Korea Aerospace Industries Co. (KAI), South Korea's sole aircraft manufacturer, said Monday it has received a $78 million deal to supply trainer jets to Thailand. Under the deal, KAI will supply two T-50TH advanced trainer jets to the Thailand air force by November 2023, the company said in a regulatory filing. KAI has achieved $400 million worth of deals to supply 16 T-50 trainer jets to date. KAI has exported 156 trainer jets worth US$3.1 billion -- 72 T-50 advanced trainer jets worth $2.6

Samsung Electronics Co. was the world's fifth-largest vendor of Chromebooks in the second quarter of the year, a report showed Monday, as the South Korean tech giant aims to expand its presence in the portable PC market amid the pandemic. Samsung had a market share of 7 percent in the April-June period after shipping 900,000 Chromebooks that refer to laptops or tablets running on Google's Chrome operating system (OS), according to a report from market researcher International Data Corp. (IDC).

A revision bill has been proposed to allow game players to withdraw from their contracts with game developers and get refunds when faced with unfair practices. “If game developers and publishers decide to roll back their games to a previous version as a result of their own mistakes, they must provide proper compensations to game players,” said Rep. Yang Jung-suk, an independent lawmaker, who authored the draft of the revision bill to the Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic

South Korea marked its first trade surplus in medicines in 2020, backed by gains in drug exports, the government said Sunday. According to data from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the country posted a surplus of 1.39 trillion won ($1.21 billion) in pharmaceutical trade in 2020, which grew 62.5 percent from the year earlier. The export of drugs jumped 92.3 percent to 7.93 trillion won, taking up 79.6 percent of all outbound shipments, the ministry explained. It was the first time th

Kakao Mobility is expanding into the on-call chauffeur service market by buying into the field’s No. 1 player, Korea Drive, the company said Sunday. According to Kakao Mobility, the mobility service affiliate of Kakao Group, its subsidiary CMNP has acquired an undisclosed amount of shares in Korea Drive. It has established a new company called K Drive to take over Korea Drive’s 1577 Chauffeur business. Kakao Mobility Chief Financial Officer Lee Chang-min will head K Drive. Whi

LG Energy Solution on Sunday announced its new environmental, social and governance vision, pledging to source electricity generated 100 percent by renewables at all its business sites by 2030 and go carbon neutral by 2050. According to the world’s leading electric vehicle battery manufacturer, it will gradually reduce carbon emissions from its 2019 level of 960,000m metric tons to zero by 2050. Also, the company aims to accomplish RE100 by 2030, which is 20 years ahead of the global

South Korea’s exports in July surged 29.6 percent to $55.4 billion on-year, a record monthly figure since the nation began compiling the data in 1956, according to the Trade Ministry Sunday. In the first seven months of this year, Korea’s accumulated exports were worth $358.7 billion, setting another record. Also, this is the first time in 10 years that the country saw double digit growths for four consecutive months in 10 years -- 41.2 percent in April, 45.6 percent in May, 39.8

How battery firms tap X-rays and CT scanners to flag defective battery cells

The race to acquire the troubled SsangYong Motor is heating up beyond expectations, with nine groups reportedly having expressed interest. According to local reports, a total of nine have submitted letters of intent to buy a controlling stake in the automaker, which is currently under court receivership, before the Friday deadline.  They include Cardinal One Motors, set up by US-based auto importer and distributor HAAH Automotive Holdings, a consortium led by Korean electric bus maker E

South Korea‘s first centralized institutional review board kicked off operations Friday, amid hopes it would expedite the review of drugs and treatments used to treat serious conditions, including COVID-19. An institutional review board, or IRB, is a constituted group designated to review and monitor biomedical research involving human subjects. Many hospitals, universities and other medical institutions in South Korea have their own IRB, but there was no state-authorized central IRB. &l

Kim Beom-su, the founder of the company behind South Korea’s most popular messaging app KakaoTalk, is now the richest person in the country, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on Friday. Kim has seen his fortune reach $13.4 billion this year, surpassing Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and de-facto leader Lee Jae-yong, whose net worth was estimated at $12.1 billion. Kim’s assets grew by $6 billion in 2021 alone as Kakao shares soared 91 percent, boosted by the stock m

Department stores and big supermarkets will start requiring customers to scan QR codes or submit to written entry logs to shop starting from Friday in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19. The measure was drawn up and confirmed by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on Tuesday as a way to strengthen COVID-19 prevention efforts as cases continue to rise in South Korea. Stores that are bigger than 3,000 square meters are required to adopt a QR entry log system, while

US-based coffee roaster and retailer Blue Bottle Coffee opened a store on Jeju Island on Friday. The opening of the ninth location in South Korea also marks the first store to be located outside of Seoul. Dubbed Blue Bottle Jeju Cafe, the new outlet is located in Songdang-ri, Gujwa-eup of Jeju City, on the western side of the island. The newly opened store reflects the regional traits of the island both in the space and on the menu, opting for low walls and a minimalistic interior design with

Samsung Electronics Co. retained the top spot in the global smartphone market in the second quarter of the year, a report showed Friday, although its market share declined from the previous quarter due to fewer shipments. The South Korean giant had a market share of 18 percent in the April-June period, after shipping 58 million Galaxy smartphones, up 7 percent from a year ago, according to a report from market researcher Counterpoint Research. But compared with the first quarter, its market s

Samsung Electronics Co. stayed on as the world's second-largest tablet computer vendor in the second quarter of the year, a report showed Friday, as it strives to catch up with industry leader Apple Inc. The South Korean giant logged a market share of 18 percent in the April-June period, after shipping 8.2 million Galaxy Tab tablets, up 19 percent from a year ago, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. "The Android tablet market is undergoing big changes as vendors retool th