An apartment complex located inside the Yongsan Garrison -- US Forces Korea headquarters before its relocation to Pyeongtaek -- will be temporarily open to public from April 28, the Land Ministry said Wednesday.  It is the first time the public will have access in 116 years. In 1904, the Japanese military established its headquarters in Yongsan, central Seoul, after the Russo-Japanese War. In 1957, USFK moved in after the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Since 2017, the US military has be

South Korean oil refiners are facing heavy losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, but are unable to shut down their plants without causing further problems. According to a domestic oil refinery unit SK Innovation, the company is unable to close its facilities despite a mounting operating loss as oil must keep flowing through the pipes. “Car manufacturers can simply halt their assembly lines and resume operation again, but that’s not the case for refineries. When oil heated up in

South Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco is actively participating in relief efforts for regions affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, the company said Wednesday. Posco, which has its main headquarters and a number of factories in one of the hard-hit region of North Gyeongsang Province, has donated 5 billion won ($4.06 million) for support on Feb. 27, about a month after it delivered relief goods worth 1 billion won to China. According to the company, Posco group delivered 4 billion won, wh

South Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco said Wednesday it has signed agreements with 17 local companies for certification of 23 products of its premium construction steel materials brand Innovilt. Construction steel materials are generally used in buildings, houses, roads and bridges, but are not exposed outside, making it difficult to identify which steel products were used. In November last year, Posco launched the integrated steel bran Innovilt which allows consumers to easily recogn

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chip producer, said Wednesday it has started shipping the industry's first DRAM modules made using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology. Samsung said it has shipped one million units of 10nm-class (D1x) DDR4 (Double Date Rate 4) DRAM modules that were produced with the technology. "The new EUV-based DRAM modules have completed global customer evaluations," the company said in a release. "EUV technology reduces repetitive step

South Korea’s employment quality has deteriorated compared to advanced countries since the 2008 global financial crisis, with the number of part-time workers increasing 49 percent. The Korea Economic Research Institute -- a think tank of Federation of Korean Industries -- analyzed the employment trend of workers working less than 30 hours per week in seven major countries by using statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Most workers are categorized as

South Korea‘s state-run airport operator said Tuesday it will beef up screening measures on all domestic flights to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. Korea Airports Corp., which operates 14 airports, not including Incheon International Airport, said it plans to check body temperatures of all passengers boarding domestic flights. Passengers with symptoms of viral infection will be requested to refrain from boarding their flights and will be referred to public health authorities

Hanwha Solutions pledged a shift to an eco-friendly business and named Vice President Kim Dong-kwan as executive director of the company’s board. The decisions were made at the firm’s general shareholders meeting at a hotel in Jung-gu, central Seoul, Tuesday. Kim Dong-kwan, the eldest son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn, entered the group in 2010. Having been promoted to vice president of Hanwha Solutions last year, Kim this year has taken the reins of Hanwha Group&rsquo

Internet traffic in March has increased 13 percent over January this year as people spend more hours online under the strain of the COVID-19 outbreak, according to an ICT Ministry report released Tuesday. The ICT Ministry met with telecommunications industry officials to discuss the increased internet usage and measures to prevent potential network failures. Previously Netflix had said it would cut its traffic by 25 percent on networks across Europe to prevent interruptions of service, consid

Affiliates of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics will send a total of 430 engineers to Vietnam in order to support their plants’ operations there, as the Vietnamese government has decided to exempt Korean staff from its two-week quarantine policy, according to industry sources Tuesday. Samsung Display will dispatch 180 engineers via a chartered flight from Asiana Airlines to Bac Ninh in northern Vietnam on Saturday, a source said. The engineers will stay in a quarantine facility e

With the coronavirus spread clipping the wings of the South Korean aviation industry, Asiana Airlines has decided to take stringent measures to further tighten its belt. The air carrier has extended the unpaid leave of absence for all employees to 15 days at the least from April, compared to 10 days this month. This would leave it operating with half of the workforce for the time being. Executives will also have their wages slashed by 60 percent, an additional 10 percent cut. “We wil

Hanjin KAL, the holding company of Hanjin Group that owns the country’s largest airline Korean Air, said Tuesday that it would ask shareholders to make the “wise decision” to vote for a current Chairman Cho Won-tae to retain his top seat.  The vote will take place during the shareholders meeting slated for Friday. Hanjin KAL said in a statement that as the global aviation industry has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, Korean Air faces an “unprecedented crisis

Hyundai Glovis said Tuesday that it has launched the first noncontact used car auction system by integrating information at different centers into one cloud server. The system, called “Autobell smart auction,” offers three times more sales items than other used car dealers, the supply chain management unit of Hyundai Motor Group said. It combines auction data in a cloud server gathered from its auction centers in Bundang, Sihwa in Gyeonggi Province and Yangsan in South Gyeongsang P

A crisis always reveals a nation’s true character and strength. In the case of their response to the emergency caused by COVID-19, the people and government of the South Korea won praise from around the world for their collective resilience and collaboration. As the first country outside of China to face a major outbreak of COVID-19, Korea’s response was rapid, smart and effective. Through innovative drive-thru testing, rapid diagnosis and transparent information sharing, Korea h

Korean telecommunications firm KT has teamed up with ministries here to develop an artificial intelligence-based health care system that could track the novel coronavirus spread, the company said Tuesday. In the research project led by the ICT Ministry and Ministry of Interior and Safety, KT will offer cellular data, which can be used to generate maps that could allow authorities to understand how populations move, as well as how the virus spreads. The data will only be used in a closed datab