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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LIG Nex1 heads to IDEX 2021, knocks on Middle East market
LIG Nex1 said Sunday it is participating in the International Defense Exhibition and Conference 2021 to showcase its next-generation defense technologies. According to the South Korean aerospace and defense firm, it will display its medium-range surface-to-air missile M-SAM II, also known as Cheongung II, anti-tank guided missile Raybolt, wearable robot Lexo, unmanned surface vehicle Sea Sword and multipurpose, compact drone systems at the biennial defense expo that kicked off Sunday in Abu
Feb. 21, 2021
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[News Focus] Call for transparency as gamers take issue with real odds of ‘random’ items
Last week, Nexon apologized for misleading users of the odds of receiving different types of probability-based items inside its fantasy adventure PC game MapleStory, becoming the first company here to admit that those “random” items have a preset draw probability. In an apology posted Friday on MapleStory’s official website, Nexon director Kang Won-ki said a misunderstanding occurred due to different interpretations of the word “random.” The company has used the
Feb. 21, 2021
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Citigroup may divest Korean banking subsidiary
Citigroup has been mulling divestiture of its South Korean banking subsidiary, among other international consumer units, but is treading cautiously, reports and statements released as of Sunday showed. According to Bloomberg Law on Friday, the New York-based multinational banking giant has been considering divesting units tied to retail banking across the Asia-Pacific region, including those in Korea, Thailand, the Philippines and Australia. The reports precede the rise of Citigroup’s in
Feb. 21, 2021
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South Korean unicorns take big leap with greater global presence
Going global has been a long shot for many South Korean startups despite their advanced services and products. But planned stock listings and mergers and acquisitions of Korean unicorns, including those for Coupang, Woowa Brothers and Hyperconnect, are raising expectations for local companies to grow their international reach. “The series of recent megadeals made in the startup sector here have moved the value of the entire Korean ecosystem up a notch,” said Lim Jung-wook, chief o
Feb. 21, 2021
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Samsung Display joins responsible business alliance
Samsung Display’s chief executive officer Choi Joo-sun is aiming to further embolden the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) involvement beginning this year. As part of this drive, the company announced Sunday that it joined the Responsible Business Alliance. The RBA is an international industry coalition that holds its members accountable to a code of conduct that aspires for a higher level of corporate ethics. More than 160 global companies are its members, inclu
Feb. 21, 2021
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Brokerages rake in record-high credit loan interest of W1tr in 2020
South Korean securities firms generated nearly 1 trillion won ($904 million) worth of profit from interest paid by individuals who borrowed money to invest in stocks last year, according to data provided by the Korea Financial Investment Association Sunday. The combined interest on credit-based loans that 57 local brokerage houses collected from retail traders came to 997 billion won in 2020, having soared 33.4 percent on-year. It was also a fresh new high since the association began collecting
Feb. 21, 2021
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Airlines to retain air traffic rights without flying
The government is poised to further extend the period when airlines can suspend flights without losing their air traffic rights for the routes, as the pandemic continues to affect the aviation industry. According to sources close to the matter, the new extension is currently being “positively considered,” as the current extension comes to an end next month. “Given the prolonged pandemic, the measure is being positively considered to help support airlines,” one Transport
Feb. 21, 2021
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Bitcoin is now worth more than its weight in gold
The price of Bitcoin surged to another record high over the weekend, becoming more expensive than 1 kilogram of gold. The digital coin was being traded for more than 65 million won ($58,800) as of Sunday morning, data from crypto exchange Upbit showed. Bitcoin’s rally came as domestic gold prices recently declined to hit a new 10-month low. Gold, which has long been a safe haven asset both in Korea and worldwide, stood at 62,967 won per 1 gram as of Friday. The largest cryptocurrency&
Feb. 21, 2021
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2 concrete pipe producers fined W313m over price collusion
South Korea's antitrust regulator said Sunday it has decided to fine two small concrete pipe producers a combined 313 million won ($282,000) for colluding to fix prices of industrial pipes. Buyang Industry Co. and Shinhung Hume Pipe Co. colluded to fix their quotations between 2012 and 2016 for 38 rounds of concrete pipe purchase bidding put forward by government agencies and public firms, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KTFC). The deals were worth an estimated 10.6 billion
Feb. 21, 2021
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Imprisoned Samsung heir likely to be dismissed as welfare foundation chief
Lee Jae-yong, the de facto head of Samsung Group, is expected to be dismissed as head of a social welfare foundation established by his late father, as he is imprisoned over a high-profile bribery case, sources said Sunday. Samsung Life Public Welfare Foundation is expected to hold a board meeting next month to decide whether to strip him of the chairmanship of the foundation, according to sources at the Seoul city government and the Yongsan Ward office. Last month, Lee was sentenced to two an
Feb. 21, 2021
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Cargo handling at seaports down 1.6% in Jan.
The amount of cargo processed at South Korea's seaports moved down 1.6 percent in January from a year earlier amid the new coronavirus pandemic, data showed Sunday. The volume of cargo handled at local sea ports came to 128.9 million tons last month, compared with 131 million tons posted a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. Handling of export-import cargo also shrank 1 percent on-year to 111.1 million tons last month. The ministry attributed
Feb. 21, 2021
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Retail investors pare down net stock buying in Feb.
South Korean retail investors pared down their net buying of local stocks in February as the country's key stock index traded in a tight range following a bull run, data showed Sunday. Retail investors snapped up a net 5.8 trillion won ($5.24 billion) worth of stocks on the main and secondary markets during 13 trading sessions ending on Feb. 19, compared with a net purchase of 25.8 trillion won in January, according to the bourse operator Korea Exchange. Compared with a month earlier, their ne
Feb. 21, 2021
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Homegrown app market draws spotlight as alternative to Google's Play store
South Korea's app market ONE store has drawn attention as a possible alternative to Google's Play store as local app developers worry about increasing costs over the US tech giant's decision to expand its 30 percent commission fee to all in-app digital goods purchases later this year. ONE store, a subsidiary of top wireless carrier SK Telecom Co., launched the app market in 2016 as a smaller rival to the Play store on Google's Android operating system. The app market has since steadily grown,
Feb. 21, 2021
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Celltrion to supply antibody treatment for COVID-19 without profit margin in Korea: chairman
South Korean biopharmaceutical company Celltrion will supply its antibody treatment for COVID-19 without a profit margin in South Korea, its chairman has said. Celltrion’s CT-P59 won the South Korean drug safety agency’s conditional approval earlier this month, becoming the first locally made treatment for the virus. The drug began to be supplied to local medical institutions Wednesday. CT-P59 is administered to COVID-19 patients at higher risk, referring to people aged 60 and olde
Feb. 20, 2021
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BlackRock emerges as Kakao’s 5th-largest shareholder
US-based international investment manager BlackRock became a blockholder of South Korea’s internet giant Kakao, in an apparent bet on the corporation behind Korea’s most popular messenger app, a filing showed Friday. The US investor’s subsidiary BlackRock Fund Advisors and its 13 affiliates have spent 986.4 billion won ($891.9 million) to obtain 5.18 percent of common shares in Kakao as of Monday, according to the filing. As a result, BlackRock is expected to become the fif
Feb. 19, 2021
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BNP Paribas South Korea ramps up efforts for gender equality
As part of a move to promote gender equality at work, BNP Paribas South Korea has hosted an online event named Gender and Power Talks in partnership with law firm Shin & Kim LCC and the Korean-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Ahead of International Women’s Day slated for March 8, leaders from the three organizations discussed measures to foster female leadership across industries in the virtual event, which was held on Wednesday. “(BNP Paribas South Korea)
Feb. 19, 2021
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FSC chief reiterates call to salvage cash-strapped SsangYong Motor
South Korea’s top financial regulator Eun Sung-soo said Friday that its earlier call on its creditors to extend additional support to financially pinched commercial vehicle maker SsangYong Motor remains “valid.” Eun, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said that he found common ground “in a broader sense” with SsangYong’s main creditor Korea Development Bank, which has refused to extend an additional funding to the lossmaking Korean arm of India-ba
Feb. 19, 2021
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Gold prices drop to 10-month low while bitcoin rally continues
Gold prices have skidded to a 10-month low while bitcoin, which is considered by some as a digital replacement for gold, has been on a bull run. The price for a gram of gold declined for five trading days in a row on Thursday as it closed at 63,900 won ($57.67), down 0.48 percent from a day earlier, according to the Korea Exchange. The closing price is the lowest since April 6 when the gold price came in at 63,780 won. Compared to the record high of 80,100 won on July 28, the price has tum
Feb. 19, 2021
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SK hynix to see 70% surge in Q1 profit: report
SK hynix’s operating profit for the first quarter this year is expected to hit 1.36 trillion won ($1.2 billion), up 70.6 percent on-year, Shinhan Investment said Friday. The brokerage also forecast in its report that the company’s revenue during the three month period could go up 14.2 percent on-year to reach 8.2 trillion won. The on-year growth was mostly attributed to the increasing price in dynamic random-access memory products, or DRAM products, and the recent turnaround in ma
Feb. 19, 2021
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S. Korea to introduce contact-free boarding at airports
Contactless, airport check-in systems will be set up across the country by next year, South Korea’s Vice Finance Minister said on Friday, in a bit to digitalize the nation’s social infrastructure. “By 2022, (the government) will implement a contactless check-in system at 15 airports across the nation, which automatically confirms identification of passengers via biometric data, in order to increase convenience of residents using local airports,” Vice Finance Minister K
Feb. 19, 2021