Celltrion has confirmed the safety of its inhalable antibody treatment for COVID-19 in a phase one clinical trial in Australia, the pharmaceutical company said Monday. Celltrion’s US partner Inhalon Biopharma completed the planned administering of the drugs for 24 volunteers after it acquired testing approval from the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration in August. The results of the clinical trial proved the drug’s safety, as there were no serious adverse events from inha

NextRise 2022, Seoul, a global startup conference co-hosted by the Korea International Trade Association and Korea Development Bank, is set to be held in Seoul on June 16 and 17, with aims to connect startups and their potential business partners and spur innovation among them. Launched in 2019, the conference has become Asia’s largest startup fair in terms of the size. Last year’s event attracted some 12,000 visitors from around the world despite the coronavirus pandemic. This y

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has demand for at-home test kits rising at an alarming rate, with major convenience store chain CU temporarily ceasing distribution to franchises. According to local reports Monday, CU stores across the country have been unable to order new stock of at-home kits since Friday. This is believed to be due to a spike in sales during the Lunar New Year holiday last week, a CU official was cited as saying. CU reported a 700 percent increase in sales of at-home test kits

South Korea and the United States are not considering the deployment of an additional THAAD anti-missile system here, Seoul's defense ministry said Monday amid a heated debate on the issue rekindled ahead of the March 9 presidential election. Boo Seung-chan, the ministry spokesperson, made the remarks, following a media report that a government-commissioned research in 2015 noted the need for South Korea's military to acquire its own THAAD battery separately from the one currently run by the US

Samsung Electronics said Monday it plans to reuse discarded fishing nets as a new material for its handset devices as part of its sustainability strategy announced earlier this year. According to the South Korean tech giant, the repurposed ocean-bound plastics, also known as “ghost nets,” will be incorporated in Samsung’s new product lineup under its Mobile Experience division, starting with the new Galaxy devices to be unveiled in the Unpacked event on Feb. 9, at 10 a.m. US E

The amount of money South Korean firms raised through initial public offerings (IPOs) more than quadrupled to hit a record high last year thanks to ample liquidity and the overall bullish stock market sentiment, data showed Monday. A total of 89 companies went public in 2021 by listing stocks on the benchmark KOSPI and secondary tech-heavy KOSDAQ markets and raised a combined 19.7 trillion won ($16.4 billion), according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The money raised from

Rep. Jang Hye-young from Justice Party says politicians need to stop blaming lack of ‘social consensus’ and act now for people on margins of society

President Moon Jae-in and Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov exchanged letters celebrating the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Cheong Wa Dae said Monday. In the letters, the two leaders took note of cooperation between their countries in the fields of energy and transportation, and agreed to expand cooperation to new sectors, according to presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee. Moon told Berdymukhamedov that the two nations have developed relatio

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum hinted Monday at the possibility of increasing a proposed extra budget designed to help support pandemic-hit small merchants following calls from ruling and opposition parties. "The government does empathize with views that direct support for these people needs to be increased," Kim told lawmakers during a parliamentary budget committee meeting. "Now is the time for the National Assembly and the government to open up candidly to each other and put the

The combined global market share of three major South Korean battery makers declined last year from a year earlier, due largely to the growth of their Chinese rivals, data showed Monday. The cumulative market share of LG Energy Solution Ltd. (LGES), SK Innovation Co. and Samsung SDI Co. came to 30.4 percent in the January-December period, down 4.3 percentage points from the previous year, according to market tracker SNE Research. LGES, which supplies electric vehicle batteries to Ford, Tesla

Boy group BIGBANG will come back to the K-pop scene this spring after four years of hiatus due to the members' mandatory military duties, the group's management agency said Monday. "BIGBANG will drop a new song in the coming spring," YG Entertainment said in a press release. "The group has completed its recording for the new song and is going to film a music video for the song." The date of the group's return and the title of the new song, however, remain unknown. Debutin

South Korea's military on Monday reported 150 additional COVID-19 cases, raising the total caseload among its domestic personnel to 6,277. The new cases included 75 from the Air Force, 20 from the Navy, 20 from the Marine Corps, 21 from units under the direct control of the defense ministry and 14 from the Army. Currently, 1,975 military personnel are under treatment. Meanwhile, three more sailors of the Navy's 304-strong Cheonghae unit operating in waters off Africa tested positive, bringing

The South Korean government launched an interagency team Monday tasked with helping North Korean defectors suffering from economic and psychological difficulties after resettlement here. The nine-member team, comprising officials from different government agencies, will provide support in fields ranging from education and employment to living and psychological counseling for the defectors, the Ministry of Unification said. According to a biannual government survey conducted last year, 1,582 de