South Korean mobile carriers are expected to report improved earnings for the final quarter of 2020 on the back of steady growth in 5G users, analysts said Monday. The combined operating profits of the country's three major telecom operators -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- are estimated at 670.9 billion won ($620.3 million) in the Oct.-Dec. period last year, compared with 497.9 billion won the previous year, according to a poll by Yonhap Infomax, the financial arm of Yonhap Ne

Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s pancreatitis treatment Foistar (DWJ1248) is to enter a new phase 3 clinical trial in combination with Gilead Science’s remdesivir, the company said in a regulatory filing Monday. Foistar, which is administered orally in tablet form, uses camostat as its active ingredient and is hoped to reduce the viral load of COVID-19 in an infected person’s body. In the beginning of the race for COVID-19 treatments, scientists believed that repurposing drugs such

GS Group will focus on digital competency and environmentally-friendly management to discover new business projects, the chairman of the group Huh Tae-soo said on Monday. In a livestreamed New Year’s address from the company‘s headquarters in Seoul, Huh said his company will push for “new businesses in various fields” and urged employees to adjust their ways of working to adapt to change. While last year was a “period of change” marred by the uncertainty sur

Wine defies doom and gloom in pandemic, while beer and whiskey imports plunge

Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., a major South Korean builder, said Monday it has signed a 2.9 trillion-won ($2.7 billion) deal with the Iraqi government to build port facilities. Daewoo E&C has obtained the deal from the state-run General Company for Ports of Iraq (GCPI) to build a tunnel, a container terminal and roads to the Al Faw port in Basra, the company said in a statement. "The company participated in the port construction project from 2013. In the previous deal, we

Lineage 2M, a mobile massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), will land in Japan and Taiwan during the first quarter of this year, South Korean online game maker NCSoft said Monday. The mobile version of the mega-hit game Lineage 2 will be simultaneously available on Google's Android and Apple's iOS devices in the two Asian countries, the company said. Lineage 2M, which integrates NCSoft's technology and expertise built over the past 20 years, features full 3D graphics and 4K U

　South Korea has the fastest 5G download speed in the world, reaching over 350 megabits per second, a report showed. 　The country’s 5G download speed stood at an average 351.2 Mbps, followed by Saudi Arabia at 272.8 Mbps and Taiwan at 247.7 Mbps, industry tracker Opensignal said in a report, citing data collected between Sept. 1 and Nov. 29 in 15 global markets with 5G networks. 　The result marks an improvement for South Korea from a previous report by Opensignal in October, which ha

More than 330 South Korean exhibitors are expected to introduce their new products and cutting-edge services at the world's largest tech expo next week, data from its organizer showed Monday. So far, 338 firms, institutions and colleges from South Korea have registered for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021, according to the US Consumer Technology Association. This year's tech show will take place online from Jan. 11 to 14 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The number of South Korean

Samsung Electronics Co. on Monday confirmed that new models of its flagship smartphone lineup will be unveiled next week as the South Korean tech giant tries to fend off challenges from Apple Inc. and Chinese brands. Samsung's Galaxy S21 smartphone series will be introduced at the Galaxy Unpacked online event at 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Jan. 14 under the theme of "Welcome to the Everyday Epic." "Over the past year, mobile technology has taken center stage in everyday lif

The coronavirus pandemic is likely to have come as a big draw on South Korean oil refiners last year as their low refining margins ate into their profitability, industry sources said Sunday. Whipsawed by weak oil prices and sluggish refining margins, industry leader SK Innovation Co. and three other players are projected to have posted a combined net loss of more than 5 trillion won ($4.6 billion) last year. The situation didn't improve much in the third quarter of last year despite rising dem

LG Display Co., a major display panel maker in South Korea, said Sunday it will showcase a 48-inch flexible display that can generate sound without speakers at the world's largest tech expo next week. LG Display said its 48-inch bendable cinematic sound OLED (CSO) will make its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021, which will be held online from Jan. 11 to 14. The world's top large-size OLED panel maker said the latest product is optimized for gaming. "Its paper-thin screen

For South Korea’s electric vehicle business, 2020 apparently served as a turning point with global players such as Tesla on the up and up and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic raising the alarm about environmental pollution by internal combustion engines. In the new year, this growing market is anticipated to take long strides on the back of prolonged government subsidies and carmakers’ paradigm shift towards ecofriendly vehicles. The number of newly registered passenger EVs here came

The number of fifth-generation network users in South Korea surpassed 10 million as of the end-November, according to data released Sunday by the Ministry of Science and ICT. The number of 5G subscribers in November reached 10.9 million, up 930,000 from the previous month. By companies, SK Telecom secured 5.05 million users, accounting for 46 percent of the market. KT and LG U+ followed with 3.33 million and 2.54 million users. The ICT Ministry explained the increase was largely due to the

Samsung Electronics has begun offering digital certificates via its biometric authentication program Samsung Pass, heating up the local market for online ID certification. The service, launched by Samsung Pass on Dec. 30, enables users of Samsung Galaxy models to obtain certificates on their mobile devices after updating the application. Samsung Pass users can use the digital certificates for the annual tax return process, which starts in January. Samsung Electronics is one of the five priva

LG Display unveils next-generation multi-function screen