Boy band ONF released a special album on Tuesday while the bandmates are serving their mandatory military duty. The album “Storage of ONF” is their way of thanking fans who are supporting them throughout their absence. Five members of the six-piece band enlisted at the end of last year, but the band prepared the album beforehand. The LP consists of 10 tracks: remastered version of its hit...

The following is a text version of the address given by Bill Gates to South Korea’s National Assembly on Tuesday, transcribed and loosely edited by The Korea Herald for clarity. -- Ed. It’s a great honor to be here. Thank you Speaker Kim (Jin-pyo) and all the members of the National Assembly for your invitation. During my trip to the Republic of Korea, one highlight is that I’ll sign a memorand...

The Financial Supervisory Service will look into financial institutions that handled an unusually large volume of short selling when the local markets were jumpy, the watchdog’s chief said Tuesday, as retail investors step up calls for greater oversight over the practice they say leaves them outgunned by institutional investors. Individual investors have long complained that the bearish market p...

When Hyun Bin reprised his role as North Korean detective Im Chul-ryung in the second installment of the action film “Confidential Assignment,” the top Korean actor initially thought that there wasn’t much he needed to prepare. “I thought I could simply perform in the same way that I did in the original movie. But this thought changed soon after I found out that everything from comedy to action ...

The long-awaited market debut of Kurly, operator of South Korean e-commerce platform Market Kurly, is expected to be decided soon as the nation’s bourse operator is scheduled to hold a final review session next week, according to industry sources on Tuesday. If the company gets a green light from the Korea Exchange during the session, it is ready to go public. Following a book building process, ...

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won discussed shared commitments to global health with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Foundation, SK Bioscience said Wednesday. According to officials, SK Discovery Executive Vice Chairman Chey Chang-won and SK Bioscience CEO Ahn Jae-yong also attended the meeting in Yeouido, western Seoul. The SK leaders and Gates talked about how they can cooperate to i...

More than half the companies surveyed by the Korea Enterprise Federation, one of the five major business lobby groups here, said Korea and Japan should settle their disputes and improve economic ties, especially in trade, the data showed Tuesday. Conducted from July 27 to Aug. 2, the survey polled 207 companies employing at least 30 workers and 57 percent of them backed the idea, saying efforts ...

Ministry backpedals on its plan to ban free wet tissues in restaurants; environmental impacts of reckless use kept out of discussion

The National Chorus of Korea aims to reach global audiences with its first album and special concerts with US soloists. After releasing its first regular album, “Voices of Solace,” alongside high-budget music videos for the album in June, the 49-year-old national choral group is taking Korea’s old and new melodies to the stage with the 24-member American Soloists Ensemble this month. “I had a ch...

There is a custom in Korea of helping others in return for their help, called “pumasi,” which is derived from the “jeong” aspect of Korean culture. Long ago, when one farmer had a difficult task to accomplish, such as building a new rice paddy, rather than facing the task by himself, his neighbors would come and help. They would work together to build the new rice paddy, with each neighbor know...

Samsung SDI said Tuesday it had set up its first research and development center in the US in an effort to secure technological competitiveness in the burgeoning market for electric vehicles. The Boston center, called SDI R&D America, will focus on developing new battery-related technologies in cooperation with local universities and startups that have been actively working on lithium-ion batter...

South Korea’s top electric vehicle battery maker LG Energy Solution has elevated its sales target for this year, largely buoyed by an upbeat outlook for the second half. In its second-quarter earnings report in July, the company announced an upgraded growth plan, raising sales target this year to 22 trillion won ($16.8 billion), an almost 10 percent jump from the previous target of 19.2 trillion...