SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s No. 2 online game developer NCsoft , facing a possible hostile takeover by top player Nexon, joined Tuesday with a smaller local rival to protect its management control, as the dispute is about to reach a boiling point ahead of NCsoft’s crucial shareholders meeting slated for next month. [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean actor Bae Yong-joon, also known as “Yon-sama” to his Japanese fans, has ended his romantic relationship with his lover from a chaebol family, his management agency said Tuesday. The 42-year-old actor has been dating Koo So-hee, second daughter of Koo Ja-kyun, CEO of LS Industrial Systems affiliated with [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — The Rodong Shinmun, North Korea’s state daily, reported that its supreme leader Kim Jong-un flew over the capital city of Pyongyang to monitor a new large-scale housing complex being built for scientists on February 15. The released photos show Kim enjoying a bird’s-eye view of the project from his luxurious plane. [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) – It is reported that average jeonse deposits for apartments in Seoul have reached as much as six years’ income for an urban laborer household, which means that the average household would have to save all of their income for six years in order to rent a Seoul apartment. Although the [...]
JINCHEON, Korea, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) – Frustration against the factory farms of large-sized livestock raising and distribution companies is growing among local farmers following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. According to officials from Jeungpyeong and Jincheon counties in North Chucheong Province, local farmers are asking for the withdrawal of factory farms run by large companies, as [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korea Petroleum Quality & Distribution Authority (K-Petro) has announced plans to conduct a free verification service to identify fake versus genuine gasoline. The Korean government has been conducting an all-out war on fake gasoline over the past several years, implementing various measures including fines and other penalties. K-Petro’s [...]
POHANG, Korea, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Officials from the Pohang police department arrested two individuals who illegally distributed female and baby snow crabs, on February 15. Both catching and distributing female and baby snow crabs are prohibited under Korean law. The two culprits kept 1,450 female snow crabs and 8,600 baby crabs in a tank [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – A not-so-funny thing has happened recently, in that the only IKEA store in Korea could not provide enough pencils for its customers. IKEA’s self-service checkout system requires the use of a pencil for customers to write down product numbers or the location of display stands. On February 9, a [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – This year, it is expected that Korea will exceed a per capita income of US$30,000. However, in spite of rising incomes, the quality of life of members of the Korean middle class has worsened over the past 20 years, mainly due to rising housing costs. In particular, skyrocketing jeonse leases [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – Korean marines joined Asia-Pacific’s largest annual multinational military exercise, Cobra Gold, which started in Thailand from February 9 to 20, and has been held since 1981. This year, Korea dispatched 36 marine scouts and 14 officers for field exercises and staff planning exercises. Korea has been participating in the training [...]