A labor union strike at CJ Logistics has finally come to an end, after causing delays and disruptions in parcel deliveries across the nation for nearly two months. Unionized members will return to work Monday, after signing a new employment contract Saturday that reflects measures on improving working conditions, the firm’s labor union announced Thursday. CJ delivery workers that participated in the industrial action, which began Dec. 28, demanded that management implement previously a

After luring the soju nation with cheap imported wine in the pandemic era, Korean retail giants set to compete with premium wine of their own

South Korea’s aviation industry is set to take another hit after years of pandemic losses, as oil prices are soaring amid the escalating Ukraine conflict, driving up their fuel prices and operating costs overall. According to the air industry on Thursday, Brent crude oil jumped $5.93 to $111.19 per barrel on Wednesday night, its highest level since July 2014. The reason behind the price increase is due to a high possibility that western countries including the US might impose sanctions

South Korea’s e-commerce giant Coupang said Thursday that it posted $18.4 billion (22.1 trillion won) in sales last year, a record not just for the company, but also for a local e-commerce operator. The figure jumped 54 percent from a year ago. In the fourth quarter alone, its sales soared to $5 billion. Coupang said its record has surpassed the sales of the country’ top retailer Shinsegae and its subsidiaries -– Emart, SSG.com, eBay Korea, and G Market -– whose sale

Kia Motors, a sister company of Hyundai Motor, is aiming to sell 4 million vehicles globally by 2030, with half of them being eco-friendly models, the company said on Thursday. The carmaker will expand the portion of electric vehicles and hybrids in overall sales from the current 17 percent to 52 percent by 2030. For markets with state-supportive policies for EVs –- Korea, North America, Europe and China -- Kia said it will pull up its EV and hybrid sales portion up to 78 percent by 2030

Pokemon Bread, an iconic pastry series with kids of the 1990s, has been flying off the shelves since its return last week. Manufacturer SPC Samlip said Thursday, it had sold 1.5 million of the rolls over the previous week, six times more than the first week sales of the company’s average for a new product. The key to success lies in tapping into millennials’ nostalgic tendencies. Released in 1999, Pokemon Bread took the youth of the time by storm. The roll wasn’t the main

Nokia, Ericsson-LG and Huawei‘s MWC exhibition shows Korean telcos would break 100 MHz-bandwidth barrier soon

Samsung Electronics said Thursday that its next-generation memory chip set a world record on speed. According to the South Korean tech giant, its LPDDR5X memory chip operated at 7.5 gigabits per second, the fastest speed among memory chips in the market. Short for low power double data rate 5X, the LPDDR5X chip performed at the record speed on Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon mobile platform. Unveiled in November, the chip was manufactured with 14-nanometer technology. Compared to the prev

BARCELONA, Spain -- LG U+ will export virtual reality content to Zain Group, a mobile carrier in the Middle East with more than 50 million users, in its effort to take initiative in the burgeoning global XR market. During a press conference held at the Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona on Wednesday, local time, LG U+ CEO Hwang Hyun-sik said the South Korean telco will aim to sell content to Zain Group, Oman’s No. 1 mobile carrier Omantel and Malaysia’s No. 3 player Celcom. &l

South Korean telecom giant SK Telecom Co. said Thursday its artificial intelligence service designed to help the visually impaired has won an award at the world's largest mobile show in Barcelona. The wireless carrier said the AI-based virtual service co-developed with local social venture group Tuat has received an award for Best Use of Mobile for Accessibility & Inclusion at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2022. The Sullivan Plus X NUGU applies both voice and visual-assistance AI to allow

Samsung Electronics Co.'s share in the smartphone chipset market dropped in the fourth quarter, research showed Thursday, amid efforts to restructure the company's smartphone portfolio strategy. The South Korean tech giant, which makes Exynos chipsets, accounted for four percent of the global shipments of smartphone application processor (AP) and system-on-chip (SoC) in the October-December period, down three percent from a year ago, according to a report from industry tracker Counterpoint Resea

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Thursday it has received 1.56 trillion won ($1.29 billion) worth of ship orders in Europe and Latin America. Korea Shipbuilding obtained orders to build three liquefied natural gas carriers by 2025 for a European shipper and to build six container ships by 2024 for a Latin American shipper, the company said in a statement. Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings has KSOE as a subholding company under its wing. KSOE has three affiliates -- H

KT Corp., a South Korean major wireless carrier, said Thursday it has signed a pact with a leading Turkish telecom operator for cooperation in 5G and artificial intelligence services. At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2022 in Barcelona, the South Korean operator signed a memorandum of understanding with Turk Telekom to expand cooperation in robots, smart cities and self-driving cars based on 5G, big data and cloud services, the company said. "We plan to cooperate with Turk Telecom to devel

Chinese company’s automated solution could prevent disasters at industrial sites, execs say

Hana Bank said on Wednesday it has begun offering its facial verification service round the clock, allowing customers to open accounts any time day or night. Using artificial intelligence and big data, the facial recognition solution verifies users by comparing their faces to their ID photos within one second. It was chosen as an innovative financial service by the Financial Services Commission in April last year. Previously, customers opening their first accounts at Hana Bank online were req