La Boutique Bleue, a premium home spa care brand that launched in South Korea in 2021, introduced a non-fungible token certification service, the company said Friday. According to LBB, it has offered VIP membership cards in the form of NFTs to participants that took part in the launch event of the Italian luxury golf wear brand Filippo Piana in Seoul. LBB had collaborated with Filippo Piana in hosting the launch event by showcasing its newest product, Golden Camellia All Day Care Lotion, and off

Hyundai Motor Group’s hydrogen fuel-cell trailer drone concept Trailer Drone won the 2022 Red Dot Design Concept Luminary award, according to the company on Friday. It is the first time the South Korean automaker won the Luminary award, the highest level of recognition accorded at the Red Dot Award, it added. The Trailer Drone concept is a hydrogen-powered container transportation system capable of operating fully autonomously, with a double e-Bogie configuration. An e-Bogie serves as a pl

Volvo Construction Equipment is betting big on its first full-electric excavator ECR25 Electric to take the lead in the construction equipment industry’s nascent but promising transition toward electromobility, according to its Asian chief on Wednesday. “The Korean market already has developed telecommunications infrastructure, and rapidly accepted electric private vehicles during the last few years, so the market also seems to have great potential in case the government strongly sup

Business leaders and experts called for a more balanced approach to regulating the blockchain industry more effectively during a seminar hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea in Seoul on Thursday. Dunamu CEO Lee Sir-goo criticized the Korean government for putting too much regulatory focus on cryptocurrency assets and their trading even though they are just the “tip of an iceberg.” “We have the technology to provide platforms for token trading and we have the tech

The key function of a car will continue to evolve from being a means of transportation to a personalized living space, said Yoon Il-hun, vice president of HMC Genesis Design Group at the Herald Design Forum 2022 held on Tuesday in Seoul. “As a car becomes a space for living, the purpose of a car will evolve infinitely without boundaries," said Yoon. "This is where we are seeing growing needs from our consumers, and we are focusing on such a key design pillar — the beauty

Airport officials of South Korea and Japan on Monday pledged to make all-out efforts to facilitate travels between the two countries, with the resumption of visa-free, individual tours to Japan starting Oct. 11. According to the Korea Airports Corp., the state-run agency’s President and CEO Yoon Heyong-joon traveled to Japan to hold talks with airport- and tourism-related officials in Tokyo and Osaka. On Monday, Yoon met with Isao Takashiro, chairman and CEO of Japan Airport Terminal, at H

Cases of reported car defects have more than doubled in three years, a lawmaker said Sunday. A total of 18,452 car defect reports had been filed to the Transport Ministry’s vehicle recall center from 2019 to 2021, according to Korea Transportation Safety Authority data that Democratic Party lawmaker Min Hong-chul had obtained. By year, 3,750 car defect cases were filed in 2019, 6,917 cases in 2020, and 7,785 cases in 2021, an increase by 2.1 times during the past three years. Defects repor

Posco International, a trading firm under Posco Group, said Sunday that it was investing around 140 billion won ($98.38 million) to triple the natural gas production of its subsidiary Senex Energy Limited in Australia by 2025. According to the company, the investment is aimed at contributing to stabilizing energy costs in South Korea. The price of natural gas is expected to remain high for a while from the impact of the global natural gas shortage due to Russia switching off its gas pipelines fl

A group of haenyeo, female divers with age-old ocean harvesting skills, marches in a parade to celebrate the 15th Jeju Haenyeo Festival that kicked off on Saturday in Jeju Island. The two-day event has resumed after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandmic. (Yonhap)

When designing a Genesis car, Yoon Il-hoon, vice president of HMC Genesis Design Group, says he focuses on three key pillars -- audaciousness, progressiveness, and infusing Korean traits. “The journey of Genesis has not been that long but we are always owning up to audacious challenges when designing new models by exploring progressively and incorporating the most Korean-like traits that can accentuate the brand’s originality,” Yoon said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

Korea Herald correspondent AMSTERDAM -- Upon arrival at Schiphol Airport, the third-busiest airport in the world, hundreds were lined up at closed check-in counters. For a flight that was to take off at 9 p.m. to Incheon, South Korea, there were more than 200 people waiting in line already for the check-in counter to open at 4 p.m. “We came here as early as possible because our tour guide told us Schiphol Airport is extra busy these days due to a manpower shortage. He said we could miss ou

Korea Herald correspondent KRAKOW, Poland—Incheon Airport will be hosting a global summit on airport customer experience held by the Airports Council International in Incheon next year. The announcement was made during the closing ceremony of the ACI CX Global Summit 2022 held in Krakow, Poland, on Thursday. This follows Incheon Airport winning the level 5 Customer Experience Accreditation, the highest level and the first granted by the ACI since accreditation began in April 2019, in recog

Korea Herald correspondent KRAKOW, Poland-- Incheon Airport has become the world’s first airport to be granted level 5 Customer Experience Accreditation by the Airports Council International on Wednesday, in recognition of its customer service and systematic operations to cope with increased travel demand in the post-pandemic era. This is the first time that the ACI has granted the highest level since Customer Experience Accreditation began in April 2019 to evaluate world airports’ c

Renault Korea has enhanced the luxury appeal of its popular sport utility vehicle QM6. One distinctive feature is the use of Alcantara fabric for the highest Premiere trim. Alcantara is a suedelike fabric noted for its durability and carbon-neutral manufacturing process. A substitute for leather and vinyl, the fabric is increasingly being used in luxury vehicles. For the QM6, seats and armrests are covered in black Alcantara. Driving assistance features have also been bolstered. From the midrang

South Korea’s flag carrier Korean Air is reportedly in talks with multiple Southeast Asian airlines to share its Incheon-Los Angeles route in an apparent attempt to get antitrust approval from US regulators in its acquisition of the cash-strapped crosstown rival Asiana Airlines, according to industry sources on Monday. The unprecedented talks come in response to the US requiring Korean Air to submit plans on how to ensure competition by giving a specific name of the air carrier that will o

The aviation industry is gearing up to cater an increase in travel demand ahead of Chuseok, the Korean thanksgiving holiday that kicks off Friday. South Korea’s flag carrier Korean Air is operating two more flights from Gimpo to Jeju starting Wednesday until Sept. 13. These flights are operated using larger aircraft to accommodate 11,000 more passengers, which is a 10 percent increase in the airlines number of seats along that route for the Chuseok holiday. Asiana Airlines, the country&rsq

Audi Korea officially launched its first all-electric compact sport utility vehicles, the Audi Q4 e-tron and the Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron, in South Korea on Tuesday. “The Q4 e-tron will redefine the boundaries between car segments and act as a gateway into e-mobility. With these models, we have strengthened our EV lineup enough to satisfy the needs of Korean customers,” said Lim Hyun-ki, the executive director of Audi Korea, at the launching ceremony. The Audi Q4 e-tron is the first

Professor Noh Yong-Young of Postech won an annual award given by Merck Korea in recognition of his innovative research into the development of semiconducting materials for backplane thin-film transistor technology of organic light-emitting diode displays. His research, Merck Korea says, could contribute to the commercialization of backplane p-type thin-film transistors for high-performance OLED displays if further developed. The Merck Young Scientist Award went to professor Kang Suk-ku for prop

Allink, an NFC tag-based information transfer solution company, has partnered up with Samsung Electrionics, the company said Thursday. Allink provided a non-fungible token solution that enables mobile phones to transfer information to various terminals by tapping the phone on the NFC tag. With this solution, New Galaxy NFT holders can have access to in-store benefits on their Thetadrop wallet by tapping on Allink’s tag at Samsung Digital Plaza, Shilla Duty-Free Shop, Eland Cruise, and Sh

Samsung C&T said Wednesday it has inked an 800 billion won engineering, procurement and construction contract with QatarEnergy to build solar power plants with the capacity to generate 875 megawatts of electricity. The project involves building one solar power plant with 417 megawatt capacity in Mesaieed and another one in Ras Laffan with 458 megawatt capacity, which will start generating electricity by the end of 2024. Around 1.6 million solar panels will be installed in these power