Failed digital transition cited as key reason for falling profits

With an attempt to tame the spread of COVID-19 and the newly confirmed omicron variant, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and local governments have decided to cancel their annual year-end and New Year’s ceremonies. The traditional bell-ringing ceremony at Bosingak in Jongno, central Seoul, at midnight on New Year’s Eve will be held online for a second year in a row, according to the city. Ringing the bell 33 times, people bid farewell to the old and welcome the new year. Ten civi

Local broadcaster SBS announced plans to restore viewers’ trust with a complete change of the production team for its women-led soccer show, “Kick a Goal,” Monday. “We have decided the television directors and chief producer should first hold themselves accountable for the carelessness of tampering with some of the footage in the program. After conducting a thorough self-investigation, we have found that the order of the scores was changed on some of the episodes in &ls

State pension operators, including the National Pension Service, have offloaded more than 10 trillion won ($8.4 billion) worth of top-cap Samsung Electronics shares so far this year, and instead bought stakes in Kakao Pay, Krafton and Samsung Biologics, data from the Korea Exchange showed Tuesday. They dumped a combined 24.5 trillion won of local shares from the beginning of the year to Monday. This compares to 25.7 trillion won worth of shares offloaded by foreigners in the cited period. Of

Travel from Ulsan to Busan by subway to take less than an hour

Hyundai Motor’s kickoff moves to metaverse for first time

Apple could submit its compliance plans for a new South Korean law that bans app store operators from forcing in-app payment systems on developers, industry sources said Tuesday. The new law went into effect in September, making South Korea the first country in the world to introduce such curbs on in-app billing policies of Apple and Google. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) requested Apple to turn in its compliance plans within this year as it drafted an enforcement decree of the revi

Samsung Electronics said Tuesday it will showcase 13 startup projects at the CES trade show next month to introduce their innovations to a global audience and gauge marketability. The Korean tech giant has nurtured in-house ventures under the C Lab Inside program since 2012. In 2018, the firm launched the C Lab Outside program to support outside startups as well. A total of 406 startups have been accelerated under the programs. For the upcoming CES, four in-house ventures are making their deb

People Power Party election committee chief Kim Chong-in stepped in Tuesday to calm the conflict between the party’s presidential candidate and its chairman. Discord in the conservative main opposition party has continued since it chose Yoon Suk-yeol, a former prosecutor general, as its flagbearer in November. Acknowledging internal disputes made public by remarks of the party members, Kim said in an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper that he will step up to “control the

Pyongyang is likely to celebrate this year’s achievements in five-year plan

The global TV sensation "Squid Game" will likely return not only with season 2 but also with season 3, its creator Hwang Dong-hyuk said Tuesday. "I'm in talks with Netflix over season 2 as well as season 3," Hwang said in an online interview with Korean broadcaster KBS. "We will come to a conclusion any time soon." It is the first time that the director-writer has hinted at the possibility of a third season of the biggest Netflix original series after he confirmed

South Korea plans to embark on a civilian-military project next year to design a solid-fuel space launch vehicle under a broad initiative to develop the country's space defense industry, the state arms procurement agency said Tuesday. At a policy forum, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) unveiled the initiative consisting of 24 key tasks aimed at locally developing cutting-edge technologies, nurturing the space industry and strengthening civilian-military cooperation. The in

Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol said Tuesday he feels sorry for former President Park Geun-hye over a corruption probe he conducted as a senior prosecutor a few years ago that eventually led to her impeachment. "Even though the investigation of former President Park was my job as a public official, I feel truly sorry politically and emotionally as a human being," Yoon of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) said during a discussion hosted by the Korea Broa

About 78 percent of salaried workers support the 52-hour workweek that was introduced in 2018 to reduce long working hours, a labor ministry survey showed Tuesday. According to the survey of 1,300 people, 71 percent said the reduction of the maximum weekly working hours to 52 from 68 was a good decision. Of the wage earning respondents, in particular, 77.8 percent were in support of the shorter workweek. The Nov. 26-30 survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.72 percentage points and