South Korea's flagship carrier Korean Air Lines Co. is expected to have turned a profit in the first quarter of 2021, data showed Sunday, as the company expanded its logistics business after the new coronavirus pandemic virtually suspended passenger travel. The country's top airline operator is expected to post an operating profit of 76.6 billion won ($68.3 million) for the January-March period, compared with a loss of 82.3 billion won posted a year earlier, according to a poll released by Yonh

South Korean wireless carriers are estimated to have logged robust earnings in the first quarter on the back of sharp growth in 5G users and their non-telecom businesses, a poll showed Sunday. The combined operating profits of the country's three major mobile carriers -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- are expected to have reached 966.5 billion won ($863.3 million) in the January-March period, up 6.8 percent from the previous year, according to the poll on six local brokerage hou

SK Innovation Co. agreed to pay 2 trillion won ($1.78 billion) to settle an electric vehicle battery dispute with LG Energy Solution Ltd. and withdraw all their other pending litigations to end their two-year legal battle, the two companies said Sunday. The two Korean battery makers announced the results of their agreement, hours before a deadline for an import ban on SK. The US International Trade Commission (ITC) in February sided with LG in a trade secret case and issued a 10-year import ba

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has called upon President Joe Biden to overturn the US International Trade Commission’s ruling against SK Innovation, marking the third such request since the decision made on Feb. 11. In his statement issued on Thursday, local time, Kemp urged that the impact on the $2.6 billion electric vehicle battery production plant in Jackson County will deliver a heavy blow to the regional economy, unless the president takes immediate action. “The jobs of at least 2,

Longtime aspiration for Korean-made fighter jet comes true

Hyundai Motor Co. said Friday it will temporarily suspend another domestic plant next week due to an electronic parts shortage. Hyundai will halt the operation of the Asan plant, 100 kilometers south of Seoul, which produces the Grandeur and Sonata sedans, from Monday to Tuesday, a company spokesman said over the phone. Previously, the country's biggest carmaker said it would suspend the No. 1 plant in Ulsan, 414 km southeast of Seoul, which produces the IONIQ 5 all-electric car and the Kona s

Local semiconductor companies have called on the government for support, in a bid to expand their production facilities against the backdrop of the prolonged global shortage. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, a group of industry representatives from the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association met with Minister Sung Yun-mo during a conference held Friday at the Westin Chosun in central Seoul. The corresponding event came as policymakers and industry officials sought to

Kakao, the South Korean tech giant behind popular messaging app KakaoTalk, is taking steps to acquire mobile shopping app Zigzag, according to local reports Friday. The reported deal could see Kakao buy a controlling stake in the operator of the shopping app -- estimated to be worth about $1 billion -- and create a new subsidiary for a merger. Kakao, however, has not yet confirmed the move, saying it is taking into account “a range of options.”　 The reports came after Kakao, once

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the de facto leader of Samsung Group convicted of bribery, will return to jail later than the scheduled date, industry sources said Friday, after doctors recommended longer hospital care following his appendicitis surgery. Lee was transferred from Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, to Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul on March 19 to receive the surgery after suffering a ruptured appendix. The 52-year-old tycoon was suppos

KT Corp., a South Korean telecom giant, said Friday it has clinched business ties with a Vietnamese cable network to cooperate in developing a music streaming platform in the Southeast Asian country. Under the memorandum of understanding, KT and Vietnam Television Cable, a subsidiary of state broadcaster Vietnam Television, plan to design a music streaming platform and cooperate in K-pop music distribution and the management of intellectual property. KT said it plans to provide key technology

Samsung Electronics Co. on Friday unveiled its upgraded smart tracking tag leveraging advanced wireless communication technologies that can locate people's lost items with better accuracy. The Galaxy SmartTag+ uses both Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and ultra-wideband (UWB) solutions, according to Samsung. The latest product will be available beginning next Friday though its launch schedule will vary by market. Its predecessor, Galaxy SmartTag, which was launched in January, only used BLE techn

　Sales of South Korea‘s top instant noodle makers posted strong sales in 2020 thanks to brisk demand amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed. 　Nongshim said its sales of instant noodles, or “ramyeon” in Korean, came to 2.09 trillion won ($1.85 billion) last year, up 16.3 percent from the previous year, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. It marks the first time for Nongshim’s ramyeon sales to top the 2 trillion-won mark and the amount acc

GS Group kicked off a mentoring camp with biotech startups on Thursday as part of environmental, social and governance efforts, with plans to pursue eco-friendly business projects together. A total of six startups have been chosen to be part of the camp dubbed the GS Challenge based on their business potential after 85 startups in the biotech field applied for the acceleration program. The South Korean conglomerate known for its energy and retail businesses said it will provide mentoring on tec

  South Korea’s online-to-offline, or O2O, services marked rapid growth amid the booming stay-at-home economy last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, government data showed Thursday. According to data from the Ministry of Science and ICT, the total trading volume created through local O2O services for the whole of last year reached 126 trillion won ($112.83 billion), up 29.6 percent from 97 trillion won a year earlier. The increase largely stemmed from expanded transactions in the

Renault Samsung, the South Korean unit of French carmaker Renault, has successfully brought back its popular XM3 model to the market after dealing with technical issues, officials said Thursday. The subcompact SUV comeback follows after facing a string of challenges right from the beginning. Its launch in March last year came amid the country’s first mass outbreak of COVID-19 but the automaker managed to pull off the event by introducing contactless promotion and sale strategies. Anot