The late Kim Soon-ak had been testifying about her experience living as a wartime sex slave of the Japanese military, and also her life living as a housekeeper after Korea‘s liberation before she died in 2010. However, there were parts of her life that she had been reluctant to speak out in public about for quite some time. After the Japanese colonial period ended, she lived in prostitutes’ quarters and did sex work at a US military camp town to survive. Director Park Moon-chil&

Cleanliness has risen as a key factor in choosing where to eat out since the pandemic started, a survey showed Sunday. According to data from Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corp, 92.1 percent of 1,341 respondents aged between 20 and 69 said they thought restaurants cleanliness was important when choosing where to eat, compared to just 22.7 percent in 2019. The figure was the second most-important factor, behind taste and food quality on 94.3 percent. In 2019, cleanliness ranked fourth, wh

Presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party on Sunday suggested unifying candidacies with the main opposition party’s Yoon Suk-yeol, and letting the public decide which of them will run.  “Today I suggest the candidates of the opposition parties to merge campaigns for a complete regime change and to call an end to the old system (in politics),” Ahn said in a livestream on his YouTube channel. Ahn explained that, even if an opposition party candidat

South Korean supply chain management solution provider Emro said Sunday its net income surged 39.1 percent for 2021 compared to the previous year thanks to a high demand for its software. The company recorded 5.2 billion won ($4.3 million) in net profit, a consolidated preliminary financial statement showed. The company’s annual revenue came to 47 billion won, up 4.8 percent from a year prior, while its operating profit stood at 6.7 billion won, up 4.1 percent. Emro attributed the perf

South Korea’s four major bank holding firms are expected to hand out record-high dividends for their highest net profits made last year thanks to a pandemic recovery, officials said Sunday. Total dividends from the four companies -- KB Financial Group, Hana Financial Group, Shinhan Financial Group and Woori Financial Group -- are estimated to be 3.8 trillion won ($3.1 billion), about 26 percent of the combined net profit of 14.5 trillion won. “We have enough capital flowing in to c

Engineers at South Korea’s semiconductor chipmakers are increasingly being offered the chance to put off retirement to a later date. This comes as the memory chip powerhouse, home to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, experiences a talent shortage in the industry. The move will likely be welcome news to the government, which is struggling to find ways to deal with the economic impact of the country’s rapid demographic shift toward an aging population. Starting this year, Sa

Korea’s pharmaceutical giant Celltrion’s Remsima, a biosimilar of autoimmune treatment drug Remicade, has set an all-time high record in sales revenue in the US market, taking a half of the original drug’s share, market insiders said Sunday. Remsima’s sales revenue in the US surged on-year by 13 percent to $385 million as of last year, according to industry sources. Samsung Securities said Remsima’s market shares have increased from 15 percent to 33.7 percent, whi

Jeju Air Co., South Korea's biggest low-cost carrier, said Sunday it will bring in a cargo plane in the first half of this year to ride out the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Jeju Air signed a lease agreement to begin operating a cargo plane for the first time among local LCCs, the company said in a statement, amid efforts to offset a sharply reduced passenger travel demand amid the pandemic. "We plan to expand our business in cargo transportation to diversify our source of revenue," a

Candidate registration began Sunday for the March 9 presidential election, with all four main contenders, including the ruling party's Lee Jae-myung and the main opposition's Yoon Suk-yeol, registering on the first day to become the country's next president. The National Election Commission (NEC) will receive candidacy registration for two days through Monday before the official 22-day campaign period kicks off Tuesday. Along with Lee of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and Yoon of the People Po

South Korea's ICT ministry said Sunday it plans to spend 129.8 billion won ($108.2 million) on ramping up data projects this year, including distributing "data vouchers" to support small and medium-sized businesses. The latest investment comes as part of efforts to utilize data collected from the so-called Data Dam project, an initiative that kicked off in 2020 to gather data generated through public and private networks to maximize data utilization. The ministry said it will allocate

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Sunday it has decided to impose a fine of a combined 19.5 million won ($16,300) on Google, Netflix and three other video streaming services for their unfair business activity over paid subscription. Five over-the-top (OTT) media service providers -- Google, Netflix, KT, LG Uplus and Content Wavve -- hampered paid subscribers' move to end their membership, according to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC). They provided falsified information or did not allow subs

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Sunday self-test kits for 30 million people will be available at local pharmacies and convenience stores for two weeks starting this week. The ministry will also distribute self-test kits for 24 million people at COVID-19 testing clinics and virus-prone facilities starting Monday. In light of the surge in at-home treatment patients, the government earlier announced it will ban online sales of COVID-19 kits starting Sunday and temporarily restrict the pur

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has attended the second groundbreaking ceremony for 10,000 homes in the capital, calling the project a "long-cherished desire" of the country, Pyongyang's state media reported Sunday. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said North Korea broke ground in the Hwasong area Saturday on the second part of the housing project and Kim delivered a speech at the ceremony. "The construction of 10,000 flats in the Hwasong area, one of the top priorit

Minor presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo called off a planned press conference Sunday after his wife tested positive for COVID-19. Ahn of the centrist People's Party had called the press conference earlier in the day amid speculation he could make a proposal on how to merge candidacies with Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party to field a single opposition candidate in the March 9 election. But the plan was canceled after his wife was notified of the virus infection. Ahn was

Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol pledges to create a standing dialogue channel between the two Koreas and the United States by establishing a liaison office either in the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom or in Washington if elected president. The liaison office idea was one of Yoon's top 10 campaign pledges that the main opposition People Power Party candidate put together to submit to the National Election Commission ahead of the March 9 presidential election, accord