BLACKPINK's 'DDU-DU DDU-DU' surpasses 2.1 bln views on YouTube

SEOUL -- The music video for BLACKPINK's dance song DDU-DU DDU-DU has garnered more than 2.1 billion views on YouTube about five years and a month after its release. The song features a catchy chorus and a unique choreography of shooting handguns. The music video exceeded 2.1 billion views at 4:27 p.m. (0727 GMT) on July 30, the band's agency said. The dance song released in June 2018 set a record for the most-viewed K-pop music video in less than 24 hours, gaining some 36 mill

July 31, 2023

CJ Cheiljedang sells Chinese food production wing Jixiangju for $235 mln

SEOUL -- CJ Cheiljedang, a key subsidiary of South Korea's food and entertainment conglomerate CJ Group, has sold Jixiangju, a food production subsidiary known for a Chinese pickle called "zhacai" and Chinese-style fermented food items. Without disclosing the buyers, the South Korean company said all of its shares were sold for 300 billion won ($235 million). Before the sell-off, CheilJedang owned 60 percent of Jixiangju's shares. The Chinese company was acquired

July 31, 2023

Hospitality tech company ONDA makes foray into Türkiye's hotel management solution market

SEOUL -- South Korean hospitality tech company ONDA has made a foray into Türkiye's hotel management solution market through a partnership with CMH Solutions, a Turkish hotel management solution company. The two companies will accelerate the digital transformation of Türkiye's hotel management sector. Digital transformation is a process in which traditional paper and manual work-based companies undergo a structural change to adopt digital technologies such as cloud co

July 31, 2023

Number of immigrant families continues to increase in S. Korea

SEOUL -- Recent data released by South Korea's state statistical information service has shown that the number of foreigners who stayed in South Korea for at least three months increased by 6.2 percent year-on-year in 2022, surpassing 1.75 million. The number of families that contain at least one member of foreign background reached 399,396, up 3.7 percent from a year ago. South Korea is experiencing a significant aging phenomenon, with about 30 percent of its population expec

July 31, 2023

S. Korean health authorities on alert due to possible highly pathogenic avian influenza infection

SEOUL -- South Korea's disease control body has been put on high alert after two stray cats at an animal shelter near central Seoul were diagnosed with avian influenza (H5N1) in the last week of July. Another cat was suspected of being infected with deadly influenza after it died while being diagnosed at a different shelter four days past the initial diagnosis of the two street cats. Cats are one of the few species that can get infected with avian influenza. The specific virus that

July 31, 2023

Number of foreign tourists to S. Korea in June surpasses 960,000, up 321.9 percent year-on-year

SEOUL -- Thanks to the reopening of borders and lifting of regulations on mandatory face masks in public areas, the number of foreign tourists in South Korea soared 321.9 percent year-on-year in June 2023, exceeding 960,000. This is the highest number of visitors since the COVID-19 pandemic. South Korea recovered 65 percent of the number of tourists in June 2019, before the first wave of the pandemic hit the country. Data released by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) on July 28

July 28, 2023

​Türkiye's deputy social minister attends memorial ceremony at UN Cemetery in Busan

SEOUL -- Türkiye's Deputy Minister of Family and Social Services Ministry has attended a special memorial ceremony held to mark the 70th anniversary of the armistice agreement that ended the fighting in the Korean War (1950~1953). The Turkish Embassy in South Korea said in a statement on July 27 that Zafer Tarıkdaroğlu, Deputy Minister of Family and Social Services, attended the commemoration ceremony held at the United Nations Ceremony in the southern port city of Busan. Th

July 28, 2023

[INTERVIEW] 20-year-old FTA should be modernized to improve market access: Chilean envoy

SEOUL -- The bilateral relationship between South Korea and Chile was formed in 1962 and the two countries have followed a similar path in which the state becomes the driver for the country's major development projects to pursue efficient economic development and thorough management of administrative bodies and state-operated organizations. In 2003, Chile became South Korea's first-ever Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partner, opening a new door to the outside world for South Ko

July 28, 2023

LG Energy Solution records operating profit of $360 mln in 2Q 2023, up 135.5% year-on-year

SEOUL -- LG Energy Solution, the battery-making wing of South Korea's LG Group, announced that its operating profit in the second quarter of 2023 was 460.6 billion won ($360 million), up 135.5 percent from a year ago. The battery maker, which has strived to build supply chains in North America, aims to achieve annual sales growth of more than 30 percent in 2023. LG Energy Solution (LGES) said on July 27 that its operating profit reached 460.6 billion won and sales increased to some

July 28, 2023

SK Telecom joins forces with global telecom companies to beef up AI platform business

SEOUL -- To obtain a competitive advantage in the artificial intelligence market, South Korea's major mobile carrier SK Telecom has joined hands with three global telecom companies -- Germany's Deutsche Telekom, United Arab Emirates-based e&, and Singapore's Singtel. Through the alliance, the South Korean company aims to establish a new large language model, a type of deep learning-based artificial intelligence algorithm that can understand, summarize, generate, and pre

July 28, 2023