South Korean light-emitting diode maker Seoul Semiconductor said Sunday it filed a lawsuit against Kmart, claiming the American retail giant is selling products which violated its LED-related patents. Seoul Semiconductor said the products being sold in Kmart infringed eight of its patents including high CRI, or color rendering index, enhancement with phosphor combinations, LED epitaxial growth, LED chip fabrication, multi-chip mounting technology, omni directional LED lamp technology and acrich

South Korea’s second-largest automaker Kia Motors aims to use its plant in Mexico as a base to target the North and South American auto markets, Hyundai Motor Group chairman said Wednesday. Kia’s new manufacturing plant -- the automaker’s sixth overseas production base -- has an annual production capacity of 400,000 units with an investment of $3 billion, the company said. Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo at the opening of Kia Motors' new plant in New Leon, Northeastern Mexico on Sept

South Korea’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor unveiled its new hatchback i30 on Wednesday with the aim of selling 15,000 units in the local market this year. Hyundai Motor also launched its new hot hatch i30 in Europe on the same day, as it has done in the last five years since the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2011.The new hatchback, whose design and driving performance has been upgraded, comes with three engine options: a 1.4-liter turbocharged petrol engine, a 1.6-liter turbocharged petrol engine a

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo (right) talks with Tom Kearns, chief designer of Kia Motors’ design center in California, during his visit to the US on Monday. (Hyundai Motor)

South Korea’s battery and chemical company LG Chem is pushing for a merger with LG Group’s pharmaceutical affiliate LG Life Sciences in an apparent move to catch up with Samsung’s bio business, industry sources said Tuesday. “We are considering a merger with LG Life Sciences although the exact date has not been confirmed yet,” an LG Chem official said. The group’s top management recently decided not to sit back and watch as the Samsung Group pours money into the bio business and Hanmi Pharmaceut

Samsung Electronics has reportedly decided to stop using batteries produced by its affiliate Samsung SDI in its new smartphone Galaxy Note 7 after defects found in some of the batteries led to a sweeping recall of over 2 million phablets worldwide. “As a follow-up of the battery issue, we decided to temporally stop using Samsung SDI’s battery for Galaxy Note 7,” several local media outlets reported on Monday, citing sources from Samsung Electronics. (Local online community)Samsung SDI supplies 7

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics said Friday it has decided to recall all of its new large-size Galaxy Note 7 smartphones that had rolled out in 10 nations, due to the recent explosions. “We decided to stop selling Galaxy Note 7 and to replace all the products rolled out in 10 nations, including South Korea,” said Koh Dong-jin, the head of the company's mobile business, at the press briefing held in its headquarters in Seoul. It is the first time that Samsung has decided on a large-sc

South Korea’s largest automotive maker Hyundai Motor may face a setback in China with its new plug-in hybrid cars as the issue surrounding battery certification remains unclear. Samsung SDI and LG Chem, which supply car batteries to Hyundai and Kia Motors, have failed to win certifications in June and are yet to resubmit the applications. If they fail to get their batteries certified in China, Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors’ new plug-in hybrid cars may not receive subsidies up to $26

Chinese drone company DJI Thursday launched the Osmo Mobile, an extension for smartphones that turns them into intelligent, precision camera systems.Osmo Mobile use DJI’s three-axis gimbal stabilization and SmoothTrack technology to enable smartphone users to shoot effortless, high-quality photos and videos on the go, the company said. “DJI continues to revolutionize the way we capture and share memories,” said Frank Wang, DJI CEO and founder. “The Osmo Mobile combines the best of DJI’s beloved

Samsung Electronics unveiled its new smartwatch Gear S3 at the annual technology show IFA on Wednesday evening. “With the Gear S3, we continue to build on our wearables heritage of offering diverse choices to enhance consumers’ unique lifestyles,” said Lee Young-hee, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics’ global marketing and wearable business, at the event in Berlin.  Lee Young-hee, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics’ global marketing and wearable business, presents Gear

Tesla announced Thursday that it would open a retail location in the nation‘s largest shopping mall later this year.The American automotive company said the first store would be located in Shinsegae Group’s Starfield Hanam mall in Gyeonggi Province and more shops were expected to open in 2017 and 2018 in other Shinsegae locations.  AP-YonhapTesla plans to expand partnerships with the retail giant to accelerate its charging infrastructure. “Shinsegae will support the rapid deployment of the Tesla

BERLIN -- Two South Korean electronics giants are set to square off traditional players in Europe’s premium sector at an annual trade show in the German capital, with Chinese competitors also set to make a fierce move to enter the mass consumer electronics market in the region. Armed with high-end lineups, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics will each hold big events at the IFA that kicks off Friday for a six-day run.For LG, the IFA is a debut stage for its high-end brand SIGNATURE, the compa

LG Electronics is betting big on the European premium appliance market with its centum system technology, the company said Wednesday. Centum system is LG’s unique technology developed to raise home appliances’ durability and energy efficiency, and reduce noise by innovating key parts such as washing machine motors and refrigerator compressors. Customers look at LG Electronics’ centum system washing machine at an appliance store in Germany. (LG Electronics)LG plans to showcase its new centum syst

South Korea’s two leading information technology service providers Samsung SDS and LG CNS are vying for leadership in biometric authentication solutions. LG CNS recently said that it would apply the finger vein authentication solutions of LG Hitachi -- a joint venture between LG Group and Japan’s Hitachi -- to BNK Busan Bank’s automatic teller machines as a pilot service. 　The finger vein authentication solution, which was applied for the first time to automatic teller machines in South Korea, i

한 여학생이 ‘복장 불량’으로 강의실에서 쫓겨나는 해프닝이 발생했다.　지난 27일(현지시각) 미국 매체 코스모폴리탄 등 외신 보도에 따르면 미국 앨라배마(Alabama) 주에 사는 조세피나(Josephina·16)가 복장 문제로 인해 수업 도중 교실 밖으로 쫓겨났다고 보도했다.  (사진=코스모폴리탄 트위터)보도에 따르면 당시 조세피나는 하체를 충분히 덮는 긴 박스티와 검정 레깅스를 입고 등교했다. 　문제는 해당 교사가 수업 도중 조세피나의 복장을 발견하고는 “네 레깅스 때문에 남학생들이 수업에 집중 못 한다”라며 다른 교실로 데려갔다. 　그곳에서 조세피나는 “다른 옷으로 갈아입기 전에는 이 교실 밖으로 나갈 수 없다”라는 교사의 말을 들어야 했다.　결국 그녀는 친구 어머니에게 받은 청바지로 갈아입은 뒤에야 원래 교실로 돌아올 수 있었다.　이 같은 학교의 복장 규율에 문제의식을 느낀 조세피나는 ‘교내 성차별과 복장 규정 비판’이라는 제목으로 대자보를 붙였지만 학교는 모르쇠로 일관하고

The prosecution said Sunday the death of Lotte Group’s vice chairman would not affect the ongoing investigation on the retail giant. Lee In-won, group Chairman Shin Dong-bin’s longtime and closest aide, was found dead in an apparent suicide Friday morning. He was scheduled to be questioned by prosecutors on the day as part of the ongoing probe into Lotte. The group is suspected of evading taxes amounting to 600 billion won ($533 million) and creating slush funds of some 50 billion won. The death

The prosecution said Sunday the death of Lotte Group’s vice chairman would not affect the ongoing investigation on the retail giant. Lee In-won, the group chairman Shin Dong-bin’s long-time and closest aide, was found hanged on Friday morning. He was scheduled to be questioned by prosecutors on the day as part of the ongoing probe into Lotte. The group is suspected of evading taxes amounting to 600 billion won ($530 million) and creating slush funds worth 50 billion won. The Lotte key man’s deat

HANOI, Vietnam -- LS Cable & System aims to double the sales of LS C&S Asia, which is to be listed in September, the company’s chief said last week. LS C&S Asia, the holding firm of the Korean cable-maker’s two Vietnamese units LS-VINA and LSCV, is slated to float its shares on South Korea’s main bourse KOSPI in September.“(Through the listing), LS C&S Asia aims to generate 1 trillion won ($890 million) in sales by 2021,” Myung Roe-hyun, the company’s head, said at a press briefing held in Hanoi

Samsung Electronics is slated to hold a foundry forum in China later this month to attract Chinese fabless firms amid its growing idle foundry lines, industry experts said on Tuesday. The world’s largest memory chip maker confirmed that it would hold the forum in Shanghai on Aug. 30 with the aim of diversifying its fabless clients that design chips and outsource the manufacturing to foundry firms.At the event, around 100 Chinese firms including HiSilicon, Spreadtrum, Datang, ZTE and Rockchip and

Kim Hyung-suk, vice president of Samsung Electronics’ multimedia R&D group, presents the development process and application areas of Galaxy Note 7’s iris recognition at the company’s headquarters in Seoul on Tuesday. (Yonhap)