Most Popular
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Korea enters full election mode
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Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
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Immigrant woman stabbed to death by Korean husband
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Lee Jong-sup resigns as envoy to Australia
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Yellow dust engulfs S. Korea, advisory alert issued
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Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
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S. Korea to boost support for single-parent families
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Court upholds jail term for man who attempted to murder ex-girlfriend
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Kia EV9 wins world car of year
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Korea misses out on global bond index boost
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Seoul stocks open higher on chip gains
South Korean stocks opened higher Friday on a continued rally by giant chipmakers, after the benchmark index closed at an all-time high the previous session. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 24.61 points, or 0.91 percent, to 2,720.83 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Tech, financial and steel related shares performed strongly, backed by expectations that early COVID-19 vaccine development may quicken the export-intensive economy. Overnight, the Dow Jones Indust
Dec. 4, 2020
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Foreign ownership of S. Korean land rises 1.2% in H1
Foreign ownership of South Korean land rose 1.2 percent in the first half of 2020 from the end of 2019, the land ministry said Friday. Foreigners owned 251.6 square kilometers -- slightly more than four times the size of Manhattan -- at the end of June. It represents 0.25 percent of South Korea's total land area, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement. The value of land held by foreigners increased 1.4 percent to 31.21 trillion won ($28 billion) over the cited
Dec. 4, 2020
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S. Korea's current account surplus hits 3-year high in October on export recovery
South Korea's current account surplus hit a three-year high in October as exports showed signs of a modest recovery amid the coronavirus pandemic, the central bank said Friday. The current account surplus reached $11.66 billion in October, widening from a surplus of $10.13 billion the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade. It marked the largest surplus since September 2017. Since the country logged a deficit o
Dec. 4, 2020
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Renault Samsung’s QM6 climbs sales chart
Renault Samsung Motors said Thursday its sports utility vehicle QM6 has climbed the sales chart to lead company’s performance this year. According to the automaker, the QM6 model sold 4,323 units in October, up 35.6 percent from the month before. The gasoline model, QM6 GDe, which has topped the mid-sized SUV market in South Korea for the second half of this year, takes 50.7 percent of the total sales of QM6, with 2,191 units, the automaker said. The rest is taken by QM6 LPe, which is
Dec. 3, 2020
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Seoul stocks finish record-high again on chip, auto gains; Korean won soars
South Korean stocks set another all-time high Thursday despite a resurgence in new coronavirus cases, led by strong advances by chip and auto heavyweights. The Korean won sharply rose to an almost 30-month high against the US greenback. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 20.32 points, or 0.76 percent, to close at 2,696.22. Stock trading hours were pushed back by 1 hour due to the nationwide college entrance exam. Trading volume was moderate at about 810 million shar
Dec. 3, 2020
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Fiscal chief reiterates drive to nurture chips, biotech, fuel cell vehicles
Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki on Thursday reiterated his call to foster the non-memory semiconductor, fuel cell vehicle, and bio-health industries to create new growth in the post-coronavirus era. Presiding over a meeting with ministers for economic affairs in Seoul, Hong discussed strategies to nurture the so-called “big three” sectors and lead the global digitalization, among others. “The government and private sector should join forces to revitalize the coronavirus-hit econ
Dec. 3, 2020
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SKT CEO made vice chairman of SK hynix
Park Jung-ho, current chief executive officer of South Korea’s leading mobile carrier SK Telecom, has risen to the chief position of chipmaker SK hynix, the group announced Thursday. According to SK Group’s organizational restructuring and executive reshuffling plan for 2021, Park was promoted to vice chairman of SK hynix as he retains the SKT CEO post. “Synergy between ICT expert Park and semiconductors expert SK hynix CEO Lee Seok-hee is highly anticipated,” the grou
Dec. 3, 2020
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[Time to Play] Smilegate’s Magical Atelier, adorable but overly exclusive to target users
Just like how the idea of magic rails against common knowledge, Magical Atelier appears to defy the odds, being an unconventional game that transgresses the basic laws of typical Korean mobile games. For busy commuters, mobile games are supposed to be simple and easy to play. Also, they must include elements that can trigger competition among as many users as possible to guarantee profitability. Magical Atelier, developed by Smilegate, meets neither of the two criteria. Released in South K
Dec. 3, 2020
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China opens door to Korean game, issues 1st license in 4 years
China has granted a license to a game made by a South Korean company for the first time in nearly four years, finally lifting an implicit ban on Korean games that has persisted since 2017. According to Korean mobile game developer Com2us, Summoners War: Lost Centuria has been given a foreign game service license from China‘s National Press and Publication Administration, the first such license issued since March 2017. In 2017, Korea deployed the US anti-missile Terminal High Altitude D
Dec. 3, 2020
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Posco hits lithium jackpot in Argentina, accelerates EV battery material value chain
Posco Group said Thursday its salt lake in Argentina contains 13.5 million metric tons of lithium reserves, more than six times greater than initial calculation of 2.2 million tons. Based on the massive reserves, which are enough for 370 million electric vehicles, the group aims to establish a robust value chain of EV battery raw materials. According to the South Korean steel giant, the latest exploration of the Hombre Muerto salt lake in northern Argentina conducted with a US consulting firm
Dec. 3, 2020
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[Newsmaker] How Korea held its nationwide college entrance exam with COVID-19
South Korea on Thursday held the nation’s annual rite of passage -- the Suneung, the standardized college entrance exam -- on which it’s an understatement to say that students stake their future. The question of how to hold a college entrance exam during a global pandemic has been a headache for many. In the US, the Educational Testing Service has made its graduate admissions test, the GRE, available at home in the interest of social distancing, while the College Board went back on
Dec. 3, 2020
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Kospi rally continues as Samsung Electronics shares hit W70,000 mark
South Korea’s main bourse Kospi continued its bullish run on Thursday with shares of market bellwether Samsung Electronics touching the 70,000-won mark during the intraday trading. Kospi started off at 2,686.38, up 10.48 points, or 0.39 percent, from the previous session’s close. Buttressed by both retail investors and foreigners’ buying spree, the index set an all-time high record of 2,696.22, at the closing bell, breaking the previous record high of 2,675.90 set a day earlie
Dec. 3, 2020
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K bank brings lending business back on track
South Korea‘s first mobile-only lender K bank has secured some 650,000 new users over the past five months as it showed signs of business normalization after it resumed its lending business in July, the company said Thursday. The news brought K bank’s accumulated number of bank accounts to over 2 million as of Wednesday, according to the company, which was founded in 2017. From July to November, K bank is estimated to have attracted an average of 130,000 new users each month,
Dec. 3, 2020
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Starbucks opens Korea’s first store staffed mostly with disabled
Starbucks Korea opened a new store on Thursday with a commitment to prioritize disabled workers, in a first in the country. The new location at the Seoul National University Dental Hospital will run with a staff of 12, six of whom are employees with disabilities The coffeehouse giant also said sign language training and disability awareness education was given to staff as part efforts to improve the perception of those with disabilities. Launching on the International Day of People with Disa
Dec. 3, 2020
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LS Cable & System releases series of new smart cables
South Korean cable maker LS Cable & System has recently released a series of new smart cables, including a long-distance Power over Ethernet cable and a hacker-proof optical fiber cable. PoE cables are capable of delivering both data connection and electric power, and are easy to install in places such as in ceilings and between gaps. But their standard distance has remained 100 meters. LS Cable & System’s SimpleWide cable, however, has extended the distance to 200 meters. The c
Dec. 3, 2020
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Daewoo Shipbuilding bags W282b order from ADNOC
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. said Thursday that it has won a 282 billion-won ($257 million) order to build three oil tankers from Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC). The vessels will be delivered by the first quarter of 2023, Daewoo Shipbuilding said. The deal has an option to place an order for three additional oil tankers, the shipbuilder said. With the latest deal, Daewoo Shipbuilding has received orders worth $4.6 billion so far this year, achieving about 56 percent
Dec. 3, 2020
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1 in 4 companies cut head counts amid pandemic: survey
One in 4 companies in South Korea has implemented or is planning restructuring measures this year due to financial difficulties stemming from the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Thursday. According to a survey of 437 companies carried out by local job search platform Saramin, 27.2 percent of the respondents said they had conducted layoffs or planned to do so. The most common reason given for restructuring was “the worsening business situation due to COVID-19” (69.7 perce
Dec. 3, 2020
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Scandal-ridden hedge fund asset transfer begins as regulator revokes license
The transfer of assets associated with scandal-ridden Seoul-based hedge fund manager Lime Asset Management began Thursday as South Korea’s financial regulator scrapped its license to operate in Korea the day before. In a long-awaited move, the bridge institution WellBridge Asset Management is expected to take over all 215 Lime funds to speed up the process of minimizing losses of the assets – most of which are believed to be nearly insolvent -- a key move to mitigate the financial d
Dec. 3, 2020
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Online shopping rises 20% in Oct. amid pandemic
Online shopping in South Korea grew 20 percent in October from a year earlier as the new coronavirus outbreak prompted people to buy goods via e-commerce platforms, data showed Thursday. The value of online transactions stood at 14.2 trillion won ($12.9 billion) in October, compared with 11.9 trillion won the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The use of online shopping has been on the rise this year amid the pandemic as people refrained from visiting offline stores on
Dec. 3, 2020
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US stimulus talks, vaccines boost Korea's currency to 30-month high
South Korea's won currency surged to a 30-month high against the US dollar Thursday and broke a key psychological level, buoyed by optimism over US stimulus talks and developments of coronavirus vaccines. The won was quoted at 1,097.00 won per US dollar at Thursday's closing, up 3.8 won from the previous session's close. It was the strongest level since June 14, 2018, when the risk-sensitive currency closed at 1,083.10 won against the US dollar. The won also broke the key psychological leve
Dec. 3, 2020