Online debate grows over criticisms aimed at JTBC’s ‘Snowdrop’

Upbeat corporate earnings and robust retail demand set the key benchmark Kospi and junior Kosdaq on track for their best year since trading began on the exchange decades ago. The stock market, which will open Monday after a three-day break, saw the Kospi hitting a record high of 3,305 on July 6, while the Kosdaq soared to trading around 1,000, a first in 20 years. The Kospi closed at 2977.65 on its final trading session in 2021, while the Kosdaq ended at 1033.98.　 Kospi-listed companies r

A taxi driver died Thursday after he drove his car through a wall on the fifth story of a Homeplus supermarket in Busan and fell to the ground. Seven people were injured and 12 cars were damaged, police said.

An Army service member suffered an injury in a land mine explosion near the inter-Korean border Thursday, an official said. The detonator of the Claymore directional anti-personnel mine exploded at the front-line Army base in Yanggu, 175 kilometers northeast of Seoul, when the troops were inspecting their equipment. The soldier is currently receiving medical treatment, although the official said his injury does not appear to be life-threatening. The Army is currently investigating the exact c

South Korean memory chipmaker SK hynix said Thursday it paid Intel an initial $7 billion tranche, completing the first phase to acquire the US tech giant’s NAND and SSD business. By absorbing Intel’s NAND and SSD business, SK hynix will rise as the No. 2 player in the global NAND market from its current fifth place. In the SSD segment, where Intel controls 29.6 percent, SK hynix can surpass Samsung Electronics with a combined market share of nearly 37 percent. NAND flash memory c

Hanwha Solutions Corp. a chemical and energy unit of South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group, said Thursday it is acquiring the telecommunication module business of Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. in a bid to diversify its electronics component sector. Under the agreement signed between the two companies earlier in the day, Hanwha Solutions will take over the WiFi module and the high-speed fifth-generation (5G) milimeter wave (mmWave) antenna module divisions from the Samsung unit, it said in a p

Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol said Thursday he wants to pay a visit to former President Park Geun-hye when she recovers her health, as Park was to be set free later in the day under a presidential pardon. Park's release puts Yoon in an awkward position as he headed the investigation of Park's corruption scandal in 2016 that eventually led to her impeachment, ouster from office and imprisonment. "I would like to visit and meet former President Park Geun-hye when she

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) claimed Thursday it has detected suspicious opinion rigging attempts against its presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol as it plans to lodge complaints with election and law enforcement authorities over the issue. The PPP said it found signs of illicit cyber operations targeting Yoon through its self-developed software Kraken. The software was designed to spot manipulative online comments in order to prevent incidents like the 2017 opinion rigging scan

South Korea’s move to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership next year will work in favor of Asia’s fourth-largest economy’s trade, experts from the US and the UK said. “We believe that South Korea will succeed in joining the CPTPP in the coming years,” Fei Xue, an Asia analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told The Korea Herald in an email interview earlier this month. “Inclusion in that regional trade agr

Paris Baguette operator SPC Group promoted its third-generation heir Hur Jin-soo as president of Paris Croissant, the group‘s de facto holding company, the firm announced Thursday. The recent promotion is in recognition of Hur’s contribution to raising Paris Baguette’s brand awareness in major foreign markets, explained SPC. He also led the bakery chain’s joint venture project in Indonesia and Cambodia this year. At its global branches, SPC appointed foreign executive

The planned expansion of the government's COVID-19 vaccine pass system to include 12- to 18-year-olds will likely be delayed by one month to next March, government officials said Thursday. The possible delay may be formally announced by the government on Friday, together with its decision on whether to extend the current strict social distancing measures for two more weeks, the officials said. Starting on Dec. 6, South Korea expanded its vaccine pass program, requiring vaccine passes or a nega

Top comedian Yoo Jae-suk, arguably the biggest television celebrity in Korean broadcasting, won the grand prize at the MBC Entertainment Awards on Wednesday. This year’s award makes it the 16th grand prize win for the 49-year-old comedian if combined with his previous awards from the country’s three major broadcasters -- at KBS in 2005 and 2014, at SBS in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2019, and at MBC in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2020. This year’s award recog

The Constitutional Court has ruled again unanimously that there is no problem with the Medical Service Act that allows only blind people to be eligible for an official license as massage therapists, officials said Thursday. A group of sighted massage parlor owners filed the petition claiming the law infringes upon their right to choose jobs. The law stipulates up to three years in prison or 30 million won ($25,300) in fines for those practicing massage therapy for profit without a license. But

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) reclaimed its status as South Korea's largest umbrella union in 2020, outpacing its rival organization in terms of membership size, a government report showed Thursday. According to the labor ministry's latest report on workplace unionization, the number of union members registered under FKTU was recorded at 1.15 million, or 41.1 percent of the total 2.8 million unionized workers in the country as of 2020. The more militant Korean Confederation of T

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion Inc. said Thursday its new biosimilar of the arthritis drug Humira has won approval from Canadian authorities. Yuflyma, an adalimumab biosimilar with a high concentration, is used to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory diseases. Yuflyma requires only half the solution administered to patients compared with the existing Humira biosimilar and is also citrate-free, which lessens discomfort during injection. Celltrion re