Korea Aerospace Industries said Thursday it will invest 98.5 billion won ($88.3 million) to develop a customized smart manufacturing system and apply it first to the production of KF-21 Boramae fighters. According to the nation’s sole aircraft manufacturer, it will develop the smart manufacturing system by 2023 and apply the system to all of its business sites. The system will be modeled after KAI’s most advanced A350 smart factory located at its headquarters in Sacheon, South Gyeo

KT, one of South Korea’s top three telecom carriers, said Wednesday it has found 24 subscribers to its most expensive internet plan, which guarantees a connection of 10 gigabits per second, were not getting the high-speed connection they were paying for. “Our investigation has found that an error has occurred in our customer data during the process of expanding and upgrading network facilities,” the firm said in a statement posted on its website, offering an apology and compe

South Korea will launch a standardized environmental, social and governance index as businesses are confused by more than 600 different ESG indices existing home and abroad. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Wednesday held a conference with firms interested in ESG efforts and unveiled a draft of the envisioned measure, following President Moon Jae-in’s call for ESG standards at the 48th Commerce and Industry Day ceremony held on March. 31. The government-envisioned index, w

S-Oil said Tuesday that the company has signed Kumho Tire as the first partner for its all-in-one car management platform “Eurecar.” Set for release next year, the mobile app will offer a wide spectrum of services from non-face-to-face charging and payment services at S-Oil gas stations, to dialing designated drivers, valet parking and making car wash reservations. “The partnership with Kumho Tire will allow customers to purchase tires on the Eurecar app and replace tires

A falling apple prompts a young Isaac Newton to develop laws of gravity. Greek philosopher Archimedes figures out volume and density while taking a bath. For geniuses, every detail is a source of inspiration. For Tekken genius Bae Jae-min, also known as “Knee,” his inspiration for developing a killer combo move came from a frivolous skill that baffled other players over why it even existed. The “taunt” skill is a trademark move of Bryan Fury, a character from Tekken,

Home to three of the world’s major lithium-ion battery makers, it seems South Korea is well positioned to benefit from the global transition to electric vehicles. A look beneath the surface, however, reveals the local firms’ precarious position in an industry still facing huge uncertainties, ranging from the supply of key raw materials to the future directions of technological innovations. Cobalt, a key component in lithium-ion batteries, offers one way to understand the vulnerab

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology on Monday said it has developed sodium-ion batteries that are 40 percent cheaper and can store 1.5 times more charge per gram than conventional lithium-ion batteries. The batteries use sodium instead of lithium. As sodium is far more common than lithium -- it’s in regular salt -- this brings down the price significantly. However, sodium ions are bigger and heavier than lithium ions, so existing anode materials -- made of graphite and a small

South Korea will be able to require big power generation companies to generate up to 25 percent of electricity from renewable energy sources, starting from October this year, raising the previous maximum threshold of 10 percent. The change is in line with a revision of the renewable energy portfolio, or RPS scheme, introduced in 2012, that mandates 22 power distributors with capacity over 500 megawatts to generate a certain percentage of their electricity with renewables. The minimum quota,

GWANGYANG, South Jeolla Province -- The moment reporters stepped inside Posco Chemical’s battery materials plant the size of 20 football fields, they were immediately overwhelmed by a howling sound echoing inside the facility every 30 seconds. The mysterious noise emitting from the beige-painted equipment sounded as if whales were crying in pain. “It’s the ultrasound carving cathode particles,” Kim Woo-joong, a safety manager of the plant, shouted over the din, throu

Tourists watch in awe as warriors in colorful armor swing their crescent moon swords and cut through thick bamboo and bundles of straw.  Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and also the stage for the revival of the Joseon-period’s 24 Martial Arts. The 24 Martial Arts refer to 24 martial art techniques of the Muyedobotongji, a comprehensive illustrated manual comprised of four volumes complied in 1790 by King Jeongjo, the 22nd king of

Hanwha Solutions will issue its first overseas green bonds worth 1 billion yuan ($152.9 million) starting from Monday, the company said. The yuan-denominated bonds, with a three-year maturity, carries a rate of 3 percent and will be guaranteed 50 percent each by the state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea and Credit Guarantee and Investment Facility, a trust fund of the Asian Development Bank. When swapped to the Korean won, the green bonds will offer an annual interest rate of approximately 0

LG Energy Solution and General Motors will build a new electric vehicle battery plant in Tennessee, their second in the US, the US automaker’s South Korean unit confirmed Thursday. The new factory will be similar in scope and scale to their first plant, a $2.3 billion facility currently under construction in Ohio. Set for commercial operation next year, the Ohio plant is designed to churn out enough batteries for 35 gigawatt-hours per year. LG Energy Solution and GM have set up a joint

LG Chem said Wednesday that it had increased its production capacity of carbon nanotubes from 500 metric tons to 1,700 tons to meet growing demand for the raw material used in electric vehicle batteries. According to South Korea’s leading petrochemical company, it has begun the commercial operation of a second carbon nanotube facility with an annual production capacity of 1,200 tons in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province. “Carbon nanotubes manufactured from the plant No. 2 will be sup

South Korean surveillance technology provider Hanwha Techwin on Wednesday introduced artificial intelligence-based security cameras that can detect social-distancing violations automatically. According to the security camera subsidiary under Hanwha Aerospace, the AI solution monitors whether social-distancing measures are being followed on a real time basis and send written alarms on monitors or audio alarms through speakers if it detects violations. “When users set social-distancing

The dramatic reconciliation between archrivals LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation has allowed the latter to salvage its two electric vehicle battery factories in the US state of Georgia and supply batteries to Volkswagen and Ford as planned. But further challenges lie ahead, industry analysts said Monday. The two-year dispute between LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation over battery technologies jeopardized the operations of the Georgia plant. This battery supply chain risk motivated majo

At a commencement ceremony of the Korea Air Force Academy on March 20, 2001, late President Kim Dae-jung made a promise to the cadets, “We’ll let you cadets ride fighter jets developed by Korea.” The seed planted by Kim came to fruition two decades later. KF-21 Boramae, the country’s first prototype of a domestically developed fighter jet, was unveiled Friday at a rollout ceremony at Korea Aerospace Industries’ manufacturing facility in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang

SK Innovation said Wednesday it is in talks to purchase more cathodes, one of the four key components of lithium-ion batteries, as an apparent demonstration of confidence in future orders. The prospective supply deal with South Korean cathode materials manufacturer L&F came just days before the April 11 deadline for President Joe Biden’s veto of a US trade court’s decision to sanction SKI from doing business in the US for 10 years. By law, the US president can override the US

South Korea will launch a pilot study into dual-use solar farms where panels are installed above crops so as to maximize the use of limited land space while striving towards a renewable future. Hanwha Q Cells will join a consortium led by Yeungnam University to research and develop necessary systems and standardize the solar farm model. MDS, a local solar company, is also participating in the project. “Solar panels and crops can coexist because crops have limits in the amount of sunlig

From legendary Studio Ghibli composer to K-pop megastar Blackpink, South Korean game companies are recruiting big names to take things up a notch for their marketing schemes. On April 1, Korean game publisher Netmarble hired composer Joe Hisaishi as a spokesperson for the company’s new game Second Country: Cross Worlds, set for release on April 14. Often linked to “Star Wars” composer John Williams, Hisaishi is the artist behind the music for Japanese animation studio&rsq

South Korean electronics components maker LG Innotek said Tuesday it has launched an artificial intelligence-based patent search and analysis system that can handle a task 900 times faster than human. According to the affiliate of LG Group, the system can process 50,000 pieces of patent data in four hours, which would otherwise require five workers to work eight hours a day for 100 days. “This is possible thanks to the AI-powered automatic sentence recognition model co-developed with