South Korean airliner Asiana Airlines said Friday that it would reduce the number of flights destined for certain European and US cities beginning in October, in response to instructions from the Transport Ministry to address the problem of delayed flights. The country’s No. 2 full-service carrier said it would operate only 75 flights per week to six cities in the US and six cities in Europe as of October. The current number of flights to each city is 82. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and

The number of new jobs in July was the lowest in eight years, despite job creation being a priority of the Moon Jae-in administration, data showed Friday.(Yonhap)According to Statistics Korea, the number of newly added jobs last month increased 5,000 from the same month last year, marking the smallest gain on-year since January 2010 when the nation was suffering from the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis.The number of unemployed remained around 1 million for the seventh consecutive m

Controversy escalated here on Friday over a BMW executive’s comments, apparently blaming South Koreans’ driving for the vehicles catching fire.In an interview with the Xinhua News Agency, BMW spokesperson Jochen Frey identified “local traffic conditions” and Koreans’ “driving style“ as two of the many reasons for a series of incidents where BMW cars burst into flames here. This file photo dated Aug. 13 shows a BMW M3 vehicle that burst in to flames while on highway. (Yonhap)The local branch of t

Korea Gas Corp. will invest 10 trillion won ($8.8 billion) by 2025 in pursuit of new growth engines. The public natural gas company said it plans to invest 10 trillion won by 2025, with 6 trillion won set aside for local businesses, 3 trillion won for overseas projects and the remaining 1 trillion won for new business areas. The plan will create 70,000 new jobs for domestic businesses and 20,000 jobs for infrastructure businesses overseas, the company’s officials said.Korea Gas Corp. said it pla

South Korean mobile carrier KT said Friday the company has completed preparations for its showcase of fifth-generation mobile services at a stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia, during the Asian Games. In partnership with the country’s leading telecom company Telkomsel, KT will run a 5G zone where visitors can experience the Korean mobile carrier’s pilot services via 5G-enabled tablets and virtual reality games that were introduced at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in February.  KT engineers install c

Samsung Heavy Industries Co., a major South Korean shipbuilder, said Friday that it has clinched a deal worth about $370 million to build two liquefied natural gas carriers for a European shipping company.Samsung Heavy said it is set to deliver the carriers, which can hold 180,000 cubic meters of LNG each, to Celsius Tankers by December 2020.  This file photo provided by Samsung Heavy Industries Co. shows its liquefied natural gas carrier. (Yonhap)Samsung Heavy said it has received $3.3 billion

South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Friday that it had decided not to revoke the business license of Korean Air’s budget affiliate, Jin Air. The budget carrier came under fire in April for having a US citizen, Cho Hyun-min, on its board of directors. For security reasons, foreign nationals cannot serve as board members at Korean airlines under the nation’s aviation law. In April, it was revealed that Cho, the younger daughter of Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho, had

The state-run Korea Electric Corp. (KEPCO) said Friday it has won a $37.8 million project to replace or build new power distribution facilities in the Dominican Republic.KEPCO received an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) order to improve power management systems, including telegraph poles, electric wire, transformers and power meters, in the southern and eastern areas of the Caribbean nation for the next two years. Kim Jong-gap, CEO of the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp., att

LG Innotek said Wednesday it has launched visible light-emitting diodes for disinfection lighting, which is a light source with the effect of sterilization by sunlight using indoor light.The company said its 405-nanometer visible LEDs can sterilize an indoor space without having to use any chemicals by removing 99.9 percent of bacteria while the light is turned on. LG Innotek said, “As this product does not harm the human body, its sterilization function can be used in places where many people p

Hanwha Energy, the energy arm of South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group, broke ground Thursday to build a 50-megawatt hydrogen fuel cell plant in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province.The plant is the first in the world to use byproduct hydrogen as fuel, officials said.The plant is to start commercial production from June, 2020 and is set to provide 40,000 megawatt-hours of electricity.  (Hanwha Energy)To build the plant, Hanwha Energy has established a special purpose corporation named Daesan Gree

Posco Energy, an affiliate of South Korean steel giant Posco, appears to be in the process of ditching its money-losing fuel cell business by establishing a new joint venture with a third party, a lawmaker claimed Thursday.According to documents compiled by Rep. Kim Kyu-hwan of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, the company has been seeking ways to spin off its fuel cell manufacturing unit first and then turning it into a joint venture with new investors. The plan is widely expected to mea

Petrochemical and construction companies to be hit hardest by sanctions

BMW owners, who have filed a criminal suit against the German luxury carmaker over fire-prone vehicles, on Thursday urged authorities to conduct simulations and stress tests on models subject for recall, citing their psychological damage and the need for an acceptable explanation.They also downplayed recent speculations by some experts that the fires may be caused by software manipulation, instead stressing they believe the problem lies with a defective exhaust gas recirculation module.Speaking

SK Telecom, South Korea’s biggest mobile carrier, has deployed US chipmaker Xilinx’s neural processing units to accelerate its artificial intelligence processing speed and performance by fivefold, the two companies announced Thursday. Known as FPGAs or field-programmable gate arrays, the integrated circuits based on latest deep learning techniques are now deployed at the mobile carrier’s data center and are running its automatic speech-recognition application to accelerate AI speaker NUGU. SKT s

Scottish distillery Edrington unveiled a brand new package and name for its most recognized single malt The Macallan, its Korean branch said Thursday.New packages and names for The Macallan (Edrington Korea)According to the company, it applied special technologies to its bottle design that prevents refilling and imitation. This can alleviate customers’ anxiety which regard to water bewitched liquor, it said.By collecting consumer opinions from around the world, the company decided to break away