Most Popular
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Seoul Metro to seek legal action against malicious complaints
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Illit, mired in controversy, remains on Billboard charts for 5th week
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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Wine imports hit record high as home drinking catches on
Wine imports soared to a record high in Korea last year, apparently helped by more people drinking at home amid the pandemic, new government data revealed Monday. South Korea imported 38,969 tons of wine worth $239.2 million from January to November in 2020, according to data from the Korea Customs Service. Though data on the month of December has yet to be added, last year’s figure has already beat the previous record of $204 million for 2019. Wine imports have grown over the years and
Jan. 4, 2021
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Daewoo E&C wins W2.9tr port deal in Iraq
Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., a major South Korean builder, said Monday it has signed a 2.9 trillion-won ($2.7 billion) deal with the Iraqi government to build port facilities. Daewoo E&C has obtained the deal from the state-run General Company for Ports of Iraq (GCPI) to build a tunnel, a container terminal and roads to the Al Faw port in Basra, the company said in a statement. "The company participated in the port construction project from 2013. In the previous deal, we
Jan. 4, 2021
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NCSoft's Lineage 2M to land in Japan, Taiwan in Q1
Lineage 2M, a mobile massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), will land in Japan and Taiwan during the first quarter of this year, South Korean online game maker NCSoft said Monday. The mobile version of the mega-hit game Lineage 2 will be simultaneously available on Google's Android and Apple's iOS devices in the two Asian countries, the company said. Lineage 2M, which integrates NCSoft's technology and expertise built over the past 20 years, features full 3D graphics and 4K U
Jan. 4, 2021
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S. Korea's FTA networks set to further expand in 2021
South Korea's free trade deals may further increase this year in line with its efforts to revitalize its ailing pandemic-hit exports and cope with the growing protectionism around the globe, a trade promotion agency said Monday. South Korea and Britain implemented their bilateral FTA on Friday to maintain their trades regardless of London's departure from the European Union. Following the move, the country now has 17 free trade pacts that cover 56 countries around the globe. The free trade pa
Jan. 4, 2021
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More efforts to be focused on stabilizing housing market this year: finance minister
Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Monday that the government will spare no efforts this year to stabilize housing prices that have been rising despite a series of measures to cool down the property market. The minister also said that policy efforts will be put into place to pull off a "fast and strong" economic recovery this year as Asia's fourth-largest economy faces growing uncertainties such as a resurgence in new coronavirus cases. "From the beginning of the new year, we wil
Jan. 4, 2021
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Seoul stocks open higher on 1st day of 2021
South Korean stocks kicked off higher Monday, the first session of the new year, led by strong chip and auto gains. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 4.48 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2,877.95 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics lost 0.37 percent, but No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix advanced 2.95 percent. Top automaker Hyundai Motor soared 6.77 percent, and its auto part making affiliate Hyundai Mobis spiked 12.13 percent. Leading chem
Jan. 4, 2021
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[Graphic News] S. Korea’s 5G download speed fastest globally
South Korea has the fastest 5G download speed in the world, reaching over 350 megabits per second, a report showed. The country’s 5G download speed stood at an average 351.2 Mbps, followed by Saudi Arabia at 272.8 Mbps and Taiwan at 247.7 Mbps, industry tracker Opensignal said in a report, citing data collected between Sept. 1 and Nov. 29 in 15 global markets with 5G networks. The result marks an improvement for South Korea from a previous report by Opensignal in October, which ha
Jan. 4, 2021
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More than 330 Korean exhibitors to attend CES 2021
More than 330 South Korean exhibitors are expected to introduce their new products and cutting-edge services at the world's largest tech expo next week, data from its organizer showed Monday. So far, 338 firms, institutions and colleges from South Korea have registered for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021, according to the US Consumer Technology Association. This year's tech show will take place online from Jan. 11 to 14 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The number of South Korean
Jan. 4, 2021
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Samsung to unveil Galaxy S21 smartphone next week
Samsung Electronics Co. on Monday confirmed that new models of its flagship smartphone lineup will be unveiled next week as the South Korean tech giant tries to fend off challenges from Apple Inc. and Chinese brands. Samsung's Galaxy S21 smartphone series will be introduced at the Galaxy Unpacked online event at 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Jan. 14 under the theme of "Welcome to the Everyday Epic." "Over the past year, mobile technology has taken center stage in everyday lif
Jan. 4, 2021
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S. Korea's wine imports hit new high in 2020 amid coronavirus outbreak
South Korea's wine imports soared to a record high in 2020 as more people enjoyed drinking and partied at home due to the coronavirus outbreak, government data showed Monday. South Korea imported $239 million worth of wines in the January-November period last year, much higher than the $204 million for the whole of 2019, according to the data by the Korea Customs Service. If the December numbers are included, last year's value of wine imports will far exceed the previous year's tally. Last ye
Jan. 4, 2021
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Number of delisted firms quadruples in 2020
The number of companies delisted from the South Korean stock market rose fourfold in 2020 from the previous year due to poor financial health or other reasons, data showed Monday. A total of 16 firms, including solar-battery parts maker Woongjin Energy Co., were delisted from the country's main KOSPI and secondary KOSDAQ markets last year, according to the data from the Korea Exchange. Three companies were removed from the main bourse and the remainder from the tech-laden KOSDAQ market. Of th
Jan. 4, 2021
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Pandemic-hit oil refiners' losses estimated at W5tr won in 2020
The coronavirus pandemic is likely to have come as a big draw on South Korean oil refiners last year as their low refining margins ate into their profitability, industry sources said Sunday. Whipsawed by weak oil prices and sluggish refining margins, industry leader SK Innovation Co. and three other players are projected to have posted a combined net loss of more than 5 trillion won ($4.6 billion) last year. The situation didn't improve much in the third quarter of last year despite rising dem
Jan. 3, 2021
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LG Display to showcase 48-inch flexible sound-making display at CES 2021
LG Display Co., a major display panel maker in South Korea, said Sunday it will showcase a 48-inch flexible display that can generate sound without speakers at the world's largest tech expo next week. LG Display said its 48-inch bendable cinematic sound OLED (CSO) will make its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021, which will be held online from Jan. 11 to 14. The world's top large-size OLED panel maker said the latest product is optimized for gaming. "Its paper-thin screen
Jan. 3, 2021
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S. Korea’s EV market poised for take-off in 2021
For South Korea’s electric vehicle business, 2020 apparently served as a turning point with global players such as Tesla on the up and up and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic raising the alarm about environmental pollution by internal combustion engines. In the new year, this growing market is anticipated to take long strides on the back of prolonged government subsidies and carmakers’ paradigm shift towards ecofriendly vehicles. The number of newly registered passenger EVs here came
Jan. 3, 2021
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S. Korea surpasses 10 million 5G users in November
The number of fifth-generation network users in South Korea surpassed 10 million as of the end-November, according to data released Sunday by the Ministry of Science and ICT. The number of 5G subscribers in November reached 10.9 million, up 930,000 from the previous month. By companies, SK Telecom secured 5.05 million users, accounting for 46 percent of the market. KT and LG U+ followed with 3.33 million and 2.54 million users. The ICT Ministry explained the increase was largely due to the
Jan. 3, 2021
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Samsung Electronics enters digital certificate market
Samsung Electronics has begun offering digital certificates via its biometric authentication program Samsung Pass, heating up the local market for online ID certification. The service, launched by Samsung Pass on Dec. 30, enables users of Samsung Galaxy models to obtain certificates on their mobile devices after updating the application. Samsung Pass users can use the digital certificates for the annual tax return process, which starts in January. Samsung Electronics is one of the five priva
Jan. 3, 2021
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[Market Close-up] Korean market gains momentum from individual investors
Cho Young-hoon, a 40-year-old office worker living in Seoul, had no interest in capital investment, before the pandemic hit last year. Following in his parents’ footsteps, he strongly believed in real estate investment, and considered buying stocks to be too risky and not as profitable as owning an apartment in Seoul. Buying an apartment using his savings, jeonse deposit and a mortgage loan was his strategy for over a decade. But then, in December 2019, the government made an unprecedent
Jan. 3, 2021
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Bendable, high-definition displays gearing up for 2021
Displays that are interactive, transparent, bendable and emit sound are no longer the product of science fiction. In 2021, Korean display companies LG Display and Samsung Display are seeking to attract global clients with innovations in form factor and display performance, aiming to capitalize on the consumer electronics boom on the back of COVID-19. One thing to note is the players, respectively known for their expertise in big displays and small displays -- LG for big organic light-em
Jan. 3, 2021
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Pandemic-hit oil refiners' losses estimated at W5tr in 2020
The coronavirus pandemic is likely to have come as a big draw on South Korean oil refiners last year as their low refining margins ate into their profitability, industry sources said Sunday. Whipsawed by weak oil prices and sluggish refining margins, industry leader SK Innovation Co. and three other players are projected to have posted a combined net loss of more than 5 trillion won ($4.6 billion) last year. The situation didn't improve much in the third quarter of last year despite rising dem
Jan. 3, 2021
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Top Afreeca TV streamer made W1.7m per hour in Dec.
AfreecaTV streamers reaped donations of worth 41 billion won ($37.6 million) in December, with the highest-earner recording 452 million won, equivalent to an hourly wage of 1.7 million won. According to Poong Today Sunday, which tracks donations made on the country’s most popular online streaming platform, viewers donated more than 380.5 million “star balloons” in total last month. On AfreecaTV, fans can send streamers bundles of star balloons, a digital currency that costs
Jan. 3, 2021