South Korea’s homegrown rocket Nuri is all set for liftoff on Tuesday, six days after a last-minute technical glitch was found.　 The Ministry of Science and ICT said Friday the Korea Aerospace Research Institute has identified the problem in one of the electric components of the sensor in the oxidizer tank and replaced it with a new one. After changing the 1.2-meter-long core component of the sensor, the KARI carried out a series of tests on the rocket and concluded that it is ready for

For Kim Sang-ji, a 28-year-old white-collar employee working at a trading company in Seoul, healthy lunch meals had been her usual choice -- until recently. Now, she heads to a convenience store nearby. When picking up a 5,000 won ($3.80) lunchbox or a 2,000 won gimbap roll, she feels unsatisfied. But when thinking about the cost of eating out these days -- particularly in the business district of Gwanghwamun, where her office is located -- plus the extra cost of coffee, she has decided to go o

W Concept, a South Korean online fashion platform under retail giant Shinsegae, said Thursday that it has started its first global campaign to support the overseas business of the country’s fashion brands. From Friday to June 24, the company will release a series of fashion photo shoots featuring Leandra Medine, a global fashion influencer, wearing items from Korean fashion brand Eenk. The items are from Eenk’s Spring/Summer 2022 collection, which includes patterned tops, dresses,

The launch of South Korea's homegrown rocket Nuri has been indefinitely postponed due to technical glitches found during the final round of preparations before its planned launch on Thursday. The Ministry of Science and ICT said Wednesday the Korea Aerospace Research Institute found a problem in one of the sensors in the oxidizer tank that measures the amount of oxidizer there. According to KARI, the sensor was failing to point to the correct level of oxidizer in the tank. “Once we ack

The launch of homegrown rocket Nuri will be delayed by one day to Thursday due to windy weather at the launch site, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Tuesday, a day before the space rocket was to be launched. It is the second space rocket to be launched after the first blastoff last October failed to put a dummy satellite into orbit. Due to the bad weather, the government and state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute have pushed the transportation of the rocket to Wednesday, and the act

Amid price hikes and rising food bills, retailers in South Korea have come up with a new marketing strategy to keep customers satisfied. Convenience store chain CU has launched packages of vegetables, meat and fruit that are smaller and less expensive than the ones they usually sell. The store chain also offers packaged Korean pork belly, jowl meat, false lean, and flat iron steak in 200-gram packages. The company said it has cut margins by directly purchasing vegetables from distribution cen

McDonald’s Korea, the local unit wholly owned by the US fast-food giant, is seeking a new owner -- joining the latest burger chain sales rush here. The company confirmed Friday that its US headquarters is selling its entire stake in the Korean unit as well as its business license after its first failed attempt six years ago. According to news reports, Mirae Asset Securities, the deal’s lead manager, plans to send letters as early as next month to invite potential bidders. With

Hyundai Steel said Thursday it has developed high-quality alloy steel that reduces noise emitted by electric vehicles. The steelmaking technology was jointly developed with Hyundai Motor Group and its affiliate, Kia, and was certified as a New Excellent Technology (NET) by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The company said reducers made of the alloy steel enhances thermal management of car batteries by 48 percent compared to other steels and reduces the sound of shifting gears. It a

South Korean retail companies have been on a shopping spree recently, purchasing real estate in Seoul’s major commercial districts and preparing for new business development. According to data from the Financial Supervisory Service, on May 31 fashion company CreaS F&C finalized the purchase of 1,950 square meters of land and a 9,338-square-meter building in Nonhyeon-dong, within Seoul’s Gangnam-gu. Based on the deal worth 130 billion won ($103.6 million), the firm stated that

With the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic’s endemic phase, South Korea’s duty-free shops are starting to see their long-awaited business recovery with a growing number of group tours, industry sources said Tuesday. According to a Lotte Duty Free official, some 150 tourists from Malaysia shopped at the Myeongdong branch for an hour on Tuesday before returning to their country. “It’s the first time in two years since COVID-19 started that a group of over 100 tourists

South Korean chicken burger chain Mom’s Touch is searching for a new owner following its delisting from the nation’s second bourse Kosdaq on Tuesday. Its largest shareholder, local private equity firm Korea F&B Holdings, plans to buy shares at 62,000 won apiece for the next six months in order to protect minority shareholders. Following its delisting, industry watchers say sell-off talks are also expected to gain momentum. “Listed companies have legal obligations suc

South Korea’s e-commerce giant Coupang topped the list of the largest employers here last year, adding almost 30,000 new jobs in the year alone, according to industry data released Thursday. According to market tracker Korea CXO Institute, Coupang hired 29,361 new employees in 2021, with its total workforce standing at 72,763. The figure made up almost half the total 63,740 new hires made by the nation’s 76 largest companies with assets over 5 trillion won ($3.9 billion) last ye

South Korean real estate platform Rsquare said Thursday it has collected over 65,000 pieces of commercial real estate data in Singapore, officially launching its business in the major Asia-Pacific hub. The company has compiled both quantitative and qualitative data on office buildings, hotels, distribution centers, factories and other commercial buildings in Singapore’s principal districts. “Just like in South Korea and Vietnam, our employees went on foot, visited office buildings

South Korean tech giant Kakao said Wednesday that it will revise its Metaverse Work System that would allow employees to work remotely but connect them online at all times, after it drew ire over excessive monitoring. Kakao CEO Namkoong Whon said in an announcement to staff that he will consider changing the ground rules, including those involving mandatory real-time voice calls among colleagues and set working hours. “After the beta test of the new work system, team members can vote on

Monthly lease contracts exceeded half of South Korea’s home rentals and surpassed “jeonse” transactions for the first time in April, government data showed Tuesday, mostly due to greater debt burden sparked by soaring interest rates on loans. Of the total 258,313 lease transactions for apartments and houses, 50.4 percent of them were for monthly rentals in April, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Jeonse contracts -- a lump-sum returnable deposit

Tech giant Naver said Monday that it has officially launched an artificial intelligence-based call service for older people who live alone. The service, Clova AI Contact Center Solution, is operated by the company’s AI technology Hyperclova, which calls and checks up on users about their eating habits, sleeping patterns and potential health problems. The AI has adopted high-quality voice synthesis and voice recognition engines to allow for seamless conversation with users, as if they ar

Millie’s Library, one of South Korea’s largest e-book subscription platform, said Sunday that it is set for a market debut by the end of this year. The company filed a preliminary prospectus on Friday stating that it will offer 2 million common shares out of the total 8,234,901 shares. If the initial public offering process goes as planned, it will be the country’s first e-book platform to go public. Its shares are poised to start trading on the Korea Exchange’s second

Hanwha Solutions CEO Kim Dong-kwan attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as the only entrepreneur among President Yoon Suk-yeol’s delegation, the energy-to-material firm said Thursday. During the four-day forum which started Monday, Kim met with Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of S&P Global, and discussed the Russia-Ukraine war’s impact on the energy industry and geopolitical dynamics, according to Hanwha Solutions. Kim also helped arrange a meeting between fo

With Millennials and Generation Z -- those born from the 1980s onward -- emerging as major players in the luxury industry, South Korea ranked No. 10 in high-end fashion transactions last year, a report showed Wednesday According to Samjong KPMG, a Seoul-based consulting firm, the country’s luxury goods market size soared on-year by 29.6 percent to $5.8 billion in 2021. By 2024, it is projected to exceed $7 billion. Foreign luxury brands in major department stores in South Korea have see

South Korean retail giant Lotte Group said Tuesday it is poised to inject 38 trillion won ($30 billion) over the next five years in the new growth-engine sectors -- health and wellness, mobility, and sustainability -- and core industry segments including chemical, retail and travel business. Following its recent announcement to enter the biomedical contract development and manufacturing organization business, the company will pour some 1 trillion won into building a new bio factory in the coun