Han Sung Motor, an official local dealer of Mercedes-Benz in Korea, said it had sold artistic goods at its booth at the 2019 Seoul Design Festival to help children in need.The five-day annual event that kicked off on Dec. 4 involved rising artists and young designers as well as collaborative projects between art groups.  Han Sung Motor participated by arranging a collaboration project between its Dream Gream scholarship students and local design studio Maeum.Dream Gream is a schol

Jeju Air, the country’s largest low-cost carrier by sales, said Wednesday that it had signed a deal to acquire 51 percent stakes in Eastar Holdings, the largest shareholder of a budget carrier Eastar Jet, in an apparent move to broaden its market share by absorbing an ailing air carrier.  Earlier this year, cosmetics-to-airline conglomerate Aekyung Group, which owns a 56.9 percent stake in Jeju Air, failed to takeover debt-ridden Asiana Airlines after the HDC Hyundai Development-Mirae

Asiana Airlines said Wednesday it has introduced a mobile service for passengers to check whether their baggage is safely loaded.Those who fly with Asiana can check the status and the location of the baggage real-time via the carrier’s mobile application.The service will enhance passenger convenience and minimize the departure delay as location of luggage can be tracked during emergencies and baggage can be easily removed when the passenger gets off the plane, the company said.While the se

McDonald’s Korea Managing Director Melanie Cho visited a store on Jeju Island to express her appreciation to a store manager there for helping a young customer who was terminally ill and offering him an unforgettable restaurant experience, the company said Wednesday. According to McDonald’s Korea, Lee Sung-min, a 20-year-old store manager of Nohyung branch in Jeju, helped a family with a child suffering from polio in May. He moved the family’s seat to a more comfortable ch

South Korean oil refiner S-Oil said Tuesday that it has awarded 20 doctorate researchers and science professors and contributed funds to six young rising scientists. S-Oil Science and Culture Foundation, a public trust established by the oil refiner, wholly owned by Saudi Aramco in 2011, said it held a ceremony to award outstanding science thesis and young rising scientists. A total of 10 doctorate researchers and 10 science professors in the field of mathematics, physics, chemistry, l

South Korea’s Amorepacific Group and US vegan cosmetics company Milk Makeup are partnering in the areas of marketing and business operations, the Korean firm said Tuesday.Milk Makeup, established in New York in 2015 as a cruelty-free and 100 percent vegan cosmetics firm, is popular for its “clean beauty” concept. Its products are sold in major markets via personal care and beauty chain Sephora and online retailer Cult Beauty. Market sources estimated that Milk Makeup will

With home meal replacement products gaining popularity in South Korea, the instant porridge market has also grown immensely -- twofold growth since 2015, and is estimated at over 88.5 billion won ($75.5 million) last year, according to data from Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. Monday. The market for instant porridge has gradually expanded from 2015, when it was valued at 41 billion won, and grew to over 70.7 billion won in 2017, the data showed. Officials said that it will grow

Six months after Japan’s restrictions on exports to South Korea, its exports to Korea fell by 14 percent on-year, while South Korean export to Japan dropped by 7 percent, indicating Japan’s larger damage in outbound shipments, data showed Sunday. According to the governments and industries in two countries, from July to October, Japan’s export shipments to Korea came at around $15 billion, which fell by 14 percent on-year. Over the same period, South Korean export shi

Overturning a wage deal clinched in June, unionized workers at Renault Samsung have voted to hold a sit-in protest, according to members of the union Wednesday, although the automaker said it would continue with the labor-management negotiations which kicked off in September. Of more than 2,000 unionized workers at the South Korean unit of the French automaker Renault, 66.2 percent voted to go on strike. The labor union and management had reached a wage deal on June 24, bringing an end to a

Mercedes-Benz Korea said Wednesday it has kicked off its Connected Car Startup Hackathon, a competition between startups to develop connected car services for innovative future mobility.The 48-hour nonstop event is taking place at the EQ Future Pavilion set up by the automaker in Sinsa-dong, Seoul. Nine startups that develop and produce connected car technologies such as mobility, UX, maintenance and charging have made it to the final, the company said.The event was organized in a joint partners

Kim Woo-choong, founder of Daewoo Group -- once among Korea’s four major conglomerates -- died from a chronic disease Monday evening at the age of 82. The self-made man had contributed to the country’s industrial growth in the 1970s and 1980s. The former chairman of Daewoo Group died at 11:50 p.m. at a hospital in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, where he had been receiving medical treatment since December last year due to his worsening health condition, Kim’s family said.&n

Hyundai Motor Group said Monday it has donated 25 billion won ($21 million) to the country’s nonprofit charity organization Community Chest of Korea to contribute in helping vulnerable members of the society and alleviate social polarization. The donation ceremony was attended by Hyundai Motor Group President Kong Young-woon, along with Chairman Ye Jong-suk and Secretary-General Kim Yeon-soon of the Community Chest of Korea.Since 2003, the automaker has been delivering year-end donati

South Koreans consider a person who owns an average of 3.9 billion won ($3.2 million) in assets is wealthy, a local survey showed Monday.According to a recruiting service provider Saramin’s survey on 4,111 adults, respondents in their 30s said a person can be considered rich when he or she owns assets of 3.98 billion won, while those in 40s said 3.9 billion won. Those aged 50 and above said a rich person owns 3.3 billion won. Some 3.9 billion won of assets equal the amount accumu

Starbucks Coffee Korea said Thursday it has received a presidential award for its effort to contribute to restoring the country’s cultural assets and honoring it heritage and history. The award ceremony which took place at Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation on Friday was attended by some 100 awardees.  The local unit of Starbucks Coffee joined hands with the Cultural Heritage Administration in 2009 and has conducted various activities to protect cultural assets and support descen

Music videos by South Korean K-pop groups were among the top 10 most liked videos on YouTube globally this year, including those from BTS and Blackpink.According to YouTube, BTS’ hit song “Boy With Luv” featuring Halsey was the second-most liked video in 2019. It was followed by four-piece girl group Blackpink’s “Kill This Love” music video, which was also the eighth-most played globally, the only Korean act to be included on that list.  This year’s

With tension between South Korea and Japan showing no signs of abating, the number of passengers who flew to Japan in November fell by 43.7 percent on-year, government data showed Friday. According to the Transport Ministry, 891,851 passengers used domestic air carriers’ Japanese routes in November. In November, there were 5,759 flights to Japan, down 39.7 percent on-year.  Among the country’s provincial airports, Muan Airport and Yangyang Airport did not operate Japan

Hyundai Motor said Wednesday it plans to invest 61.1 trillion won ($51 billion) in research and development and future technology by 2025, with the aim of transforming into a smart mobility solution provider. Under the Strategy 2025 road map, the automaker will foster smart mobility devices and smart mobility services as the two main pillars of its business.“The key to our future strategy is to focus on customers and to present the most desirable products and services. We want to offe

Daimler Mobility -- a subsidiary of Daimler Group, which owns Mercedes-Benz -- officially kicked off operations in South Korea on Tuesday, offering a long-term car rental program. Mercedes-Benz Mobility Korea is the first of its kind globally and the fourth entity of the Daimler Group to launch operations in Korea. The company said it will offer a tailor-made mobility product under its concept of “mobility at your fingertips.”“We will offer one- to five-year long-term

Top executives of van-hailing service Tada, which is owned by car-sharing company SoCar, argued in court on Monday that their operations are fully within the ambit of current laws.They claimed during the first trial held at the Seoul Central District Court that the company has only upgraded an existing business model with a mobile application platform. SoCar CEO Lee Jae-woong and CEO Park Jae-wook of its subsidiary and Tada operator VCNC attended the trial after they were indicted by prosec

China’s imports of South Korean instant noodles jumped fivefold last year compared to 2014, industry data showed Sunday.According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), China imported $100 million (118 billion won) worth of Korean instant noodles last year, up from $15.1 million in 2014. Among all instant noodles imported by China, 50 percent came from Korea -- 40.2 billion packs -- in the January-September period, followed by Taiwan.About 280 million packs of instant