TAIPEI -- Tzuyu, a Taiwanese member of the multinational K-pop girl group TWICE, and "Descendants of the Sun" have turned out to be the most popular Korean idol and TV series, respectively, in Taiwan, a local paper reported Monday.The Liberty Times released the popularity results based on the number of searches on the Internet and social media sites.In November 2015, Tzuyu put herself at the center of a diplomatic controversy when she waved the Taiwanese national flag during an online-exclusive

Stefan Vanovermeir returned to South Korea this June as the new general manager for Air France-KLM in Korea, Japan and New Caledonia, 10 years after working in the country as Air France Korea’s commercial director.Many things have changed over the past decade, Vanovermeir said, but one thing has stayed the same -- Korea is intensely competitive and is the perfect place to try out new strategies through customers who are vocal about what they want.“Korean consumers are responsive, more demanding,

Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said Wednesday that an advanced U.S. anti-missile system has to be deployed to South Korea as soon as possible to counter North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threats.Hwang made the remarks amid calls from opposition parties to delay the planned deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to the Korean Peninsula given the lack of public consensus and China's vehement opposition to it. Seoul hopes to install a THAAD b

An unexpected increase in national tax revenues has heightened calls for the government to implement a more aggressive fiscal policy to shore up the sluggish economy.The government collected 215.9 trillion won ($180.7 billion) in tax revenues in the first 10 months of this year, up 23.5 trillion won from a year earlier, according to data released by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance last week.Tax revenues are projected to exceed 240 trillion won by the end of the year, far above the target se

Seventeen years after it opened its first store in Korea in front of Ewha Womans University, Starbucks Korea celebrated the opening of its 1,000th store last week in the upscale Cheongdam shopping district.The landmark is the result of aggressive expansion by the Korean arm of the Seattle-born coffee chain, which opened 131 new stores between 2015 and 2016. Korea is the fifth country to have 1,000 Starbucks stores after the US, Canada, China and Japan. Sales have grown in step with the number of

Korea’s flagship air carrier is likely to spend Christmas fending off controversy over the training of its cabin crew and labor relations, as an in-flight incident involving an international pop star took off Tuesday via social media, just ahead of a scheduled strike by its pilots.On Tuesday, singer-songwriter Richard Marx posted multiple times to his official Facebook page about a four-hour “chaotic and dangerous event” on Korean Air Flight 480’s Prestige business class, flying from Hanoi, Viet

(Walkerhill)Walkerhill Customer Service Business said Tuesday that it will open a capsule hotel called Darakhyu at Incheon International Airport in January. Located on the first floor of the airport, the 60-room capsule hotel will charge by the hour, with a keyless system that allows visitors to check in and out and adjust lighting and temperature from their smartphones. (Walkerhill)Darakhyu rooms will charge 8,000 to 13,000 won per hour. Reservations open Jan. 1 at www.walkerhill.com/capsulehot

Unionized pilots at the country’s largest airline are set to begin a 10-day strike Thursday, and the Transport Ministry has opened a central control tower to prepare for anticipated flight cancellations.The strike will cancel 84 passenger flights around Christmas from Dec. 22 to 26, including 20 international flights to Japan, China and the Middle East. Most, or 97 percent, of Korean Air’s international flights will run on schedule during the strike. Flight changes from Dec. 26 to Dec. 31 have n

(Samsung C&T)Samsung C&T‘s menswear brand JUUN.J has opened a pop-up store in Harrods Department Store in London, UK, the company said Tuesday. The store will be open for two months featuring collection items from the 2016 F/W and 2017 S/S seasons, as well as collaboration items with Japanese illustrator Hajime Sorayama. JUUN.J is currently being sold in 125 stores in 30 countries. (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)

Saturday’s announcement of six new duty-free licenses in South Korea brought a sense of closure to heated competition, yet simultaneously amplified ongoing debates on the efficacy of the current licensing process on duty-free operations.The Korea Customs Service gave three highly-coveted duty-free licenses to conglomerates in Seoul, bringing the total number of duty free shops in the capital to 13.The golden tickets went to Shinsegae DF, Hyundai Department Store and Lotte Duty Free, after a long

Korea’s customs regulator is set to announce the winners of six new duty-free licenses Saturday evening, despite continued opposition from lawmakers and civic groups.Three of the licenses will be granted to large companies in the Seoul area. Five companies have bid for the licenses -- Lotte, SK Networks, Shinsegae, HDC Shilla and Hyundai Department Store. The rest of the licenses will go to small and medium enterprises and duty-free outlets outside of Seoul.The bidding and evaluation process ran

Convenience stores have long been a part of South Korea’s quick, fast-changing lifestyle, and they have now taken a step further by producing their own private brands.What makes their private brands work is the convenience store chains’ wide distribution capacities.Omori Kimchi stew ramen released by local convenience retail brand GS 25 and instant noodle maker Paldo. (GS Retail)Most convenience retail brands do not spend large sums of money on ads for their private brands, because promotion is

Ethan Kim, a 33-year-old marketer living in Seoul, says he cannot remember the last time he was in a grocery store.“I do most of my shopping online,” he says. “Everything else, I buy at a convenience store near my house. I usually stop and get something for dinner on my way home from work.”As the number of single-person households continues to rise in Korea, convenience stores have become the new offline retail outlets of choice, a rare sector of growth in a sluggish retail climate. According to

Korean convenience stores, arguably a slump-free business in times of weak local demand, are increasingly teaming up with services firms to attract more customers and to differentiate their business models, industry officials said.The latest move came from Korea’s biggest convenience store franchise GS Retail, which joined hands with budget telco service firm Annex Telecom to sell a low-cost USIM card.A user of Ticket Monster’s mobile shopping app TMon picks up her delivered product at a CU conv

This is the fifth installment in a series of articles on companies vying for Seoul’s new duty-free licenses to be issued Saturday -- Ed.　　HDC Shilla has promised to create a duty-free store catering to trendy millennials at the IPark Tower in Gangnam-gu if granted a new duty-free license. The IPark Tower in Gangnam-gu, Seoul (HDC Shilla)The joint venture between Hyundai Development and Hotel Shilla chose the artsy building designed by American architect Daniel Libeskind as the home of its next d

This is the fourth installment in a series of articles on companies vying for Seoul’s new duty-free licenses to be issued Saturday -- Ed.　SK Networks‘ Sheraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel in Gwangjin-gu seeks to entice visitors by offering up a healing resort experience with shopping opportunities if it wins back a duty-free license. SK Networks has applied for the license to re-open its duty-free store at the Walkerhill Hotel, having expanded the floor space of its stores and storage by 2.5 times t

This is the first installment in a series of articles on companies vying for Seoul’s new duty-free licenses to be issued Saturday -- Ed.　Shinsegae’s duty-free operator announced Monday that it would invest 350 billion won ($300 million) over the next five years to develop and promote tourism in southern Seoul as part of its bid for a new duty-free license. Shinsegae DF is set to deliver a presentation Saturday to win a license to operate a new 13,350-square-meter outlet in Central City, a shoppi

Vodka brand Absolut has sparked ire among Koreans with a new advertisement image posted Saturday via social media that depicted a recent candlelight vigil.The image shows a time-lapse photo of Gwanghwamun Square during a massive candlelight vigil, with the shape of the crowd slightly altered to look like an Absolut Vodka bottle.The copy reads “Absolut Korea: The future is yours to create.” Absolut Korea‘s ad image posted to Facebook (Absolut Korea official Facebook)The online response to the ad

Foreign companies are cautiously watching the economic climate in Korea as the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye by the National Assembly brings uncertainty over policy direction in the future.With no way to ascertain how the change in leadership will affect economic policies, foreign companies operating in Korea remained wary about making definite plans or decisions affecting their operations here. National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun declares the motion to impeach President Park Geun-

When living in Korea, Naver is inescapable. The giant digital service provider is the dominant search engine, with countless services providing a collecting and curating experience for everything on the web, including news, music, shopping, real estate, navigation and video.The more the company diversifies its reach, the greater the challenge of keeping its brand identity together becomes. That task falls to the smiley, rangy 37-year-old Head of Service Design Kim Eon, who took up the post at th