COVID-19 pandemic

Airlines Korea’s Incheon Airport to upgrade, operate Uzbek airfield in $140m deal

INCHEON – South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) is set to upgrade and operate an airfield in Uzbekistan to expand the...

IPOs Sono International seeks IPO in 2025 with $2.1 billion in corporate value

South Korea’s top resort operator Sono International Co. is seeking an initial public offering of its shares on the Korean market next year, r...

Leadership & Management Samjong KPMG reappoints CEO Kim Kyo Tae for 4th term

Kim Kyo Tae on Friday was reappointed to a fourth term as chief executive of Samjong KPMG, announced the South Korean unit of the global audit and a...

Leadership & Management Hanwha’s Kim Dong-seon to raise his stake in Galleria to 19.86%

Kim Dong-seon, vice president of South Korea’s Hanwha Galleria Corp. and the third son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-yeon, plans to buy a...

Korean startups Enormous market ahead for Hopae, S.Korean DID pioneer

To Hopae Inc., a digital identity solution-developing startup native to South Korea, its home market is small. After successfully accommodating more...

Mergers & Acquisitions Acquisition loan rates dip to pre-pandemic levels in S.Korea

Interest rates on acquisition financing in South Korea are set to stabilize at the 5% level, rates last seen before COVID-19 swept the world, height...

Tech, Media & Telecom Kakao to launch conversational AI platform for B2C commerce

South Korean mobile platform giant Kakao Corp. said on Thursday that it will accelerate its artificial intelligence push by launching a conversation...

Korean stock market S.Korean stocks log largest daily loss since pandemic

The South Korean stock market dropped more than 3% on Friday to breach the psychologically important barrier of 2,700 in almost two months, after we...

Korean chipmakers Asicland, FADU to jointly develop eSSD controller

South Korean semiconductor design house Asicland Co. said on Thursday it signed a $19 million contract with the domestic fabless company FADU.Under ...

Corporate restructuring SK Innovation to be Asia’s top energy company through merger

SK Innovation Co., South Korea’s largest energy company, is set to become the industry leader in Asia through a merger with an affiliate while...

Short selling Korea slaps Credit Suisse with largest ever short-sale penalty

South Korea's financial regulator said on Wednesday it has officially imposed Credit Suisse Group AG and its affiliate a combined 27.2 billion won...

Travel & Leisure S.Korea sees foreign visitors 95% of pre-pandemic

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) announced on Friday that the number of foreign tourists visiting South Korea in May was 1.42 million, an increa...

Retail Duty-free stores: Golden goose gone for Korean retailers

South Korea welcomed a record-high number of post-pandemic foreign tourist arrivals for a single quarter in the first three months of this year, but...

Food & Beverage CJ CheilJedang opens Bibigo store on Amazon Germany

South Korea's CJ CheilJedang Corp. announced on Tuesday that it launched the Korean food (K-food) brand Bibigo's store on Amazon Germany, the larges...

Banking & Finance S.Korea’s travel payment card market competition heats up

Competition in the South Korean travel payment card market intensified as increasing overseas trips and cross-border shopping prompted credit card i...

Webtoons South Korean webtoon makers in quandary after pandemic

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic a few years back, social distancing was the rule of life. People stayed at home, with many of them killing ti...

Asset management Yellow Umbrella's new CIO to spur alternative investment

The Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid Fund, a 25.4 trillion won ($18.5 billion) savings arm of South Korean small business owners, has tapped an alternativ...

Business & Politics South Korea pledges $19 billion support package to revitalize chip sector

South Korea, home to the world’s two largest memory chipmakers Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc., has unveiled a record 26 trillion wo...

Travel & Leisure S.Korea sees record-high foreign visitors after pandemic

South Korea saw a record-high number of foreign tourists post-COVID-19 in the first quarter of 2024. The South Korean Ministry of Culture, Spor...

Entertainment Korean theme parks recover to near pre-pandemic levels

Everland and Lotte World, South Korea’s two largest theme parks, posted their highest-ever profits in 2023, recovering from the COVID-19 pande...

Fashion Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior post weak profits in Korea post-pandemic

Global luxury brands Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Dior saw worsening profitability of their South Korean operations last year after a few years of dece...

Beauty & Cosmetics Aekyung AGE20's to launch cushion foundation in Japan

AGE20's, South Korean cosmetic company Aekyung Industrial Co. 's flagship cosmetic brand, announced that it held a new cushion foundation for a Japa...

Travel & Leisure South Korea’s luxury hotels bask in return of tourists post-pandemic

South Korea’s luxury hotels are enjoying the return of tourists following years of COVID-19 restrictions, which significantly hurt their sales...

Retail S.Korea’s duty-free industry going downhill

The South Korean travel retail industry, once considered the country’s golden goose, is forced to streamline operations given no signs of a dr...

Travel & Leisure Number of foreign tourists visiting Korea surpasses 11 million in 2023

The number of foreign tourists visiting Korea last year exceeded 11 million, reaching 63% of the pre-COVID level, with over 1 million arrivals month...

Food & Beverage Whisky imports hit record high in S. Korea amid falling wine interest

Soaring highballs propelled whisky consumption to record heights in South Korea last year, while pandemic-driven interest in wine waned significantl...

Travel & Leisure Mohegan gains Korea’s 1st foreign casino license in 19 years

Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment (MGE) will open a foreigners-only casino at its resort complex in Incheon, South Korea in the first quarter after...

Korean stock market Global X to liquidate China-exposed ETFs on poor returns

Global X ETFs, the New York-based provider of exchange-traded funds, will liquidate 19 ETFs, including 11 China-exposed funds, next month to stop th...

Economy Semiconductors power Korea’s tech exports to 15-month high

South Korea’s tech products exports rose for a second straight month to a 15-month high in December 2023 as overseas sales of semiconductors e...

Real estate WeWork’s downsizing plan in Korea to hit office market

Coworking space provider WeWork Inc. plans to downsize its business in South Korea, according to banking sources on Sunday. Market watchers say inve...