SK's CDMO unit expects its 2021 sales to reach all-time high of $740 million

'Inferno island' is uninhabited, unaccessible by visitors this winter

An Air Force pilot died after an F-5E fighter jet crashed in central South Korea on Tuesday, the military said. The aircraft crashed into a mountain in Hwaseong, some 40 kilometers south of Seoul, at 1:46 p.m. minutes after taking off from an Air Force base in the nearby city of Suwon, they said. "An engine fire warning light turned on for the plane's left and right sides after the takeoff at a Suwon base at 1:44 p.m., and the plane shortly nosedived," the Air Force said in a stateme

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court's decision to sharply reduce the fine for Audi Volkswagen Korea (AVK) and clear the company of most of the charges in its diesel emissions scandal. The top court said it approved the Seoul High Court's order last September, calling on the South Korean unit of the German carmaker to pay a 1.1 billion-won ($921,000) fine, instead of a 26 billion-won fine ordered earlier by a district court. It also confirmed the appellate court's decision to comm

The number of South Korean companies that returned home from their offshore operations and their investment at home hit an all-time high last year, the industry ministry said Tuesday. A total of 26 firms relocated their factories from overseas in 2021, compared with 24 the previous year, and their combined investment grew 22 percent on-year to 681.5 billon won ($570.63 million), according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The 2021 figures marked the largest since the ministry bega

The US and five other countries condemned Pyongyang’s missile launch last week, and urged the reclusive regime to abandon its prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programs and return to denuclearization talks on Monday. 　 The joint statement by the US, Japan, France, the UK, Ireland and Albania came ahead of the UN Security Council closed-door meeting in New York to discuss the country’s last week’s test of what Pyongyang called a hypersonic missile. Shortly after the cou

LG Chem Ltd., South Korea's leading chemical materials producer, said Tuesday it will build a new factory in South Korea to produce high-nickel cathode materials for electric vehicle (EV) batteries as it further pushes to upgrade the key battery component materials. The construction for the new cathode plant broke ground on the 60,000-square-meter site in Gumi, an industrial city located about 260 kilometers southeast of Seoul, the company said. Cathode is a key component that determines the

A South Korean movie and a TV series have been officially released in Chinese theaters and via a local streaming platform for the first time in about six years, raising cautious hopes that the yearslong cultural freeze between the neighboring countries is thawing. The comedy film "Oh! My Gran" (2020), starring veteran actress Na Moon-hee, hit Chinese theaters in December, becoming the first Korean-made film released in China since the period action movie "Assassination" in 2

Insurance firms in South Korea saw their risk-based capital ratio fall in the third quarter of last year amid rising market interest rates, data showed Tuesday. The risk-based capital (RBC) ratio of local insurance firms stood at 254.5 percent as of end-September, down 6.4 percentage points from three months earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). The fall came as a rise in market interest rates and stock market declines caused losses from their asset holdi

Apple will allow alternative payment systems in South Korea in compliance with a new local law that bans app store operators from forcing their own in-app payment systems, the country's telecommunications regulator said Tuesday. The move came as a new law went into effect in the country in September last year, restricting app store operators, such as Google and Apple, from forcing their in-app payment systems on developers. In November, Google pledged to provide an alternative payment system o

Broadway-born musical “Hadestown,” which made its first landing in Korea in September last year, was honored with the grand prize at the sixth Korea Musical Awards, hosted by the Korea Musical Theatre Association, on Monday. Korea Musical Awards are given annually to selected musicals among those that premiered over the previous year. For this year, the performance of “Hadestown” beat prominent fellow candidates such as “Who Lives in the Kuroi Mansion?” &ldq

As the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership takes effect in February, the Korea Customs Service has come up with a set of measures to help exporters and importers make use of the world’s largest trade agreement among 15 Asia-Pacific nations. Only exporters who have been certified by the KCS for having the ability to manage and prove their products’ country of origin can get certificates of origin under the RCEP. Therefore, the KCS has begun accepting applications for certific

KCS steps up crackdown on narcotics, illegal currency exchange