Girl band Le Sserafim to go on first world tour

SEOUL -- Le Sserafim, a girl band formed by BTS agency Hybe's music label Source Music, will go on a world tour. The five-member band will start its tour with a two-day concert in Seoul on August 12. Le Sserafim will also release a Japanese language-based album while interacting with global fans during the two-month period. Source Music, the band's agency, said Le Sserafim will cover seven cities -- Seoul, Nagoya, Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Jakarta, and Bangkok. The group'

June 28, 2023

​Samsung to open flagship store in Seoul's heart of consumer trends

SEOUL -- Samsung Electronics has opened its flagship store in Gangnam, Seoul's heart of consumer trends, in a bid to capture more customers. The new store scheduled to open on June 29 is about 500 meters (0.3 miles) away from an Apple Store. Samsung currently operates 360 stores called "Samsung Digital Plaza" across South Korea. Each store plays the role of a showroom for electric devices while some stores also have a customer service center where Samsung customers ca

June 28, 2023

Five S. Korean universities enter top 100 in global university ranking

SEOUL -- QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a Britain-based company specializing in the evaluation of higher education institutions, has included five South Korean universities in the top 100 on the list of 1,500 institutes in the world. Seoul National University ranked seventh among Asian universities, and 41st globally. QS determines the global ranking every year based on various factors such as academic reputation, faculty-student ratio, number of citations for academic journals, employme

June 28, 2023

Hanwha Group succeeds in demonstration of hydrogen-gas hybrid co-firing turbine

SEOUL -- South Korea's Hanwha Group has succeeded in the demonstration of a large-scale hydrogen-gas hybrid co-firing turbine for thermal power generation. The company said that it achieved the world's top-class co-firing rate of 59.5 percent. Hybrid co-firing gas turbines are being researched across the world in an effort to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide from thermal power plants. Hydrogen, which is regarded

June 28, 2023

Number of S. Korean overseas travelers slowly increase after reopening: market data

SEOUL -- The number of South Korean overseas travelers has exceeded 5 million in the first half of 2023, accounting for up to about 50 percent of the number of people who traveled to foreign countries in the first half of 2019, data released by the operator of the country's seven main airports showed. The state airport management body said the number of its total overseas flyers in 2022 was about 1.78 million. The Korea Airports Corporation (KAC) said in a statement that the nu

June 27, 2023

​S. Korea cooperates with Microsoft to incubate young AI specialists

SEOUL -- South Korea's employment ministry is funding the South Korean office of Microsoft and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry to expand an incubation program designed to nurture young artificial intelligence specialists. Microsoft previously operated a pilot program in the southern city of Daegu in 2022 to incubate 47 students. For the past years, Microsoft has been collaborating with South Korea's administrative bodies, provincial governments, and private compa

June 27, 2023

​SK bioscience partners with Australian research institute to cooperate in influenza research

SEOUL -- SK bioscience, the developer of South Korea's first homemade COVID-19 vaccine, has partnered with an Australian research institute specializing in infection and immunization to carry out research projects in influenza biology, vaccines, and antivirals. The South Korean company aims to earn a competitive edge in the global influenza market through cooperation with the research group called the Peter Doherty Institute is affiliated with the University of Melbourne. Data

June 27, 2023

Food ministry urges companies to lower price of wheat flour to tackle high inflation

SEOUL -- To tackle high inflation, the South Korean government urged major food companies to lower the price of wheat flour, the basic ingredient in many food menus. The flour companies said that they would review the possibility of price reduction in flour and other flour-based products. South Korea imports about 99 percent of wheat mainly from Australia (1.18 million tons), the United States (1.14 tons), and Canada (246,190 tons). About $1.2 billion worth of wheat was imported in

June 27, 2023

Pinkfong to release Baby Shark IP-based multi-platform console game in 26 languages

SEOUL -- South Korea's educational entertainment company Pinkfong will roll out a multi-platform console game based on its Baby Shark content for the first time. The game titled "Baby Shark: Sing & Swim Party" would be available in single-player and multi-player modes for up to four players. Pinkfong's first game content will be provided in 26 different languages including Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, and German. Pinkfong has garnered worldwide populari

June 27, 2023

LG Innotek reveals $994 mln investment plan to expand camera module factory in Viet Nam

SEOUL -- LG Innotek, the electronic component unit of South Korea's LG Group, will inject 1.3 trillion won ($994 million) to expand its manufacturing plant for camera modules in Hai Phong, an industrial port city in northeastern Viet Nam. The Viet Nam-based facility with about 3,500 employees mainly produces camera modules for smartphones. LG Innotek said in a statement that the investment would be made by its Vietnamese branch from July 2023 to December 2025. The company aim

June 26, 2023