Expanding environmental, social and governance investment and building digital businesses make capitalism sustainable, the research chief of Mirae Asset Securities said Wednesday. “It’s all about quality, not quantity, when it comes to growth in capitalism. ESG offers a fresh perspective, while metaverse makes possible a digital world built on private property and a free market, which is the essence of capitalism,” said Seo Cheol-soo, head of research at South Korea’s la

Korean director Kim Se-in’s “The Apartment With Two Women” will be screened during the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival’s Panorama program in February. The panorama program is a noncompetition category of the annual film festival. This year, 13 titles will be screened in the program alongside Kim’s 140-minute film. The 72nd edition of the film festival will kick off Feb. 10. Kim’s debut feature was created through a feature film production program

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it has begun mass-producing cutting-edge memory chips for an undisclosed auto manufacturer to power a range of connected features including autonomous driving. The newest lineup of chips includes 2-gigabyte GDDR6 graphic dynamic random access memory chips, as well as 128-gigabyte universal flash storage. Both products are designed to support autonomous driving features, including advanced driver assistance systems. Samsung unveiled the industry‘s first u

South Korea has decided to reinstate toughened social distancing rules and a 9 p.m. curfew for restaurants and cafes to combat record-high surges of COVID-19 infections, top officials said Thursday. During the 16-day period between Saturday and Jan. 2, private gatherings will be capped at four people nationwide -- if they are fully vaccinated. People who are not vaccinated will only be able to dine out alone, or use takeout or delivery services, according to the reintroduced social distancing

Seven countries reiterate urgency of addressing “brutality” in N.Korea after 4-year hiatus

South Korea will come under the grip of the season's coldest weather later this week, with the morning lows dipping to minus 9 C in Seoul and minus 15 C in some inland areas, the state weather agency said Thursday. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said that the freezing temperatures will be accompanied by snow, which is forecast to begin in central and western coastal areas Friday and spread to the greater Seoul area and almost all central regions over the weekend. It did not rule

President Moon Jae-in apologized to the nation Thursday for restoring tough social distancing measures following a spike in coronavirus cases and deaths. Moon issued the apology shortly after the government announced new measures to reduce the maximum private gathering size to four people and restore a 9 p.m. curfew on restaurant and cafe business hours. "I am sorry that we have had to once again strengthen antivirus measures," Moon was quoted as saying by his spokesperson Park Kyung

Yoon faces criticism of wife while Lee apologizes for son’s gambling past

While Korea puts brakes on ‘living with COVID-19’ plan, Education Ministry advises against online-only classes

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of workers at Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., who have fought the company for nine years demanding that regular periodic bonuses be counted as part of their "ordinary wage." The top court ruled in favor of 10 employees who filed the appeal on behalf of some 30,000 workers at the shipbuilding conglomerate and sent the case back to the Busan High Court for a retrial. The suit was launched by workers asking the company to recognize regular bonu

South Korean construction companies' sales dropped on-year in 2020 for the first time in 21 years due to the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Thursday. The combined top line of local builders reached 396.9 trillion won ($336 billion) last year, down 1.1 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marks the first on-year decline since the 11.1 percent decrease recorded in 1999 in the wake of the country's foreign exchange crisis. Their domestic s