Krafton said Thursday Battlegrounds developer Kim Chang-han has officially become new CEO after being appointed by shareholders and the board of directors in March. He will head both the company and its subsidiary PUBG Corp. Krafton is the parent company of game studios PUBG, Bluehole, Pnix, Red Sahara, Delusion and En Masse Entertainment. According to Krafton, Kim, who is the developer of PUBG’s eponymous game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, officially assumed the post of Krafton&

Korea Aerospace Industries is set to sell 20 TA-50 fighters to the South Korean Air Force, according to industry sources Thursday. South Korea’s sole aircraft manufacturer and a committee under the Defense Acquisition Program Administration are set to discuss the sales of 20 units of TA-50 lead-in fighter trainers to the Korean Air Force on Friday, they said. “If the defense project promotion committee approves the deal, KAI and DAPA are expected sign a 700-billion-won ($580 mill

WeMade said Thursday that it has won a lawsuit against Chinese rivals in a Singapore-based arbitration court for breaching a software license agreement (SLA) for its game The Legend of Mir 2. According to the South Korean game company, the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Court of Arbitration confirmed that the SLA on The Legend of Mir 2 that WeMade signed with Korean game company Actoz Soft and Chinese game company Shanda Games’ affiliate Lansha Information Techn

LG Chem said Thursday that an Indian court granted a conditional return home to eight company officials who had been stopped by local police from boarding a chartered flight back to Korea last month. According to LG Chem, the Indian High Court lifted a travel ban on the special task force comprised of eight officials, accepting a petition the company filed on Wednesday, on the condition that they appear in court if subpoenaed and cooperate with police investigations regarding a deadly gas leak

Rules in the electric vehicle race are simple: one with the longest range wins. However, reaching such a goal hasn’t been easy, as making current lithium-ion batteries more powerful increases the risks of explosions. For this reason, automakers have been seeking alternatives, and they may have found one: solid-state batteries. Also dubbed as dry batteries, they use solid electrodes and electrolytes instead of the liquid or polymer gel electrolytes found in lithium-ion or lithium polym

S-Oil said Wednesday it donated 280 million won ($232,420) to 114 students from an orphanage as part of its scholarship program. According to the South Korean refiner, it held the S-Oil Dream Scholarship ceremony at its headquarters in Mapo-gu, western Seoul, with Korea Child Welfare Association to deliver scholarships to 44 two-year college students and 70 high school students from Sundukwon orphanage. “Education is the platform through which students can unlock their potential, capt

In the aftermath of a deadly styrene gas leak at an LG Polymers plant in India last month, LG Chem said Monday that it has shipped the toxic gas back to Korea. According to LG Chem, of the 14,000 metric tons of styrene gas stored in India, it disposed of 8,000 tons by selling it to China and brought the remaining 6,000 tons back to its petrochemical plant in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, following an order made by Indian authorities to remove the gas out of the country. “LG Chem will

S-Oil said Monday that its CEO Hussain Al-Qahtani has bought company stocks worth 68 million won ($55,970) as a sign of confidence amid the COVID-19 outbreak. He has reportedly purchased 1,000 shares to mark his first anniversary after taking the post last June and to show his confidence in the company. As of Friday, the price for S-Oil’s stock stood at 68,000 won. “Despite mounting uncertainties over management environment amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the CEO decided to purchas

Hyundai Rotem, a locomotive and rolling stock unit of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group, said Monday it has won an order worth 119.2 billion won ($98.2 million) from the Korea Rail Network Authority to deliver 40 train cars for Great Train Express Line A. GTX Line A is one of the three high-speed train lines designed to shorten the time for commuting from the outskirts of the capital area to central Seoul. With the deal, Hyundai Rotem will be supplying all 160 train cars for the servic

SK Energy said Sunday it has launched an integrated car management app called Muffin that offers services including non-face-to-face refueling, car wash, valet parking, insurance and maintenance on a single platform. According to the subsidiary of SK Innovation, the app will be available at some 200 gas stations directly to begin with and will be expanded to all franchise locations in the country by the year-end. “With Muffin, drivers can just type in their license plate numbers at ga

SACHEON -- It takes guts to invite several diplomats at one place and show off a chopper, especially when a deadly pandemic is creating chaos around the world. However, that was exactly what Korea Aerospace Industries did last week. South Korea’s sole aircraft manufacturer on Wednesday brought diplomats from 16 countries and local reporters at its headquarters in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, to give them a ride on its Chamsuri helicopters, a police version of military helicopte

Korea Aerospace Industries on Wednesday signed an agreement with the government of South Gyeongsang Province and the Human Resources Development Service of Korea to help support the hiring of foreign workforce. The signing ceremony was held at KAI’s Sacheon headquarters in the presence of ambassadors representing relevant countries. The program will benefit those who fall under South Korea’s Employment Permit System. The system allows efficient employment of foreign workers for

The South Korean government on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding with Hyundai Motor to deploy its hydrogen vehicles at Jaundae, a military base in Daejeon where a new hydrogen charging station will be built. According to the memorandum -- signed by Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, Environment Minister Cho Myung-rae, Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, Industry Minister Sung Yun-mo and Hyundai Motor Group President Gong Young-woon -- the military will purchase five hydrogen vehicles, i

SK Innovation ranked 5th in the global electric vehicle battery market in April, according to industry data Tuesday. According to market tracker SNE Research, SK Innovation took up 3.5 percent of global EV battery market by supplying 189.1 megawatt-hours of batteries. Samsung SDI was next, accounting for 3.4 percent by deploying 187.2 megawatt-hours of batteries in April. Meanwhile, South Korea’s No. 1 EV battery maker LG Chem took the second spot, commanding 18.2 percent market share

SK Energy, an affiliate of SK Innovation, said Monday it has developed a gas detection system that will no longer require workers to manually check for remaining gas inside concealed facilities to enhance safety. “Petrochemical facilities have a lot of concealed facilities such as tanks, towers and oil drums where gas leaks occur. When workers conduct maintenance, they have to get inside and check if there is any remaining gas. With the sensors, they can now detect it automatically and

More than 100,000 Samsung Electronics employees held an online discussion in April about how to minimize the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, according to the company’s 2020 Sustainability Report, released Friday. The report said 107,000 Samsung Electronics employees participated in the two-week discussion using its collective intelligence platform Mosaic and came up with 1,620 ideas. “After review, Samsung Electronics will filter ideas on daily quarantine, sterilization, he

LG Chem ranked second in the Chinese electric vehicle battery market for the January-March period this year, according to industry data. Market tracker the China Battery Enterprise Alliance said Thursday that LG Chem supplied EV batteries in China with a combined capacity of 2,087 megawatt-hours, surpassing local competitor BYD’s 1,943 megawatt-hours. Another local competitor, CATL, was in first place with 6,173 megawatt-hours. “LG Chem equipped 39,393 Tesla Model 3s built in Sh

Daewon Media, which retails more than half of all Nintendo Switch game consoles here, said Friday that sales of the Japanese game consoles spiked 30 percent in the first quarter, thanks to the nationwide popularity of the hit game Animal Crossing: New Horizons amid the coronavirus outbreak. The South Korean game distributor said it sold 82,848 Nintendo Switch consoles in the first quarter, a 30.4 percent increase on-year, and 287,590 Nintendo Switch games in the same period, a 57.4 percent s

Hyundai Oilbank said Thursday it has developed a new system that can detect oil leaks from underground pipes at gas stations to help prevent environment pollution. According to the South Korean refiner, Hyundai Oil Leakage Monitoring Expert System, or Holmes, can detect and locate oil leaks from old pipes buried underneath gas stations, preventing possible soil contamination that can cost millions of dollars for restoration. “Leaks from oil tanks can be easily checked by gauges, but l

Korea Aerospace Industries said Wednesday it will finalize the assembly of its next-generation KF-X fighter jet in the second half of this year. South Korea’s sole aircraft manufacturer is currently assembling each of the top, middle and bottom parts of the fuselage of its fifth-generation fighter and the final assembly is scheduled for the second half of the year. "To introduce a prototype next year, KAI is looking forward to a final assembly of the jet in the period,” a