Naver Corp., the operator of South Korea's dominant internet portal, said Wednesday it has decided to spin off its mobile payment division, Naver Pay. The new company, tentatively named Naver Financial, will be launched in November with an aim of making inroads into the financial services sector, including loans, insurance and investment.  The decision came after the number of Naver Pay users recently exceeded 10 million. Mirae Asset Daewoo Co., South Korea's top brokerage, plans to invest

The prosecution on Wednesday indicted former executives of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors on charges of delaying recall processes in Korea for 18 months, though they were allegedly aware of engine defects.According to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, three former executives who were responsible of product quality between 2015 and 2017 were indicted on charges of violating the Motor Vehicle Management Act.The companies were aware of problems such as engine stalls, connecting ro

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, South Korea’s industrial equipment maker has agreed to provide key parts needed for construction of a small modular reactor in the United States, the company said Wednesday.Under a partnership with NuScale Power, the South Korean company will supply parts crucial for a nuclear steam supply system and other parts for the SMR. SMR is a new kind of light water reactor for a nuclear power plant.  The project is a part of a plan between NuScale a

Renault Samsung, the South Korean unit of French carmaker Renault, has released an upgraded version of its premium sedan SM6 while keeping its price down, amid intensifying competition in the midsized sedan market, the company said Wednesday.The company has added the upper-end premium model SM6 Premiere and a liquefied petroleum gas version of the vehicle to cater to the diversifying needs of customers. Emphasizing the premium features of the sedan, the company said it has applied the Bose surro

Boosting greenery in cities may seem like a difficult task. However, a project has been coming up with innovative solutions to the lack of green space for the past 20 years. School Forest Project -- launched in 1999 through a collaborative effort between nongovernmental organization Forest for Life and sanitary product manufacturer Yuhan-Kimberly -- targets public schools in South Korea lacking green space on their school grounds. By planting various types of greenery, such as trees and bushes,

Hyundai and Kia Motors won the Platinum Award in the 2018 LACP Vision Awards for the quality of their sustainability reports, the companies said Wednesday. LACP, short for League of American Communications Professionals, annually screens some 1,000 business reports from roughly 20 nations for awards.In this round‘s review, Hyundai Motor’s 2018 sustainability report was recognized in the digital and online criteria, and Kia Motors for sustainable management criteria. Both companies re

South Korea is suffering from worsening air pollution each year. Every spring, the concentrations of fine dust particles surge to record levels across the country, threatening human health and environmental sustainability.The state-run Korea Forest Service is seeking to deploy forests to combat air pollution, help people stay cooler during heat waves and increase well-being in nature. “The primary factor behind serious fine dust pollution is air pollutants from industrial complexes, therma

US trade associations worry about potential spillover effects on global economy

South Korea’s largest e-commerce retailer Coupang’s service froze for several hours on Wednesday morning showing all products “out of stock,” with customers unable to place orders or make payments.The outage on Coupang’s mobile application and website started at 7 a.m. Although customers could add items to their shopping cart they were unable to proceed with the order.Coupang attributed the problem to a technical glitch. While customers could start buying some

Samsung Bioepis said Wednesday it has gained the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval for Hadlima, a biosimilar of AbbVie’s blockbuster autoimmune disease treatment Humira. This is the firm’s fourth biosimilar to get FDA approval, after Renflexis (Infliximab), Ontruzant (Trastuzumab) and Eticovo (Etanercept).Hadlima (adalimumab-bwwd) is developed by Samsung Bioepis and will be commercialized in the US by Merck from June 2023, according to a settlement with AbbVie.&nb

LG Display announced Tuesday it has invested an additional 3 trillion won ($2.5 billion) in the 10.5-generation line for organic light-emitting diode panels at its P10 factory in a bid to expand the market presence of large-sized OLED screens. The world’s biggest OLED panel maker will execute the investment with an aim to increase the monthly production capacity of the newest line located in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, to 45,000, starting from 2023. The Gen 10.5 plant was built to manufacture

 South Korea’s shipments of environment friendly vehicles jumped an average of 33 percent annually in the past seven years on growing overseas demand, an auto business lobby group said.Local carmakers exported 196,000 eco-friendly vehicles in 2018, up from 35,000 units in 2012. Eco-friendly cars accounted for 8 percent of the country’s overall vehicle exports last year, up from 1.1 percent six years earlier, according to data from the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association.

The South Korean government has begun to use artificial intelligence technology in its fight against illegal sex videos.The state agencies said Monday that they have started applying the AI technology to search and delete illicit sex videos shared on the internet. The technology has been adopted by the Gender Equality Ministry’s center for supporting victims of cybersex crimes.The center expects the new AI solution to help shorten the time in finding and removing sex crime videos, also kno

South Korean steelmaker Posco posted an operating profit of 1 trillion won ($848 million) in the second quarter this year, buoyed by its lucrative infrastructure and trade operations despite the sluggish steel business, the firm said Tuesday. The company also posted 16.3 trillion won in sales, with a net profit of 681 billion won. Sales rose 1.5 percent, but operating profit and net income declined 14.7 percent and 14.7 percent on-year, respectively. The decline was mainly due to its sluggi

Creditors and Kumho Industrial, the largest stakeholder of Asiana Airlines, will post a public notice to sell the nation’s second-largest air carrier on Thursday, which is likely to be the largest deal of the year.After completing a financial review of the air carrier, creditors said they would speed up the bidding process, if no additional insolvent factors or problems that would complicate the company’s operations are found. Officials at Asiana Airlines confirmed that there’s