National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug met with the World Health Organization chief to discuss COVID-19 vaccine cooperation and the launch of the organization’s training hub, the speaker’s office said Thursday. During his visit to Switzerland, Park met with WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the WHO headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday and told him South Korea is an optimal place for the launch of its Global Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Hub, which is curren

Hyundai Motor Group said Thursday it would test its Level 4 autonomous driving system in downtown Seoul under its new mobility service “RoboRide,” using its fully electric compact Ioniq 5 as early as next year. The Korean auto giant said running RoboRide will be set the grounds for the company’s advancement of self-driving tech, in a step toward the commercialization of uncrewed mobility services. “We’ve been developing autonomous driving technology for all to mov

Biannual auto extravaganza, though downsized under COVID, exhibits heated race for green technology

South Korean stocks closed lower to extend their losing streak to a third day Thursday as the country's central bank raised its key policy rate to fight inflation and household debt. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) retreated 14.02 points, or 0.47 percent, to close at 2,980.27 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 587 million shares worth some 9.3 trillion won ($7.8 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 642 to 228. Foreigners and institutions offloaded a ne

Kakao Brain, an AI technology research and development subsidiary of Kakao, said Thursday it will upgrade its Korean-language AI model to go full swing in promoting the development of local AI industry. According to the AI company, it plans to enhance the deep learning process of KoGPT, Kako Brain’s Korean- language AI model, and make it 100 times more efficient by using Google Cloud’s supercomputer, Google Tensor Processing Unit. Google TPU is a large-scale computing system that

NongHyup among Korean lenders jumping on digital bandwagon, but resistance persists

Government to launch official consultative body to discuss ban on dog meat consumption

“Hellbound,” Netflix’s latest Korean original series directed from Yeon Sang-ho, presents a concrete observation on humans in a dystopian world, where moral principles and beliefs give way to religious zealotry. Yeon, who has been issuing his social criticism by depicting worlds in chaos, does not seem to limit himself in a single profession. The 43-year-old director’s love for fantasy horror has been presented in animation and as a film director, illustrator and scree

Pyongyang appears to keep up efforts to produce plutonium and uranium at high-profile facilities

Seoul in talks toward recognizing EU Digital COVID Certificate as pressure grows to accept proof of vaccination overseas from foreign residents

Recent move resembles late President Roh Moo-hyun’s ‘politics of tears’

Kakao Corp. said Thursday co-CEO Yeo Min-soo has been named to lead the operator of South Korea's top mobile messenger, KakaoTalk, for another four years. Kakao said its board of directors also selected Ryu Young-joon, who has served as the chief of Kakao's payment arm, Kakao Pay, as a new co-CEO of Kakao. Yeo, who has been leading Kakao since March 2018, will begin a second four-year term as a co-CEO with Ryu at a board meeting slated for March. "I will faithfully serve my role in this

The presidential nominee for South Korea’s ruling party called for increased intervention and monitoring of the military as it continues to report sexual assault cases and raises the need for extensive reforms internally. Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea said in a meeting with female reserve service members Thursday that the country's military should be able to allow the civilian sector to actively engage in monitoring the human rights issues within the "close-mi

Yoon Seok-youl, the presidential nominee of the main opposition People Power Party, said Thursday he will not exploit historical tensions between South Korea and Japan for domestic political gain. Speaking at a forum on Seoul-Tokyo relations, Yoon accused the Moon Jae-in administration of plunging the bilateral relationship to its worst level since the sides normalized ties in 1965 by bringing the issue of "foreign relations into domestic politics, instead of putting national interests fir

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday imports of childlike sex dolls should be banned, because they could lead to the perception of children as sexual objects and increase the danger of potential sex crimes against minors. The ruling overturned lower courts' decisions that imports of child sex dolls should be allowed, like those of adult dolls. In 2019, the top court allowed imports of adult sex dolls on grounds that they are sex toys used in private life, an area in which the state should not inter