Most Popular
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Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
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Bae Doo-na shares portraying Korean identity in Hollywood's 'Rebel Moon'
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S. Korea votes in favor of Palestinian bid for UN membership
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[From the Scene] Monks, Buddhists hail return of remains of Buddhas
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Medical schools granted enrollment quota flexibility for next year
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Yoon offers first one-on-one meeting with opposition leader next week
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France rejects opening Paris flight routes to T'way Air, deals blow to Korean Air merger
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Chinese man behind drug scam targeting teens nabbed in Cambodia
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[Graphic News] French bulldog most popular breed in US, Maltese most popular in Korea
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Iran fires air defense batteries in provinces as sound of explosions heard near Isfahan
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NCSoft 2020 net income up 63.3% on popularity of major mobile titles
NCSoft Corp., a major South Korean online and mobile game developer, said Friday its net profit soared 63.3 percent in 2020 from a year earlier thanks to the continued popularity of its major mobile titles. Net profit stood at 586.6 billion won ($522 million) last year, compared with 359.3 billion won a year earlier, NCSoft said in a regulatory filing. Operating profit came to 824.8 billion won for the year, compared with 479 billion won the previous year. Annual sales rose 42 percent on-year
Feb. 5, 2021
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Lotte Chemical Q4 net more than doubles on robust demand
Lotte Chemical Corp., a major South Korean petrochemical company, said Friday its fourth-quarter net profit more doubled from a year earlier on strong demand for its petrochemical products. The petrochemical unit of Lotte Group posted a net profit of 97.2 billion won ($86.5 million) in the October-December period, up 104.1 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Its operating profit jumped 49.4 percent on-year to 212.5 billion won, while sales fell 12.5 percent to
Feb. 5, 2021
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Hankook Tire net falls 12% in 2020 on FX losses
Hankook Tire & Technology Co., the world's seventh-biggest tiremaker by sales, said Friday its net profit fell 12 percent in 2020 from a year earlier on foreign exchange losses. For the whole of 2020, net profit fell to 379.2 billion won ($337 million) from 429.6 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement. "The won's weakness against the dollar drove up the company's dollar-denominated debts and weighed on the annual bottom line," a company spokesman said over th
Feb. 5, 2021
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Hyosung, Linde kick off joint ventures for world’s largest hydrogen facility in Ulsan
Hyosung Heavy Industries, the machinery maker arm of South Korea’s textiles and chemicals conglomerate Hyosung Group, will build the world’s single-largest liquid hydrogen facility in Ulsan. The project, carried out together with global chemical company Linde, comes in line with the country’s policy road map to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. “Hyosung Heavy and Linde Group have signed an investment agreement on creating joint ventures in order to push ahead with th
Feb. 5, 2021
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Doosan Heavy sells stake in Doosan Infracore for W850b
South Korea's power plant builder Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. said Friday that its board of directors has decided to sell the company's 35 percent stake in Doosan Infracore Co. for 850 billion won ($757 million) to global shipbuilding holding company Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Co. (HHIH). Cash-strapped Doosan Heavy disposed of 76 million shares of its construction equipment unit Doosan Infracore to improve business efficiency and management structure, the company said
Feb. 5, 2021
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Seoul stocks rebound amid global stock rally
South Korean stocks rebounded Friday in line with rallies in global stock markets, as signs of recovery from the pandemic boosted foreign buying of local stocks. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 33.08 points, or 1.07 percent, to close at 3,120.63 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.2 billion shares worth some 19.4 trillion won ($17.3 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 504 to 339. Foreigners bought a net
Feb. 5, 2021
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Korean tech employees complain about insufficient bonuses from profit-sharing programs
Tech industry employees in South Korea are outraged at the opaque payment systems that some companies use when administering profit-sharing programs. Employees at leading tech companies such as Samsung Electronics and LG Energy Solution were observed Friday to have posted complaints on online communities and social media about their bonuses and how they were calculated. The conflict came in the wake of an announcement by SK hynix that it would provide profit-sharing bonuses equivalent to 20
Feb. 5, 2021
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Samsung applies for tax breaks for new chip plant in Austin
Samsung Electronics has asked local governments in Texas to provide tax breaks for its new chip plant in Austin, raising speculation that it is about to expand its production capacity in the US, according to news reports Friday. Reuters reported that the South Korean chipmaker is seeking combined tax abatements of $805.5 million over 20 years from Travis County and the city of Austin, among other tax breaks, citing documents filed with Texas state officials. There were rumors that Samsung
Feb. 5, 2021
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SsangYong Motor extends plant suspension amid pandemic
Financially troubled carmaker SsangYong Motor Co. said Friday it will extend the suspension of its local plant due to a lack of parts supplies from contractors. SsangYong Motor already halted its plant in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on Dec. 24, Dec. 28, and Feb. 3-5 as its subcontractors refused to deliver parts due to outstanding payments. The SUV-focused carmaker filed for court receivership on Dec. 21 after it failed to obtain approval for the rollover of existing loans from i
Feb. 5, 2021
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BC Card names new chief executive
Credit card issuer BC Card said Friday that it has named Choi Won-seok, a former head of local financial firm FnPricing, as its new chief executive. The CEO hiring process will be complete after a shareholders meeting and board meeting slated for next month. Choi is an expert in the financial and IT segments, having developed systems that evaluate financial products at FnPricing. He has served as an outside board director for the card company for the past six years. The CEO appointee has
Feb. 5, 2021
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Current account surplus hits two-year high last year
South Korea’s current account surplus rose to a two-year high last year amid the prolonged economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly due to a sharp fall in imports and overseas trips, central bank data showed Friday. The country’s current account surplus for 2020 amounted to $75.28 billion -- up $15.6 billion, or 26.1 percent, from the previous year -- according to preliminary figures released by the Bank of Korea. This marked the highest current account sur
Feb. 5, 2021
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S. Korea OKs Celltrion's COVID-19 treatment for conditional use
South Korea's drug safety agency said Friday it has approved pharmaceutical giant Celltrion Inc.'s COVID-19 treatment candidate on several conditions. The conditional marketing authorization of CT-P59, an anti-COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment candidate, marks the country's first homegrown COVID-19 treatment. The Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said CT-P59 can be administered to COVID-19 patients at higher risk, referring to people aged 60 or older, or with health conditions like
Feb. 5, 2021
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Samsung seeking tax breaks for possible new chip plant in Texas: reports
Samsung Electronics Co. has asked Texas state officials to give tax breaks for its potential new chip plant, news reports showed Friday, raising speculation that the South Korean tech titan could make a big investment in the United States. The world's largest memory chipmaker has requested authorities in Texas to grant tax abatements over 20 years, which would be worth a total of $805.5 million, for its new $17 billion chip facility in Austin, Texas, according to the Austin American-Statesman n
Feb. 5, 2021
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Line Bank gets license for Taiwan
Line, a Tokyo-headquartered mobile messenger subsidiary of South Korean tech firm Naver, said Friday that it had won a license from Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission to launch an online bank in Taiwan. Since Line received a permit to set up an online banking business in the nation in 2019, Taiwanese financial authorities had been carrying out due diligence procedures on the internet-only bank. The mobile messenger firm said it would cooperate with the Taiwanese authorities to e
Feb. 5, 2021
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Samsung, LG release vacuum cleaners with upgraded charging stations
South Korea's two largest home appliance makers -- Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. -- are set to begin their duel in the vacuum cleaner market, industry observers said Friday, as they released new products boasting upgraded charging stations. LG began to sell its new CodeZero ThinQ A9S stick vacuum cleaner in South Korea that comes with a charging station, which automatically cleans out the dustbin. When the vacuum cleaner is docked in the stand, which LG calls it "all-in-
Feb. 5, 2021
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Consumer price of poultry goods on rise amid bird flu outbreak
South Korea plans to inject 50,000 tons of tariff-free imported egg products through June to help stabilize the price. Meanwhile, no additional confirmed cases of the H5N8 strain of avian influenza were reported Friday, with the total caseload standing at 85. Authorities said they are currently investigating a suspected infection from a duck farm that is raising 8,000 ducks in Yeongam, 384 kilometers south of Seoul. Of the confirmed cases from farms, Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul acc
Feb. 5, 2021
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Seoul stocks open higher on Wall Street rallies
South Korean stocks opened higher Friday, taking a cue from overnight record gains on Wall Street. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 23.3 points, or 0.75 percent, to 3,110.85 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Market kingpin Samsung Electronics added 0.85 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix hiked 1.6 percent. Internet portal giant Naver moved up 2.51 percent, with its rival Kakao up 0.22 percent. Leading chemical maker LG Chem jumped 3.1 percent, and rech
Feb. 5, 2021
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S. Korea's current account surplus widens in December
South Korea's current account surplus widened on-month in December last year, mainly due to a modest recovery in exports, the central bank said Friday. The current account surplus reached $11.51 billion in December, widening from a surplus of $9.18 billion the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade. Since the country logged a deficit of $3.33 billion in April 2020, the largest in almost a decade, on faltering expo
Feb. 5, 2021
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Samsung Electronics ranks 2nd in 2020 US patent grants
Samsung Electronics Co. clinched the No. 2 spot in US patent grants among global corporate giants in 2020, industry data showed Friday. Samsung Electronics, the world's top smartphone and memory chip maker, received 8,539 US patent grants last year, down 1 percent from the previous year, according to the data from the US Intellectual Property Organization. Yet, the flagship of Samsung Group, the top family-controlled conglomerate in South Korea, retained the No. 2 title for 14 years on end. S
Feb. 5, 2021
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S. Korea's exports of sauces hit all-time high in 2020
South Korea's exports of sauces reached an all-time high in 2020 as more people enjoyed cooking at home around the globe amid the new coronavirus pandemic, data showed Friday. Outbound shipments of sauces rose 25.8 percent on-year in 2020 to reach $301.7 million, according to the data compiled by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA). KITA said the growth also came as global consumers became more aware of Korean-style foods following the popularity of Korean cultural content oversea
Feb. 5, 2021