South Korea’s leading lithium-ion battery maker LG Chem said Wednesday it would invest a total of 239.4 billion won ($224 million) to set up joint ventures with China’s Huayou Cobalt by 2020 in order to secure a stable supply of core materials for batteries. Zhejiang province-based Huayou Cobalt is the world’s biggest cobalt producer. It produced 20,000 tons of cobalt in 2017 alone.The two will establish two joint ventures -- one for precursors and the other for cathodes. Precursors made of coba

The World Health Organization has delayed by one year its 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases, which had included controversial plans to list video game addiction as a mental health condition, according to industry sources Wednesday.　The WHO stipulated in its “ICD-11 Joint Linearization for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics: Project Plan 2015-2018” report, dated January this year, that it will not endorse the revised mental health disorder guidebook until May 2019.“The

Raonsecure, a South Korean mobile security solutions provider, will showcase its biometric authentication solutions and USB security dongles at the RSA Conference 2018 that kicks off Monday in San Francisco, the company said Wednesday.　The company will operate a booth inside the Korea Pavilion organized by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. It plans to hold a product briefing session twice every day during the exhibition period. (Raonsecure)At this year’s conference, Raonsecure will be

LG Electronics said Tuesday it will unveil the seventh edition of its flagship G series smartphone in New York on May 2. “G7 ThinQ,” the upcoming LG phone will feature enhanced artificial intelligence functions and improved connectivity with other internet of things devices, according to the company. The newest phone will be showcased at Metropolitan West in Manhattan on May 2. It will then be unveiled in Yongsan IPark Mall in Seoul the following day. ThinQ is LG’s artificial intelligence platfo

Kakao Taxi, South Korea’s most widely-used taxi hailing app, on Tuesday added a “paid option” that offers users faster pickup services. The option will cost an extra 1,000 won on top of the taxi fare, according to the company. 　The paid option, dubbed “smart call,” leverages Kakao’s artificial intelligence and big data analysis engines to direct a particular ride request to taxi drivers who are most likely to accept the call based on previous pickup history and driving patterns. The 1,000 won “s

Artificial intelligence experts from around the world have called off their plans to boycott South Korea’s top science and technology research university KAIST over concerns that it was collaborating with a local arms maker over the development of autonomous “killer robots.”　KAIST said Monday that the group of AI researchers who had signed on to the boycott had withdrawn its plans to sever ties with the Korean university, after the institute gave clear, public assurance that AI-based weapons wou

Korean medtech startup BBB to launch by year-end a self-use diagnostic device that examines blood to detect cancer markers

SK Telecom on Saturday announced a plan to compensate subscribers who experienced problems in sending messages and making voice calls Friday. About 7.3 million SKT subscribers are estimated to have experienced some amount of inconvenience for about three hours Friday afternoon due to erroneous operations of Long Term Evolution systems for voice calls and text messages. The problems first occurred at 3:17 p.m. and were solved by 5:48 p.m. According to the terms of agreement, compensation is to be

A large number of South Koreans may have been affected by the latest personal information leak affecting U.S. social media operator Facebook Inc., the company said Friday.　Facebook said 85,893 South Korean users may have been inadvertently impacted by the leak scandal. The figure is based on the “friends” of 184 users who installed the “thisisyourdigitallife” app. Facebook logo (AFP-Yonhap)　The social media operator said earlier that the personal information of a whopping 87 million users may ha

South Korea’s Transport Ministry said Friday that Kakao Taxi, the country’s most-used taxi-hailing app, must follow local regulations in introducing a new option to its service that allows customers who pay an extra fee via the app to catch taxis faster.　The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement that after a review of Kakao Taxi’s proposal to add a paid option to its service, the new function is deemed the same as existing “call taxi” services where customers pay a c

Korean tech giant projects W15.6tr in operating profit in January-March period as resilient memory chip demand offsets downturn in display business

Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its first-quarter operating profit is presumed to have set another record by rising 50.55 percent from the previous year.Samsung Electronics' main office in Seoul (Yonhap)The operating profit was estimated at 15.6 trillion won ($14.6 billion) for the January-March period, compared with 9.89 trillion won posted a year earlier, the South Korean tech giant said through its earnings guidance report.Sales moved up 18.69 percent to 60 trillion won, compared with 50.

Samsung Electronics has filed an administrative lawsuit against the Ministry of Employment and Labor to stop it from disclosing reports of working conditions at Samsung’s major semiconductor fabrication complexes in Giheung, Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province, according to the company on Thursday. The world’s largest memory chip provider said it filed the suit with Suwon District Court on Monday and claimed an administrative appeal with the Central Administrative Appeals Commission to

For years, North Korea has launched persistent cyberattacks, largely directed at its Southern neighbor, in an aim to steal key security intelligence and generate cash for the regime. 　Though it’s difficult to map out the exact scope of the North’s hacking campaigns, cybersecurity company FireEye says it has newly identified a North Korean espionage group able to launch highly sophisticated cyberattacks, and out to target organizations in not only South Korea but also other countries.Officials of

KAIST, South Korea’s top science and technology university, on Thursday rebutted claims that it was contributing to the development of artificial intelligence-powered killer robots, which had prompted over 50 of the world’s top AI researchers to announce a boycott of KAIST.　“I am saddened to hear about the announcement on the boycott of KAIST for allegedly developing killer robots,” KAIST President Shin Sung-chul said in a public statement.　“I would like to reaffirm that KAIST does not have any