South Korea's justice ministry on Monday unveiled a revised visa policy to ease regulations for foreign workers in the parts, materials and equipment industries as part of ongoing efforts to help the industries that have taken a hit from Seoul's trade row with Tokyo."Starting Nov. 18, the justice ministry implements a revised policy for foreign professionals to support the parts, materials and equipment industries struggling from Japan's trade row and improve national competitiveness,"

TOKYO (AFP) -- Japan's Z Holdings, formerly Yahoo Japan, will merge with mobile chat app operator Line, the firms said Monday, in a bid to boost the customer base for their digital services.Mobile operator SoftBank Corp, the parent of Z Holdings, and South Korea's Naver, Line's parent company, agreed the merger of ZHD and Line, SoftBank and Naver said in a joint statement.Line will be delisted after SoftBank and Naver make a tender offer, with the merger expected to happen in October 2020.The de

South Korea's trade deficit with Japan is expected to sink to a 16-year low in 2019 due to a tumble in imports, data showed Monday.Seoul posted a trade deficit of $16.37 billion with Tokyo in the first 10 months of this year, down 20.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the industry and trade ministry and the Korea International Trade Association.It marks the lowest trade deficit with the neighboring country for the January-October period since the red ink of $15.57 billion

　South Korea recaptured the top spot in global shipbuilding orders last month, industry data showed, on the back of its dominance in the liquefied natural gas carrier market. 　In October, local shipyards, led by Hyundai Heavy Industries, won orders totaling 1.29 million compensated gross tons to build 17 ships, accounting for 86 percent of the orders placed around the globe, according to London-based Clarkson Research Services, the world’s leading provider of data for the shipping and ship

Icelandic artist Kristjana S. Williams holds royal Menagerie-motivated visual art exhibition

German luxury carmaker’s EV is dynamic and progressive but short in driving range

　South Korean mobile carrier KT has pledged to develop a virtual reality surgery platform with a local software company in a push to expand the use of the fifth-generation wireless network into the medical industry. 　According to the telecom firm on Sunday, it had signed a strategic partnership with Coreline Soft to integrate the 5G network into medical surgery. The signing ceremony was held Thursday at KT’s research center located in Seoul. 　The memorandum of understanding included cooper

When it comes to purchasing luxury and premium products and services, South Koreans are almost on par with other major countries. Indeed, South Koreans' love for luxury goods is astonishing, and that's why high-end brands, which are known to stick to their heritage and tradition, have recently taken new and innovative moves in South Korea, such as opening pop-up stores and putting on world-exclusive fashion shows.  Louis Vuitton, listed by Forbes as the most powerful luxury brand, open

BUSAN – Gaming’s power for social inclusivity was one of the many things on show at the the 15th annual game expo G-Star 2019 in Busan last week, with visitors with physical disabilities experiencing improved access. Among the crowd at the city’s Bexco center were visitors in wheelchairs watching live e-sports. “This is my third year coming to G-Star. I’m enjoying the event without encountering any major issues,” said 29-year-old Lee Shim-hoon, who has a first

What a gathering indeed. On one lucidly red and yellow-tinged autumn day, ministerial-level forestry officials of Korea and 10 ASEAN members gathered in Seoul to discuss ways forward for their reciprocal forest cooperation. The high-level meeting on forestry held on Oct. 31, prior to the 2019 ASEAN-ROK Commemorative Summit and the 1st Mekong-ROK Summit, was an auspicious occasion under the theme “Our Forests for Prosperity and Peace.” South Korean President Moon Jae-in added weight t

The global trade paradigm is shifting with the multilateral trade system supported by the World Trade Organization about to be replaced by a new system involving overlapping trade deals of regions and sectors, according to a new report of the Korea International Trade Association on Sunday.“The multilateral trade system -- in which 164 countries follow a unified trade order through the WTO -- has steadily been weakening,” said Je Hyun-jung, a senior researcher at KITA. “If

Korean Air flight KE 905 collided with another plane on the taxiway in Frankfurt, Germany, on Saturday, delaying the subsequent flight bound for Incheon, the air carrier said Sunday. The incident involving the flight that departed from Incheon occurred Saturday at 6:20 p.m. (local time). While waiting on the taxiway after landing at Frankfurt Airport, the airplane’s horizontal stabilizer located at its right wing crashed into the end of an Air Namibia’s plane left wing.According

Samsung Electronics Co.'s first labor union under a major South Korean umbrella union group set sail Saturday.The union, under the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), submitted a labor union establishment application to the government Monday and earned the approval two days later.  The union did not unveil the number of its members, but it is known to hover around 500. The union said its first goal is to recruit 10,000 members and that it plans to demand negotiations to the company on

Japan has approved the first export of liquid hydrogen fluoride, one of the key materials under restriction to South Korea, to the neighboring country since it tightened related controls in July, industry sources said Saturday.Tokyo has recently given the green light to a Japanese firm to export liquid hydrogen fluoride to South Korea in the first such case since Tokyo imposed tighter regulations on exports to Seoul of materials that are critical for the production of semiconductors and flexible

South Korean solar panel manufacturer Hanwha Q Cells received a preliminary notice from the US International Trade Commission indicating that the US body regards as unfounded the company’s patent infringement complaints against other foreign solar energy companies, the firm confirmed Friday. The USITC is set to announce an official ruling in about two weeks. Hanwha said it would “appeal immediately” if the decision were to be finalized. The reasoning behind the USITC’s pr