South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group, known to stick with 'no-union' policy, has hinted at changing its unfriendly stance towards labor unions after key company executives were found guilty of union busting, industry observers said Thursday.A day after Samsung Electronics Co. board chairman Lee Sang-hoon was sentenced to 18 months in prison for sabotaging a labor union, Samsung issued a public apology and promised to make a "healthy labor-management relationship." Of the 32 ind

Hyundai Mobis Co., South Korea's biggest auto parts maker, said Thursday it will unveil an upgraded autonomous concept car at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, the world's biggest consumer technology-focused conference, in the United States next month.Hyundai Mobis plans to promote its fully autonomous M.Vision S concept and a hydrogen fuel cell electric system for hydrogen-powered vehicles at CES in Las Vegas, the company said in a statement.Hyundai Mobis has invested in overseas startups w

Unionized workers at Kia Motors Corp. on Wednesday began a partial strike for higher wages after rejecting the company's proposals last week.Kia's union said they held a four-hour strike on Wednesday and plan to walk out for eight hours on Thursday.  On Friday, 56 percent of the union's 27,050 workers voted down the deal tentatively agreed between the company and the union on Dec. 10. Under the initial agreement, Kia offered to raise workers' basic monthly wage by 40,000 won (US$34) and pro

　Thirty-five conglomerates earned 1.28 trillion won ($1.07 billion) last year by selling brand licenses to their affiliates, South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said, amid concerns that such transactions may help owners of conglomerates pocket profits.　Brand commission fees earned by 35 conglomerates last year rose 11.5 percent on-year, the Fair Trade Commission said in a statement.　LG and SK topped the list by charging their affiliates 268.4 billion won and 233.2 billion won, respectively, l

LG Electronics Inc. on Wednesday announced a voluntary recall of its clothes dryers sold in South Korea following customer complaints over a key component. "Although we couldn't find safety issues or defects regarding our dryers, we decided to voluntarily recall the products in order to serve our customers sincerely," LG said in a statement. The electronics maker said it will expand free services to repair the dryers. Previously, LG sent servicemen upon consumers' request, but now the

Han Sung Motor, an official local dealer of Mercedes-Benz in Korea, said it had sold artistic goods at its booth at the 2019 Seoul Design Festival to help children in need.The five-day annual event that kicked off on Dec. 4 involved rising artists and young designers as well as collaborative projects between art groups.  Han Sung Motor participated by arranging a collaboration project between its Dream Gream scholarship students and local design studio Maeum.Dream Gream is a schol

Samsung Electronics and its de facto holding company Samsung C&T on Wednesday released a statement that included a public apology for the conglomerate’s efforts to disrupt the formation of trade unions at some of its affiliates. The apology was made one day after a Seoul court handed down jail terms to key executives of the electronics unit, including Lee Sang-hoon, Samsung Electronics’ chairman of board, and Chung Keum-yong, CEO of Samsung C&T. “The company acknowledge

Samsung Electronics said Wednesday it will start churning out artificial intelligence accelerators for China’s leading internet engine operator Baidu early next year. The South Korean tech giant and Baidu have worked together to develop the cloud-to-edge AI accelerator, dubbed as Baidu Kunlun, built on the Chinese firm’s neural processor architecture as well as Samsung’s 14-nanometer process technology with its proprietary Interposer-Cube package solution. Known as I-Cube techn

Jeju Air, the country’s largest low-cost carrier by sales, said Wednesday that it had signed a deal to acquire 51 percent stakes in Eastar Holdings, the largest shareholder of a budget carrier Eastar Jet, in an apparent move to broaden its market share by absorbing an ailing air carrier.  Earlier this year, cosmetics-to-airline conglomerate Aekyung Group, which owns a 56.9 percent stake in Jeju Air, failed to takeover debt-ridden Asiana Airlines after the HDC Hyundai Development-Mirae

Asiana Airlines said Wednesday it has introduced a mobile service for passengers to check whether their baggage is safely loaded.Those who fly with Asiana can check the status and the location of the baggage real-time via the carrier’s mobile application.The service will enhance passenger convenience and minimize the departure delay as location of luggage can be tracked during emergencies and baggage can be easily removed when the passenger gets off the plane, the company said.While the se

McDonald’s Korea Managing Director Melanie Cho visited a store on Jeju Island to express her appreciation to a store manager there for helping a young customer who was terminally ill and offering him an unforgettable restaurant experience, the company said Wednesday. According to McDonald’s Korea, Lee Sung-min, a 20-year-old store manager of Nohyung branch in Jeju, helped a family with a child suffering from polio in May. He moved the family’s seat to a more comfortable ch

Blood cell diagnosis startup Noul was acknowledged at the 2019 Grand Challenges Annual Meeting for its innovative Malaria diagnosis solution, miLab, the company said Wednesday. The Grand Challenges Meeting is an annual gathering of global organizations promoting global health care. This year’s event held in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, was co-hosted by the African Union, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health, Grand Challenges Canada, the United States Agency for International D

South Korea’s exports are forecast to rise by 3 percent in 2020 to exceed $550 billion, led by key industries including chips, automobiles and biomedicines, according to a state-run trade agency on Wednesday. This year’s exports are expected to total $540 billion, down 10.7 percent from last year, the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency said. This is a bit lower than the Korea International Trade Association’s prediction of $543 billion, which represented a 10.2 percent on-

South Korean oil refinery S-Oil, which is wholly owned by Saudi Aramco, has donated 145 million won ($130,000) to help children in low-income families suffering from biliary obstruction, the firm said Wednesday.The fund has been gathered by some 1,800 company executives and employees donating less than 10,000 won each from their wage for several months, the company explained.Biliary obstruction occurs when one of the ducts that carry bile from liver to the intestine gets blocked. Without treatme

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Wednesday it fined Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Co., the nation's largest shipping conglomerate, 20.8 billion won ($17.8 million) for allegedly violating a law on subcontracting. Hyundai Heavy is accused of forcing its subcontractors to start works without prior notification about the values of the contracts between 2014 and 2018, the Fair Trade Commission said in a statement. Also, Hyundai Heavy had unilaterally demanded its subcontractors cut pr