SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) – The operator of Incheon International Airport put up a notice of tender for the licenses to run duty-free shops at South Korea’s main gateway on Friday, it said, after retail giant Lotte decided to pull out following a plunge in the number of Chinese tourists. The business rights will be valid for five years, with the launch of [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) – Kakao Corp., a major mobile messenger service provider, said Friday it issued some 500,000 debit cards during the 90 days since the cards were launched. The operator of Kakao Talk began the debit card service in January to enter the offline payment business. While Kakao Corp. was already working with commercial banks and credit card firms, it decided to issue its own cards to enable offline use by more [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) – BHC Co., a local fried chicken franchise operator, said Friday it will invest 17 billion won (US$16 million) to create jobs for young people as the country struggles with high youth unemployment rate. The company said it will lend 15 billion won to young people to open branches of the fried chicken franchise free of interest and spend another 2 billion won in supporting their employment. BHC said it will lend 50 million to 200 million won per store with a 10-year [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) – President Moon Jae-in called for increased efforts Friday to improve working conditions of government officials and also ensure their political neutrality, saying public workers must only work for the good of the people. “We must straighten the relationships between the people and the government, the people and public offices to meet the people’s expectations. More simply, it [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) – Naver Corp., South Korea’s dominant Internet portal and search engine, said Friday that it has rolled out the mobile version of its latest web browser. The PC version of “Whale” initially debuted in October 2017. The browser features omnitasking — a split-screen function that allows users to browse two websites in the same tab. [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Seoul Metropolitan Government officials are looking for citizens and companies who have contributed to gender equality as part of the 2018 Seoul Gender Equality Awards. The city government said on Friday it is seeking candidates until May 15for its gender equality awards, which will be given to both women and [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — A renowned former Supreme Court justice has called on South Korea to acknowledge its involvement in the Vietnam War. Kim Young-ran, who proposed the Kim Young-ran Act, a self-titled anti-graft bill, said, “I want to prove that our country can acknowledge its own wrongdoings and is more than capable of [...]
SEOUL, April 12 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s nuclear safety agency said Thursday that it has approved the restarting of a reactor in the country’s southeastern region, with the unit expected to come online in the coming days. The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said it has confirmed the safety of the Kori 4 in an inspection following the reactor’s shutdown on March 28 last year due to [...]
SEOUL, April 12 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea and Sudan held a high-level policy consultation meeting on Thursday to discuss strengthening economic cooperation in the wake of the lifting of American sanctions on Sudan last year, the foreign ministry here said. Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Yun Kang-hyeon welcomed the lifting of 20-year-old sanctions and discussed cooperation with Sudan’s Undersecretary Abdel-ghani Elnaim, [...]
SEOUL, April 12 (Korea Bizwire) – “Face Yourself,” the latest Japanese release from boy band BTS, has become the fastest-selling K-pop album in Japan to date, according to the country’s main music sales tracker on Thursday. “Face Yourself,” the septet’s third Japanese studio album, released on April 2, sold 282,000 copies in its first week, reaching a new high for a South Korean artist in terms of [...]