Netmarble confirms additional leak of 8,000 personal data records following major hacking incident

South Korean gaming giant Netmarble Corp. has identified an additional leak of around 8,000 personal data records, the company said Wednesday, following a hacking incident that exposed the information of 6.11 million users. Netmarble said in a notice posted on its website that the newly confirmed breach was uncovered during an internal investigation conducted after the initial cyber intrusion. According to the company, the newly leaked data includes various information, including 3,185 customer

Dec. 3, 2025

Samsung's GDDR7 wins Presidential Prize as key memory in AI era

Samsung’s 24-gigabit GDDR7 DRAM, introduced in late 2024, has received South Korea’s top government technology award just as it nears commercial deployment in next-generation graphics processing units and artificial intelligence systems. Awarded the Presidential Prize at the 2025 Korea Tech Festival on Wednesday, Samsung’s chip is recognized for both technical innovation and its growing role in the AI hardware market. Built on a 12-nanometer process, the GDDR7 chip delivers a peak bandwidth of 4

Dec. 3, 2025

LG Innotek to showcase auto tech vision at CES 2026

LG Innotek will use CES 2026 to introduce a more consumer-facing vision of its automotive technology, unveiling integrated systems for autonomous driving and electric vehicles that go beyond its traditional role as a camera component supplier for global device brands like Apple. The company said Wednesday that it plans to install two full-scale vehicle mockups at the entrance of the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall during CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, which runs from

Dec. 3, 2025

Seoul shares up over 1% on positive Q3 GDP report; won rises slightly

Seoul shares shot up more than 1 percent to close above the 4,000 point mark Wednesday as investors' sentiment was boosted after the Bank of Korea said the economy expanded at the fastest pace in nearly four years in the third quarter on strong exports. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 41.37 points, or 1.04 percent, to close at 4,036.3. It was the first time the index finished above 4,000 since Nov. 20. Trade volume was low at 286 m

Dec. 3, 2025

Yuhan-Kimberly wins presidential honor for recycling innovation

Yuhan-Kimberly, the nation's leading hygiene product manufacturer, received a presidential citation Tuesday for its contributions to resource recycling and greenhouse gas reduction. The company was honored for its “Bi:Cycle” campaign, a recycling initiative carried out with 35 partners including companies, local governments and public institutions. Yuhan-Kimberly supplies around 10,000 tons of Kleenex hand towels annually. Although dried hand towels are recyclable, most have long been discarded

Dec. 3, 2025

SK Biopharm secures Actinium-225 supply in Europe with Eckert & Ziegler deal

SK Biopharmaceuticals said Wednesday it has signed a supply agreement with Germany’s Eckert & Ziegler, a leading radioisotope company, to procure Actinium-225 — a critical material used in next-generation cancer therapies. The deal establishes a European supply base for the company’s radiopharmaceutical pipeline, helping secure access to a resource considered essential for successful drug development. Actinium-225 is a key isotope used in radiopharmaceutical therapy, a targeted treatment that de

Dec. 3, 2025

Shinhan chair's Ddangyo bet: How finance giant disrupted food delivery

When Shinhan Financial Group Chair Jin Ok-dong sent his bank into the food delivery business, critics scoffed at the idea of a financial giant chasing chicken-and-beer orders. But four years later, Ddangyo — Shinhan’s ultra-low-fee delivery app — is rewriting the rules of competition in Korea’s delivery market and reframing how a bank can wield its power for social impact. For Jin, Ddangyo was never about chasing tech multiples. It was a business expression of his long-held principle that financ

Dec. 3, 2025

Coupang executive sell-off draws scrutiny

Senior executives at Coupang sold troves of company stock in mid-November — days before the company formally disclosed a massive data breach — timing that has sparked investor concern despite the trades being officially preplanned. According to US Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Chief Financial Officer Gaurav Anand sold 75,350 shares on Nov. 10 at $29.02 apiece, totaling about $2.2 million. Pranam Kolari, then the vice president of engineering responsible for search and recommendatio

Dec. 3, 2025

Doosan Bobcat in talks to acquire Germany’s Wacker Neuson

Doosan Bobcat is in talks to acquire Wacker Neuson, a German construction equipment-maker, in a move that could expand the South Korean industrial machinery builder's presence in Europe. Wacker Neuson confirmed earlier media reports on Tuesday, disclosing that its executive board is in “advanced discussion” with Doosan Bobcat regarding a possible acquisition of a majority stake in the company. It added that Doosan Bobcat is considering purchasing about 63 percent of the company’s share from majo

Dec. 3, 2025

Samsung SDI wins top tech award for ESS safety innovation

Samsung SDI said Wednesday it has received the Minister of Trade, Industry, and Resources Award at the 2025 Korea Tech Festival, recognized for breakthrough technologies enhancing the safety and cost-efficiency of energy storage systems. The honor, presented at Coex in southern Seoul, makes Samsung SDI the only Korean battery-maker recognized this year with a Republic of Korea Technology Award, the nation’s highest technical distinction. The awarded technology powers the Samsung Battery Box, an

Dec. 3, 2025

Olive Young hits W1tr in sales to foreign tourists

CJ Olive Young said Wednesday its offline store purchases by foreign tourists surpassed 1 trillion won ($680 million) this year through November, propelled by growing global interest in Korean beauty. This figure represents a roughly 26-fold surge from 2022, when Korea was emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. Foreign shoppers made up just 2 percent of offline sales that year, before climbing into the double digits in 2023 and surpassing 25 percent in 2024, the retailer said. To capture rising de

Dec. 3, 2025

Seoul shares open slightly higher on Wall Street gains

South Korean stocks opened slightly higher Wednesday tracking overnight gains on Wall Street led by improved appetite for tech shares. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 3.72 points, or 0.09 percent, to 3,998.65 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 added 0.25 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.39 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite increased 0.59 percent. In Seoul, top tech giant Samsung Electronics rose 1.16 percen

Dec. 3, 2025

S. Korea's foreign reserves rise to over 3-yr high in Nov.

South Korea's foreign reserves rose for the sixth consecutive month in November to reach a three-year high, the central bank said Wednesday. The country's foreign reserves had stood at $430.66 billion as of end-November, up $1.84 billion from a month earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea. It marked the highest level since August 2022, when the figure stood at $436.43 billion. The increase was largely attributable to an increase in investment income and a rise in foreign currency

Dec. 3, 2025

S. Korea posts 1.3% Q3 GDP growth, faster than initial estimate: BOK

South Korea's economy expanded at the fastest pace in nearly four years in the third quarter, buoyed by strong exports and improving private consumption, central bank data showed Wednesday. The real gross domestic product rose 1.3 percent in the July-September period from the previous quarter, 0.1 percentage point higher than the earlier estimate, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. The reading marked the fastest quarterly expansion since the fourth quarter of 2021, when the ec

Dec. 3, 2025

OECD maintains S. Korea's 2025 growth outlook at 1 pct, projects improvement in 2026

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Tuesday maintained its growth forecast for the South Korean economy at 1 percent this year, while projecting an improvement in 2026, according to Seoul's finance ministry. "Growth is picking up," the OECD said in a report released by the ministry, noting the country's real gross domestic product, a key measure of economic growth, is expected to weaken to 1 percent in 2025 before rising to 2.1 percent both in 2026 and 2027. The latest 2

Dec. 2, 2025