South Korea's safety minister on Monday signed an agreement with his Japanese counterpart to beef up cooperation in disaster control, the government said.Safety Minister Park In-yong and Japanese Minister for Disaster Management Jun Matsumoto signed the work cooperation agreement during a meeting in Tokyo, South Korea's Ministry of Public Safety and Security said in a release. This marks the first such event between the countries' chiefs in charge of disaster control.Under the deal, the two coun

South Korea's ruling Saenuri Party said Monday it will punish President Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal involving her and her confidante regardless of a separate investigation into the case.The party's central ethics committee made the decision after reviewing a request for punishment, which was submitted last month by a group of Park dissenters within the party, and explanatory material submitted by Park on Sunday, committee chief Lee Jin-gon said.Park faces allegations of involvement i

Samsung Electronics is rumored to be ditching flat screens for its Galaxy S8 smartphones, and going solely with dual-edge panels, but industry watchers doubt whether there is sufficient demand for a curved screen-only model.According to recent news reports, the upcoming Galaxy S8 may come in 5.7-inch and 6.2-inch variants, with both adopting dual edge screens. This would be a new strategy for the tech giant, which has unveiled its Galaxy S6 and S7 series with both flat and dual-edge screens. The

The Korean stock market is likely to be relieved by the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, as the outcome was widely expected and already priced into the market.　On the day of the vote, the Kospi index remained stable, only falling slightly by 0.31 percent. The index had been on the rise over the three days since the opposition parties proposed the impeachment bill on Tuesday.“(The stable market) is because the vote today is different from the political impeachment of the late president Roh

Korean conglomerates embroiled in bribery allegations are on alert after the embattled President Park Geun-hye was impeached in a parliamentary vote Friday.Seven business moguls were included in the impeachment motion proposed by three opposition parties, on claims they donated money to the Mir Foundation run by Park’s close friend, Choi Soon-sil, after meeting with the president.　The motion also mentions Samsung C&T Corporation and its controversial merger with Cheil Industries, as well as SK a

Korean battery maker Samsung SDI confirmed Thursday its latest supply deal with the US electric vehicle startup Lucid Motors, which industry watchers estimated to be $520 million.Samsung SDI is slated to provide its cylindrical batteries to the California-based EV maker.Lucid Motors, which aims to compete with Tesla and other luxury EV brands, announced last week to build a $700 million auto factory in Arizona. It plans to launch high-end sports electric vehicles, which run more than 644 kilomet

The US Supreme Court sided with Samsung Electronics in a patent dispute with Apple, sending back the ruling that the Korean tech giant pay $399 million for infringing on Apple’s iPhone design patent.The court returned the case to the lower court Tuesday, saying the damages should be computed based on the profit Samsung gained from specific infringing parts of the phones, not necessarily based on the entire product. The $399 million in penalty -- equivalent to the total profit Samsung gained from

The parliamentary hearing Tuesday to question nine business moguls involved in a political scandal failed to reveal new facts, leaving only scars on the companies’ reputations, industry watchers said. The rare televised hearing failed to hit the spot as lawmakers repeated outdated and often irrelevant questions and chiefs feigned ignorance.“There were no new facts discovered from the hearing. The same questions that have been addressed during the prosecution’s investigation achieved little excep

The market shares of televisions made by Korean electronics makers in China have dropped below 5 percent due to strong sales of the appliances made by Chinese companies, according to research firm IHS on Monday. IHS data showed the market shares of TVs made by Chinese firms have steadily risen from 76.6 percent in 2014 to 81.9 percent in 2015. The figure increased to 84.3 percent this year through September. (Herald DB)Meanwhile, the portion of Korean TV makers, including Samsung Electronics and

Chinese tech company Lenonvo announced Monday that it is rolling out its augmented reality smartphone Phab 2 Pro in the Korean market on Tuesday.The Phab 2 Pro is the world’s first smartphone to include Tango -- a new technology from Google that enables augmented reality gaming and utilities. The technology allows users to place virtual objects over the real world through 3-D. For instance, a user can install an app to see how new furniture would look in their home, while raising virtual pets an

Korean electronics and telecom carriers are fiercely competing to take the leadership in 5th-generation mobile networks, or 5G, viewing it as the next-generation technology. Transmitting data 20 times faster than 4G, 5G is expected to be a platform enabling growth in information technology, automobiles, entertainment and manufacturing industries.LG Electronics said Sunday it demonstrated Full Duplex Radio, or FDR, for the first time in the world in partnership with Yonsei University. FDR is a st

Samsung Electronics recently hired a law firm to respond to a series of lawsuits over the Galaxy Note 7, which were discontinued due to explosion cases, according to local news reports Sunday. The news reports said the Korean tech giant hired Lee & Ko in response to the class-action lawsuit filed by 2,400 local consumers and to lawsuits filed by five individuals. The five claimed they suffered physical damages including burns and respiratory diseases due to the explosions of Note 7. “We gave eno

The first Apple Store in South Korea is expected to open in late 2017, potentially putting an end to the poor services received by iPhone users here. According to local news reports Thursday, citing mobile and architecture sources, an Apple Store is currently under construction in Garosugil, a shopping district in southern Seoul, and is expected to be completed in November 2017.The store is designed by London-based architecture firm Foster and Partners, the news reports said citing papers submit

Samsung Electronics is facing a patent lawsuit from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology in the US, the institute confirmed Wednesday. KAIST IP, the institute’s intellectual property management arm, said it sued Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm and Global Foundries in a Texas court, claiming they used KAIST’s chip technology without permission. Texas is where Samsung’s Austin chip plant is located. KAIST is a state-run research institute set up in 1971 with the aim of improving rese

Korea Industrial Complex Corp. aims to increase its support for auto parts exporters looking to increase sales to Vietnam, the state-run corporation said Tuesday. KICOX is a government agency set up in 1997 to support companies in industrial complexes here. Since 2010, the corporation has carried out diverse programs to support auto parts companies in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. It has built a network with Vietnamese regional governments, the automobile manufacturers’ association and au

Samsung Electronics is set to unveil its position Tuesday on a proposal to split the company into two, a suggestion made by activist hedge fund Elliott Management.In early October, Elliott called on Samsung Electronics to separate into a holding company for ownership purposes and an operating company. It also suggested dual-listing the operating company on the US exchange Nasdaq and paying shareholders a special dividend of $27 billion. In response to the proposals, Samsung had said it would sha

LG Electronics is rumored to adopt several new technologies, including iris recognition and mobile payment for its upcoming flagship smartphone, G6. Experts said the tech firm needs to blow the competition out of the water with the G6 in order to make up for the 800 billion won ($67 million) loss caused by the failure of the previous G5 model.LG recently unveiled a new type of all-in-one module that could serve as both a camera and an iris scanner at the Korea Electronics Show in October. Indust

Apple recently faced a fresh round of complaints over its customer support in South Korea, after belatedly providing a Korean announcement for replacing problematic iPhone batteries.On Sunday, Apple posted an announcement in English only on its Korean website about how to replace batteries if the device unexpectedly shuts down. This was different from Apple’s move to immediately post a Chinese announcement after receiving complaints from Chinese consumers. The move here immediately stoked compla

As part of its full-fledged initiative of new growth engines, Samsung has recently quickened steps toward connected car technologies that are expected to play a major part in the conglomerate’s future pillars of electronics, bio and finance.After setting up an automotive electronics team in December, Samsung Electronics recently announced a deal to buy the US car infotainment provider Harman International Industries for $8 billion. This is the latest in a series of the company’s push into the co

Concerns are growing among South Korean businesses after political parties agreed on Monday to call in eight conglomerate heads to December’s parliamentary hearings over the scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil.Samsung Electronics’ Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong will be summoned to testify alongside the chairmen of LG, Hyundai Motor, SK, Lotte, Hanwha, Hanjin and CJ. The business heads are suspected of having made donations to the Mir and K-Sports foundatio