Seongsu-dong, a vibrant cultural hub in Seoul, is currently buzzing with activity as it hosts South Korea's first global webtoon festival and awards ceremony, held as a part of Korea's ambitious initiative to position itself as a leader in the global webtoon industry. The 2024 World Webtoon Festival, organized by the culture ministry and Korea Creative Content Agency, kicked off its four-day run Thursday with the 2024 World Webtoon Awards, designed to recognize exceptional webtoons tha

Posco Future M and General Motors have pushed back the completion of their cathode material plant in Canada, which is part of their joint venture, Ultium CAM. Originally scheduled to be finished by the end of this month, the plant’s completion has now been delayed to a yet-to-be-determined date. Posco Future M announced the delay on Friday, citing "local conditions" without providing specific details. The plant, located in Becancour, Quebec, is set to produce high-nickel cathode

The American Music Awards announced Friday that Stray Kids will perform at this year's ceremony on Oct. 6. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the AMA is considered one of the top four major music awards of the US, alongside the Grammy Awards, the Billboard Music Awards and MTV Video Music Awards. Stray Kids will be the second K-pop group to perform on the American Music Awards stage, following BTS, who first appeared on the show in 2017. Last year, Stray Kids won the Top K-pop Albu

South Korean steel giant Posco Group said Friday that it hosted two work camps for university students in North Gyeongsang Province and South Jeolla Province from July to August. The company annually recruits university students for its volunteer group, called Beyond. This year, 50 students from 40 Korean universities worked in various voluntary activities to address environmental and social issues. In July, the volunteers planted 400 magnolia seedlings at Baekdudaegan National Arboretum, creati

On Thursday Indie music powerhouse Antenna’s new band Dragon Pony dropped its first album “Pop Up," full of ambition to lead the future Korean band scene. The new quintet consists of vocalist An Tae-gyu, guitarist Kwon Se-hyuk, Bassist Pyun Sung-hyun and drummer Ko Gang-hun. "Our slogan is ‘The hot music of imperfect boys,’ and we think this phrase best represents us. We will continue to show intense energy through songs that capture our honest emotions," e

Seven out of ten Korean children are found to be short-sighted as myopia among children is rising at an alarming rate worldwide, according to a recent study cited by the BBC. In the study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, a research team from Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China, reviewed government data on over 5 million children and teenagers until June 2023 from 50 countries across Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Oceania. According to the researc

A July ruling by the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples are eligible to apply for spousal coverage under the state insurance program, but recent reports have shown that state insurance authorities are still refusing to accept such couples as eligible for spousal coverage. Multiple media outlets reported this week that the National Health Insurance Service has turned down requests from same-sex couples to receive spousal coverage. A notification on such rejection was revealed recently, dat

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday it has conducted secret inspections into recent allegations of forced shopping, with findings confirming that such practices exist on some level among tourism packages here. The city hired several foreign nationals to pose as tourists in seven low-priced package tours -- three that were sold in China and four sold in Vietnam -- to check the programs' quality. Most of the packages focused more on shopping than tourism, which the city government&#

A Seoul court on Friday rejected American hedge fund Elliott’s payment claims for its alleged losses in the 2015 merger between Samsung C&T Corp. and Cheil Industries. Elliott, then a minority stakeholder in Samsung C&T, opposed the merger deal and received 72.4 billion won ($54.9 million) in 2022 from the de facto holding unit of Samsung Group for not exercising its appraisal rights. In October last year, however, the activist fund filed a lawsuit claiming an additional 26.7 b