More than 40% of 61 Bib Gourmand restaurants in Seoul serve noodle dishes

SK Bioscience’s contract manufacturing deal to produce AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine will expire by the end of this year, according to the company Thursday. The deal greatly helped South Korea secure shots in its early vaccination stage, but as the government has decided to phase out the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, there is no need for the firm to continue producing it, the firm said. As for international supplies, however, the firm remains in talks with AstraZeneca, the fir

Streaming giant Netflix announced on Thursday a subscription fee increase of up to 17 percent, its first hike since launching the service in South Korea in 2016. The streaming platform’s standard plan will cost 13,500 won ($11.45) a month, up 12.5 percent from the previous 12,000 won, and the premium plan will go up 17.24 percent to 17,000 won from 14,500 won. The basic plan will remain unchanged at 9,500 won. Local users will be notified of the price changes 30 days before their renewa

Hyundai Motor Group is joining hands with six electric vehicle charging stations here to form an alliance supporting the growth of the EV charging industry, the automotive giant said Thursday. Hyundai said it signed partnerships with six Korean EV charging service providers to establish E-pit Alliance and agreed to work together in developing technologies related to E-pit, the automotive group’s ultra-fast charging station. The six EV service providers are Starkoff, Straffic, Jeju Elect

Marking a decade of operating its startup accelerator program, South Korean steelmaker Posco on Thursday vowed to continue supporting the local startup ecosystem, particularly in fields related to its future strategic businesses, including hydrogen, secondary battery and green materials. . “The Idea Marketplace has become a representative accelerator program for startups in the country. For Posco, it will continue to play a role in exploring new business items,” said Posco Chairma

South Korean blockchain research company AMAXG has launched a metaverse platform where people can trade nonfungible tokens, strengthening its initiative for blockchain commercialization. AMAXG recently launched the platform, dubbed BIZA-UVIT, after joining hands with K2SOFT, a metaverse platform and ANISTAR, a provider of cultural content. According to AMAXG, BIZA-UVIT users can trade NFTs in the metaverse, virtual worlds shared by people online, and expand their own virtual worlds. NFTs are

Only Sejong sees negative growth during Moon’s term

Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori pulled out at the last minute from a joint news conference with his South Korean and US counterparts over a territorial feud with Seoul on the Dokdo islets.  Mori and South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun were scheduled to appear alongside US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman at a press conference scheduled after the three held talks over regional issues, including North Korea’s nuclear program, in Washington on

Cosmetics firm Beaumax donated 30,000 face masks to support disadvantaged children in Myanmar struggling with COVID-19, acting on a high school student’s proposal. The Seoul-based company said Thursday it has donated the masks to Myanmar as part of nonprofit Worldshare’s Disaster Vulnerable Overseas Children’s Project. The donation, made in the name of Beaumax CEO Han Hyun-woo, was suggested by a high school sophomore. The company said Kim Jae-yeon, a student at Cheongshim In

South Korea declines to co-sponsor resolution for third year in a row

The military is more committed than ever to building the first homegrown light aircraft carrier even though the National Assembly decided to cut the budget for a second straight year, saying more studies are needed to determine if the 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) project is worth the cost. The Navy, which plans to roll out the seagoing air base by 2033 to supplement its air power against North Korea, asked for 10 billion won this year and 7 billion won next year, but was given 100 million and

Spouses of ruling and opposition parties’ key candidates face allegations, rumors and mockery

Lee calls on Yoon to stop backpedaling, as rival parties clash over effectiveness of inter-Korean military agreement

Apple released an update to its mobile operating system Thursday to fix dropped calls on iPhone devices, including the iPhone 12 and 13. The release of the iOS 15.1.1, an updated version of the iOS 15.1, fixes the call drop performance issue on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 as well as the usual bug fixes, U.S. online website Apple Insider said. iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 users have recently experienced consistent dropped calls on their devices, preventing them from receiving incoming calls. Apple