Six municipalities, including Seoul, called upon the central government on Thursday to provide support to make up for their losses incurred by the free subway ride policy for the elderly and other people. The Seoul city government said the capital and five other cities -- Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Gwangju and Daejeon -- issued a joint statement calling for state compensation for financial losses caused by the free subway use policy for seniors, the disabled and those who have received national mer

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Thursday that the leaders of South Korea and Hungary and business leaders from South Korea and the Visegrad Group met to discuss cooperation in sectors such as EV batteries and biotechnology. The Visegrad Group, also known as the V4 countries, include Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The V4-Korea Business Forum was held in Budapest, Hungary on Wednesday where President Moon Jae-in is visiting on a state visit until Thursday. Dur

South Korea’s Unification Minister Lee In-young on Thursday said the envisioned papal visit to North Korea is a real possibilty, and that it hinges on Pyongyang’s determination.  The minister accompanied President Moon Jae-in to his meeting with Pope Francis last week at the Vatican. During their talks, Moon asked the pope to visit the North to help build “momentum for peace” on the Korean Peninsula. In response, the pope, calling the two Koreas “brothers who

South Korean institutional investors have allocated a combined 90 million euros ($104 million) of commitment to a separately structured coinvestment vehicle of a fourth flagship fund by BlackRock Infrastructure Solutions, industry sources said Thursday. Seoul-based investment house IPM Asset Management said Thursday it has created the vehicle for Korean investors, allowing them to implement a coinvestment strategy alongside BlackRock’s fund, dubbed Global Infrastructure Solutions 4. Thr

Hyundai Motor Co. on Thursday released a teaser for the electric SUV concept "Seven" ahead of its unveiling in the United States this month. The large-size SUV concept built on Hyundai Motor Group's dedicated EV platform, called E-GMP, comes with the group's IONIQ battery EV brand's signature design elements, the company said in a statement. The IONIQ brand's design elements include Parametric Pixels, the smallest unit of digital imaging. Hyundai plans to unveil the concept car at

KT&G Corp., South Korea's dominant tobacco company, said Thursday its third-quarter net profit jumped 29 percent from a year earlier on foreign-exchange-tied gains. Net profit for the three months ended in September rose to 359.2 billion won ($300 million) from a profit of 277.7 billion won in the year-ago period, the company said in a statement. "The won's weakness against the dollar drove up the value of the company's dollar-denominated assets and helped the quarterly bottomline,&qu

Two key suspects in a land development scandal were arrested early Thursday as investigators continue to delve into one of the largest-ever land development scandals in South Korea. The Seoul Central District Court on early Thursday issued arrest warrants for Kim Man-bae, owner of Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management, and Nam Wook, a lawyer who is suspected of involvement in the scandal. The two have been under investigation on suspicion of breach of trust and bribery in connection to the scandal.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. said Thursday that it has developed a virtual experience platform for ship construction for the first time in the local shipbuilding industry. The platform is mixed reality combining technologies of virtual reality and augmented reality, which allows for the experience of all processes of shipbuilding, Daewoo Shipbuilding said. Daewoo Shipbuilding said the platform will help win more orders for ships as it will be able to show shippers virtual

The South Korean government aimed for a gradual return to normal with its “living with COVID-19” policy, but the remaining restrictions are not being followed strictly at clubs and movie theaters. The clubs on the streets of Hongdae, a party neighborhood in Mapo-gu, western Seoul, welcomed the long-awaited return of music lovers for the first time in nearly four months and made great efforts to comply with the government’s social distancing guidelines. A notice at the entran

Google Inc. has pledged to provide an alternative payment system at its app store in South Korea, the telecommunications regulator said Thursday, in what could be a concession amid a tug-of-war over lucrative payment systems in the app market. The commitment is part of follow-up measures to a new South Korean law that restricts app store operators such as Google and Apple from forcing their in-app payment systems on developers. Wilson L. White, Google's public policy and government relations s

Infections rise among unvaccinated teens, older population, as breakthrough infections may hamper return to normal

South Korea and the US are still working for Seoul to take over wartime operational control of the joint military forces from Washington by the time they had agreed, the Ministry of National Defense said Thursday in response to the top US general who hinted at a delay. “We will have to look at what exactly the US commander said, but the bottom line is that the transfer is taking place as scheduled, as agreed by both our commanders-in-chief,” ministry spokesperson Boo Seung-chan said

North Korea is in the final stage of preparations to reopen its train routes with China following prolonged border controls to stave off the coronavirus, a unification ministry official said Thursday. The North is expected to first resume cargo transportation via land routes, the official said, though adding it's hard to tell exactly when the operations would begin. "Our assessment is that various preparations for the resumption of goods exchange through train routes are at the final stag

Starbucks Korea announced Thursday that a dozen of its locations in Seoul will get rid of single-use plastic cups as part of the chain’s ongoing efforts to reduce plastic waste. Starting Saturday, 12 Starbucks stores in Seoul will serve beverages only in mugs, tumblers or reusable cups. These include the City Hall Station, Seosomun-ro and Eulji-ro branches in the city center. Seoul is the second location where the coffee chain has decided to move away from single-use plastic cups, aft

Blockchain company AMAXG said on Thursday it has entered the nonfungible token platform business to trade unique and noninterchangeable data stored on digital ledgers. AMAXG said it recently opened a digital asset NFT transaction platform named BIZA-UVIT, and built strategic partnerships with the Federation of Artistic and Cultural Organizations of Korea (FACO), the Global Medical Aesthetic Exchange Association (GMAEA) and the Korea Blockchain Enterprise Promotion Association. FACO plans to di