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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Doctor group's incoming head renews call for govt. to scrap medical school quota hike for dialogue
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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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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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Wall Street's crypto endorsement pushes Bitcoin
The booming adoption of digital coins by institutional players pushed the price of a bitcoin to new heights Wednesday. Bitcoin soared to a record high of 71.6 million won ($63,200) in the morning Wednesday, according to Upbit, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange that trades 184 coins. Wednesday’s rally came after a series of institutional endorsements from big players in various industries that began earlier this year. On Tuesday, PayPal, which has 375 million users, launched a
March 31, 2021
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S. Korea sees limited chance of inflation exceeding BOK's 2% target
South Korea's consumer prices are not expected to sharply rise to top the central bank's 2 percent target even as the country faces upward inflationary pressure, a senior government official said Wednesday. First Vice Finance Minister Kim Yong-beom said prices of agricultural and livestock products are expected to stabilize on the back of efforts to increase supply and curb the spread of bird flu. "There is a limited possibility that the growth of consumer inflation will surpass the Bank
March 31, 2021
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KT offers first mobile fee discounts for foreign subscribers
KT is rolling out a mobile fee discount program exclusively for non-South Korean nationals, becoming the first mobile carrier here to do so, the firm announced Wednesday. While many local subscribers are eligible for family plans, which entail discounts and benefits such as shared data usage, most foreigners have been left out of such benefits as many are here without their families. KT’s new plan for non-Koreans will group five foreign customers with the same nationality and offer a
March 31, 2021
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Dual-class share system needed for unicorns’ local IPOs: KRX chief
The head of South Korea’s sole stock bourse operator on Wednesday said that allowing a dual-class share system in the country would help more unicorns -- privately held startups valued at 1 trillion won ($884 million) or higher -- to consider listing in the local market. “Both the country’s ruling and the main opposition parties have discussed matters related to adopting dual-class voting rights. If the government allows the system, we believe that it will likely attract (pro
March 31, 2021
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S. Korea launches committee on carbon neutrality in transport sector
South Korea said Wednesday it has launched a committee on carbon neutrality with automobile firms in line with efforts to effectively reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2050. The committee will pave the way for the government to expand cooperation with local carmakers, including Hyundai Motor Group, in rolling out policies related to carbon neutrality, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. "In the long term, we plan to beef up our competitiveness in the electric and hyd
March 31, 2021
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S. Korean EV battery makers see global market shares dip in Jan.-Feb.
South Korea's three electric vehicle (EV) battery makers saw their global market shares fall in the first two months of the year amid Chinese rivals' big advances, a market tracker said Wednesday. Worldwide consumption of EV batteries stood at 25.2 gigawatt hours (GWh) in the January-February period, up 102.4 percent from a year earlier, according to SNE Research. South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd., which spun off from LG Chem Ltd. in December last year, shipped 4.8 GWh equival
March 31, 2021
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YouTube Music's Android users more than double on-year in Feb: data
YouTube Music ranked as the second-most popular music streaming platform among South Korean Android users last month, with listeners on the platform more than doubling from the previous year, data showed Wednesday. The music streaming service from YouTube had 2.61 million users in February, compared with just 1.22 million the previous year, according to mobile analytics firm WiseApp based on its data on local Android smartphone users aged 10 and older. Local music streaming giant Melon, operat
March 31, 2021
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Korean Air, Asiana to merge under one brand in 2024: Korean Air president
Korean Air aims to launch a single integrated entity with Asiana Airlines, its biggest acquisition to date, in 2024, its chief executive president said Wednesday. Explaining to reporters the post-merger integration plan, which it reported to Asiana’s main creditor earlier this month, Woo Kee-hong said Asiana Airlines would operate as a subsidiary of Korean Air for two years before being integrated into one brand. “Once Asiana Airlines become a subsidiary of Korean Air, the proces
March 31, 2021
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Bourse operator to look into measures to improve short-selling scheme before May enforcement
The South Korean bourse operator said Wednesday that it will check on its regulations on stock short selling, a trading technique that has been temporarily banned here since March last year, before its resumption in May. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) banned short selling of stocks from March 16 for a six-month period, in a move to ease a market rout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The temporary ban was extended twice until May 2, and short selling is set to resume on May 3. "W
March 31, 2021
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Korean multistrategy hedge fund is APAC's top performer of 2020: Preqin
A multistrategy hedge fund by a South Korean manager logged the highest annual net return for 2020 in the Asia-Pacific region, data showed Wednesday. The hedge fund, Gudo TAO Fund 1, net returned 124.99 percent, topping the list of Asia-Pacific-based multistrategy hedge funds through 2020, according to data from international market data tracker Preqin. The fund outperformed peers managed by Singapore’s Caygan Capital as well as Hong Kong‘s Factorial Management and BRIC Neutron A
March 31, 2021
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BOK's green efforts rank 13th among G20 peers: report
Despite advocacy work on climate action, the Bank of Korea turned out to have lagged behind major economies in terms of concrete policy actions to limit financing for businesses with climage-related risks, a report showed Wednesday. According to a list of the Group of 20 nations ranked by green initiatives -- published by the non-profit Positive Money, the Bank of Korea took 13th place with the aggregate score of 11 out of 130, giving it a rating of D- on a scale of F to A+. China top
March 31, 2021
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Trade terms up for 11th straight month in February
South Korea's terms of trade rose for the 11th consecutive month in February, as exports have shown signs of a gradual recovery, central bank data showed Wednesday. The nation's net terms-of-trade index for goods -- a gauge of trade terms -- increased 6.4 percent last month from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). It marked the 11th straight month of an on-year rise since April last year, when the trade terms logged the first on-year hike in over two yea
March 31, 2021
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Loss rate for auto insurance drops in 2020 amid pandemic
Non-life insurers' loss rate for their car insurance businesses dropped last year, thanks to fewer car accidents amid the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Wednesday. The nation's 12 non-life insurers posted an average loss rate of 85.7 percent last year, compared with 92.9 percent a year ago, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). The loss rate refers to the proportion of coverage a non-life insurer pays to its policyholders from insurance premiums. The higher the loss
March 31, 2021
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BOK's US dollar assets decline in 2020
South Korea's central bank said Wednesday the portion of its US dollar-denominated assets in its overall foreign assets declined last year due to the weakness of the greenback. At the end of last year, dollar-denominated holdings accounted for 67.7 percent of overall foreign assets held by the Bank of Korea (BOK), the central bank said in its annual report. The reading marks a 1.4 percentage-point drop from a year earlier. The portion of US dollar-denominated assets slightly fell due to a wea
March 31, 2021
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Regulator to refer Apple Korea to prosecution for hampering probe
South Korea's antitrust regulator said Wednesday it has decided to refer the local unit of US tech giant Apple Inc. and one of its executives to the prosecution for allegedly impeding the regulator's probe into unfair business practices. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) also said it plans to fine Apple Korea 300 million won ($265,000) for hampering its investigation. Apple Korea was probed by the KFTC over allegations that it required the country's three mobile operators to pay the cost
March 31, 2021
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KB Asset fetches W3tr for ESG-themed funds
The combined value of KB Asset Management’s environmental, social and corporate governance funds exceeded 3 trillion won ($2.7 billion), the South Korean company said Wednesday. Its ESG-themed funds pooled investments worth some 600 billion won during the first quarter alone, added the Seoul-based asset management firm. In terms of the assets under its management, funds targeting alternative assets came to 2.1 trillion won, while those dedicated to equities and exchange-traded funds at
March 31, 2021
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Genesis showcases luxury EV concept coupe
Genesis, the independent luxury brand of Hyundai Motor Co., on Wednesday unveiled a premium electric concept car ahead of the launch of the brand's first electric vehicle later this year. The Genesis X, showcased in a digital event and an offline debut in Los Angeles, is an EV-based high-performance Gran Turismo coupe and the brand's fifth concept car, Hyundai Motor said. The two-line lighting motif, applied throughout the interior and exterior, embodies the design language of future Genesis E
March 31, 2021
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SK Telecom tipped to morph into holding company in groupwide shake up
In a groupwide governance shakeup, SK Telecom Co., the telecom unit of SK Group, may morph into an intermediary holding company this year, analysts said Wednesday, as South Korea's No. 3 conglomerate seeks to strengthen its grip on chipmaking affiliate SK hynix Inc. The telecom operator's CEO Park Jung-ho told shareholders last Thursday that the company would soon unveil plans to reshape its governance structure in a signal that the conglomerate would revamp its governance structure this year.
March 31, 2021
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EXEM posts record-high fiscal year 2020 results
EXEM, a South Korean IT company, reported its best performance ever in the fiscal year 2020 that ended on Dec. 31. EXEM recently announced that consolidated sales reached 39.2 billion won ($34.8 million) last year, up by 14 percent from a year earlier. Operating profit and net profit rose 53 percent and 79 percent to 9.6 billion won and 8.7 billion won, respectively. “We have been able to achieve a record-high performance based on our accumulated DBPM, APM core technology plus a solid b
March 31, 2021
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Finance minister sees improvement in domestic demand, job market
Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki has forecast domestic demand and the job market will gradually improve as the country is on a recovery track amid the pandemic, the finance ministry said Wednesday. Hong made the assessment during his online meeting Tuesday with Alastair Wilson, managing director and head of the sovereign risk group of global rating agency Moody's Investors Service. The country held its annual consultation meetings with Moody's between March 25 and 30 over its economic conditions a
March 31, 2021