BTS member Suga donates $75,642 for child earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria

SEOUL -- BTS's lead rapper Suga has donated 100 million won ($75,642) to a London-based nonprofit organization to help child earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria. Suga's donation will be used to purchase emergency relief items such as blankets, mattresses, and school supplies. The 30-year-old will go on a solo world tour, starting with the first concert in Belmont Park, New York on April 26. Save the Children said in a statement that Suga made the donation on his birthda

March 9, 2023

Opposition Democratic Party of Korea to push to expand tax deduction for semiconductor makers

SEOUL -- The opposition Democratic Party of Korea will push to expand the tax deduction for semiconductor companies so that small and medium-sized semiconductor makers can receive up to 40 percent tax discount for their investment in chip production facilities. The plan was revealed to reduce the impact of the United States' CHIPS Act. The CHIPS Act restricts funding recipients from increasing semiconductor manufacturing operations in China and other countries that have been de

March 9, 2023

​Convenience store chain CU operator opens 300th store in Mongolia

SEOUL -- South Korea's top convenience store franchise CU has opened its 300th store in Mongolia. The store located in Ulaanbaatar provides various Mongolian food such as Khuushuur, a dumpling usually made with beef, mutton, or camel. Along with Mongolian food and snacks, visitors can also enjoy South Korean snacks including Tteokbokki, finger-sized rice cakes simmered in fiery-red spicy chili sauce. BGF Retail said in a statement that the 300th convenience store was open in Mo

March 9, 2023

S. Korea's benchmark interest rate likely to reach 4% after Fed hints at continuing rate hikes

SEOUL -- South Korea is likely to increase its base interest rate to up to four percent, after the United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stated during his speech on March 7 that "the ultimate level of interest rates is likely to be higher than previously anticipated," on Capitol Hill. According to South Korean monetary authorities on March 8, Chairman Powell strongly suggested the need for additional tightening when he addressed the Senate Banking, Housin

March 9, 2023

Number of S. Korean Facebook monthly active users drop below 10 mln for first time in 2 yrs

SEOUL -- According to an online big data analysis, the number of South Korean monthly active users of the Facebook smartphone app has dropped below 10 million for the first time in two years since South Korean big data analysis solution company Mobile Index started monitoring. South Korea currently has some 54 million registered smartphones and an average of about 65 percent of people access social media using their phones. According to a survey of 10,154 South Korean people, con

March 9, 2023

Singaporean medical imaging service provider 'Radlink' to adopt Lunit's AI chest X-ray solution

SEOUL -- "Lunit INSIGHT CXR," a chest X-ray analysis solution developed by South Korea's medical artificial intelligence company Lunit, will be provided to a Singaporean medical imaging service provider. The solution can detect various types of chest diseases such as lung cancer and tuberculosis. Using software robots, Lunit's AI solution compares and analyzes X-rays and medical images of chest disease patients and healthy people. After detecting an irregularity,

March 9, 2023

Chicken price hits all-time high due to increased costs of poultry farm operation

SEOUL -- The price of chicken has reached its all-time-high as the cost of livestock farming has skyrocketed due to the increase in farm operating costs including the prices of fertilizers, animal feed, electricity, and fuel that were accelerated by the sluggish global economic growth sparked by the fuel price increase, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine. Concerns that the era of expensive "30,000-won ($22.7) fried chicken" is not far off are growing among South Ko

March 8, 2023

Launch of S. Korean private test rocket delayed for one day due to extended pre-launch examination

SEOUL --The launch of Hanvit-TLV, a test launch vehicle developed by South Korean startup Innospace, was delayed for a day due to extended pre-launch examinations and preparations, the tech startup said. In October 2021, South Korea successfully launched a homemade three-stage rocket called the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-2 (KSLV-2) known as "Nuri" into space. The rocket equipped with a 300-ton-class propulsion system was developed solely using domestically-developed t

March 8, 2023

​S. Korea to establish drone operations command headquarters in 2023

SEOUL -- South Korea will establish a drone operations command headquarters that will manage the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles that play the role of compact-sized attack aircraft and reconnaissance airplanes, the Ministry of Defense said. The blueprint for the drone-specialized division was originally revealed in January. The defense ministry's announcement was made about three months after the airspace of Seoul and its northern satellite cities were breached by a handf

March 8, 2023

[INTERVIEW] ​Vietnamese envoy calls for South Korea's wider market opening, technology transfer

SEOUL -- Vietnamese Ambassador to South Korea Nguyen Vu Tung has suggested Asia's fourth-largest economy open its market wider to Vietnamese goods and promote technology transfer to help address the trade imbalance between the two countries. “The two sides attach greater importance to tackling the trade deficit issue. This involves greater access to the Korean market for Vietnamese goods,&rd

March 8, 2023