Miracell unveils Korea’s first AI voice system for hospitals

Korean stem cell research company Miracell has introduced the nation’s first generative AI-powered voice consultation system designed for medical institutions. Co-developed with Europe-based Vee, a Warsaw-listed AI company, the solution marks a major shift in health care automation. The company said Monday it has secured exclusive distribution rights for Vee’s AI solution across Asia and is working closely with Vee Korea to customize the system for local hospitals. Unlike traditional rule-based

July 25, 2025

Samsung's new foldables hit shelves, with preorders at all-time high

Samsung Electronics on Friday began sales of its latest foldable smartphones — the Galaxy Z Flip7 and Z Fold7 — along with the Galaxy Watch8 series in Korea. The new foldable phones garnered record-breaking domestic preorders, reaching 1.04 million units during the seven-day preorder period that ended Monday. The figure surpasses the previous record held by the Z Flip5 and Z Fold5 models by 20,000 units, marking the highest preorder sales in the history of Galaxy foldables. Compared to last year

July 25, 2025

KB Financial posts record half-year profit of W3.4tr

KB Financial Group posted a cumulative net profit of roughly 3.4 trillion won ($2.5 billion) in the first two quarters, setting a new high for its half-year performance. The finance giant announced its earnings Thursday, reporting record-high results for both the half-year and the quarter. It logged a net profit of 3.44 trillion won in the first half of 2025, marking a 23.8 percent increase on-year. The second-quarter net profit also rose by 2.4 percent to 1.74 trillion won on-year. KB Financial

July 24, 2025

Korea Medical Institute earns WHO Health Promoting Hospitals certification

Korea Medical Institute, which operates medical checkup centers across the country, announced Tuesday that it received official certification on July 15 from the World Health Organization’s Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services network. The WHO-HPH program, joined by more than 600 institutions in 30 countries, evaluates whether health care providers have systems that meet international standards for health promotion — going beyond medical treatment to include community wellness efforts.

July 24, 2025

US delays crucial ‘2+2’ trade meeting with Korea

A high-level trade meeting between South Korea and the US was abruptly called off Thursday, just one day before it was set to take place in Washington, due to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's "urgent schedule." The delay has sparked concerns in Seoul as next week's tariff deadline approaches with insufficient time for a potential breakthrough. South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Koo Yoon-cheol was set to depart for Washington when the US notified Seoul of the last-minut

July 24, 2025

SK hynix posts record quarterly profit on AI chip boom

SK hynix, the world's top memory chip-maker by revenue, hit an all-time high quarterly operating profit of 9.2 trillion won ($6.73 billion) in the April-June period, thanks to soaring demand for its high bandwidth memory chips, a core component in AI processing. Reporting the second quarter's earnings, the company said it aims to double HBM sales and shipments this year compared to 2024, as well as increase its capital expenditure beyond its initial plans for rising HBM demand starting in 2026.

July 24, 2025

[Photo News] MetLife CEO reaffirms Korea focus

MetLife President and CEO Michel Khalaf speaks during a town hall meeting with employees at the insurer’s Korean headquarters Thursday in Seoul, marking his third visit to the country. Khalaf reaffirmed the New York-based insurance group’s commitment to Korea, calling it a key market and the company’s fifth largest. “We see ourselves playing a pivotal role in helping our customers plan for the future, and we’ve built a highly professional team to deliver on these ambitions in Korea,” he said. (M

July 24, 2025

New oceans minister vows efforts to turn Busan into hub for maritime industry

The new oceans minister vowed Thursday to transform the southeastern city of Busan into the forefront of South Korea's maritime industry in the envisioned era of Arctic shipping routes. "With the relocation of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries to Busan, the government will bring together administrative, industrial and financial functions in the city to open a new frontier in maritime and fisheries while laying the foundation for a new leap forward of the sectors," Oceans Minister Chun Jae-soo

July 24, 2025

Korea’s dried seaweed went global. Now, it’s going green

Among South Korea’s ocean bounty, one standout is seaweed, most iconically in its dried form, known in Korean as "gim." While many Koreans now take quiet pride in seeing this humble staple elevated to a global delicacy, only a handful have considered its promise beyond the plate. Seaweed, after all, is giving back to the very waters that once gave it life -- as a source of climate solutions now taking root in Korea. According to the World Bank’s 2023 Global Seaweed Markets Report, seaweed is a p

July 23, 2025

HD Hyundai starts joint shipbuilding venture in US

HD Hyundai has begun taking steps to build ships in the United States in partnership with Edison Chouest Offshore, the Korean shipbuilding conglomerate said Wednesday. According to the company, a delegation of more than ten key executives and engineers from ECO, including its CEO Dino Chouest, visited Korea on Tuesday to discuss detailed plans for the joint shipbuilding project with HD Hyundai. The ECO delegation visited HD Hyundai’s Global R&D Center in Gyeonggi Province and the dockyards of HD

July 23, 2025

[Contribution] It’s the economy

By Daniel Lam “It is the economy, stupid!” This quote from Bill Clinton, during the 1992 US presidential campaign, still rings in the minds of many. There were periods when this mattered less for markets, for example, during the times when monetary policy was extremely easy, such as when the Fed was conducting so-called "quantitative easing." Back then, investors were buying US equities on the back of bad economic data, knowing that the Fed would backstop equity markets and come to the rescue in

July 23, 2025

'Make KorUS Great Again’: PM urges deeper Seoul-Washington ties

"Make KorUS Great Again," declared South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok on Tuesday, as he called for a renewed Korea-US alliance grounded in shared democratic values and future industries in the face of shifting global economic and security dynamics. Speaking at a policy seminar hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, Kim emphasized the Lee Jae Myung administration's commitment to a deeper strategic alignment with the US. “I understand the efforts of the US to pursue a stronger

July 22, 2025

Checks, gaps, global voices: The evolving face of Korea’s bank governance

South Korea’s financial giants have been working to shed their long-standing reputation for rubber-stamp governance, as diversity and boardroom expertise have visibly improved. Yet, with CEOs and legacy ties still exerting implicit power in some high-level conference rooms, the extent to which boards can hold management accountable remains in question. All four of Korea's top financial groups now have at least two female outside directors, with women holding an average of 32 percent of those sea

July 22, 2025

Power or oversight? The role of board chairs at Korea’s top banks

As global investors turn a sharper eye toward corporate governance in South Korea’s financial sector, scrutiny is intensifying around the leadership of the country’s top financial groups — KB, Shinhan, Hana and Woori. Boardroom composition, once treated as a procedural matter by companies, now speaks volumes about their strategic priorities and governance culture. In particular, the identity and independence of board chairs have become bellwethers for how each group balances executive power, ove

July 22, 2025

LG aims for global AI elite with next-gen Exaone platform

LG AI Research unveiled on Tuesday its evolving Exaone ecosystem, introducing a series of its latest and newly developed Exaone-based AI models and services co-developed with global partners. At the “LG AI Talk Concert 2025” held at LG Sciencepark in Seoul, the institute showcased its lineup of AI innovations built on proprietary foundation models, including Exaone 4.0, Korea’s first hybrid AI model combining reasoning and generative capabilities and Exaone Path 2.0, a precision medical AI syste

July 22, 2025