Korea Airports Corp., Hanwha Systems, SK Telecom and the Korea Transport Institute have formed a four-way partnership to accelerate the commercialization of flying cars, or urban air mobility vehicles. Leaders from each party signed a memorandum of understanding at KAC’s headquarters in western Seoul on Wednesday as part of efforts to form a “dream team” with the goal of trialing commercial air taxis by 2025, the corporation announced on Thursday. The move will see KAC build

Distiller HiteJinro has released a wide range of wine gift sets ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday season. The new range includes bottles from internationally renowned wineries such as Cambria, Sterling and Tarapaca as well as Marques de Riscal and Taittinger. From best-value bottles to limited editions, the gift sets range in price from 50,000 won ($42.25) to 1 million won. Hailing from multiple countries with different tastes, they make for great gifts to loved ones during Seollal, the comp

Philip Morris Korea Inc. has been certified as the ‘Top Employer Asia Pacific 2021’ for its ‘people-centric’ HR philosophy and management amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said Tuesday. The South Korean unit of the global cigarette and tobacco manufacturing firm also bagged the ‘Top Employer South Korea 2021’ prize from Top Employers Institute, while winning the honor for the Asia Pacific region for two years in a row. Praveen Upadhyay, Philip Morris

South Korean retailers are rushing to tap the emerging new trend of live commerce, which combines streaming and e-commerce. Hyundai Home Shopping said on Monday it aims to reach 100 billion won ($90.5 million) in sales from its live commerce channel this year, after their latest data showed sales jumped fivefold last year. Sales generated from the company’s live commerce business in 2020 reached 28.5 billion won, up nearly 500 percent from 5 billion won in 2019, according to their latest

South Korean whiskey company Golden Blue said Monday that its Golden Blue Sappirus will hit the US market in February. Having been shipped Saturday, the blue-bottled whiskey will become the country’s first locally produced whiskey to be exported to the US, the largest market in the world, the company said. “Entering the US market is moving one step closer to the globalization of K-alcohol drinks,” said CEO Kim Dong-wook. Kim added that he’s certain that three years of

Retailers are anticipating a surge in online shopping in the coming weeks ahead of this year’s Lunar New Year holiday, widely known as Seollal in South Korea. Leading Korean e-commerce business Tmon said Monday that the volume of orders generated from its “contactless gift-giving” service saw a 452 percent increase during the past two weeks. Nearly 7 in 10 shoppers purchased items priced below 30,000 won ($27.20), the data also showed, up 7 percent from last year’s figu

Two major South Korean duty-free operators, Lotte and Shilla, will close their stores at Incheon Airport’s Terminal 1 next month, leaving more empty space at the airport. Both Lotte Duty Free and Shilla Duty Free’s leases expired in August but were extended for an additional six months after new bidders backed out before signing contracts, as the worsening coronavirus pandemic threatened prospects for duty-free shopping businesses. With the possibility of further extensions off th

Once the symbol of South Korea’s K-beauty boom, cosmetics franchise stores are now declining at an alarming rate as international tourism dwindles and online shopping takes the spotlight during the pandemic. Myeong-dong, one of the most popular downtown shopping districts, took the shopping crunch hard. Its stores, which used to bustle with tourists from China, Japan and various Southeast Asian states, are now struggling to survive in the high-rent district amid a dwindling number of visi

Low-cost carrier Jin Air has sold over 10,000 of its in-flight themed ready meals in their first month, according to the airline -- nearly one every four minutes. The ready-meal series including beef goulash pasta, rice with cashew chicken chwinamul (aster leaves) and cream pasta was released in November, themed after in-flight meals to cater to those who miss airplane food. “It appears many customers are enjoying our ready-meals to remember the excitement of traveling and quench the thi

EBay Korea appointed Chun Hang-il as its new chief executive officer on Wednesday, amid growing speculation that the US e-commerce firm is poised to sell its business interests in South Korea. Chun, who previously led the Japanese unit of eBay, will take over from outgoing CEO Byun Kwang-yun from Thursday. The leadership shakeup comes a day after the online retail giant announced it was looking at “alternatives for its Korea business” amid growing competition from the likes of Cou

Two-term Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kwon Chil-seung was named President Moon Jae-in’s nominee for minister of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Startups on Wednesday. If confirmed, he will take over the role previously held by Park Young-sun since April 2019 and will oversee the organization to strengthen competitiveness and support innovation of SMEs and micro enterprises. Park resigned from her position early on Wednesday amid speculation that she will soon announce her bi

South Korea’s budget airline industry is poised for a seismic change this year, with two new players ready to enter the competition amid a pandemic-induced market consolidation. Aero K, one of the two, is set to begin operations next month. “Our first Cheongju-Jeju flight is scheduled on Feb. 19 after receiving permission for the route from the Transport Ministry yesterday,” one Aero K official told The Korea Herald. Two round-trip Airbus A320 flights between Cheongju Airp

Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for bribing former President Park Geun-hye on Monday, joining a long list of conglomerate owners who have been charged with a similar offense in the past. While Lee is the first Samsung chief to be imprisoned and has been sentenced twice -- in a retrial Monday as well as in February 2017 -- Lee Byung-chul, the late founder of Samsung Group, was similarly investigated though without being indicted. Lee Jae-yong’s late father

Bustling, noisy and lively -- it is how Myeong-dong used to be described as Seoul’s premier shopping district. Packed with tourists, food stands and long lines of shops, it is one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world, according to global property firm Cushman & Wakefield’s annual Main Streets Across the World report. But a quick walk around the shopping district nowadays makes it clear that things have drastically changed -- and for the worse. With many shoppe

Grocery delivery firm Market Kurly has won an award for its insulation packaging from the World Packaging Organization, the company said on Friday. The WorldStar Global Packaging Award was given to 194 recipients this year, including Market Kurly, which won the prize in the transit category for its eco-friendly insulated corrugated box. The recyclable, corrugated packaging mimics the insulation effect of a cooler with a pad attached to the insides of the box, allowing a layer of air to form b