Experts say even though Chanel has ramped up prices close to rival luxury house Hermes, people are beginning to doubt that it’s worth the price. “When people purchase an expensive bag, they relate themselves to the brand -- something that’s luxury and rare. But you don’t feel special when everyone around you carries a Chanel,” said Lee Eun-hee, a consumer science professor at Inha University. L...

Brazen violation of UNSC resolutions The South Korean government immediately issued an official statement that “strongly condemned” the ICBM launch and urged North Korea to “immediately stop the act creating tensions on the Korean Peninsula and causing instability to the regional situation.” South Korean President Moon Jae-in convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council that w...

With the lifting of the IT-based COVID-19 contract tracing scheme, owners of cafes, restaurants, and small and medium-sized shops now ponder over what to do with the digital devices they used for scanning personal QR codes. Since March 1, the government scrapped electronic contact tracing and vaccine passes in which visitors to public facilities including singing rooms, indoor gyms and residenti...

South Korea’s central bank chief nominee Rhee Chang-yong on Thursday pledged to carry out a balanced monetary policy as the nation deals with a growing economy and inflation risks. Rhee, director of the Asia and Pacific department at the International Monetary Fund, and tapped by outgoing President Moon Jae-in as the next Bank of Korea governor, expressed concerns of existing external uncertaint...

SK Biopharmaceuticals is in the process of developing a new device that can record brain activities to sense signs of seizure as part of the company’s efforts in strengthening its digital therapeutics, CEO Cho Jeong-woo said Thursday. “The drive for digital therapeutics means that we are working on developing AI-driven platforms for new drugs based on the data that we have compiled over the last...

Friction between President Moon Jae-in and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol appears to be intensifying, with the two sides openly criticizing one another. Since the presidential election earlier this month, Moon and Yoon have been at odds over multiple issues, such as the relocation of the presidential office and appointment of high-ranking officials, including the governor of the Bank of Korea. A...

Former President Park Geun-hye was discharged from hospital on Thursday and took residence in her new home, after spending four years and nine months in prison for a series of corruption charges. Appearing in front of the Samsung Medical Center where she was treated for chronic illnesses from November, Park said she has recovered and expressed gratitude to the medical staff. “I offer my greetin...

All the fashion shows were streamed online through YouTube, Naver TV and TikTok. Actor Lee Jung-jae and model Choi So-ra promoted local fashion brands as the 2022 fall-winter Seoul Fashion Week’s global ambassadors. Although the biannual fashion event’s in-person shows were completed, an on-site exhibition, where visitors can try on Seoul Fashion Week’s designer brands’ products and buy them at ...

Nearly a quarter of the South Korean public are dangerously reliant on smartphones, with almost 40 percent of the country’s youth diagnosed with smartphone overdependence, the Ministry of ICT and Science said Thursday. According to the ministry’s survey on the country’s digital divide and overdependence on smartphones, 24.2 percent of 10,000 households nationwide fell under the category of smart...

South Korea reported the highest number of daily COVID-19 deaths during the 24 hours of Wednesday, the country’s health authorities said Thursday. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the country added 470 deaths in a single day, breaking the previous record of 429 reported a week ago. The total deaths from COVID-19 reached 13,902. Of the total, 7,130 deaths were report...

SK ecoplant, the construction arm under SK Group, will kick off a $2.2 billion road construction project in Norway this year, becoming the first South Korean builder to enter the Nordic market. The company said Thursday it has recently signed a financial close and a concession agreement with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration for building the Rv555 Sotra Connection, a four-lane road that ...

Satellite photos show more than 600 vehicles mobilized at a training ground in North Korea’s capital in a sign that the country is preparing for a large-scale military parade. Citing imagery taken by Planet Labs, Radio Free Asia said Wednesday that the North on Monday mobilized around 600 to 650 vehicles at the Mirim airport in Pyongyang -– where rehearsals for previous military parades have tak...

SPC Group said on Thursday it has opened its third Paris Baguette store in Jakarta, Indonesia, and will open a fourth one in nearby Bekasi later this month. The latest bakery cafe opening comes just four months after the South Korean bakery giant opened its first Paris Baguette store in Indonesia in November last year in Jakarta’s Ashta District 8 shopping mall. The third store is located in th...

These are part of LG Energy Solution’s pledge to invest $4.6 billion into battery facilities in North America, securing production capacity of over 200 gigawatt hours in North America annually to power 2.5 million high performance all-electric vehicles, which can run more than 500 kilometers on a single charge. This is also in line with the US state support for wider penetration of electric vehi...

With less than 70 days remaining until the local elections, finger pointing and infighting are brewing inside the conservative People Power Party even after its victory in the latest presidential election. The internal feud comes as core members of the People Power Party clash with traditional conservative faction heavyweights on how the government should run under President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol ...