Saudi Arabia is pouring money into South Korean game makers NCSoft and Nexon, doubling down on its bet in the gaming industry. Public Investment Fund, the Middle Eastern country’s sovereign wealth fund, acquired an additional 563,566 shares of NCSoft for about 290 billion won ($240 million) through six transactions between Feb. 8 to 16., according to a regulatory filing submitted to the Financia...

Orion and Lotte Confectionery -- the makers of Choco Pie, a popular snack in Russia -- are closely monitoring the economic sanctions imposed by the international community against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, as they could cause instability in the supply of raw materials, a drop in the ruble’s value and a local economic recession. Orion, known for its popular signature snack Choco Pie, ha...

Restoring investors’ trust Krafton logged a record-high annual revenue of 1.89 trillion won last year, but saw its annual operating profit dip 17.3 percent on-year to post 639.6 billion won with weak fourth-quarter earnings. The game maker’s annual net profit recorded 519.9 billion won, also down 6.5 percent from the previous year. The stock price of Krafton, which reached as high as 580,000 wo...

Kim Jung-ju, the founder of South Korea’s biggest game maker Nexon and an engineer-turned-entrepreneur who led the country’s burgeoning game industry which also made him the richest man here, passed away on Monday. He was 54. According to Nexon’s holding company NXC, Kim died on Feb. 28 in Hawaii, the United States. He had been undergoing treatments for depression and it appeared that the sympto...

Kim Jung-ju, founder of South Korea’s biggest game maker Nexon, passed away on Monday. He was 54. Nexon’s holding company NXC said Tuesday evening that Kim died in Hawaii, US, on Feb. 28. He had been undergoing treatments for depression and it appeared that the symptoms had become worse as of late, it said. The cause of death was not given. Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney paid condolences to Kim. “It i...

The technology of next-generation genome writing in the field of platform bio will be essential to leading the future in the competitive era of technology hegemony, the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology said Monday, as it announced 10 promising future biotechnologies for this year. The state-run institute said the technology of next-generation genome writing, which allows ...

The general information center and visitor experience center, a one-minute walk away from Exit No. 4 and No. 7 of Gwanghwamun Station, is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day. More information about the venue is available in four languages -- Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese -- on the official website of “Gwanghwa Sidae.”

South Korea’s first homegrown rocket Nuri will go for a second launch in June, aiming to complete the full launch sequence this time, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Friday. The first liftoff, which took place in October last year, came short of a successful mission as the rocket’s third stage engine shut down earlier than planned. The dummy satellite could not reach sufficient orbital spee...

Philips Korea has received the Health and Welfare Minister’s Award at the 2022 Happiness Together Social Contribution Campaign for helping improve people’s lives through health care technology, the company said Thursday. Marking its 12th edition, the annual awards recognizes exemplary companies that practice social responsibilities. Co-hosted by the Korea Enterprises Federation and the Associati...

South Korea has approved the use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Wednesday, amid growing concerns over sharply soaring infections ahead of schools' opening next week. The country reported a record high of over 170,000 daily cases of COVID-19 from the previous day. Of the new cases reported in the last week, almost 30 percent were ...

The year 2021 was monumental for South Korea’s pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries, as they set a number of records. The country rolled out four new drugs, the most in a year since the first domestically-developed new drug came to light in 1999. Companies also licensed out technologies worth 13 trillion won ($10.9 billion) and exported drugs worth over 10 trillion won. Big firms such...

South Korean IT giant Naver’s webtoon business is continuing its dominance in the global market, getting recognized as the world’s best webtoon application while posting a record high number of users. Naver Webtoon has been honored as the world’s best webtoon application in the mobile app market by analyzer Sensor Tower’s 2021 Asia-Pacific Awards, the company said Friday. Sensor Tower said Nave...

Touted as the next big thing, the metaverse has been undeniably the talk of the global town since last year. The metaverse frenzy accelerated further when Facebook changed its name to Meta in October. Hoping to take the lead in the new online virtual world, all sectors regardless of their specializations have jumped on the metaverse bandwagon. This has led to lofty projections luring individual ...

The auction for an additional 5G spectrum band, which was slated to take place sometime this month, will be delayed over the remaining differences between the country’s three largest telecommunication companies, officials said Thursday. Earlier in the day, the Science and ICT minister and CEOs of SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus met at the Seoul Central Post Office to discuss the ongoing dispute of t...

Philip Morris Korea has implemented a new parental leave policy to support all forms of families raising children including adoptive parents and legal guardians, the company said Wednesday. Under the company’s parental policy, which became effective last month, employees can take up to 126 days of paid parental leave if they are primary caregivers. The company allows up to 56 days of paid parent...