Most Popular
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1 in 3 Koreans live alone, family types becoming diverse
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Korea, Japan finance chiefs vow to tame rampant FX market volatility
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K-pop singer lost consciousness after being hit by foul ball, cancels show
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K-pop group's manager dismissed for setting up spycam in theater dressing room
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Contentious grain bill put directly to plenary meeting for vote
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Korean Muslim YouTuber's plan to build mosque in Incheon goes viral
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Why is Apple Pay struggling to get purchase in Korea?
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Yoon's office denies considering liberal figures for key posts
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Trilateral talks acknowledge ‘serious’ slumps of won, yen
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[Today’s K-pop] BTS pop-up event to come to Seoul
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Conglomerate investments rise 4.6% in H1, led by chipmakers
South Korea’s large business groups increased their investments by nearly 5 percent in the first half of 2021, according to data by a local market researcher on Friday. Including the country’s biggest tech giant Samsung Electronics, the top 332 Korean companies invested a combined 82.8 trillion won ($70.3 billion) in the January-June period, up 4.6 percent from a year earlier, showed figures released by CEO Score. The investment amount surged 12.6 percent in the first half of 201
Aug. 20, 2021
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KakaoBank outpaces Hyundai Motor in market cap
KakaoBank, South Korea’s largest digital-only bank, beat out Hyundai Motor, one of the world’s largest carmakers, in terms of market capitalization on Friday morning, becoming 8th most valuable company here. Shares of KakaoBank rose 1.85 percent to 92,300 won ($77.98) during the morning trade to surpass the 44 trillion won-mark before it closed at 1.09 percent lower to 91,000 won. Hyundai Motor shares, meanwhile, declined more than 1 percent to 204,000 won apiece, losing
Aug. 20, 2021
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Seoul stocks turn to losses late Fri. morning on U.S. tapering worries
South Korean stocks turned to losses late Friday morning as concerns about the possibility of US Fed's earlier-than-expected tapering pulled down stock prices. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) retreated 20.52 points, or 0.66 percent, to 3,077.31 points as of 11:20 a.m. Stocks opened with mild gains after the Kospi retreated nearly 2 percent Thursday, marking the biggest daily loss since Feb. 26 and the lowest closing price since early April. But stocks fell back below t
Aug. 20, 2021
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LG Electronics joins hands with Hyundai Elevator on smart building solutions
LG Electronics Inc. said Friday it has joined hands with Hyundai Elevator Co. to seek business opportunities in smart home and building solutions. LG will work with the country's largest elevator manufacturer to develop robot logistics services in which autonomous bots deliver parcels and food at apartments, office buildings and hospitals with elevators. Under the agreement, the two sides will also cooperate in making premium elevators equipped with LG's OLED signage. The partnership came as
Aug. 20, 2021
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S. Korea to unveil steps to curb inflation ahead of Chuseok holiday: official
South Korea plans to unveil a set of measures later this month to stabilize consumer prices ahead of next month's fall harvest Chuseok holiday, a senior government official said Friday. First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon said the government will take actions to curb rising prices of farm products, if needed, in the run-up to the holiday scheduled for Sept. 20-22. Demand for vegetables, eggs and other foodstuffs usually rises in South Korea ahead of the Chuseok holiday as people prepare h
Aug. 20, 2021
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Samsung retakes No.1 spot in Q2 chip sales: report
Samsung Electronics Co. regained the No.1 spot in chip sales in the second quarter of the year, surpassing its archrival Intel Corp. for the first time in almost three years, on the back of robust sales of memory semiconductors, a report showed Friday. The South Korean tech giant logged $20.29 billion in chip sales in the April-June period, up 19 percent from a quarter earlier, according to the latest McClean Report released by market researcher IC Insights. Samsung, the world's largest memory
Aug. 20, 2021
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Seoul stocks open higher on bargain hunting
South Korean stocks opened higher Friday as bargain hunters sought oversold stocks after the benchmark index plunged by almost 2 percent the previous day. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 5.68 points, or 0.18 percent, to 3,103.51 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks rebounded after the Kospi retreated nearly 2 percent Thursday, marking biggest daily loss since Feb. 26, and the lowest closing price since early April. Investors remained wary for market j
Aug. 20, 2021
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Tougher regulations cast shadow over crypto markets in S. Korea
Ko Kwang-nam invested 5 million won ($4,251) in cryptocurrencies but lost about half of his holdings as the nation's cryptocurrency markets showed signs of cooling down ahead of tougher regulations. As things stand, Ko, a 30-something office worker in Seoul, is likely to lose most of holdings because he made big bets on smaller or "alternative" coins. "I am not going to cut my losses because I believe that prices will go up again if regulatory issues are over," Ko said. Ab
Aug. 20, 2021
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Big firms' H1 investment gains 4.6% on chip boom
South Korean big companies' investments expanded nearly 5 percent in the first half of the year thanks mainly to a semiconductor boom, a corporate tracker said Friday. Global tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. and 331 other large firms in Asia's fourth-largest economy invested a combined 82.8 trillion won (US$70.3 billion) in the January-June period, up 4.6 percent from a year earlier, according to CEO Score. Compared with the pre-pandemic first half of 2019, the figure was up 12.6 percent. T
Aug. 20, 2021
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Producer prices up for 9th month in July
South Korea's producer prices gained 0.7 percent on-month in July due to a modest rise in prices of food and energy, extending their monthly gains for the ninth straight month, central bank data showed Friday. The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, stood at 110.02 in July, compared with 109.22 a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The July index advanced 7.1 percent from the previous year, the BOK data showed. The prices of agricultural goods rose
Aug. 20, 2021
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‘Mergepoint saga could speed up passage of e-payment act revision’
Politicians have started to look closely into a snowballing fiasco of prepaid discount service Mergepoint on Thursday, raising expectations that it could help speed up the passage of a revision to the controversial e-payment law. The revised Electronic Financial Transaction Act (EFTA) has been pending at the National Assembly for nine months. Park Wan-joo, the policy committee chairman of the ruling Democratic Party, said the government and the ruling party were taking the case very seriously
Aug. 19, 2021
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Coupang slapped with W3.3b fine for unfair trade practices
Coupang on Thursday has been slapped with fines totaling 3.29 billion won ($2.8 million) for unfair business practices, losing a case which pitted decades-old consumer goods brands against the e-commerce platform operator. The Fair Trade Commission, in announcing the decision, said Coupang has abused its position as a major online marketplace to coerce vendors, including LG Household and Healthcare, to slash the prices of products sold on its platform. Coupang violated several terms of the
Aug. 19, 2021
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Seoul stocks dip nearly 2 pct on US tapering jitters
South Korean stocks tumbled nearly 2 percent Thursday on concerns over the US Federal Reserve minutes that hinted at the possibility of an earlier-than-expected tapering timeline. The Korean won steeply fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) slumped 61.1 points, or 1.93 percent, to close at 3,097.83 points. The figure marks the index's biggest daily loss since Feb. 26, and the closing price marks the lowest since early April. Trading volume was mode
Aug. 19, 2021
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Hanwha, a living testament to tycoon’s era in Korea
In 2014, just 10 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, the capital of war-torn Iraq, hundreds of Hanwha Engineering & Construction workers were toiling away to build a new city worth $10.1 billion to provide new homes for some 600,000 Iraqis. Far away from home and exhausted by the desert heat, the workers craved fresh flatfish sashimi, a cheap dish in South Korea but impossible to find in Iraq. When Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn heard the news, he ordered chefs to prepare flatfish sas
Aug. 19, 2021
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[Behind the Wheel] Land Rover’s iconic Defender 90 comes back stronger
First launched in 1948, Jaguar Land Rover’s legendary off-roader Defender has made a grand comeback with a completely new look. At first glance, the makeover gives the Defender 90 a futuristic look yet embraces enough of its original features to retain its identity as the iconic sport utility vehicle specializing in off-road driving. One of the most noticeable changes was the round edges of the four-wheel car’s contour, which used to be sharp and angular in the original models.
Aug. 19, 2021
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[News Focus] Is Lee Jae-yong working at Samsung or not?
South Korean Justice Minister Park Beom-kye on Thursday reiterated his stance that Samsung Group’s de facto chief Lee Jae-yong is not technically working at Samsung and so is not breaking a work ban imposed on him. “It is hard to say Lee is employed at this moment,” Park told reporters on Thursday, repeating what he said a day before. “Lee has not been paid for years, does not have a permanent position and is not a registered executive.” Park then added, &ldquo
Aug. 19, 2021
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NH NongHyup to work with Samsung Electronics for digital transformation
South Korea’s NH NongHyup Bank said Thursday it is collaborating with Samsung Electronics to accelerate digital transformation of its financial businesses. One of the country‘s top commercial banks and the global tech behemoth signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday that will help NH NongHyup efficiently utilize key emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and the metaverse. Designing digital, yet consumer-friendly brick-and-mortar branches, de
Aug. 19, 2021
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HHI acquires Doosan Infracore after Chinese arm dispute resolution
Hyundai Heavy Industries Group has closed an acquisition deal of a 30 percent stake in South Korean machinery manufacturer Doosan Infracore for 850 billion won ($722.5 million), a filing submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service showed Thursday. The business conglomerate‘s midtier holding company Hyundai Genuine has bought 23.4 million common shares in Doosan Infracore from the debt-saddled Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, which will use about 690 billion won in proceeds t
Aug. 19, 2021
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Retail investors’ ownership of Samsung Electronics stock doubles
Amid massive foreign sell-offs of Samsung Electronics, South Korea’s most valuable company, domestic retail traders’ stock ownership in the tech giant doubled this year, surpassing 13 percent for the first time, data showed Thursday. Individual investors’ stock holdings of Samsung accounted for an all-time high of 13.08 percent of the total as of Wednesday. The previous record -- set at end-December last year -- was 6.48 percent, according to data compiled by the Korea Securit
Aug. 19, 2021
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Listed firms' H1 earnings more than triple amid global economic recovery
South Korea's listed companies saw their earnings more than triple in the first half of 2021 from a year earlier as the global economic recovery from the pandemic steeply increased their sales, data showed Thursday. The combined net profit of 587 out of 664 firms, which are listed on the main Kospi bourse and close their books on Dec. 31, totaled 85.13 trillion won ($72.34 billion) on a consolidated basis in the January-June period, up 245.5 percent from 26.4 trillion won a year earlier, accord
Aug. 19, 2021