South Korean internet giant Naver is on track to completing its envisioned transformation into a “technology platform” that brings cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, voice recognition and autonomous driving into everyday services, its new CEO said Tuesday.　Since first announcing its new direction last November, the country’s biggest web portal operator has made progress in rolling out diverse new tech-infused services, Naver CEO Han Seong-sook said in her first press conf

SK Telecom, South Korea’s biggest mobile carrier, said Monday that it will showcase diverse services running on the next-generation 5G network at Incheon SK Happy Dream Park, the home stadium of the SK Wyverns.　SKT has set up a large-scale 5G trial network throughout the baseball stadium and will operate a number of 5G-dependent services for a large crowd of around 20,000 visitors slated to attend the games from Friday to Sunday. “We’ve prepared the 5G stadium to show how services currently host

South Korean game company NCSoft said Monday that it has signed a publishing deal with Taiwanese game company Gamania Digital Entertainment Co. for “Lineage M,” a mobile rendition of NCSoft’s hit online PC game Lineage. 　Developed by NCSoft, “Lineage M” is a massive multiplayer online role playing game for mobile devices. It aims to recreate the original PC game’s gameplay and elements in a mobile setting as closely as possible, the company said.Under the new publishing deal, Gamania will releas

WASHINGTON (AFP) - One person was killed and 14 others wounded early Sunday in a shooting at a packed nightclub in Cincinnati, Ohio, police reported.　Police said earlier said there were at least two shooters, but in a subsequent tweet assistant Cincinnati police chief Paul Neudigate said there was “only one reported shooter at this time, still investigating if others involved.”　“Motive is still unclear but there are no indications this incident is terrorism related,” he said.　The Cincinnati Poli

LONDON (AFP) - The British government said Sunday that its security services must have access to encrypted messaging applications such as WhatsApp, revealing it was used by the killer behind the parliament attack.　Khalid Masood, the 52-year-old Briton who killed four people before being shot dead in a rampage in Westminster on Wednesday, reportedly used the Facebook-owned service moments before the assault.　Home Secretary Amber Rudd told Sky News it was “completely unacceptable” that police and

A group of South Korean people held a ceremony in Dalian, northeastern China, on Sunday to mark the 107th anniversary of the execution by the Japanese of a Korean national hero who assassinated a top Japanese official more than a century ago, as a civic event amid a Seoul-Beijing feud over the planned deployment of an advanced US missile defense system.The national hero, Ahn Jung-geun shot and killed the Korean Peninsula’s first Japanese governor-general, Hirobumi Ito, at a railway station in Ha

 South Korean movie director Park Chan-woo was bestowed an award from the Italian city government of Florence in recognition of his role in connecting the cultures of the two countries and his contributions to the development of culture and art.　Florence Mayor Dario Nardella presented the Key to the City honor to Park in a ceremony held on Saturday in Cinema La Compagnia, Florence.　Park is the first South Korean who has received the city award which is conferred on world-renowned artists. Park C

Prosecutors have recently questioned a senior CJ Group executive as part of a probe into whether the conglomerate was involved in the recording of compromising videos of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, a prosecution source said Sunday. 　The videos leaked to the media in July 2016 indicated Lee bought sex five times between December 2011 and June 2013 at his homes in southern Seoul.　CJ, run by Lee‘s relatives, was part of Samsung before it broke off in 1993. At the time of the recording

Blizzard Entertainment on Sunday said it would release “StarCraft: Remastered,” a high-definition remake of its megahit PC strategy game Starcraft, this summer.As its title suggests, the upcoming edition will feature 4K ultrahigh-definition graphics and a refreshed soundtrack, while preserving the original gameplay of Starcraft. It will include the classic Starcraft game as well as the Brood War expansion pack, the US game giant said.Blizzard Entertainment co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime announ

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles highlighting South Korea’s promising start-ups in the emerging sectors of digital health care and next-generation medical devices. This is the sixth installment. – Ed.When it comes to wearables, the immediate image that comes to mind is usually a smartwatch or a fitness tracking band worn on the wrist by an early adopter of new technology.　Looking to overturn this image, a South Korean startup spun off from Samsung’s in-house venture program Cr

Samsung SDS, the internet technology solutions unit of South Korea’s Samsung Group, said Friday that it does not plan to spin off its logistics business this year, defying market expectations that the move would be made in the near future.　“We have no plans to spin off our Business Process Outsourcing unit (which provides global logistics services) this year,” Samsung SDS CEO Chung Yoo-sung announced during a shareholder meeting held in Seoul on Friday.Samsung SDS officially announced in June 20

South Korea’s Samsung BioLogics announced Thursday that it has received the 2017 CMO Leadership Awards presented by the Life Science Leader magazine for the third consecutive year.　The company was awarded in all of the six categories in consideration -- overall quality, reliability, capabilities, expertise, compatibility and development.“Samsung BioLogics is honored to once again receive the CMO Leadership Award, which recognizes contract manufacturing organizations of the highest quality,” Sams

South Korea began to raise the hull of the sunken ferry Sewol late Wednesday after confirming all conditions were right to push the salvage operation forward, a government official said. "We started to raise the hull of the Sewol at 8:50 p.m. and expect 13 meters of the 22-meter-wide ferry hull to be above the surface at around 11 a.m. Thursday," said Song Sang-geun, a spokesman for the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.  The site of the Sewol ferry sinking off the country's southwestern coast ne

Hyundai Motor Co. has launched a Genesis premium sedan in Russia to gain a share in the emerging market, the company said Wednesday. The country's biggest carmaker by sales introduced the G80 sedan, an upgraded version of the second-generation Genesis (DH) unveiled in 2013, at an exhibition hall in Moscow. The prices range from 49.5 million won ($44,000) to 66 million won depending on features, a company spokesman said. "Overall vehicle demand in Russia is on the decline due mainly to low oil pr

South Korea won the Asian Women's Handball Championship on Wednesday with a 30-20 win over Japan at home.Host South Korea claimed its third straight Asian title at West Suwon Chilbo Gymnasium in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, thanks to Kim Jin-yi's team-high seven goals against the arch rival. Kim was also selected as the match MVP. South Korea's Choi Su-min (R) jumps to take a shot against Japanese players during the Asian Women's Handball Championship in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on March 22, 2017.

Bulgaria on Wednesday pledged to continue to take "all necessary measures" to implement the latest UN Security Council resolution adopted last year to punish North Korea for carrying out its fifth nuclear test.In a statement released by its foreign ministry, Bulgaria said its has implemented a fresh restriction on transactions in North Korean coal and reduced the number of staff at the North's diplomatic mission in its capital. The North Korean Embassy in Bulgaria (Yonhap)The Sofia government re

Olympus has launched its new surgical system integration solution Endoalpha, designed to improve work efficiency of endoscopy units and operating rooms inside hospitals of all sizes, in South Korea.Endoalpha brings multiple tasks -- such as operating diverse medical devices and sending endoscopic images and videos -- under a single network, so they can be controlled via a single smart touch panel.A model uses the smart touch panel from Olympus Korea’s newly-launched surgical system integration s

South Korean drugmaker Celltrion said Sunday that it does not expect to make changes to Celltrion Healthcare’s initial public offering timetable, brushing off concerns the listing process could be significantly delayed due to additional accounting inspections.The statement came following reports the Korean Institute of Certified Public Accountants has requested an in-depth audit into Celltrion Healthcare’s accounting methods, a move that could push back the firm’s IPO.Celltrion said it expects t

South Korean mobile game giant Netmarble Games is out to raise as much as 2.66 trillion won ($2.4 billion) in an initial public offering as it seeks new capital to fund its continued global expansion.Netmarble said Monday that it has submitted a securities report to the Financial Services Commission to sell 16.95 million shares at 121,000 won to 157,000 won apiece. The shares are to be listed on Korea’s main bourse Kospi.The final share pricing will be set on April 24, after which the shares wil

South Korean mobile messaging giant Kakao is moving to fulfill its corporate social responsibility with a unique, on-demand production system that benefits both small manufacturers and consumers — Kakao Makers.　Introduced in February 2016, Kakao Makers is a platform on which a company can present a product they plan to make and receive orders for a week. The firm will make that product only if it achieves the “minimum order quantity” — the number of units that must be produced and sold to make a