SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will strengthen its public system for supplying essential medicines and medical devices in 2026, seeking to prevent treatment disruptions and reduce patients’ financial burdens, the government said this week. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said it will expand emergency import programs for rare and essential drugs, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s race to build a homegrown artificial intelligence foundation model has drawn scrutiny, as SK Telecom moved this week to rebut claims that its flagship system borrows too heavily from a Chinese rival. SK Telecom said on Thursday that its large language model, A.X K1, submitted to the government’s [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Unverified health claims promoting butter as a cure-all—from cancer remission to weight control and even children’s brain development—are spreading rapidly across social media in South Korea, prompting warnings from medical and nutrition experts about potential health risks. Videos circulating on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok urge viewers to [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — When an elderly man in his 80s fell from his bed in a home in Daejeon last November, it was not a family member or a phone call that brought help, but a caregiving robot. The device detected the emergency, issued an alert and guided firefighters to the scene, allowing [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – The head of LG Electronics Inc. said the company’s CLOiD home robot will play a key role in realizing the company’s “Zero Labor Home” vision in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), according to the company Thursday. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lyu Jae-cheol, who took the position in November, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Louis Vuitton has reopened its flagship Dosan store in Seoul’s Gangnam district following a renovation that commemorates the 130th anniversary of the brand’s iconic monogram, the company said Wednesday. The refurbishment pays tribute to the monogram design created in 1896 by Georges Vuitton in honor of his father, Louis Vuitton, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean consumers remain steered toward costly mobile phone plans even after the repeal of the nation’s handset distribution law, a new survey has found, raising questions about whether recent deregulation has meaningfully expanded consumer choice. According to a report released Thursday by the Korea Consumer Federation, discounts and benefits [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics posted a sharp rebound in earnings in the fourth quarter of 2025, buoyed by a surge in its semiconductor business, but the results also exposed widening disparities across its non-chip divisions as rising component costs weighed on consumer electronics. The company said Thursday that preliminary fourth-quarter revenue reached [...]
LAS VEGAS•SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Hyundai Motor Group placed robotics, rather than automobiles, at the center of its CES 2026 showcase in Las Vegas this week, signaling a strategic push to bring artificial intelligence–driven robots from research labs into factories and everyday life. Under the theme “AI Robotics, Beyond the Lab and Into Life,” [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans spend nearly 250 million won (about $190,000) per person on medical care over their lifetimes, according to a new analysis that underscores how rapidly rising healthcare costs are becoming concentrated in old age as the population grows older. A report released Wednesday by the Health Insurance Research Institute [...]