Tag: South Korea

China’s Exports Surge Are Drawing a Global Backlash

China’s factory exports are powering ahead faster than almost anyone expected, putting jobs around the world in jeopardy and setting off a backlash that is gaining momentum. From steel and cars to consumer electronics and solar panels, Chinese factories are finding more overseas buyers for goods. The world’s appetite for its goods is welcomed by […]

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How Regulations Fractured Apple’s App Store

Since introducing the App Store in 2008, Apple has run it largely the same way across 175 countries, right down to the 30 percent commission it has collected on every app sold. The company calls the result an economic miracle. The store has generated more than $1 trillion in sales, helped create more than seven […]

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Why Women Outnumber Men in South Korea’s Sports Stadiums

Each time the South Korean men’s soccer team scored against Singapore during a recent 5-0 rout in a World Cup qualifier, the roar from the home crowd came largely from women, who held nearly two-thirds of the tickets to the match. In the Seoul stadium that November day, a billboard-size banner for the star striker […]

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South Korea’s Antitrust Enforcers Aimed at Big Tech. Then Came the Backlash.

The South Korean government unleashed a wave of panic across the internet industry: The country’s antitrust regulator said it would enact the toughest competition law outside Europe, curbing the influence of major technology companies. The Korea Fair Trade Commission, with the backing of President Yoon Suk Yeol, said in December that it planned to make […]

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Samsung’s Lee Jae-yong Acquitted in Stock, Accounting Fraud Case

A South Korean court on Monday acquitted Lee Jae-yong, Samsung’s top executive, on charges of stock price manipulation and accounting fraud, the latest twist in the billionaire’s legal troubles tied to a merger that helped him secure control of the nation’s largest company. Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of five years and a fine […]

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Copper Innovation Technologies New Flexible Copper-Clad Laminated Film (FCCL)

Copper Innovation Technologies (CIT, official site) is a company we’ve had an opportunity to talk to around the December to CES 2024 timeframe. They developed a new Copper-Clad Laminated Film (FCCL) technology to improve electronic data transmission by reducing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The FCCL principle works as follow: a copper layer is somehow bonded […]

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A Spy Cam. A Dior Pouch. And South Korea’s First Lady.

The president was grappling with a slowing economy, a deadly crowd crush and nuclear threats from a belligerent neighbor. Then came a much more personal scandal: spy cam footage that showed his wife accepting a $2,200 Dior pouch as a gift. It has quickly escalated into one of the biggest political crises for President Yoon […]

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The Quiet Luxury of South Korea’s Postpartum Care Centers

Four mothers sat quietly in the nursing room around midnight, breastfeeding their newborn babies. As one mother nodded off, her eyelids heavy after giving birth less than two weeks earlier, a nurse came in and whisked her baby away. The exhausted new mom returned to her private room to sleep. Sleep is just one of […]

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U.S. Is Watching North Korea for Signs of Lethal Military Action

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, could take some form of lethal military action against South Korea in the coming months after having shifted to a policy of open hostility, U.S. officials say. The officials have assessed that Mr. Kim’s recent harder line is part of a pattern of provocations, but that his declarations have been […]

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South Korean Politician Is Attacked in Seoul

A person struck a South Korean lawmaker in the head with a blunt object in Seoul on Thursday, causing injuries that were not life-threatening, according to her staff and physicians. Bae Hyunjin, of the ruling People Power Party, is the second South Korean politician to be physically assaulted while in public in less than a […]

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Is North Korea Planning a War?

North Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells in waters near South Korean border islands on Jan. 5. Last week, it said it no longer regarded the South as inhabited by “fellow countrymen” but as a “hostile state” it would subjugate through a nuclear war. On Friday, it said it had tested an underwater nuclear drone […]

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​North Korea Says It No Longer Wants to Reunify With South Korea

North Korea’s approach toward South Korea has swayed widely over the past decades. While it has often called the South its “sworn” and “principal enemy” and threatened to “annihilate” it with nuclear weapons, at times it has also engaged in dialogue and discussed a possible reunification. But, according to state media reports on Tuesday, North […]

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South Korea Bans Dog Meat, a Now-Unpopular Custom

South Korea’s lawmakers on Tuesday outlawed the breeding, slaughter and sale of dogs for human consumption, a centuries-old practice that is unpopular and rare today. Dog meat was once more common, and remained so in the decades after the Korean War when the country was destitute and meat was scarce. It is used in a […]

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Attack on Opposition Leader Raises Alarms in Divided South Korea

The man accused of stabbing Lee Jae-myung, the leader of South Korea’s main opposition party, in the neck had been stalking him in recent weeks, including attending a political event where Mr. Lee was present on Dec. 13, apparently captured on video there wearing a blue paper crown, the police say. At a rally on […]

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Israel’s Landmark Ruling, and a Mickey Mouse Copyright Expires

The New York Times Audio app is home to journalism and storytelling, and provides news, depth and serendipity. If you haven’t already, download it here — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. The Headlines brings you the biggest stories of the day from the Times journalists […]

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Death of ‘Parasite’ Star Highlights South Korea’s Crackdown on Drugs

Lee Sun-kyun, the “Parasite” actor who was found dead on Wednesday, was far from the only celebrity entangled in South Korea’s latest antidrug crackdown. Yoo Ah-in, the actor known for his roles in the 2018 film “Burning” and the 2021 Netflix series “Hellbound,” is facing trial after testing positive for propofol, marijuana, ketamine and cocaine, […]

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In South Korea, Hard Line on Drugs Strains Suspected Users

Lee Sun-kyun, the “Parasite” actor who was found dead on Wednesday, was far from the only celebrity entangled in South Korea’s latest antidrug crackdown. Yoo Ah-in, the actor known for his roles in the 2018 film “Burning” and the 2021 Netflix series “Hellbound,” is facing trial after testing positive for propofol, marijuana, ketamine and cocaine, […]

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‘Parasite’ Actor Dies of Suspected Suicide Following Drug Investigation

Actor Lee Sun Kyun receives the award for “Excellent Achievement in Film” during the introduction of the “Killing Romance” Midwest premiere on October 07, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images) A lead actor in the Oscar-winning movie Parasite has died in an apparent suicide as he was being investigated by South Korean authorities drug […]

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Kim Jong Un Drops the Biggest Hint Yet About His Successor

There is growing evidence that the “most beloved” daughter of the North Korean Supreme Leader could be the chosen heir to the world’s only communist dynasty.  State-controlled media and Kim Jong Un himself have begun referring to Kim Ju Ae as “General Morning Star” following the launch of North Korea’s first spy satellite last month, […]

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‘Parasite’ Actor Lee Sun-kyun Dies Amid Drug Use Allegations

Lee Sun-kyun, the South Korean actor who rose to international fame after starring in the Oscar-winning film “Parasite,” was found dead in Seoul on Wednesday. He was 48. Mr. Lee had recently been under police investigation on suspicion of illegal drug use, and he denied the accusations. The police said they were investigating the death […]

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Seeking a Big Edge in A.I., South Korean Firms Think Smaller

ChatGPT, Bard, Claude. The world’s most popular and successful chatbots are trained on data scraped from vast swaths of the internet, mirroring the cultural and linguistic dominance of the English language and Western perspectives. This has raised alarms about the lack of diversity in artificial intelligence. There is also the worry that the technology will […]

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Family Split at LG, a South Korean Giant, Tests Corporate Succession

When Koo Bon-moo, chairman of South Korean conglomerate LG, died in 2018, there wasn’t much question, at least publicly, of who would next preside over the company. LG, a $10 billion corporate empire, is governed by the principle of male primogeniture. Succession was effectively settled 14 years earlier when Mr. Koo and his wife adopted […]

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All 7 Members of BTS Are Now in Military Service in South Korea

Fans of the K-pop band BTS have known for years that a day would come when its seven members would all be doing mandatory service in the South Korean military. That day arrived on Tuesday. For many BTS fans, who happen to call themselves Army, seeing their favorite musicians enter the armed forces was as […]

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Twitch plans to shut down in South Korea on February 27, 2024

Do you want to get the latest gaming industry news straight to your inbox? Sign up for our daily and weekly newsletters here. Games livestreaming platform Twitch is shutting down its business operations in South Korea February 27, 2024. According to a blog post from CEO Dan Clancy, South Korea was “prohibitively expensive” to operate […]

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North Korea Launches Rocket With Its First Spy Satellite

SEOUL — North Korea launched a rocket on ​Tuesday in what South Korea​ said was an attempt to put its first military reconnaissance satellite in orbit, this time with technological help from Russia. The rocket ​flew to the south over the sea between the Korean Peninsula and China, ​the South Korean military said in a […]

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Korean President’s Battle Against ‘Fake News’ Alarms Critics

Allies of President Yoon Suk Yeol are attacking what they see as an existential threat to South Korea, and they are mincing few words. The head of Mr. Yoon’s party has called for the death sentence for a case of “high treason.” The culture ministry has vowed to root out what it called an “organized […]

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What South Korea’s Frequent Protests Say About Its Politics

A recent rally in Seoul carried the sound of a rock festival — high-amp speakers throbbing with the K-pop hit “Gangnam Style” — if not the look of one. The crowd of mostly elderly people waved South Korean and American flags to the song’s revised refrain: “Anti-communist style!” When speaker after speaker revved up the […]

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North Korea May Have Seen Little Benefit in Keeping Travis King

When Pvt. ​Travis T. King fled to North Korea in July, he looked like a potential propaganda bonanza for Kim Jong-un’s government. He was the first American soldier to cross from South Korea into the North since 1982. The North Korean state media claimed that Private King, who is Black, had complained of racial discrimination […]

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