Most Popular
-
1
Contentious grain bill put directly to plenary meeting for vote
-
2
Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
-
3
Will tug-of-war between doctors, government end soon?
-
4
Climate impacts set to cut 2050 global GDP by nearly a fifth
-
5
Trilateral talks acknowledge ‘serious’ slumps of won, yen
-
6
[KH Explains] Hyundai's full hybrid edge to pay off amid slow transition to pure EVs
-
7
North Korea removes streetlights along cross-border roads with South
-
8
Russia's denial of entry of S. Korean national unrelated to bilateral ties: Seoul official
-
9
Farming households dip below 1m for first time in 2023
-
10
S. Korea votes in favor of Palestinian bid for UN membership
-
S. Korea's data industry grows 14% in 2020
South Korea's data industry expanded more than 14 percent in 2020 from a year earlier to exceed the 19 trillion won level, a survey showed Tuesday. The local market for data stood at 19.3 trillion won ($17.4 billion) last year, up 14.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the survey by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Data Agency. Last year's growth rate was much higher than the 8.3 percent on-year increase posted a year earlier. Data sales and provision accounted for the la
Jan. 19, 2021
-
S. Korean exports to Japan dip 11.7% in 2020 on pandemic
South Korean exports to Japan shrank nearly 12 percent in 2020 from a year earlier due to the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Tuesday. Overseas shipments to the neighboring country came to $25.09 billion last year, down 11.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea International Trade Association (KITA). Japan thus accounted for 4.9 percent of South Korea's overall exports last year, dropping below the 5 percent level for the first time in three years.
Jan. 19, 2021
-
Chaebol and prison: a quick look at chiefs who served jail terms
Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for bribing former President Park Geun-hye on Monday, joining a long list of conglomerate owners who have been charged with a similar offense in the past. While Lee is the first Samsung chief to be imprisoned and has been sentenced twice -- in a retrial Monday as well as in February 2017 -- Lee Byung-chul, the late founder of Samsung Group, was similarly investigated though without being indicted. Lee Jae-yong’s late father
Jan. 18, 2021
-
Samsung Electronics launches smart tracking tag
Samsung Electronics will introduce a smart tracking tag this week to help users find lost items, the company announced Monday. Dubbed the Galaxy SmartTag, the product will go on sale here Tuesday for a retail price of 29,700 won, the company said. The brand-new Bluetooth tracker is designed to help users locate lost items such as their keys, phones, pets and anything that they could misplace. By attaching the dongle to your personal belongings, SmartTag will emit an alarm sound when you
Jan. 18, 2021
-
[Herald Interview] Hard lessons from COVID-19 will equip Korea better for next pandemic
This interview is the second installment in a three-part series in conversations with the former directors of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- now the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency -- as the country looks back on a year of the COVID-19 pandemic. -- Ed. A former head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says South Korea weathered the novel coronavirus relatively unscathed in the initial stages, but that the winter serves as a reminder of
Jan. 18, 2021
-
Celltrion’s COVID drug given green light in 1st of 3-step review
Celltrion’s proposed COVID-19 treatment has won an OK in the first of the three-leg review by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the agency said Monday. The Korean drugmaker last week sought conditional use approval for its anti-COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment candidate regdanvimab, or CT-P59, becoming the first local firm to reach that stage in the race for a COVID-19 cure. A panel of experts, comprising eight outside experts and four from the ministry, advised that the auth
Jan. 18, 2021
-
Court ruling on Samsung heir adds to stock woes
South Korea’s stock market was dealt a further blow following a conviction of Samsung group heir apparent Lee Jae-yong on Monday, with large-cap stocks posting bigger losses. This comes as a recent rally, largely driven by massive retail investor participation since late 2020, has been followed by a stock market correction in the last two trading days. The Korea Exchange’s main board Kospi closed at 3,013.93 points, down 2.3 percent from Friday, despite retail investors’ c
Jan. 18, 2021
-
Hyundai Motor chairman sees March stock buy triple in value
Stocks in carmaker Hyundai Motor and its auto parts-making affiliate Hyundai Mobis that Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun bought during the peak of the coronavirus crisis last year have tripled in value, according to data on Monday. When Hyundai Motor Group stocks hit the rock bottom in March last year, Chung purchased stocks valued more than 80 billion won. The purchase price of a Hyundai Motor share was 69,793 won and 135,294 won for a share in Hyundai Mobis. Based on the closing pri
Jan. 18, 2021
-
SK hynix to launch consumer SSDs
SK hynix will launch consumer solid state drives here for the first time, the company said Monday, as the remote working trend boosted demand for personal storage devices. The chipmaker will introduce two models -- Gold P31 and Gold S31 – which were launched in the US market in 2020 and 2019, respectively, and received positive reviews. Gold P31 is an PCI Express SSD model, the world‘s first consumer SSD with 128-layer NAND, that can be used for any motherboard that has an availab
Jan. 18, 2021
-
Korea's ICT exports grow 3.8% in 2020
South Korea’s exports of information and communication technology products in 2020 increased 3.8 percent on-year, data showed. According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on Monday, exports of ICT products reached $183.6 billion for the whole of 2020, the third-highest amount ever. Shipments had declined in the first half of the year due to a sharp contraction in global demand during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but bounced back in the following half, largely driven by semicon
Jan. 18, 2021
-
[Feature] Fear of missing out: Psychology behind Kospi rally
The nickname “ants” has been used to describe South Korean retail investors, as a diligent but minor group seeking profit from the market with little in the way of knowledge or funds. The recent stock craze that pushed up the nation‘s main bourse Kospi, however, shows how those minor players are transforming. Armed with abundant funds and wider access to limited information thanks to advanced technology, the ants are marching toward the territory of the institutional and for
Jan. 18, 2021
-
Korea’s battery industry powers through pandemic
South Korea is projected to set a new record in rechargeable battery exports this year. Overseas shipment of rechargeable batteries is expected to grow 5.7 percent from a year earlier to reach a record high of $7 billion, according to a projection by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Battery Industry Association on Monday. In 2020, the country’s battery exports increased 2.9 percent year-on-year to $6.57 billion, marking a fifth consecutive year of growth. By
Jan. 18, 2021
-
Tesla’s Model Y SUV to feature Hankook Tire’s tires
Hankook Tire, the world’s seventh-largest tire maker by sales, will be one of the tire suppliers for Tesla’s electric sport utility vehicle Model Y, industry officials said Monday. The Korean tire manufacturer’s 19-inch tires are currently fitted on Model Y vehicles that are produced in Tesla’s Shanghai plant, which accounts for the Chinese market and other countries around the world. The Korean market, however, is likely to be excluded from the Hankook Tire production
Jan. 18, 2021
-
[Newsmaker] Blow for Samsung as heir Lee sent back to prison for bribery
South Korea’s largest conglomerate, Samsung Group, is facing another watershed as chief Lee Jae-yong was once again taken into custody Monday after receiving a jail term for bribery and embezzlement. The departure of Lee from the helm of the group comes at a time when the IT giant is seeking to make progress on its long-pending management succession and to press forward amid the post-coronavirus economic recovery. “Lee should be held responsible for the suggested bribery and embez
Jan. 18, 2021
-
[Gadget Review] This time, Galaxy S21 over Galaxy S21 Ultra?
Entry models are often a compromise for consumers, second-best to the fancy and expensive premium models. When it comes to Samsung Electronics’ latest smartphone lineup, however, that may not be the case. With its sleeker design and slashed price tag, the Galaxy S21, the entry model in the latest series, immediately caught my attention. Then after getting my hands on it and the premium Ultra model over the weekend, I came to favor the cheaper phone over the extra-premium one. The two
Jan. 18, 2021
-
Seoul stocks dip over 2% on Samsung, bio stocks
South Korean stocks tumbled more than 2 percent Monday amid strong profit-taking sell-offs and a plunge in Samsung affiliates. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) dipped 71.97 points, or 2.33 percent, to close at 3,013.93 points. Trading volume was high at about 1.5 billion shares worth around 22.8 trillion won ($20.7 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 715 to 164. Foreigners sold a net 220 billion won, while retail investo
Jan. 18, 2021
-
Hanmi touts production capacity for COVID-19 vaccines
Hanmi Pharmaceutical on Monday said it has enough production capacity to contract manufacture COVID-19 vaccines. “Hanmi Pharmaceutical has various capabilities and facilities where we can produce nucleic acid vaccines as a contract manufacturing/development organization,” said CEO Kwon Se-chang. “We are open to potential collaboration with various companies to contribute to ending the global pandemic.” Among others, the executive pointed to its newly built Bio Plant
Jan. 18, 2021
-
Yuhan’s lung cancer treatment lazertinib wins approval
The title for Korea’s 31st homegrown novel drug goes to Yuhan’s lung cancer treatment, Leclaza. On Monday, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced its approval for the third-generation non-small cell lung cancer treatment, bringing relief to some 100,000 lung cancer patients in the country. Leclaza is a swallowable tablet that can be taken at a fixed time every day, regardless of meals. In clinical trials, the drug has shown an overall response rate of 58 percent and a pro
Jan. 18, 2021
-
Singapore’s Prestige Biopharma eyes Feb. IPO on Kospi
Prestige Biopharma, a Singapore biopharmaceutical firm dedicated to biosimilars and new antibody therapeutic developments, said Monday it is looking to raise as much as 490.9 billion won ($444.5 million) in an initial public offering on the Korean main bourse early next month. It plans to issue some 15.34 million depository receipts in a price band of 25,000-32,000 won. The exact share price will be set through the two-day book building that is set to wrap up Wednesday. Retail investors’
Jan. 18, 2021
-
Residents' foreign currency deposits touch new high in December last year
Foreign currency deposits at banks in South Korea hit a new high in December last year on increased retail holdings of the US dollar deposits, central bank data showed Monday. Outstanding foreign currency-denominated deposits held by residents amounted to $94.2 billion as of end-December, up $590 million from the previous month, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). Residents' foreign currency deposits renewed their record for the third consecutive month after plunging by $3.1 bi
Jan. 18, 2021