Global map of COVID-19 cases

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South Korea   Cases 11,206｜Deaths 267

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  Social affairs

  Surviving ‘comfort woman’ accuses civic group of ‘using’ victims

  • ‘Comfort women’ movement in crisis

• Politics
  

  Moon calls for bold fiscal strategy in light of COVID-19

  Addressing the officials responsible for drawing up the national fiscal strategy, President Moon Jae-in on Monday called for bold support measures, saying the state must spearhead efforts to soften the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at the National Fiscal Strategy Meeting, Moon also downplayed concerns that his administration’s fiscal policies could threaten the country’s fiscal stability, saying Korea was more economically stable than average compared with other OECD s

• North Korea
  

  US official renews calls for NK to abandon nukes after its party meeting on nuke deterrence

  WASHINGTON -- US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien renewed calls Sunday for North Korea to give up its nuclear program if it wants to have a "great economy," after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a key party meeting to discuss bolstering nuclear deterrence. In his first public appearance in about three weeks, Kim presided over a session of the Workers' Party's Central Military Commission to discuss "new policies for further increasing the nuclear war deterrence,"

• Social affairs
  

  [News Focus] Pandemic cost jobs; 20-somethings hit hardest

  SEJONG -- While the novel coronavirus has dealt a serious blow to people of all ages in terms of employment in South Korea, it has hit younger people especially hard. According to Statistics Korea, the employment rate among those in their 20s stood at 54.6 percent as of April, down 3.5 percentage points from 58.1 percent in January, when the nation reported its first case of COVID-19. For people between the ages of 20 and 29, the employment rate posted its steepest decline. Next were peopl

• Business
  

  [Tech Read] China looms over Korea in high-tech race (1) : Chinese firms enter memory market

  IT powerhouse Korea challenged as China wades in with economies of scale and US-China rivalry intensifies upon COVID-19

• Social affairs
  

  Face masks mandatory on public transport

  The Korean government has decided to require all passengers on buses, taxis, subways and flights to wear masks, in order to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. The face-covering mandate, issued by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters, comes as more drivers and passengers are disregarding mask-wearing recommendations amid rising temperatures. Under the new measure which goes into effect for buses and taxis on Tuesday, operators and drivers can temporarily refuse

• Technology
  

  [News Focus] Tangled between US, China, Korean chipmakers on edge

  South Korea’s chipmakers are again on edge over the second round of technology war between the United States and China involving semiconductors, according to industry sources Monday. Although the flagship businesses of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix pivot on memory products, which aren’t yet subject to the new US sanctions on China’s tech giant Huawei Technologies, worries are growing over the their dependence on US technologies broadly applied to the comprehensive proces

• Transport
  

  [Behind the Wheel] Re:spec Korando proves SsangYong Motor’s reason to survive

  Automaker’s ambitious model returns with useful voice recognition system

• Arts&Design
  

  [Museum of One’s Own] Technology, art in harmony: Paik Nam-june’s philosophy lives on at art center

  The only art center dedicated to Paik aims to foster discussions on how to conserve his video art

NEWSMAKER

• Social affairs

  

  Recycling centers face desperate battle to survive

  Global demand collapse, tumbling oil prices threaten future of industry in Korea

LATEST NEWS

• Today

  

  Viewpoints

  [Andy Mukherjee] China’s crypto is all about tracing -- and power

  The coronavirus has disrupted the world in very large ways. While that battle has been waged, however, another event has almost been missed: the birth of a new kind of fiat currency, which could forever reshape the relationship between money, economic power and geopolitical clout.　 An official Chinese digital yuan, more than five years in the making, is now in pilot runs to slowly start replacing the physical legal tender. If the experiment succeeds, this new cash, valued the same as the famili

• Today

  

  Viewpoints

  [David Ignatius] US, Russia want to contain China

  The Donald Trump administration sent a characteristic mixed message on arms control: It announced a plan to quit the “Open Skies” agreement with Russia, even as it proclaimed its eagerness for a wider arms-control process that would include both Russia and China. Many analysts focused on the treaty withdrawal as a sign of worsening relations with Russia, but I think there’s something more complex at work, and more hopeful for US-Russia relations. At a time of increasing rhetor

• Today

  Editorial

  [Editorial] No window dressing

  Change of sample, survey method raises questions about reliability

• Today

  

  Transport

  Korean Air to offer 300 bln won in new shares as collateral for fresh liquidity injection

      Korea's top air carrier Korean Air Lines Co. decided Monday to offer 300 billion won (US$242 million) worth of new shares as collateral to receive fresh financial support from creditor banks as it seeks to tide over a liquidity crunch.     In April, the Korea Development Bank (KDB) and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Exim Bank) decided to extend 1.2 trillion won in liquidity to the country's flag carrier hit by the new coronavirus pandemic.     Kor

• Today

  

  Retail

  Duty-free shops suffer sharp drop in April sales amid virus outbreak

     South Korean duty-free stores saw their sales drop sharply below the 1 trillion-won ($804 million) mark in April, feeling the pinch of the fallout from the new coronavirus, industry data showed Tuesday.     Combined sales of local duty-free shops shrank 9.2 percent on-month to 986.7 billion won last month, according to the data from the Korea Duty Free Shops Association. The number halved from January, the data showed.     The number of visitors to

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SPOTLIGHT

• K-pop

  

  Big Hit acquires Pledis in push for expansion

  The move brings BTS, NU’EST, Seventeen, GFriend and TXT together under the same roof

• 

  Film

  #SaveOurCinema rallies support for indie films

  While the global box office continues to suffer from the COVID-19 pandemic, stars in Korea are taking part in the #SaveOurCinema campaign to arouse the public’s interest in indie, arthouse films. Though the entire film industry is struggling, the government’s policies aimed at supporting the industry are more focused on multiplex operators as indie, arthouse cinemas have a comparatively smaller market share. 　 To support the low-budget film scene, film figures who got their start

• 

  Social affairs

  Korea to introduce major change to resident ID card system

  South Korea’s mandatory ID card system is set to remove information about the region of issuance from October, the Ministry of Interior and Safety said Monday. All Koreans are assigned a 13-digit resident registration number in their ID cards. Currently, four digits are used to indicate the place of issuance. The Interior Ministry said Monday the four digits, from eighth to eleventh, will be replaced by arbitrary numbers in an effort to protect personal information and prevent discrim

• 

  Music

  BTS' 'Fake Love' tops 700m YouTube views

  The music video of K-pop boy band BTS' "Fake Love" has drawn more than 700 million clicks on YouTube, the band's management agency said Sunday. The lead track of BTS' 2018 release "Love Yourself: Tear" surpassed the 700 million mark at around 6 p.m., according to Big Hit Entertainment. This is the group's third music video to hit this number of views on the global video-streaming site, after "DNA" and "Boy With Luv." (Yonhap)

GRAPHIC NEWS

• 

EDITORIAL

• No window dressing

  Change of sample, survey method raises questions about reliability

• Don’t be hasty

  Moon government needs patience to enhance inter-Korean cooperation on a firm footing

VIEWPOINTS

THE INVESTOR

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  IBK fined $86m in US over mishandling anti-money laundering program

  State-run lender Industrial Bank of Korea and its New York branch have been fined $86 million by the Attorney General’s Office for allegedly failing to manage their anti-money laundering program, documents and local reports showed Monday. The bank’s apparent decision to delay the upgrade of the program for nearly a decade, eventually led to its failure to detect transactions that violated US sanctions against Iran, settlement documents between IBK and the Attorney General’s O

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  Acleda Bank lists on KRX-invested Cambodian stock exchange

  Acleda Bank, the biggest commercial bank in Cambodia, said Monday it was listed on the Cambodia Securities Exchange in which the Korea Exchange (KRX) has invested. The Cambodian bank had assets of $6.18 billion as of the end of last year. Its market capitalization marked $1.75 billion -- nearly three times that of five listed firms in the country. Since the large-cap stock went public, the lackluster Cambodian stock market is expected to be revitalized by attracting new local and foreign inve

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  Bio & Medicine

  Samsung Biologics bags CMO deals worth W468b

  Samsung Biologics has bagged two contract manufacturing deals worth 468 billion won ($378 million) combined, according to its regulatory filing on May 22. 　The total value of the latest deals is equal to two-thirds of the company’s revenue for last year at 701 billion won. 　According to the biopharmaceutical unit of Samsung, it inked a contract manufacturing deal worth 284 billion won with global biopharma GlaxoSmithKline to manufacture the latter’s lupus treatment Benlysta. 　B

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  Startups & Investors

  Tmon vows to turn profit by 10th anniversary

  Tmon, an e-commerce platform in South Korea, promised on May 22 to turn profit this year as it marks its 10th anniversary. With the goal of going public, the firm’s Chief Executive Officer Lee Jin-won revealed his ambition to lead the e-commerce market. "Tmon is a company that has been labeled the most as ‘the industry’s first,’ in Korea’s e-commerce market. We started as the country’s first social-commerce (provider), and now created the title &lsquo

K-POP

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  Big Hit acquires Pledis in push for expansion

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  BTS Suga's new mixtape 'D-2' tops global iTunes charts

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  TWICE set for June comeback with ‘More & More’

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  BTS' Suga releases new mixtape 'D-2'

HERALD INTERVIEW

• Technology

  

  Linkflow seeks to be Korea’s first hardware unicorn with 360-degree wearable cameras

  They may look like Bluetooth neckband headsets, but Linkflow’s FITT360 and NEXX360 are cameras that allow users to capture 360-degree shots of their surroundings. FITT360 and NEXX360 each have four cameras which constantly take photos and instantaneously process them into 360-degree videos. This camera concept was born out of founder Kim Yong-kuk’s romantic desire to capture the beautiful scenery of his honeymoon in Hawaii in all its glory.  Kim, who had at that point had

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  Retail

  Ocado Solutions in talks with retailers to enter Korea

  CEO Luke Jensen describes Korea’s retail market as “early adopter” to online groceries

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  K-pop

  Yubin, CEO and artist, is happier than ever

  Yubin may be having the busiest year of her career, establishing her label rrr Entertaiment in February and now putting out a new digital single “Me Time.” Its release date, May 21 (521), read backward is the date she left JYP Entertainment, January 25 (125), 13 years after debuting as a member of Wonder Girls. The track has already garnered a buzz for mentioning JYP in the lyrics: “I’m freaky freakin’ happy / I feel free / THX JYP but Free now.” “

• 

  K-pop

  Sujeong of Lovelyz takes a leap as a solo musician

  Sujeong of girl group Lovelyz returned to the music scene but on her own. It is the first time she is going solo since debuting in 2014 as the lead vocalist of the eight-piece band. Her first solo EP “Tiger Eyes” released Wednesday is packed with seven songs of various genres, from the pop-based EDM title, also called “Tiger Eyes,” to an R&B “Call Back” and acoustics “Your Name” and “zz.” “My voice is husky but isn’t

PHOTO NEWS

• Culture

  

  Modern Korean history at a glance

  The forces that shaped today’s Korea -- from its belated opening to the outside world in the late 19th century and its annexation by Japan in 1910 to the 1950-53 Korean War, dictatorships, rapid industrialization and blood-paved democratization -- are on exhibit at the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History. Located in Gwanghwamun Square, a site of historic and symbolic importance, the eight-story museum tells stories of the country’s politics, society, economy and culture

VIDEO

• Social affairs

  

  Night spots closed as virus spreads again

  Slight loosening of restrictions allowed Seoul’s youth culture to boom again, outpouring public vitriol

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  Culture

  How to speak, look better for video meetings

  Although the number of new COVID-19 infections has decreased sharply in South Korea, fears of a resurgence persist. As the coronavirus crisis has gripped the country for more than three months, life as we know it has changed. The prevalence of video meetings and interviews is one of the changes that seem likely to stay even as the pandemic situation subsides. The Busan branch of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement conducted its first-ever online conference on Saturday with 100

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  Education

  Virus scare leads to drive-thru upgrades

  Drive-thru system helps institutions and organizations meet growing demand amid virus pandemic

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  Social affairs

  What is ‘Nth Room’ case and why it matters

  Unprecedented digital sex crimes have prompted calls for stronger punishment

MOST POPULAR

• LG under fire for inappropriate video clip
• Korea to introduce major change to resident ID card system
• 1 kindergarten student contracted coronavirus in Seoul ahead of expanded school reopening
• Govt. considers strengthening mask requirements, reports 16 new coronavirus cases
• Korean women aged 44 on average after exceeding 40 in 2012
• Face masks mandatory on public transport
• S. Korea striving to break club-linked transmission chain
• Kim Jong-un calls for greater ‘nuclear war deterrence’
• China looms over Korea in high-tech race (1) : Chinese firms enter memory market
• Surviving ‘comfort woman’ accuses civic group of ‘using’ victims

FEATURES

• Social affairs

  

  Korean women aged 44 on average after exceeding 40 in 2012

  Men’s average age posts 41.7 as of April

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  Markets

  COVID-19 accelerates shift in South Korea’s stock market landscape

  Market value of mobile messenger giant Kakao surpasses Hyundai Motor; Naver, NcSoft also among top 10

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  Money

  Doosan Bobcat under credit pressure on US unit’s $300m leveraging plan

  South Korea’s construction equipment maker Doosan Bobcat is under credit pressure as its US subsidiary Clark Equipment is looking to leverage $300 million via five-year senior secured notes in May, filings showed Thursday. Clark Equipment’s leveraging plan is adding a financial burden to Doosan Bobcat, as affiliates and subsidiaries of conglomerate Doosan Group‘s liquidity crunch might spill over to Doosan Bobcat that is already suffering a sharp fall in sales due to the ongo

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  Industry

  Import-car sales brisk in Korea despite virus

  Foreign brands headed for 20% in market share

WEEKENDER

• Industry

  

  Tightrope walk between hair regrowth and side effects

  Increasing number of Koreans seek anti-hair loss treatments despite pitfalls

• 

  Social affairs

  Coronavirus takes silent toll on children

  Children have their own set of problems and distresses amid the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak, experts say, as they are forced to forgo childhood necessities such as outdoor fun and play -- and, in some cases, are left unprotected from abuse and other fears. Battling COVID-19, the contagious respiratory illness caused by the new virus, happens in isolation for adults and kids alike, and the process is prone to place emotional strain on child patients, said pediatric infectious disease spe

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  Culture

  New social norms emerge in the age of COVID-19

  Changes may be here to stay, requiring people to adjust to the new reality

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  Markets

  From vintage furniture to Fendi: Flea markets go mobile

  Mobile flea markets help uphold social distancing, value of sustainability during coronavirus outbreak