Most companies with foreign investors in South Korea have not yet been able to make investment plans for this year, due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey from the Federation of Korean Industries released Wednesday. Of the foreign-invested companies with more than 100 employees surveyed, 91.1 percent said they are yet to come up with an investment plan (64.4 percent) or do not plan to make an investment this year (26.7 percent). Only the remaining 8.9 percent of them hav

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been appointed as an endowed chair at Seoul National University's (SNU) Department of Political Science and International Relations earlier this month, school officials said Wednesday. Ban plans to advise the university's graduate students on their research and careers until January 2025, according to SNU. The school, one of the country's most prestigious universities, grants chair professorships to scholars with outstanding academic achievements or gl

A series of accidents involving trucks mounted with aerial ladders have prompted safety concerns in South Korea, where these ladders are widely used for moving in and out of tall apartment buildings. On Monday, a ladder of a moving truck collapsed in an apartment complex in Nowon-gu, Seoul, killing one resident and injuring another. Police suspect the ladder’s length at the time of the accident to have been around 40 meters, given that the accident took place after finishing moving hous

Authorities try to reassure people as Korea steps into new state of pandemic

The “Purple Island” in Sinan, South Jeolla Province, will be featured at the 2022 fall-winter Paris Fashion Week, slated to take place virtually next week, according to officials Wednesday.  The island’s 1.4-kilometer purple bridge has been turned into a runway in a recent filming of South Korean designer Yang Hae-il’s show as part of one of the fashion world’s biggest events.  The bridge connects the two islets of Banwol and Bakji, which comprise Purple

HDC Group’s construction arm HDC Hyundai Development Co. said Wednesday that it has appointed its vice president Jung Ik-hee as its new Chief Safety Officer. Jung, 56, joined the firm in 1995 and has overseen the management at major construction sites until 2019. In 2020, he served an executive role to manage the local projects and engineering technology with his experience on sites.  HDC Hyundai Development Co. said the new CSO was named as part of safety improvement efforts driven

South Koreans aged between 19 and 34 rushed to open a state-backed savings account with a high yield of some 10 percent this week, with the product attracting nearly two million applicants as of Wednesday. The state-backed savings account launched Monday -- dubbed the Youth Hope Savings Product -- is designed specifically for those aged between 19 and 34 with an annual income of or below 36 million won ($30,100). It requires applicants to submit a monthly payment of 500,000 won for a 2-year ter

LG Electronics said Wednesday it is exiting its solar panel business, citing unfavorable market conditions such as rising costs and price competition as the key factors. The Korean tech giant, following a board meeting on Tuesday, said it would stop producing solar panels and modules by June 30, with some 900 employees being relocated to other business divisions, including those of other LG companies. LG started its solar panel business back in 2010 with an emphasis on higher-efficiency prem

Wry singer-songwriter returns as solo artist with ‘Levitation’

Companies fear another possible disruption in resource imports for batteries, chips, auto parts and petrochemical production -- backbone of the manufacturing-dependent economy

A Seoul court on Wednesday ruled against South Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor in a damages suit filed against Japanese companies, apparently on grounds that the cases' statute of limitations has expired. The suit was filed against Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Kumagai Gumi Co. by a 104-year-old victim named Kim Han-soo and the bereaved family of a late victim, surnamed Park, with the Seoul Central District Court in April 2019. Kim and Park claimed they were conscri

Rapper and singer-songwriter Kisum has returned with her first new release in a year and ten months, putting behind a long winter and sharing her stories through the single “Bare Trees.” Penning both the melody and the lyrics, Kisum said the song compares the emotions she felt as she endured the COVID-19 pandemic to the bare trees. “Not just me, but all musicians, we have far fewer opportunities to work during the pandemic. I had to take a long break, and I felt then that I w

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea on Wednesday slammed Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential candidate of the main opposition party, accusing him of hiding the truth about his wife’s alleged involvement in a stock manipulation case. “Yoon will lose in the presidential election because of Kim Keon-hee’s stock manipulation charges,” Rep. Woo Sang-ho of the ruling party said, speaking at a campaign committee meeting Wednesday. Woo is chief of the campaign committee for Lee J