A new establishment will be built in Songhyeon-dong, central Seoul, to house the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s art collection. According to an announcement from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Tuesday, the two institutions will sign a memorandum of understanding on the project Wednesday. The entrepreneur died in October 2020, and in April this year his family donated some 24,000 artworks and artifacts to the National Museum of

One out of 10 small and midsize company owners are selling their firms because their children are refusing to take over the family business, preferring a cash inheritance by selling the companies their parents built, a survey showed Tuesday. According to Korea M&A Exchange, a platform that mediates buyers and sellers of small and medium-sized enterprises, of the 5,481 business owners looking for buyers, 515 said they were looking for new owners to take over their firms as their children di

Restoration work on museum building to begin next year

For global star Song Hye-kyo, the decision to come back with another melodrama after just two years brought with it a bag of mixed emotions. “After tvN’s ‘Encounter’ (2019), many fans have been waiting for my return to the small screen with another beautiful romance story, but I am certain that there are some viewers who already feel tired of watching another melodrama by Song Hye-kyo,” said Song in an online press conference recorded in mid-August that was releas

The Bangladesh Embassy in Seoul showcased seafood products at Busan International Seafood and Fisheries Expo 2021 last week. Co-organized by Busan Metropolitan City, Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (Bexco), National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives and Korea Fishery Trade Association, the trade fair was held through Nov. 3 to 5 at Bexco. Fourteen countries including Korea participated in the expo and displayed a wide range of seafood items at a total of 551 booths -- 36 were forei

MIDDLE EAST COOPERATION -- Bader M. al-Awadi, Kuwait’s ambassador to South Korea who also serves as dean of the Arab Diplomatic Corps, delivers congratulatory remarks at the 17th Korea-Middle East Cooperation Forum held at Lotte Hotel in Seoul on Monday. The forum aimed to discuss future directions in strengthening the strategic partnership between Korea and the Middle East in the post COVID-19 era and to update and upgrade the paradigm of the Middle East in a rapidly changing political e

The Boyz are holding a three-day concert next month in Seoul, the band announced Tuesday. 　 The band will perform live in front of fans for the first time in about three years. Its last concert, “The Film Festival,” was held online in December last year. 　 Under the title “The B Zone,” named after the band’s official fandom, The B, the 11-member act will perform in a variety of styles. The Boyz were named Artist of the Year at the Fact Music Awards last week and

  The Embassy of Kazakhstan in Seoul opened a photo exhibition on Tuesday titled “Nuclear-Free World.” The show commemorates the 30th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the 30th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan. Opening the exhibition, Ambassador Bakyt Dyussenbayev noted that Kazakhstan was the first country in the world to close a nuclear test site and that it had voluntarily renounced its nuclear

Considering the current trajectory, South Korea will be able to enter the second phase of its reopening, otherwise known as the pandemic exit plan, slated for mid-December, Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Yoo Geun-heag told reporters Tuesday. As Korea seeks to coexist with COVID-19, deaths and hospitalizations, rather than case counts, will be the two main metrics that measure the country’s performance in handling the pandemic, the government previously said. Based on the changes in

Peace comes from people and their hearts and minds, not from an organization, according to Vincent Courtenay, a Canadian veteran who took part in the 1950-53 Korean War and is visiting Busan on Thursday with fellow veterans to commemorate International Memorial Day for UN Veterans. Courtenay was referring to President Moon Jae-in’s latest initiative to formally end the decades-old conflict that ended in an armistice, signed by North Korea, China and the US, representing South Korea and th

National Theater of Korea invites overseas production for first time in five years

ANSAN -- An employee of the scandal-ridden state housing developer Korea Land & Housing Corp. (LH) was acquitted Tuesday of land speculation using insider information. The LH employee was indicted on charges of having purchased about 17,000 square meters of land in Gwangmyeong, just south of Seoul, at 2.5 billion won ($2.1 million) in March 2017 after obtaining insider information while working on an urban development project. But the Suwon District Court cleared the employee, whose ident

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix on Tuesday confirmed their submission of chip supply chain data to the US Commerce Department, but stressed no sensitive client data was included. “(Samsung) submitted its response today, in accordance with the guideline of the Department of Commerce,” the world’s largest producer of memory chips said in a statement. “Due to contractual obligations and after consultation with the department, no information on customers was disclosed. SK

Number of men working part-time has surged since 2017

China has been proactively consulting with South Korea to help ease its supply shortage of urea water solution needed in diesel vehicles, Beijing's foreign ministry said Tuesday. South Korea has been grappling with a shortage of urea water solution in recent weeks as Beijing last month tightened exports of urea and other raw materials amid a coal supply shortage. Coal is the main feedstock for urea. "China highly appreciates South Korea's demand for (urea) and has been proactively negotia