Samsung Electronics Co. retained the top spot in the global smartphone market in the third quarter of the year, a report showed Wednesday. The world's largest smartphone maker held a market share of 20 percent in the July-September period, followed by Apple with 14 percent and Xiaomi with 13 percent, according to a report from market researcher Counterpoint Research. During the three months, the South Korean tech giant shipped 69.3 million smartphones, up 20 percent from the previous quarter

 The Qatar Embassy in Seoul on Tuesday celebrated the country’s national day, commemorating the unification of Qatar on Dec. 1878. Qatar’s national day, which falls on Dec. 18, marks the anniversary of the accession of Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed bin Thani. In 1878, he unified the peninsula bordered by Saudi Arabia and surrounded by the Persian Gulf. Delivering welcome remarks at the annual celebration, Qatar Ambassador to Korea Khalid Ibrahim al-Hamar welcomed the progress and

New memory chip features industry’s largest density tailored to data centers, servers

Kakao Brain, the artificial intelligence technology research and development subsidiary of Kakao, said Wednesday it has launched its second AI model that self-generates images, allowing the company to quickly expand its presence in Korea’s mammoth AI space. The AI model, dubbed “minDALL-E,” creates images the users wish to see, according to the company. For instance, when users type in requests such as “draw a picture in a Salvador Dali style” or “create an

Korea Aerospace Industries Co. (KAI) said Wednesday it has received a 180 billion-won ($152 million) deal to supply parts and maintenance services to the T-50 trainer jets operated by the Korean military. Under the deal signed with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, the country's sole aircraft manufacturer will provide parts to the T-50 advanced trainer jets, the FA-50 light attack aircraft and the TA-50 lead-in fighter aircraft until July 2025, the company said in a statement. &

The runup to the March 9 South Korean presidential election could be a “golden time” to make strides in the stalled diplomacy with North Korea and a potential inter-Korean summit could be an answer for a breakthrough, experts at the state-funded think tank said Wednesday. 　 “The period up till the presidential election could be the ‘golden time’ where decisive change could happen (on the peninsula),” Lee Sang-sin, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for

A court on Wednesday ruled that a bioscience question in this year's college entrance exam had errors and ordered the state-run agency responsible for producing the test to cancel its designated answer. The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of 92 examinees disputing question No. 20 of the bioscience part 2 section of this year's College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) developed by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE). The examinees argued the question centering aroun

Music director Jung Jae-il of Netflix’s hit series “Squid Game” and Oscar-winning “Parasite“ was named as one of the 10 winners of the 2021 Chanel Next Prize, the high-end fashion house announced. On Tuesday, Chanel announced its newly-established international award winners who have supported innovations in art and culture. Jung was recognized for opening up a new genre that fuses traditional Korean music with the sounds of western instruments, the French Luxury b

South Korea's nuclear safety watchdog on Wednesday approved the restart of a nuclear reactor in the country's southwestern nuclear complex that was shut down for an inspection. The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said it has given the go-ahead to restart the Wolsong No. 4, 700-megawatt reactor, in Gyeongju, 371 kilometers southeast of Seoul. The Wolsong No. 4 nuclear power reactor, which first started operations in 1999, has been shut down since Oct. 10 for regular maintenance. The com

South Korea has a duty and obligation to take a special interest in the Beijing Olympics as the host of the previous games and will decide later whether it is appropriate for President Moon Jae-in to attend the opening ceremony, a Cheong Wa Dae official said Wednesday. Moon earlier said South Korea is not considering a diplomatic boycott of February's Beijing Olympics after the United States decided not to send an official delegation to the games over concerns about China's human rights abuses.

Police will take stalking suspects into custody in high-risk cases as part of efforts to bolster victim protection, officials said Wednesday, after facing criticism for failing to provide due protection to victims in two recent stalking murder cases. The measure was announced as part of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's plan to strengthen its response capability against stalking crimes after two people were recently killed in stalking cases that had been reported to police. Last week, a 2

Two men have been arrested for allegedly locking up an elementary school girl for over 10 hours for sex, police said Wednesday. The two unidentified men, both in their early 20s, were suspected of locking up the 12-year-old at a residential "officetel" building in Shindang-dong, central Seoul, for about 11 hours from 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. The girl was discovered after her mother filed a missing report with police. Police believe the two had sex with the juvenile during the lockup. The s

Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., South Korea's two biggest consumer electronics companies, will unveil a slew of innovative products at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) set to open early next month in Las Vegas. The two companies are among the approximately 1,700 businesses from around the world and about 300 South Korean companies that will attend the event to showcase their consumer electronics and latest technologies, promising to change the way people live their

Expanded use of robots has resulted in a "meaningful" decline in demand for human labor in the manufacturing industry while replacing mostly "routine" and "repetitive" jobs, a central bank report said Wednesday. The Bank of Korea's report was based on data related to introduction of robots in industries and the impact on employment from 2010-2019. It analyzed the net effect of the "displacement effect" in which robots replace workers and "productivit