prices. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 49.71 points, or 1.9 percent, to trade at 2,672.11 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite surged 3.59 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 2 percent, largely as oil prices dipped more than 10 percent on expectations of a production increas
March 10, 2022
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Biz lobbies ask President-elect Yoon to create biz-friendly environment
South Korea's business lobby groups on Thursday called on President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol to create an environment for companies to make further investments and create more jobs. Opposition candidate Yoon, 61, was elected South Korea's next president Thursday after an unbelievably close race that underlined deep divisions along regional, generational and gender lines, and hands him a daunting task to narrow those chasms. The country's business lobbies, such as the Federation of Korean Industries
March 10, 2022
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[Election 2022] How Moon’s failed housing policy impacted election
SEJONG -- A series of failed policies by the Moon Jae-in administration to tame South Korea’s housing market has been at the center of the presidential election this year, with candidates taking housing-related schemes to the fore of their campaigns. It is obvious that housing policy will be included in the first batch of to-do lists by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, as soon as he forms a transition committee. Should the policy be prioritized, the lesson learned from incumbent President
March 10, 2022
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SsangYong Motor’s creditors to request rebidding
SsangYong Motor’s creditors will be requesting a rebidding of the merger and acquisition of the carmaker next Tuesday, according to SsangYong Motors. The debt-laden SsangYong Motors confirmed that creditors had brought up the prospect of looking for a new owner instead of completing the M&A procedure with the bidder Edison Motors for a while. South Korean electric carmaker Edison Motors had stepped closer to acquiring major stakes in SsangYong Motor in January after the two firms cli
March 9, 2022
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Korean households, businesses face bigger default risks than previous crises: BOK
South Korean households and businesses are at a bigger risk of default compared with previous financial crises, with the pandemic having driven up the pace of borrowing gain, the central bank warned Wednesday. The nation’s real credit gap rate -- the difference between the desired and actual levels of debt for households and businesses -- came to 5.1 percent as of the end of September last year, a Bank of Korea report showed. This surpasses the corresponding figures for the credit card
March 9, 2022
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[Election 2022] Overwhelmed by Ukraine crisis, market unlikely to get election boost, experts say
Markets in South Korea enjoyed short-term post-election rallies in past presidential elections, but a similar uptick looks unlikely this time, mainly because of the war in Ukraine, but also because campaign pledges have offered little to buoy investors. This would be a return to form for the democratic era. In the six months after current President Moon Jae-in was sworn in, the Kospi rose 11.2 percent to 2,542.95. But the previous four presidents going back as far as the Kim Dae-jung governme
March 9, 2022
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Loyal Samsung investors cash out as shares retreat
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics, whose shares are practically held by one out of every 10 South Koreans, is suffering from heavy selling by an army of once-loyal investors disappointed over the tech giant’s underperforming shares. The stocks have slid since January to fall below 70,000 won ($56) on Tuesday in a four-month low since November. Regulatory filings, revealed Tuesday, showed some 120,000 retail investors sold shares in Samsung Electronics in the fourth quarter last year,
March 9, 2022
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Nickel’s price surge threatens carmakers’ EV push
Price increases of metals essential for electric batteries could spell trouble for automakers who are already struggling to keep costs down in the face of supply chain disruptions, market insiders said Wednesday. The price of nickel is surging as Russia, a key supplier of the metal, faces extensive global sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. On Tuesday, the price of nickel doubled to $100,000 per metric ton, causing the London Metal Exchange to suspend trading for the rest of the day on wo
March 9, 2022
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Choco-Pie makers on alert as Russian isolation deepens
Orion and Lotte Confectionery -- the makers of Choco Pie, a popular snack in Russia -- are closely monitoring the economic sanctions imposed by the international community against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, as they could cause instability in the supply of raw materials, a drop in the ruble’s value and a local economic recession. Orion, known for its popular signature snack Choco Pie, has expanded the production capacity of its local plants in Russia. Since 2019, the company has
March 9, 2022
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Cheap Korean currency likely to fan inflation
SEJONG -- Concerns are growing over the possibility that the nation’s import prices will further shoot up in the wake of the continuously weakening Korean currency against the US dollar amid the Ukraine-Russia war. The unfavorable scenario has come to the fore amid the recent situation that import prices of raw materials, including crude, had already sharply climbed over the past several months. According to Statistics Korea, import prices grew 30.1 percent in January on-year. Amid inves
March 9, 2022
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Samsung’s highest-paid executive received W11.8b in 2021
Samsung Electronics’ former mobile business chief Koh Dong-jin was the highest-paid executive at the Korean tech giant last year, according to the firm’s regulatory filing Tuesday. Koh, who has stepped away from daily operations to assume an advisory role, took home an annual pay of 11.8 billion won ($9.5 million) last year, including bonuses worth 4.04 billion won and a retirement pay of 6.43 billion won. In a year-end reshuffle in December, Koh stepped down from the post along w
March 9, 2022
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Doosan acquires stake in chip-testing firm Tesna for W460b
South Korean conglomerate Doosan Group has become the largest shareholder of a local chip-testing firm, Tesna, in a move to secure a footing in the surging semiconductor market. According to Doosan Wednesday, the group recently purchased a 38.7 percent stake in Tesna for 460 billion won ($373.1 million). Founded in 2002, Tesna has specialized in testing various chips, including processors for smartphones, camera image sensors and radio frequency chips for wireless communications. The firm,
March 9, 2022
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Hyundai Ioniq 5 named UK car of the year
Hyundai Motor’s all-electric Ioniq 5 was named the UK car of the year, for its stylish design, power efficiency and practicality as a family car, the company said Tuesday. Ioniq 5 took the throne after being awarded the top prize in the Best Family Car category, beating out nine other UK car of the year category winners. Among the top 10 finalists were Fiat 500-e, Skoda Fabia, Kia Ceed, Genesis G70 Shooting Brake, Toyota Yaris Cross, Skoda Enyaq, BMW iX, Porsche Taycan, and Hyundai i20N.
March 8, 2022
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Hyundai Motor's factory in Russia remains closed amid Ukraine crisis: company officials
South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. has cancelled a plan to resume the operation of a factory in Russia due to continued supply disruptions amid the Ukraine crisis, company officials said Tuesday. Hyundai Motor originally planned to reopen the temporarily suspended operation of the factory in St. Petersburg on Wednesday but called it off due to persisting supply shortages of automotive semiconductors, according to the officials. The plant has been shut down since March 1. Automotiv
March 8, 2022
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No. of female outside board members at large companies grows, but few CEOs
There are more female members in corporate boardrooms in South Korea this year, as a revised law obliging big companies to improve gender diversity is due to take effect in August. But the presence of women executives yielding actual management power is still far from the global average, a survey and data showed Tuesday. Of the 104 outside directors set to start their terms in the first half of this year, 45 are female, according to data from market tracker Leaders Index. Out of 73 execu
March 8, 2022
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Russia’s new bond rules pile pressure on Korean firms
Russia on Tuesday threatened to pile pressure on Korean businesses by introducing new bond rules to allow Russian companies to pay their foreign creditors in the Russian ruble, even for securities denominated in other currencies. Companies here that prefer to get paid in the US dollar immediately started reviewing the impact, raising concerns that the new measure could eventually lead to a default. Russia may not be a major market for many Korean firms, but big names like Samsung Electronics
March 8, 2022
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Daewoo E&C earns first carbon credit revenue from Pakistani plant
Daewoo Engineering & Construction said Tuesday that it has earned its first revenue from sales of emissions credits through its hydropower plant project in Pakistan. The Patrind Hydropower Plant, located near the village of Patrind in Kashmir, Pakistan, was completed in 2017 in a joint venture project between Daewoo E&C and the state-run Korea Water Resource Corp. The power plant now generates 630 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year. The plant, registered to the UN as a Clean Develo
March 8, 2022
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Hyundai begins sales of the latest 2022 Avante
Hyundai Motor announced Tuesday that it will officially begin sales of the latest 2022 model of Avante, its compact sedan. The 2022 Avante comes with enhanced sound-absorbing doors and with more basic and extra options. The model will have 8-inch display audio in all trims, which before was only applied on its ‘smart’ trim. Hyundai added extra options such as ‘Smart Sense 3’ which includes rear collision prevention assistance and safety exit warning, as well as the cho
March 8, 2022
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Real estate prices soar on metaverse, too
Korea’s metaverse real estate sales platform Metaverse 2 said Tuesday its virtual land price has surged in the last six months, amid the growing trend towards alternative ways to build wealth using the blockchain technology. The company said the price of some shares that own Lotte World Tower, the country’s tallest building and one of the most famous landmarks in Seoul, increased 180,000 times to $18,300 as of Friday. The average price of 10 square meters of land in New York City&r
March 8, 2022
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US exempts Korea from export restrictions on Russia
The US government has formally exempted South Korea from its expanded export restrictions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Tuesday. The US Department of Commerce added Korea to the list of countries to be excluded from license requirements, including from the foreign direct product (FDP) rules for Russia and Belarus. Also on the list are member states of the European Union, Japan, Canada, Australia, the UK and New Zealand. “Provi
March 8, 2022