NewJeans tops Billboard's top 200 popular albums chart with 'Get Up'

SEOUL -- K-pop super rookie band NewJeans has topped Billboard's top 200 popular albums chart with its mini-album "Get Up." The five-member band topped the Billboard chart about a year after its debut in July 2022. The album, released on January 21, arrived atop the list on Billboard 200 chart with 126,500 equivalent album units sold in the United States in the week ending July 27. The ranking is confirmed based on the number of album sales, track equivalent album (TE

August 3, 2023

V to be seventh BTS member to release solo album

SEOUL -- V, a member of BTS, will become the boy band's seventh member to roll out his first solo album after J-Hope, Jin, RM, Suga, and Jungkook. The 27-year-old will work with Min Hee-jin, a genius idol incubator who has planned concepts for K-pop superstar band NewJeans. Min is currently nurturing rookie artists and overseeing music production at ADOR, a subsidiary label of Big Hit, the agency of BTS. During her time at SM Entertainment, she designed costumes, styling, and a

August 2, 2023

​Sales of Hyundai and Kia cars exceed 140,000 in US, up 12.1 percent year-on-year

SEOUL -- Vehicles made by South Korea's Hyundai auto group are garnering explosive popularity in the United States. Sales of Hyundai vehicles in July 2023 soared 12.1 percent compared to the same period a year ago in the U.S. market, selling a total of 143,787. According to data released by Hyundai Motor America, Hyundai Motors sold 72,857 units in July, up 10.7 percent from a year earlier. Hyundai's American office said sales of its green vehicles such as Santa Fe Hybrid and I

August 2, 2023

Taihan Cable's high-voltage direct current transmission cable receives international certification

SEOUL -- A 525-kilovolt-class high-voltage direct current transmission cable developed by Taihan Cable & Solution, a power cable and grid infrastructure company in South Korea, has obtained an international certification from a Dutch testing center. The 525-kilovolt-class is currently the highest voltage among commercialized cables. High-voltage direct current transmission (HVDC) converts alternating current (AC) into high-voltage DC and can send large amounts of current far aw

August 2, 2023

[OPINION] Australia's Increasing Strategic Importance

KENOSHA -- The visit to Australia by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in late July is important and deserves more attention than so far rec

August 2, 2023

S. Korea's GDP per capita drops 8.2 percent year-on-year to $32,142 in 2022

SEOUL -- South Korea's gross domestic product per capita was $32,142 in 2022, down 8.2 percent from a year ago. This is the third-largest decline among 47 major economies in the world. Data released by Representative Jin Sun-mee of the main opposition Democratic Party on August 2 showed that South Korea ranked 23rd among the 47 countries with a GDP per capita of $32,142. The list included the member countries of the OECD and the top 30 economies. Japan experienced the largest d

August 2, 2023

Convenience store chain CU starts drone delivery service for water parks

SEOUL -- The operator of South Korea's largest convenience store chain CU is currently delivering various food and medical items using a drone to two water parks in Seongnam, a southeastern satellite city of Seoul. BGF Retail, the operator of CU, said in a statement on August 1 that the company started a drone delivery service in the Tancheon water parks. Anyone can receive products such as snacks and quasi-drugs using a QR code. The service is part of Seongnam City's project

August 1, 2023

[INTERVIEW] 'Hydrogen will become mainstream fuel for heavy-duty vehicles and airplanes in future'

SEOUL -- In 2019, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in unveiled a new energy roadmap for the country's "hydrogen economy," which was designed to support South Korean companies secure their firm leadership in the global hydrogen fuel cell industry. The roadmap was also part of South Korea's big plan to gradually reduce its dependency on fossil fuels and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The country had aimed to operate more than 28 hydrogen charging stations fo

August 1, 2023

Number of S. Korean overseas travelers surpasses six mln in July

SEOUL -- The number of South Korean overseas travelers exceeded six million in July, recording the highest number of overseas flyers after the COVID-19 pandemic. Among some 6.4 million outbound travelers, about 1.7 million South Koreans visited Japan. The operator of South Korea's main gateway Incheon International Airport estimated that about 5,202,500 people traveled to foreign countries through its airport. An estimated number of about 1,205,440 went abroad to other seven airpor

August 1, 2023

Upstage's generative AI model receives highest score on global AI language model scoreboard

SEOUL -- A generative artificial intelligence service created by South Korea's AI startup Upstage has received the highest score on an international large language model scoreboard run by Hugging Face, a New York City-based AI company. The AI model that can understand, summarize, generate, and predict new content has competed with some 500 models including GPT-3, a Chat GPT-based service. ChatGPT, made by Open AI, is one of the most widely used large language model (LLM)-based chat

August 1, 2023