Nearly half of South Korean hospitality companies were unable to service their debts with earnings in 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, a report showed Monday. The report from the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the lobby for South Korea's family-controlled conglomerates, showed 45.4 percent of firms in the local hospitality industry had an interest coverage ratio below 1 last year. The figure is up 11.3 percentage points from 2018, indicating those companies have been hit h

Presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl of the main opposition People Power Party is leading his ruling Democratic Party rival Lee Jae-myung by 9.4 percentage points in a hypothetical multicandidate race, a survey showed Monday. Yoon had 46.3 percent support against Lee's 36.9 percent in the survey of 3,023 adults conducted last Monday to Friday by Realmeter. The difference fell outside the margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. Ahn Cheol-soo, t

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, first raised the idea of restoring video art pioneer Paik Nam-June’s largest installation work, “The More the Better,” after it was shut down in 2018 due to technical problems. The museum is conducting a three-year restoration project for the masterpiece, which began last year. “We are replacing 268 CRT monitors, which are 6 or 10 inches, installed at the upper part of the video tower, with LED monitors. We will

China disappeared star tennis player Peng Shuai because she accused a top leader of sexual assault, but her fate will affect the Olympics and China’s relations with the world. When Peng disappeared from public view this month after accusing a senior Chinese politician of sexual assault, it caused an international uproar. But back in China, Peng is just one of several people, activists and accusers alike, who have been hustled out of view, charged with crimes or trolled and silenced online

LOS ANGELES – With locals having flushed out of the city for the Thanksgiving holiday, the streets of downtown Los Angeles were empty in the days leading up to K-pop sensation BTS’ “Permission to Dance On Stage” concert series, which kicked off on Saturday. But sure enough, a flush of purple, the group’s signature color, flooded into the city as it geared up to welcome the world‘s biggest boy band and their global fandom, Army. The hashtags “Armys have

  Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors moved to the brink of a historic fifth straight title in the top South Korean football league on Sunday.    Hong Jeong-ho and Moon Seon-min scored a goal apiece to lead Jeonbuk past Daegu FC 2-0 in the clubs' penultimate match of the 2021 K League 1 season on Sunday at DGB Daegu Bank Park in Daegu, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul.    Jeonbuk improved to 73 points, two points ahead of their closest competitor, Ulsan Hyundai FC, with one

The two leading presidential candidates remained neck and neck with each other in the latest survey released Sunday.    Yoon Seok-youl, the presidential nominee of the main opposition People Power Party, earned 38.9 percent support, while Lee Jae-myung, the candidate for the ruling Democratic Party, had 36.1 percent support in the poll conducted by Embrain Public.    Yoon's lead of 2.8 percentage points was within the margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points

GANGNEUNG, Gangwon Province -- After a two-year break forced by the pandemic, the long awaited Gangneung Coffee Festival returned for its 13th edition, Thursday to Sunday. With the slogan, “Nonetheless, coffee,” some 80 coffee-themed booths were set up at Daedohobu Gwana, a site where central government officials from the capital visiting the region stayed during the Goryeo Kingdom and Joseon era. Friday saw its signature program, “100 People 100 Tastes,” a massive sim

LG Energy Solution, the batteries unit of LG Group, has laid out a new $1.36 billion funding plan to drastically ramp up the capacity of its plant in the US state of Michigan in the next three years. In a regulatory filing Friday, parent company LG Chem said LG Energy Solution's Michigan arm will raise $681 million in fresh capital without rights to add new production facilities to the Michigan plant, while securing the remaining $681 million from local borrowing. The new funding aims t

Samsung Electronics said Sunday that it ranked No. 1 in the premium home cinema projector market in the United States, a year after the electronics giant entered the market with its flagship The Premiere lineup. Samsung Electronics’ high-end projectors priced at $3,000 or more accounted for 27.8 percent of the US market by sales from January to October, the company said, citing an estimate from US market intelligence firm NPD Group. In particular, Samsung’s focus on ultrashort th

Hyundai Motor has reclaimed the No. 2 spot in Australian car sales, with its October car sales outpacing those of American rival Ford and Japanese rival Mazda, according to the latest data compiled by the market tracker BestSellingCarsBlog.com on Sunday. Hyundai sold around 6,200 vehicles in October in Australia, a 3 percent increase from a year prior. For the January-October period this year, its cumulative car sales reached 61,000 vehicles, up almost 10,000 vehicles from the same period last

COVID-19 deaths, ICU admissions continue record-breaking streak

It’s presidential election season and none of the two frontrunners are talking about pension‘s ticking time bomb