SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Battery stocks, long sidelined by a global slowdown in electric vehicle demand, are staging a sharp comeback in South Korea’s exchange-traded fund market, buoyed by growing investor optimism around the emerging humanoid robot industry. Data released Friday by Koscom show that battery-related ETFs dominated the top of last week’s [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea on Friday rejected claims by U.S.-based investors in Coupang that the government had targeted the e-commerce giant, calling their use of remarks by Prime Minister Kim Min-seok in a planned international arbitration case a “deliberate distortion.” The Office for Government Policy Coordination said an arbitration notice submitted [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Hyundai Motor Group’s ambitious plan to position humanoid robots as a pillar of its future growth is facing stiff internal resistance, as labor leaders move to block the introduction of robots on production lines without formal agreement. The conflict emerged this week after Hyundai’s powerful labor union warned that no [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul metropolitan government said Thursday it has granted conditional approval for a major BTS comeback performance scheduled for March at Gwanghwamun Square, setting the stage for one of the city’s largest cultural events in recent years. The decision was made during the city’s first Gwanghwamun Square advisory committee meeting [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s climate and environment authorities said Thursday they will begin formally managing insects that appear in large numbers in urban areas, responding to a rise in outbreaks linked to climate change. The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment announced that so-called “urban mass-occurrence insects,” including the red-backed lovebug, will [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — More than six in 10 men and women experiencing menopause in South Korea say their spouse is their most important source of emotional support, according to a new study highlighting shifting family dynamics in midlife. The findings were released Thursday by the LifePlus Femtech Research Institute of Hanwha General Insurance, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will allow middle and high school students to use credit cards issued in their own names under a family card system, part of a broader regulatory overhaul aimed at adapting the financial sector to a cashless economy. The Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service said Thursday [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s pharmaceutical industry has opened the year with intensifying competition in the hypertension treatment market, as drugmakers race to secure an early foothold in one of the country’s largest and most lucrative therapeutic segments. With an estimated 10 million patients and a market valued at roughly 2.4 trillion won, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Two major U.S. investment firms backing Coupang have asked the United States government to investigate what they describe as discriminatory treatment by South Korean authorities, raising the prospect that a domestic regulatory dispute could escalate into a bilateral trade issue. Reuters reported Thursay that Green Oaks Capital and Altimeter Capital [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s benchmark stock index surged past the long-symbolic 5,000 mark on Thursday, propelled not by a single sector but by a widening rally that rotated from semiconductors into automobiles, defense, nuclear power and other heavyweight industries. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or KOSPI, climbed 1.89 percent in early [...]