Samsung SDI has established a new organization to accomplish its environmental, social and governance goals, including a full transition to renewable energy by 2050. According to the South Korean battery firm Thursday, its board of directors formed a sustainable business management committee to bolster ESG efforts. Also, an ESG strategy team, which previously belonged to the firm’s strategy division, has been elevated to a sustainable business management bureau directly under the chief fi

South Korean communication technology firm KT said Thursday it would join hands with Russia’s Medsi Group to establish health checkup centers in the country, which has been experiencing a lack of access to medical infrastructure for clinical diagnostics. The two companies look to complete a feasibility review of the medical centers in Moscow and Vladivostok within this year, according to KT. The new centers will feature Korean-style health examination services, reflecting Russians‘

Global streaming platform Netflix mesmerized drama fans around the world by circling back to yet another zombie hit, “All of Us Are Dead,” after the service’s South Korean market debut with period zombie drama “Kingdom” in 2019. The Korean zombie thriller topped Netflix’s streaming chart around the globe, reaching the top spot in 58 countries as of Wednesday, including Korea, Australia, Japan, Kuwait, Germany, Canada and more, according to US-based streaming

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Thursday it has received 704 billion won ($583 million) worth of ship orders. Korea Shipbuilding obtained four separate orders from shippers in Europe and Oceania to build two liquefied natural gas-powered roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) ships, one LNG bunkering ship and six 2,800 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container carriers, the company said in a statement. The ships will be delivered to the unidentified clients beginning in the s

President Moon Jae-in on Thursday asked the National Assembly to swiftly approve an extra budget bill designed to help support small merchants hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, a presidential spokesperson said. The budget proposal of 14 trillion won ($11.8 billion) was submitted to the National Assembly last month. Moon told a meeting with senior aides that "speed is vital" for the extra budget because it aims to provide emergency support to small merchants, according to president

Civil servant allegedly ordered to fetch groceries and pills for Lee’s wife

South Korea is predicted to see its working age population shrink by a whopping 3.2 million during the 2020-2030 period amid the country's graying demographics, a government labor report showed Thursday. The estimate of people aged 15-64 would represent a turnaround from a growth of 1.17 million between 2010 and 2020 and 2.66 million during the previous decade, the labor ministry said in a report illustrating the seriousness of the country's low birthrate and fast-aging population. People age

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. said Thursday it has received a combined 1.8 trillion won ($1.5 billion) worth of orders from Europe. Daewoo Shipbuilding will build two liquefied natural gas carriers for Maran Gas Maritime Inc., the gas shipping unit of Greece's biggest shipping firm Angelicoussis Shipping Group, and six container ships for an unidentified European shipper, the company said in a statement. The two LNG ships and six container carriers will begin being delivered

K-Bank, a South Korean internet-only bank, on Thursday reported its first profit since its launch in 2017 thanks to a sharp increase in customers and interest income. Net profit came to 22.4 billion won ($18.6 million) in 2021, a turnaround from a loss of 105.4 billion won a year earlier, according to the company's interim earnings report. This marked the first annual net profit that the internet-only bank has posted since it was launched in 2017. K-Bank is controlled by a consortium of teleco

Krafton Inc., a South Korean gaming giant behind the global smash hit "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" (PUBG), said Thursday that it has invested $5.4 million in an Indian sports game developer, Nautilus Mobile. It is Krafton's first investment in an Indian game development studio. Nautilus is a sports game developer that developed a cricket game franchise. "Real Cricket" has been downloaded more than 100 million times globally and has more than 10 million monthly active us

Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung is running neck and neck with his main opposition rival, Yoon Suk-yeol, at 40.4 percent support against Yoon's 38.5 percent, a poll showed Thursday. Lee of the liberal Democratic Party gained 5.1 percentage points from the pollster's previous survey on Jan. 8-10, and Yoon of the conservative People Power Party edged up 0.5 point, according to the survey of 1,012 adults conducted by Hangil Research on Wednesday. The gap between Lee and Yoon was

South Korea's ICT ministry said Thursday it has required tech giants Google, Meta Platforms and Netflix, as well as local rivals Naver and Kakao, to comply with the country's revised law requiring them to provide stable services. In 2020, South Korea passed a legal revision holding online content service providers accountable if they fail to maintain stable services amid growing complaints against streaming giants Netflix and Google after their services experienced outages. The revised law, in

Online shopping in South Korea hit a record high in 2021, led by strong demand for food delivery services and electronics amid the pandemic, data showed Thursday. The value of online shopping transactions stood at 192.9 trillion won ($160 billion) last year, up 21 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marked the largest value since the statistics agency began compiling related data in 2001. Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile

Samsung Electronics will collaborate with US-based software solutions firm Amdocs to deliver fourth- and fifth-generation private wireless network solutions to boost the connectivity of firms in the United States, according to the company Thursday. The partnership will allow the companies to advance wireless communications such as increasing download speed, and to simplify the deployment of 5G-ready Citizen Broadband Radio Service solutions for industries ranging from education to utilities, m

Feeling betrayed by both sides, voters more willing to choose beyond party allegiance