Most Popular
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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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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Yoon, Lee end first talks with differences, agree to meet more
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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China outpaces Korea in smaller OLED shipments for 1st time
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[Grace Kao] Hybe vs. Ador: Inspiration, imitation and plagiarism
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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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Samsung chief bolsters ties with Germany’s Zeiss
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Seoul stocks open higher on US gains
S outh Korean stocks opened steeply higher Thursday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street that stemmed from robust earnings reports. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 46.77 points, or 1.76 percent, to trade at 2,710.11 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The Kospi got off to a bullish start after a three-day holiday, as the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite added 0.5 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.63 percent Wednesday. In Seoul, market b
Feb. 3, 2022
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Housing price decline expected to accelerate: finance minister
Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Thursday the country's housing prices are expected to pick up their declining pace amid the central bank's rate hike and tighter lending rules. Hong said the government is committed to implementing its current real estate policy with a focus on increasing the home supply in a bid to stabilize housing prices. "We think housing prices need to undergo a downward correction to some degree, given that home prices have excessively risen. The government plans to
Feb. 3, 2022
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Ratio of nonwage workers hits record low in 2021
The ratio of the self-employed and other nonwage workers in South Korea touched an all-time low in 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Thursday. Asia's fourth-largest economy had 6.52 million unsalaried workers as of the end of December last year, marking the 23rd consecutive year of decline, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The number accounted for 23.9 percent of the country's total employed people, the lowest tally since data tracking began in 1963.
Feb. 3, 2022
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Korea’s stock market cap falls fifth-fastest in Jan.
South Korea ranked fifth among 47 countries globally in the drop in stock market capitalization between December last year and January this year, amid US Fed rate hike worries, a local brokerage said Wednesday. The country’s benchmark Kospi and junior Kosdaq stood at about $1.9 trillion in market value on Jan. 26, down from $2.1 trillion on Dec. 31, 2021, in a 10 percent fall, according to Daishin Securities, which cited Bloomberg data. Russia saw the greatest drop at 16 percent, followe
Feb. 2, 2022
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Will supply side issue affect Galaxy S22 launch?
With Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Unpacked event just a week to go, all eyes are on whether the launch of flagship Galaxy S22 smartphones would be affected by the supply chain bottlenecks. Recent rumors suggested that the smartphones succeeding the S21 lineups -- Galaxy S22, S22 Plus and S22 Ultra -- might be subject to supply side issues, which could delay shipments following the Unpacked event. The marketing materials distributed to mobile carriers in the United States for the S22 and
Feb. 2, 2022
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Convenience stores outrank supermarkets in market share
Korea’s convenience stores’ combined market share outgrew that of local supermarkets for the first time, amid the fast-growing trend to shop in less crowded places due to the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Wednesday. According to data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, sales revenue of three convenience stores -- GS25, CU and 7-Eleven -- came to 30.7 percent last year, following three department stores -- Lotte, Shinsegae and Hyundai. The figure surpassed that of t
Feb. 2, 2022
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Samsung's metaverse service My House sees early success
Samsung Electronics said Wednesday its My House world map service, launched in collaboration with Naver‘s 3D avatar platform Zepeto, saw cumulative visits quickly surging to over 4 million in less than a month. My House invites users to experience Samsung home appliances and furniture in a personalized virtual “home“ that users can decorate to their individual taste. The metaverse platform was unveiled on Jan. 5 at the annual tech show CES 2022. Since then, the cumulati
Feb. 2, 2022
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Vehicle registrations fall 9% in 2021
South Korea's new vehicle registrations fell 9 percent last year from a year earlier as chip shortages affected vehicle production and sales, the transport ministry said Wednesday. The number of newly registered vehicles declined 173,000 units to 17.43 million in 2021 from 19.16 million a year ago, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement. Of the annual total, registrations of locally produced passenger cars fell 11 percent to 14.29 million last year from 1.60 mil
Feb. 2, 2022
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Why aren't there Korean-made vaccines yet?
Although it has been over two years since the coronavirus began spreading in Korea, the country has not seen a homemade vaccine developed yet. SK Bioscience is the company closest to delivering the first Korean-developed vaccine as the biopharmaceutical firm’s GBP510 is in the third and final phase of clinical trials. The government and company officials have voiced hope for a successful result and swift authorization as well as commercialization of GBP510 in the first half of this year,
Feb. 2, 2022
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Jeju golf courses log record visitors again in 2021
With cross-border travel restricted, golfers continued to flock to Jeju last year, pushing the resort island’s golf tourism records to all-time highs. According to the island province’s official data, a record 2.89 million people visited golf courses there in 2021, up 21.6 percent from a year earlier. It was the second year in a row that the tally rose to a new record. In 2020, some 2.38 million teed off in Jeju, logging an on-year growth of 14.7 percent. Of last year’s 2
Feb. 2, 2022
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Hyundai, Kia's own platform-based EV sales exceed 100,000 units
Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Corp. said Wednesday they sold more than 100,000 units of electric vehicles equipped with their own EV platform since April in global markets. Last year, Hyundai Motor launched the Hyundai IONIQ5 and the GV60 SUV under its independent Genesis brand, while Kia released the EV6 sedan mounted on the group's own electric-global modular platform (E-GMP). The all-electric models' sales stood at 96,578 units from April to December. In the first three we
Feb. 2, 2022
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Hyundai, Kia's US sales rise 2.3% in January
Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Corp. said Wednesday their combined sales in the United States rose 2.3 percent last month from a year earlier on strong demand for their SUV models. Hyundai and Kia sold a total of 90,360 vehicles in the world's most important automobile market in January, up from 88,359 units a year ago, according to the companies' sales data. Hyundai's US sales climbed 10 percent to 47,872 units from 43,394 over the cited period, while Kia's declined 5.5 percent to
Feb. 2, 2022
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Stock funds' net assets suffer 1st shrink in 4 months in Jan. amid slump
The net asset value of stock funds in South Korea suffered a decline for the first time in four months in January, as the global stock market roiled amid major central banks' move to tighten policies, data showed Wednesday. The asset value of publicly placed stock funds stood at 82.7 trillion won ($68.4 billion) as of Thursday, down 8.37 trillion won, or 9.2 percent, from the previous month, according to the data compiled by the Korea Financial Investment Association (KOFIA). The monthly net
Feb. 2, 2022
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Samsung C&T wins $510m plant deal from Vietnam
Samsung C&T Corp., the construction unit of Samsung Group, said Wednesday it has obtained a $510 million plant deal from Vietnam. Samsung C&T received the order from Petro Vietnam Power Corp., an affiliate of Vietnam's state-run oil firm Petro Vietnam, to build the Southeast Asian country's first combined cycle power plant, the company said in a statement. Samsung C&T will form a consortium with local builder Lilama Corp. to build gas and steam turbines, heat recovery steam gener
Feb. 2, 2022
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S. Korea faces reduced import curbs in 2021 amid pandemic
South Korea faced a reduced number of import curbs from trade partners last year for the first time in a decade amid the pandemic, a trade body said Wednesday. The country was subject to 206 import regulations from 28 countries as of end-December, down 22 from a year earlier amid a decline in global trade during the pandemic, according to a report from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). It marks the first on-year decline from the largest-ever number of import restrictions tar
Feb. 2, 2022
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[Herald Interview] Cargo ships are floating coal plants and hydrogen is the answer
A giant container ship that was knocked off by strong winds and blocked Egypt’s Suez Canal in 2021 was mounted with an 85-megawatt engine. Powered by fossil fuels, the engine is a miniature coal power plant that generates massive energy to maneuver the 200,000-ton ship the length of four football fields. South Korea, the world‘s No. 1 shipbuilder, last year bagged 88 percent of global orders to build such huge container ships powered by internal combustion engines. Like it or not,
Feb. 1, 2022
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South Korea suffers trade deficit 2 months straight in 14 years
South Korea witnessed a trade deficit for two consecutive months for the first time since the global financial crisis in 2008, due to rising prices of energy and raw materials. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Asia’s No. 4 economy saw its exports increase 15.2 percent on-year to $55.3 billion in February, while its imports surged 35.5 percent to $60.2 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $4.8 billion. This is the first two-month trade deficit since the four
Feb. 1, 2022
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[Newsmaker] How far have chips come to emulate human brain?
JEONGSEON, Gangwon Province -- New chip technologies could advance to the degree that chips in the future could emulate the human brain in terms of computing speed, density and efficiency, experts said during keynote speeches at the 29th Korean Conference on Semiconductors held in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province Tuesday. However, a technology breakthrough to break the mold is crucial, as achieving large processing capacity and energy efficiency simultaneously is becoming more elusive on the convent
Jan. 31, 2022
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Number of full-time workers shrinks amid prolonged pandemic
The employment rate of the nation’s full-time employees working 40 hours a week has remained in the 50 percent rage for two consecutive years, raising concerns over deteriorating labor market amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, a lawmaker said Monday. The “full-time equivalent” employment rate for 2021 posted 58.8 percent, nearly unchanged from 58.6 percent estimated a year earlier, according to Rep. Yoo Gyeong-joon of the main opposition People Power Party, citing
Jan. 31, 2022
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Korean instant noodle exports hit new high in 2021
Exports of South Korean instant noodles hit a record high of over $670 million, the highest figure to date. Last year’s exports stood at $674.41 million, data from the Korea Customs Service and the food industry showed on Sunday. Exports of instant noodles, also known as “ramyeon” in Korea, have risen for seven consecutive years. When broken down by country, China was the biggest market for South Korean instant noodle makers, followed by the US, Japan and Taiwan. Instant no
Jan. 30, 2022