More listed units of South Korea's major business groups have adopted electronic voting and other types of voting this year than a year earlier in a bid to promote small shareholders' rights, the country's antitrust regulator said Thursday. As of May, 78.8 percent of 274 listed affiliates of the country's 62 major conglomerates, or 216 firms, had introduced at least one out of cumulative, written or e-voting systems, the Fair Trade Commission said in a report on large business groups' governanc

Three members of K-pop sensation BTS have sold shares in their management agency Hybe, realizing profits worth around 10 billion won ($8.49 million) in the last two months, according to the company’s announcement on DART, the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure board, Thursday. Jin, J-Hope and RM dumped a total of 9.95 billion won-worth of stocks during regular trading sessions, which were gifted from the agency ahead of its market debut on South Korea’s mai

Being in love is like walking a thin line between the utmost happiness and constant anxiety, and rookie boy band EPEX talks about such roller-coaster of emotions in their new album “Bipolar Pt. 2: Prelude of Love.” Back with a vibrant and quirky title song “Do 4 U,” the eight members were more hyped up than four months ago when they first met with The Korea Herald for an interview following their debut with “Bipolar Pt. 1: Prelude of Anxiety.” Running the e

CJ ENM, the entertainment arm of conglomerate CJ Group, conducted a panel on the future of K-pop and laid out the company’s blueprint in the US during a countdown event to 2021 Mnet Asian Music Awards in Los Angeles. The event, held on Tuesday in CGV theater in LA, was attended by CJ ENM America CEO, Angela Killoren, CJ ENM director of US music business, Jake Hong, Apple Music’s radio host, Brooke Reese, and Twitter’s managing director of K-content, Kim Yeon-jeong, and hosted

South Korean historical romance series starring young and up-and-coming actors are creating a fresh buzz at home and abroad for their dramatic settings and resonating love stories. KBS' "The King's Affection," based on the popular webtoon "Yeonmo," is a story of a fictional princess of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), who has been raised as her deceased twin brother and becomes a king. Starring Park Eun-bin, the 20-episode series airing every Monday and Tuesday saw its viewe

Doosan Robotics Co. said Thursday it has produced an unmanned modular robot cafe in cooperation with Folletto Robotics, a local unmanned beverage manufacturing system maker. Doosan Robotics is a subsidiary wholly owned by Doosan Corp., a holding company of Doosan Group, South Korea's 15th largest conglomerate by asset. The unmanned modular robot cafe is a kind of collaborative robot, which refers to a robot that can work with a human. The unmanned modular robot cafe can be manufactured by put

Hyundai Rotem Co., a South Korean railway system and plant equipment maker, said Thursday it has received a 219 billion won ($186 million) order to supply tram cars to Canada. Under the deal, Hyundai Rotem will supply tram cars for the Valley Line West to be built between the downtown of Edmonton, Alberta, and the western part of the city by June 2027, the company said in a statement. The company didn't provide the volume of tram cars. Hyundai Rotem beat rivals such as Germany's Siemens AG,

The number of Seoul's daily COVID-19 cases has hit a record high of 2,268, surpassing 2,000 for two straight days, health authorities said Thursday. Of the cases reported Wednesday, 2,262 were local infections, and six were from overseas, according to the Central Disease Control Headquarters. The new high was up 46 from the previous high of 2,222 recorded Tuesday and up 508 from 1,760 tallied a week ago. The number of new daily coronavirus cases in Seoul topped 1,000 for the first time on Sep

Fears over the omicron coronavirus variant are dashing hopes for the resumption of overseas travel, forcing many to cancel or postpone travel plans, including honeymoons, only a month after the country's "living with COVID-19" policy revived expectations for a return to normal. South Korea confirmed five omicron infections a day earlier, the first local cases of the fast-spreading COVID-19 variant, forcing authorities to tighten passenger screening and other antivirus quarantine measu

South Korea's new coronavirus cases and the number of critically ill patients hit record highs Thursday, heightening concerns over medical capacity amid the spread of COVID-19 and continued surge in critical cases. South Korea reported 5,266 new COVID-19 cases, including 5,242 local infections, raising the total caseload to 457,612, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). It marked the second straight day that the number of new coronavirus cases has been above 5,000

K-pop supergroup BTS will be unable to attend the 2021 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMAs) scheduled for next week as the members have to go through COVID-19 isolation upon arrival from the United States due to tightened quarantine rules. The government decided to place all overseas arrivals under a 10-day quarantine for two weeks starting Friday, regardless of their nationalities and vaccination status, to tackle the omicron variant. The septet is currently in Los Angeles for its first in-person

South Korean stocks opened lower Thursday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street that stemmed from worries about the global outbreaks of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 9.42 points, or 0.32 percent, to 2,890.3 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks came off to a weak start, led by foreign and institutional sell-offs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 1.34 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite de

　The number of babies born in South Korea fell to a record low in September, data showed, underscoring the country’s bleak demographic situation with the chronically low birthrate. 　A total of 21,920 babies were born in September, down 6.7 percent from the previous year, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea. 　It marked the lowest for any September since 1981, when the statistics agency began compiling related data. 　In the third quarter, the number of newborns also reached an