Most Popular
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Blinken calls on China to press N. Korea to end its 'dangerous' behavior
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New celebrity-endorsed therapy for face contouring requires only a pair of rubber bands
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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[Weekender] How DDP emerged as an icon of Seoul
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Doctor group's incoming head renews call for govt. to scrap medical school quota hike for dialogue
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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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SsangYong Motor in receivership ramps up cost-cutting drive
SsangYong Motor Co. is seeking to cut some 10 executive jobs as part of its restructuring efforts after being put under court receivership, an industry source said Sunday. SsangYong Motor has been in the debt-rescheduling process since April 15 as its Indian parent Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. has failed to attract an investor amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and worsening financial status. According to the source, SsangYong Motor has been considering cutting about 30 percent of its 33 e
April 25, 2021
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Female mobile gamers enthused over casual mobile game
At the start of the year, Devsisters Corp. was a minor mobile game publisher struggling to turn around, crossing its fingers over the launch of its latest installment of the casual endless runner series Cookie Run. Three months later, "Cookie Run: Kingdom" has dominated South Korea's mobile app store charts, surpassing 10 million downloads. The game's March sales on local app stores are estimated at over 20 billion won ($17.9 million), ranking third after behemoth hardcore games Line
April 25, 2021
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S. Korea's exports of cosmetics up 15% in 2020
South Korea's exports of cosmetics shot up 15 percent in 2020 from a year earlier, data showed Sunday, on the back of growing demand from the United States and Asian countries. Outbound shipments of cosmetics reached $6.12 billion last year, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service and the Korea Cosmetic Association. South Korea's imports of cosmetics fell 10.7 percent on-year in 2020 to $1.07 billion. The country's exports of cosmetics had been maintaining two-digit annual
April 25, 2021
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KB clinches title as leading bank in Q1 with record earnings
South Korea’s KB Financial Group outperformed the three other major banking groups here in terms of first-quarter net profit, buoyed by its strong brokerage and other nonbanking businesses, data released Friday showed. KB’s net profit in the first three months gained 74.1 percent on-year to 1.2 trillion won ($1.1 billion) -- a record-high quarterly net profit since it became the holding entity of KB-branded financial and banking firms in September 2009. The value of its total asse
April 23, 2021
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S. Korean brokerages vying for MyData license
South Korean securities firms, which are infamous for their rigid company culture, are competitively setting up their own digital platforms and seeking partnerships with rising fintech startups. Conventional stockbrokers are doing this for one reason -- they hope to do business in the MyData segment. MyData is one of the government’s marquee projects to reshape the outdated financial sector in response to the “fourth industrial revolution,” centered on digitalization. The gov
April 23, 2021
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SC Bank Korea extends promotion to help boost children’s savings
Standard Chartered Bank Korea will extend a special promotion aimed at helping young customers build a better savings habit for an extra month until end-May, the lender said Sunday. The promotion, which was initially planned to run from March to April, offers 10,000 won ($8.95) to those aged 18 or under who open SC Bank Korea savings accounts if they meet certain conditions. The customers would need to open a checking account, named Dream-Youth Deposit, and a savings account, called First Hou
April 23, 2021
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Samsung Bioepis’ Q1 biosimilar sales in Europe hit $205m
Sales of biosimilars developed by Samsung Bioepis in Europe reached $205.1 million in the first quarter this year, the South Korean drugmaker said Friday. Sales of Samsung Bioepis’ three major autoimmune biosimilars -- Benepali, Flixabi and Imraldi -- increased 3.9 percent on-quarter but decreased 6.3 percent on-year, the company said, citing an earnings report of its US partner Biogen released Thursday, local time. Samsung Bioepis is a joint venture between Biogen and Samsung Group&rs
April 23, 2021
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South Korean exporters urged to brace for rising ocean freight rates
South Korean firms that are heavily reliant on exports should come up with diverse ways to cut down on their logistics costs amid a prolonged surge in ocean freight charges, a report suggested Friday. Ocean freight rates are rising and could continue for a long time against the backdrop of unstable supply and demand for empty containers and a rise in demand due to revenge consumption, the Institute for International Trade warned in its report. To achieve a competitive price edge, exporters ca
April 23, 2021
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Oriental Brewery taps Youn Yuh-jung as brand ambassador
South Korea’s largest brewer, Oriental Brewery, has tapped veteran actress Youn Yuh-jung as the new brand ambassador for its flagship beer brand Cass, the company said Friday. In a commercial, Youn, the first Korean woman to be nominated for an Academy Award and a strong contender for best supporting actress, discusses opening herself up to form relationships with people as she promotes the beer. The company said Youn, “who is not afraid to speak her mind,” is an inspiration
April 23, 2021
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Hanwha Corp. to issue first green bonds worth W150b
Hanwha Corp. said Friday that it will issue green bonds for the first time. According to the Hanwha Group holdings firm, it will file a securities declaration with the Financial Supervisory Service on Monday and conduct a book-building session Thursday, seeking to issue green bonds worth up to 150 billion won ($134 million) on May 7. Green bonds are specifically earmarked to raise money for climate and environmental projects. Hanwha Corp. last month launched an environmental, social and cor
April 23, 2021
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Crypto coins plunge amid growing bubble fears
Most cryptocurrencies have fallen significantly and a few, including Bitcoin and Dogecoin, have nose-dived more than 10 percent amid rising concerns over a potential bubble burst. Bitcoin, the world’s latest cryptocurrency, saw its price drop 12.08 percent Thursday, continuing a downward trend that started after it hit a high of 81,994,000 won ($73,243) on April 14, according to local crypto exchange Upbit. Dogecoin, which benefited from the enthusiasm of electric carmaker Tesla CEO El
April 23, 2021
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S. Korea faces dilemma over cryptocurrency taxation
South Korea's financial authorities are moving to impose an income tax on cryptocurrency trading from next year, but investors in digital tokens have raised a nagging question about the proposed taxation. A growing number of cryptocurrency investors have cried foul over whether the government will collect a tax on virtual currencies while top policymakers see no intrinsic value in crypto assets amid a lack of regulations to protect cryptocurrency investors. Like many governments around the wo
April 23, 2021
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Shinhan CEOs get slap on wrist over Lime scandal
The top executives of Shinhan Financial Group and Shinhan Bank received light sanctions Thursday over the sale of problematic funds structured by hedge fund firm Lime Asset Management. A sanctions committee under the market watchdog Financial Supervisory Service handed down an admonition to Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung and a cautionary warning to Shinhan Bank CEO Jin Ok-dong for their lax oversight of the Lime fund misselling. The decision was made late Thursda
April 23, 2021
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S. Korea to import more eggs this month to stabilize prices
South Korea said Friday it plans to import more eggs this month in a bid to help stabilize rising prices of eggs that were caused by the outbreak of bird flu here. The country plans to bring in 40 million eggs in April, up from the initially planned imports of 25 million, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The ministry said it will push to increase the imports of eggs next month as well and take available steps to curb a sharp rise in egg prices amid a build-up in overall inflat
April 23, 2021
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Seoul stocks open lower on US slump
South Korean stocks opened lower Friday, tracking an overnight Wall Street plunge that was spurred by a tax raise proposal in the United States. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 25.91 points, or 0.82 percent, to 3,151.61 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks deepened losses as investors weighed the impact of the potential tax hike on the wealthy in the United States on social spending. Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.94 percent, with the
April 23, 2021
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Foreign ownership of S. Korean land increases 1.9% in 2020
Foreign ownership of South Korean land expanded nearly 2 percent in 2020 from a year earlier, the land ministry said Friday. Foreigners owned 253.3 square kilometers of land here as of the end of December last year, up 1.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The amount is slightly more than four times the size of Manhattan and accounts for 0.25 percent of South Korea's total land area. The value of land held by foreigners grew 3.1 perc
April 23, 2021
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S. Korea's daily FX turnover jumps in Q1 on recovery in trade
The daily foreign exchange (FX) trading by banks in South Korea jumped 20.7 percent in the first quarter from three months earlier, thanks to a modest recovery in trade, central bank data showed Friday. The daily FX turnover came to an average $60.94 billion in the January-March period, up $10.44 billion from the fourth quarter of last year, according to the data by the Bank of Korea (BOK). It was the biggest three-month gain since 2008, when the BOK changed its method of compiling the data.
April 23, 2021
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Biz lobby groups to submit joint letter recommending pardon of Samsung heir Lee
South Korea's major business lobby groups plan to submit to the government a letter recommending the pardon of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the de facto leader of Samsung Group who was convicted of bribery, sources said Thursday. The five major lobby groups -- the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Korea Enterprises Federation, the Korea Federation of SMEs, the Korea International Trade Association and the Federation of Middle Market Enterprises of Korea -- have rea
April 22, 2021
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Samsung’s Lee denies charges in first court hearing on succession
Samsung Electronics chief Lee Jae-yong on Thursday denied all charges leveled against him during his first trial hearing on alleged irregularities surrounding his ascension to the helm of Samsung Group. Attending the session held at the Seoul Central District Court, Lee pleaded not guilty when he was asked by the presiding judge to respond to the charges brought against him by prosecutors which include stock market manipulation, illicit trading and breach of trust. “I cannot admit (to
April 22, 2021
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BlackRock sells some of Coway stake
The world‘s largest asset management firm BlackRock has sold a 1.18 percent stake in South Korea’s home appliance rental service firm Coway for 50 billion won ($44.7 million), a filing showed Thursday. Following the transactions, the combined equity holding of BlackRock Fund Advisors and 13 affiliated entities in Coway has been reduced to 3.83 percent, and is no longer subject to filing obligations as a blockholder of the company, which specializes in door-to-door rental services o
April 22, 2021