The financial watchdog is expected to wrap up its delayed punishment of top executives at KB Financial Group that have been held responsible for a string of irregularities and scandals as early as this week, an official said Sunday.“The punishment against 95 executives and employees at KB Financial Group and Kookmin Bank is expected to be complete this month. The level of the punishment may be determined at an upcoming meeting on Thursday,” said an official at the Financial Supervisory Service.G

South Korea saw its global ranking in the high-speed wireless Internet penetration rate drop one notch in December last year from six months earlier, data showed Sunday.South Korea’s high-speed wireless Internet penetration rate came to 103.8 percent as of December, ranking sixth among the 34 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the data by the Paris-based club of advanced economies.The figure represents a one-spot drop from six months earlier, accor

LG Uplus, a South Korean mobile carrier, said Thursday that it had finished developing telecommunication networks at base camps and offices of a local construction company carrying out projects in the Middle East.The company said it had established enterprise Internet lines for the builder’s camps in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Libya and Kuwait, marking the first time it has provided the service for a client in the region.It worked with Epsilon, a Hong Kong-based IT outsourcing company, to d

South Korean financial companies such as banks and credit card firms will have to come up with a new business model to counter Kakao’s soon-to-launch financial transaction service, Woori Finance Research Institute said.The most-used mobile messenger’s Bank Wallet Kakao, or KaTalk Bank, which is expected to launch in September, will have a limited impact on the financial services sector as it only allows users to transfer money or purchase online goods of up to 100,000 won ($97) a day.However, Ka

Smartphones have given everyone the ability to check email, browse the Web and create documents anytime and anywhere.They have also become a useful entertainment device, on which consumers can enjoy playing games.With enhanced graphics and memory, mobile games offer users almost the same experience as they had when playing on personal computers or at video arcades, even evoking nostalgia for their old favorite games. Children play the spaceship shooting game “Galaga” at Nexon’s museum on Jejudo

Uber, a taxi-hailing app based out of Silicon Valley, reiterated that it is operating in South Korea legally and denied the Seoul city government’s claim that its platform illegally connects riders with unauthorized drivers.However, Allen Penn, the head of Uber Technologies Asia, said regulations can be confusing when looking at its business from different aspects, and that the company was willing to clear up any misunderstandings.“We welcome any clarity on (regulations) from Seoul City,” Penn t

Korean public research university KAIST said Wednesday that it would hold a cultural festival at its main campus in Daejeon with Asia’s top science universities until Aug. 9.The three-day event, called the ASPIRE League E-Olympics, will invite students from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, China’s Tsinghua University and Japan’s Tokyo Institute of Technology. ASPIRE stands for Asian Science and Technology Pioneering Institutes of R

Korea Aerospace Industries said it was seeking to seal a deal to develop multimission maritime helicopters for the South Korean Navy.It said that it had the technology to remodel the Surion utility helicopter into a naval helicopter equipped with high-functional sonar and radar systems for anti-submarine warfare, reconnaissance and search and rescue operations.“We are hoping to get the Navy to say, ‘Yes, we need Korean-made helicopters,'” a KAI official said.KAI seeks to remodel the Surion as a

The Korea Communications Commission said Monday that it would deregulate rules governing terrestrial broadcast advertising in line with efforts to help the saturated network advertising market and boost ultrahigh-definition content production.South Korea currently regulates the amount of time and the type of commercials broadcasters can show between TV programs and station breaks as a means to control their influence on the public.However, the KCC said it would revise this to regulate only the t

Once foes and now friends, South Korea and China have become closer than ever, with bilateral trade increasing rapidly.Korea’s shopping districts and tourist sites ― notably Myeong-dong in Seoul and Jejudo Island ― are filled with Chinese-speaking guides and banners welcoming the largest group of visitors to the country, who are helping Korea reduce its prolonged services deficit. Some 4.3 million Chinese visited Korea last year, and the Korea Tourism Organization expects 5 million this year.Mor

South Korea’s Science, ICT and Future Planning Minister Choi Yang-hee said Friday that he will firmly confront the Ministry of Education and advise it not to reduce the number of science courses at schools nationwide.The minister said that as a scientist, this would be unacceptable as the study and development of science and technology is imperative to creating a creative economy for the people and the country.“I, myself, have engaged in basic science research, and will see to it that the field

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s top maker of smartphones, said Thursday its second-quarter net profit fell 19.5 percent from a year earlier as its mainstay handset business suffered from rising competition in the global market.Net income came to 6.25 trillion won ($6.1 billion) in the April-June period, compared with 7.77 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Sales fell 8.89 percent on-year to 52.35 trillion won in the second quarter. Its operating profit cam

Samsung SDS, Korea’s biggest IT solutions provider, said on Tuesday that it would raise the ceiling in the number of share issuances to secure capital for future business and acquisitions.The limit will be increased to 200 million shares from 120 million shares, of which the company added more than 70 percent shares are already being traded in the off-exchange market.Samsung SDS holds an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting in Seoul on Tuesday. (Samsung SDS)The decision came after Samsung SDS hel

Efficient-energy management has become important for companies as they seek to reduce costs and protect the environment.LG Group affiliates, including LG Electronics, LG Chem and LG CNS, are in full swing to develop an energy solutions business, which is expected to be the group’s next growth engine after consumer electronics and smartphones.LG CNS officials inspect the company’s smart lighting system installed at LG Display’s plant in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. (LG CNS)“We should strive to shake

Application processors for wearable devices need to be more power-efficient to fit into the small gadgets, an industry watcher said. “Currently, the performance of application processers for smart watches is much lower than those for smartphones because wearables can only use small batteries,” said Lee Hyuck-jae, head of the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology’s department of system semiconductors.An application processor, which is the equivalent of a PC’s central processing unit

With less than 80 days until the landmark ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said it would zero in on promoting the global IT event beginning Aug. 1.The ministry said Wednesday that it will use Busan’s resources and summer festivals to display the ITU logo and introduce the global event on the streets to the some 1 million people who visit the coastal city during their summer break each year.Korean athletes, TV stars and singers, including J

Calvin Kang. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)Uber, a fast-growing car-sharing app based out of Silicon Valley, said it can boost a wider range of transportation choices for consumers, and encourage the local cab industry to improve its services and abolish malpractices such as ride refusals and overcharging.Calvin Kang, general manager of Uber Korea, said that it hopes to convince the Seoul government via a dialogue to see these positive social effects from having Uber maintain operations in the

Choi Yang-hee took office as South Korea’s minister of science, ICT and future planning on Wednesday after days of grilling by the political parties regarding his alleged real estate irregularities.The new minister faces a slew of policy issues to mend, resolve and carry out to meet expectations not only of the people and businesses, but also those of the president, who envisioned the ministry to play the lead role in finding the next big technological innovation.His most urgent priority is fine

LG CNS CEO Kim Dae-hoon said Monday that the company needs new human resources that can create high value-added solutions and technologies by coming up with good ideas generated from a wide range of knowledge.In a meeting with his new employees at the company’s headquarters in Seoul, the chief executive of the IT solutions provider said it needs “people who can freely use both hands” in this age of smart technology. LG CNS CEO Kim Dae-hoon advises rookies to develop their skills and become versa

Whenever the fictional city of Gotham finds itself threatened by thugs, gangsters and psychopathic killers who are too much for its police force to cope with, the helpless city lights a distress signal calling for reinforcement.A man in a dark suit of armor with high-tech military gadgets races to save the city he has unconditionally sworn to protect from further falling into disgrace stemming from rising social injustice and disparity.Batman has been portrayed as a symbol of hope since his ince