President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday ordered a probe into allegations that two senior prosecution and justice ministry officials inappropriately gave cash to prosecutors who investigated a former aide to ousted President Park Geun-hye, the presidential office said.The rare presidential order of internal inspection follows earlier reports that a ranking ministry official with suspected links to Park's aide Woo Byung-woo treated a special probe team looking into the scandal to dinner shortly after t

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, South Korea’s two leading automakers, plan to expand autonomous active safety features to low-end compact cars, a company official said Wednesday.“Active safety is thought of as the highest level in autonomous driving. It should not be limited to certain people. It should be applied to not only luxury cars also to low-end compact car models,” Lee Jin-woo, the head of Hyundai Motor’s Intelligent Safety Technology Center, said at a conference held to celebrate the 30t

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles delving into the economic policies and tasks expected of the new Moon Jae-in administration. This is the fifth installment -- Ed.Big retailers in Korea are cautiously watching the new Moon Jae-in administration, with many anticipating more restrictions in the operations of large-scale outlets.On the campaign trail leading up to the election, Moon had been vocal about his belief in the need for government intervention to create a “level playing

First dates weren’t always about Tinder swipes and photo-approved introductions. Blind dates used to be just that -- meetings with someone without knowing what they looked like.Changwon Community Theatre is going back to that time with “Looking,” Norm Foster’s tale of singles looking for love as they approach middle age. Two of them meet for a date in a bar via a newspaper personal ad. Nicole Heker, Ifoma Genevieve Rothblatt, Jordan Schauer and Brendan Thompson will appear in Norm Foster’s “Look

President Moon Jae-in has named Kim Sang-jo, a longtime shareholder activist with a nickname “chaebol sniper,” to be the new head of the anti-trust watchdog Fair Trade Commission, Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.His appointment signals President Moon’s strong drive on chaebol reform through a strengthened role of the FTC, which is likely to enhance monitoring on the four largest business groups -- Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK and LG -- as Moon had previously vowed.  New head of the Fair Trade Commiss

New industries such as electric and autonomous vehicles, smart ships and robots will create some 380,000 new jobs, a report by the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy showed Wednesday.In the report released at a forum of experts, academics and businesses, the ministry said such jobs will be created by 2025 from 12 sectors it designated as new industries last year.The forum was held on the heels of President Moon Jae-in appointing himself the chief of the new presidential jobs creation comm

South Korea’s per capita gross national income has remained below $30,000 for more than a decade since it surpassed the $20,000 mark for the first time in 2006.A survey conducted by a local pollster days before the May 9 presidential election showed most people here are pessimistic about the possibility of their country passing what is regarded as the threshold for joining the club of wealthy advanced states anytime soon. Of about 1,000 Korean adults polled, a mere 0.1 percent said the $30

Even while watching television or reading books, 1 in 4 Koreans cannot seem to put down their smartphones, a recent survey by the Korea Information Society Development Institute showed Wednesday.The study examined 9,788 smartphone users’ activities in depth by analyzing their “media diaries,” a daily record of an individual’s media usage every 15 minutes. (Yonhap)It was revealed that 27.7 percent of smartphone users were using other forms of media with a smartphone in hand.Of those tallied, most

PLANTING TREES -- Korean Air officials, flight attendants and other participants join a project to plant trees in desertified areas in Baganuur, Mongolia, Tuesday. Some 600 have signed on for the project to expand the “Korean Air forest” that the air carrier has been creating since 2004. It currently sits on some 44 hectares of land with about 110,000 trees. (Lee Gil-dong/The Korea Herald)

President Moon Jae-in picked a senior official of the statutory auditor as secretary to supervise discipline and integrity in public offices, according to the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.Kim Jong-ho, director of the public office supervision department at the Board of Audit and Inspection, was appointed for the post, the Blue House spokesperson Park Soo-hyun announced Wednesday. Kim Jong-ho, director of the public office supervision department at the Board of Audit and Inspection (Yonhap)W

MACAU -- Once relying heavily on attracting high-rollers and VIP guests, Macau is looking to a new future of non-gambling amenities to fiscally revitalize the city, following three consecutive years of slumping revenue. The annual three-day Global Gaming Expo Asia (G2E Asia) kicked off its 11th year at the Venetian Macao on Tuesday, in the largest event in the expo’s history. It has drawn more than 12,000 visitors and buyers this year, with 45 percent made up of new exhibitors.The event’s show f

Samsung Electronics is spurring efforts to apply its hospitality management technology in hotels overseas, including those in the United States and Europe, temporarily shifting its focus away from domestic hotels, sources familiar with the matter told The Korea Herald.According to the sources from the hotel industry, Samsung tested its Lynk Hospitality Management Solution at the Grand Ambassador Seoul and Novotel Ambassador Suwon last October, but application of the system was held back. (Yonhap

The US government has disclosed a plan to strongly stage a campaign to alienate saber-rattling North Korea from the international community in order to hold it responsible for its reckless acts and human rights violations, a US broadcaster said Tuesday. The US government will launch the international campaign through diplomatic, security and economic measures to "cut the DPRK off from the rest of the world," Voice of America quoted Anna Richey-Allen, a spokeswoman for the US State Department's E

An international cultural forum in Seoul in late summer will assemble the world’s creative opinion leaders to discuss and promote Korean culture, while also inviting foreigners in Korea to take part in a visual contest. The Culture Communication Forum, organized by the Corea Image Communications Institute, will be held on Aug. 29 at the Grand Hyatt Seoul, inviting five influential figures from the media, culture and arts sectors. Unlike previous forums, where foreign opinion leaders spent severa

South Korea will shut down eight of 10 coal-fired power plants aged 30 years or more for the month of June, as part of the new Moon Jae-in administration’s efforts to tackle the nation’s worsening air pollution. President Moon ordered the temporary halt of the outdated plants as a step to reduce fine dust.During his campaign, Moon pledged to lower fine dust concentration levels by 30 percent by reducing the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels and moving to cleaner energy alternatives.