Foreign minister in knotty mission in Myanmar
South Korea’s top diplomat will hold talks with the foreign minister of Myanmar this week as the resource-rich Southeast Asian country draws a flurry of high-profile visits from European countries and the United States. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Kim Sung-hwan will sit down with his counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin Wednesday to discuss ways […]
Underdogs challenge Park
Several politicians, whose support rates combined are lower than that of Park Geun-hye, are forming a collective front against her by declaring their bid to run in the Saenuri Party primary for December’s presidential election. The contenders, including Rep. Chung Mong-joon and Gyeonggi Governor Kim Moon-soo, are dreaming of a dramatic win, which would be […]
Naver’s monopoly challenged
Local giant to cultivate collaborative ecosystem Over the past 13 years, the local search giant like Naver has focused on providing Korean-language content and serving the local audience. Unlike Google which originally specialized as a search engine that acted as a conduit of existing Web content, Naver started from scratch to offer its own content […]
‘Korea got worst draw in London’
Korean Olympic football manager Hong Myung-bo and his team will face Mexico, Switzerland and Gabon in the group stage at the London Olympics. Despite favorable outlooks for the Korean football team’s bid for the first-ever Olympic medal, its coach said that his side is faced with a tough draw. Nine-time Olympic qualifier Korea will play […]
Lady Gaga ‘Born This Way Ball’ playful but not shocking
U.S. pop star Lady Gaga enters the stage on a horse for the first song of the night, “Highway Unicorn,” at the opening night of her second world tour, the “Born This Way Ball,” Friday, at the Seoul Olympic Stadium, southeastern Seoul. Her next stop is Hong Kong, where she plays four nights at the […]
Keangnam to develop infrastructure in Sri Lanka
Keangnam Enterprises, a mid-size local construction company, is making a foray into the Sri Lankan market by helping the country develop its infrastructure. The firm said Sunday that its Chairman Sung Woan-jong agreed with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to cooperate on infrastructure projects of the Southeast Asian country during their meeting in Seoul last […]
Wrong message
Kakao Talk scrambles after service disruption Millions of smartphone users complained of disruption Saturday after Kakao Talk, the country’s leading instant messenger service for mobile Internet devices, was paralyzed for several hours. Kakao Talk, which boasts more than 40 million subscribers here, abruptly alerted its users around 2:50 p.m. that it needed to conduct an […]
Chung announces presidential bid
Chung Mong-joon, a businessman-turned-lawmaker, announced Sunday he will run in the Saenuri Party primary in the run-up to the December presidential election. Chung is also chairman of the world’s largest shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries. He promised to fight against the widening income gap. “As a presidential hopeful, I would like to address social problems such […]
North Face slapped with biggest price-fixing fine
Korea’s best-selling U.S. outdoor clothing brand, The North Face, was slapped with a fine of 5.24 billion won ($4.62 million) for fixing prices of products available at its retail stores. It is the largest fine levied on a company for retail price fixing. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said Sunday that the brand’s Seoul representative […]
iPhones to be banned in defense ministry
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) plans to prohibit the use of Apple’s iPhones in two of its major buildings from August, military officials said Friday. They said other smart devices will continue to be allowed after installing a mobile device management (MDM) system, an application that would automatically disable cameras, wireless Internet and recording […]