Construction of the northern section of Great Train Express Line A was set to break ground Thursday, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Tuesday.GTX, linking southern and northern Gyeonggi Province with Seoul, is a high-speed train service designed to shorten the time for residents commuting from the outskirts of the capital area to central Seoul. The express train will travel at a maximum speed of 180 kilometers per hour, 40 meters underground.GTX Line A, the firs

Vegan fashion trends spreading in Korea

SK Innovation said Wednesday it will take part in the Consumer Electronics Show 2019 in January in order to announce its makeover from a conventional petrochemical business to a battery and material developer.  (SK Innovation)The SK Group subsidiary will introduce its technologies for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries, electricity storage systems and lithium-ion battery separators at the worlds’ biggest electronics show kicking off on Jan. 8 in Las Vegas. Its participation in CES marks th

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, which combined form the world’s fifth-biggest carmaker, swept awards at the Korea New Car Assessment Program 2018, with Hyundai’s Nexo hydrogen fuel cell vehicle taking home three awards, the companies said Wednesday.At Korea NCAP, managed by the Transport Ministry, the Nexo sport utility vehicle took first in three categories -- midsize SUV, environmentally friendly car and child protection -- and dispelled worries that the hydrogen tank positioned at the back of t

The clock is ticking for full-fledged reforms in regulations for Korean businesses to survive, the head of the country’s top business lobby group said Wednesday, voicing concerns over an economic recession and companies losing growth momentum due to multilayered market restrictions.Comparing companies to “frogs in a burning pot,” KCCI Chairman Park Yong-maan stressed that there is not much time for companies in the face of fierce market competition, adding that damage is already being seen. The

South Korean university students still show a marked preference for Samsung Electronics as a future employer, according to a poll released Wednesday.The survey, conducted by job search portal JobKorea, showed that 14 percent of respondents chose the tech giant out of 100 companies as the place they would most like to work. A total of 1,190 students attending four-year universities nationwide participated in the survey. Among them, 424 were men and 766 were women. Some 14 percent of college stude

South Korea's antitrust watchdog said Wednesday that it has fined Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. 10.8 billion won ($9.6 million) for violating laws on subcontracting as it referred the company to prosecutors for further investigation.The world's second-biggest shipbuilder by sales is accused of not having delivered contract documents to 27 subcontractors before they began their work, the Fair Trade Commission said. (Yonhap)The FTC also said Daewoo Shipbuilding unilaterally lowered

South Korean engineering and construction services provider Hyundai Engineering said Wednesday that it donated five units of modular homes to residents of aged buildings vulnerable to risks of natural disasters on Friday. Modular homes refer to prefab buildings for residential purposes. Such buildings involve a construction method in which sections of a house are manufactured away from a construction site, then delivered to the site and installed there.Representatives of Hyundai Engineering, Hop

The South Korean government plans to launch an innovation academy and a series of education programs next year to nurture at least 10,000 IT professionals and boost industries central to the “fourth industrial revolution.”The Ministry and Science and ICT said Wednesday that it will found a two-year innovation academy, modeled after the French programming school Ecole 42, to educate about 2,500 software experts over the course of five years.The government also plans to set aside 180.6 billion won

The state-run Korea Development Bank completed injecting $750 million into the South Korean unit of General Motors Co. on Wednesday, after it backed a plan by GM Korea to spin off the carmaker's research unit.The KDB and GM signed a deal in May on the rescue package for GM Korea. Under the agreement, the KDB pledged to inject $750 million, while GM agreed to provide $3.6 billion in fresh loans to keep GM Korea afloat.  (Yonhap)In June, the KDB injected $375 million into GM Korea, but the bank ha

South Korea said Wednesday that it plans to set up an innovation academy next year to educate about 2,500 software experts by 2023 in the latest move to better cope with the fourth industrial revolution.A two-year academy -- modeled after Ecole 42, a French computer programming school -- is set to open in September and the government plans to provide 180.6 billion won ($160.7 million) by 2023 to the academy, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. South Korea also plans to set aside 39

Loan guarantees among affiliates of South Korea's large business groups fell 9.1 percent in 2018 from a year earlier, the country's corporate watchdog said Wednesday.The combined corporate debt payment guarantees made among units of eight conglomerates reached 267.8 billion won ($238 million) as of May 1, compared with 294.5 billion won among seven conglomerates during the same period of last year, according to the Fair Trade Commission. Logos of major South Korean conglomerates (Yonhap)The eigh

Chipmakers likely to cut back spending on production in order to prevent rapid falls in memory prices

South Korean conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor, have set aside around 7.7 trillion won ($6.8 billion) to help reduce the wage gap between large and small companies, joining efforts for mutual growth initiated by the privately run Korea Commission for Corporate Partnership. A total of 21 companies and public organizations agreed to allocate the money for the next three years, said the privately run commission on Tuesday. The organization was set up in 2010 to address

South Korea's air passenger traffic reached a new record for November on the back of the rise in the number of Chinese tourists and increased overseas travel demand, government data showed Tuesday.The number of air passengers came to 9.57 million last month, up 5.6 percent from a year earlier, making it a new record for November, according to a tally from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. In this file photo, taken Aug. 13, 2018, outbound tourists pack Incheon International Airp