E-Mart's convenience store chain, E-Mart 24, said Friday it will foray into the Cambodian market next year to tap into the country's economic growth potential. E-Mart 24 plans to open its first outlet in the country by the first half of 2024, becoming the first Korean convenience store operator to do so. The Korean retailer said it signed a three-way memorandum of understanding with a Cambodian retail firm, Saisons Brother Holding Corp. and Korean real estate Hanlim Architecture Group

South Korean steel giant Posco Group said Thursday the company will put in joint efforts with Hanwha Corporation Engineering & Construction and Korea Airports Corporation to build landing and take-off sites for urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles in Seoul, in a bid to further accelerate the commercial operation of an urban air transportation system in Korea. During a signing ceremony held at KAC's headquarters in western Seoul on Wednesday, the three companies signed a memorandum of under

ANDONG, North Gyeongsang Province -- Researchers wearing blue personal protective equipment hunker down over digital screens and packaging machine belts as thousands of syringes are briskly moved through machines at SK bioscience’s vaccine manufacturing facility, L HOUSE, in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. After going through a series of procedures such as being analyzed for their defection rate and having plunger rods inserted into the syringes, the drugs are labeled and pac

South Korean retail conglomerate Hyundai Department Store Group said Monday it signed an agreement with global health care giant Nestle Health Science in a bid to expand its health-functional food business, one of its key growth drivers. During a signing ceremony held at Nestle's headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, the two companies agreed to establish a partnership for Hyundai's exclusive distribution rights of Nestle’s health functional food products in Korea. "The bio-hea

South Korean drugmaker SK Bioscience said via a regulatory filing Monday that it had clinched a 67.9 billion won ($50.6 million) deal with a Thai state-run company Government Pharmaceutical Organization to provide undiluted solutions of its flu vaccine for 10 years. According to DART, the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure board, SK Bioscience will be providing undiluted solutions of its SKYCellflu products to GPO's vaccine manufacturing plant in Thailand until Aug.

South Korean carrier Korean Air said Sunday it would be measuring body weights of its passengers in a bid to strengthen aviation safety and minimize excessive fuel use. Passengers on domestic flights will be asked to weigh in from Aug. 28 through Sept. 6, while international flight passengers will be weighed from Sept. 8 to 19. The weight measuring process will take place at the boarding gates. Those who do not wish to partake in the process can notify the staff that they wish to opt out and b

South Korean drugmaker Daewoong Pharmaceutical said Sunday it has set a target of hitting 148.5 billion won ($110 million) in overseas exports this year amid booming sales of its drugs such as botulinum toxin. The company's overseas exports of drugs in 2022 amounted to 134.8 billion won, an increase of more than 200 percent compared to 2020, when it logged 44.8 billion in exports, according to the firm. The company said its growth in exports was largely attributed to the sales of Nabota, or

The “old money” fashion trend that has been spreading globally has reached South Korea. As of Thursday, the hashtag #oldmoney accrued over 8.5 billion views on TikTok, with #oldmoneyaesthetic and #oldmoneyoutfits amassing 3.8 billion and 1.4 billion views, respectively. Old money refers to wealth that is deeply rooted in tradition, or wealth that is inherited rather than acquired through personal earnings. In this regard, the idea behind the old money look means looking like someone

South Korea’s fifth-largest conglomerate Lotte Group said Thursday it made donations worth $100,000 in a bid to help Hawaii cope with the aftereffects of devastating wildfires that recently demolished the island of Maui. Lotte said the donation will be sent to Friends of Hawaii Charities -- a public charity organization founded in 1998 with an aim to support Hawaiian women, children, elderly and community groups with essential life needs. Specifically, the donation will be used to repair t

Korea Airports Corp. said Wednesday it is considering adding some 4,500 flights connecting the nation’s seven provincial airports to cities in China by the end of this year, to better respond to China’s travel rush in the coming months. The state-run airport operator held an emergency meeting earlier in the day to discuss measures regarding the Chinese government’s recent decision to lift a ban on group tours to Korea. "As China’s group travel to Korea resumes for th

South Korean cosmetics manufacturer Cosmax BTI's cosmetics production plant, jointly built with China-based cosmetics company Yatsen, recently began operations in Guangzhou, China, amid burgeoning demand for high-quality consignment production of cosmetic goods in the Chinese market. The plant is Asia's largest cosmetics production plant, built on 60,593 square meters of land. According to Cosmax, the company's initial plan is to produce 5 million units of cosmetics products per m

The CEO of the state-run Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) offered to resign Friday amid the growing controversy over its lax oversight and poor management of apartment complexes with missing critical structural components. CEO Lee Han-joon said he was also belatedly informed that the firm omitted five apartment complexes from its inspection report on compounds with underground parking lots built using a flat plate method. During an emergency press conference held at the LH headquarters in Seoul

South Korean pharmaceutical firms and fashion brands are hoping that the Chinese government's recent decision to allow large groups to travel to Korea would bring a medical tourism boom and K-pop-inspired fashion windfall. China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism said Thursday restrictions regarding group travel to Korea would be lifted for the first time since 2016, following its decision to abandon its “zero COVID” policy in January. According to Korea Tourism Organization

The Chinese government has decided to allow group tours to South Korea after a six-year hiatus instigated by diplomatic bickering between Seoul and Beijing, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Thursday said it would lift restrictions on its nationals to travel in groups to 78 countries around the world, including Korea, the United States and Japan. The ban on Chinese group tours to Korea was removed for the first time since it was put in place as

South Korea has bolstered efforts to offer diverse catering services for the World Scout Jamboree, taking particular care to offer adequate halal food options for Muslim Scouts. "Currently, we are aiming to create a halal ecosystem for the remaining 2,160 scouts in North Jeolla Province," said Lee Kwan-youn, the president of the Certified New Halal Industry Association and the CEO of Pacific Korea, a Korean textile retailer. Together with Wonkwang University, a university in North Jeol

South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang posted record second-quarter earnings amid the thriving performance of its new business initiatives -- extending its dominant run for four consecutive quarters since turning a profit for the first time in 2022. During its earnings call Wednesday, the New York-listed company said it posted record quarterly sales for the April-June period at $5.8 billion, for on-year growth of 16 percent. Operating profits were tallied at $147.6 million, showing a 42 percent

Suh Min-jeong – the elder daughter of Chairman Suh Kyung-bae of South Korean beauty giant Amorepacific and the prime candidate to inherit the company – recently went into an abrupt yearlong leave of absence, fueling speculation about the company’s business strategy and succession scheme. Having already liquidated all of her stakes in Etude and Espoir, the two budget brands affiliated with the beauty giant, the 31-year-old heiress also donated half of her stake in Innisfree, one

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs set a goal to double the exports of kimchi to $300 million by 2027 via a comprehensive plan to bolster the nation's kimchi industry, the ministry announced Monday. The Food Ministry unveiled its five-year plan for 2023 to 2027 for the promotion of the domestic kimchi industry. The plan comes as the Kimchi Industry Promotion Act, which mandates the announcement of the nation's general plan to invigorate the indigenous kimchi industry e

Sea travel routes between South Korea and China will resume after being suspended for three years and seven months, according to the Korean shipping industry on Sunday. Jiaodong Shipping said it will begin transporting passengers via car ferries on the Weihai-Pyeongtaek route starting Wednesday. Starting Thursday, Yantai Ferry and Weidong Ferry will begin operation of car ferries to ferry passengers on the Yantai-Pyeongtaek and Weihai-Incheon routes, respectively. Weidong Ferry will also begin t

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Thursday it will launch full-fledged safety checks into buildings constructed using flat slab methods, following revelations that some 16.5 percent of apartment complexes built under the state-run Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) are missing critical structural components. The Ministry of Land said it will conduct investigations of 293 apartment complexes built by private companies that used flat slab methods starting next week, through th