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Ko Dong-hwan

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Companies

CJ chairman bolsters US presence with Olive Young, CheilJedang

CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun visited the group's key outposts in the United States, as the conglomerate ramps up efforts to expand its global footprint through CJ CheilJedang and Olive Young. Lee visited Olive Young Pasadena in California on Friday (local time) to mark the store's opening, CJ Group said Sunday. It was the Korean beauty retailer brand’s first offline store outside the country. CJ Corp. CEO Kim Hong-ki, CJ Olive Young CEO Lee Sun-jung and Head of CJ Future Strategy Group Lee Sun-ho, who is the chairman's eldest son, joined the visit. Having established itself as a go-to spot for tourists in Korea, the store drew a long line during its opening day and attracted local media coverage. “This is our first step into the U.S., the world's largest market, and a great beginning for our journey to the rest of the world,” the CJ Group chairman said. “Beyond K-beauty and K-wellness, we must spread a healthy and stylish lifestyle culture into the daily lives of American customers.” He said Olive Young should be a portal for global trades for small- and medium-size enterprise

May 31, 2026By Ko Dong-hwan
CJ chairman bolsters US presence with Olive Young, CheilJedang
Companies

HD Hyundai chairman honors war heroes

HD Hyundai Group Chairman Chung Ki-sun spared time to pay respect to war heroes buried at national cemeteries in Korea as June marks the Month of Patriots and Veterans. Chung and 200 employees of the group visited the Seoul National Cemetery and other sites managed by the government in Yeongcheon City, North Gyeongsang Province, and Goesan County, North Chungcheong Province, the company said Sunday. HD Construction Equipment President and CEO Moon Jae-young joined Chung. At the Seoul National Cemetery in Dongjak District, Chung laid flowers and burned an incense to pay tribute. At the cemetery's Zone 25, he removed weeds and cleaned gravestones. Chung previously visited a national cemetery in Manila, Philippines, and sought fallen heroes of the 1950-53 Korean War while visiting the country as part of Korea’s national economic envoy last March. Chung’s visit to the Seoul cemetery involved the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs to build overseas commemorative facilities for Korean War heroes. The first such project will tak

May 31, 2026By Ko Dong-hwan
HD Hyundai chairman honors war heroes
Companies

City Oil Field signs Korea’s 1st export deal for recycled naphtha feedstock

City Oil Field, a company specializing in technologies that convert waste plastics into high-quality oil, said Friday that WAVE Jeongeup and Trafigura have signed a sales contract covering the entire output of naphtha-grade recycled feedstock produced at the former. WAVE Jeongeup is a facility that uses City Oil Field’s proprietary noncombustion low-temperature pyrolysis technology. The company said the deal marks the first overseas export of recycled feedstock produced with Korean-developed technology, signaling the beginning of its efforts to build a global supply chain. According to the company, the agreement also marks the first export of ISCC PLUS-certified, naphtha-grade recycled feedstock made from waste plastics to a global commodities company such as Trafigura. The company said the deal goes beyond conventional plastic recycling, as recycled feedstock produced with Korean-developed technology has been incorporated into a global petrochemical supply chain. It added that the global recycled naphtha market has so far been dominated by Northern European and major global energy com

May 29, 2026By Ko Dong-hwan
City Oil Field signs Korea’s 1st export deal for recycled naphtha feedstock
Companies

HD Hyundai ramps up bid to win Canadian submarine contract

Major shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has cemented its ties with key shipyards in Canada as the Korean firm's consortium seeks to win Canada's $40 billion submarine construction project. The company said Thursday that Park Yong-yeol, head of its Naval Ship Division, met with Davie Shipbuilding CEO James Davies at the Canadian firm's office in Ottawa, Ontario. Established in the early 1900s, Davie Shipbuilding is Canada’s largest shipbuilder, with a portfolio ranging from icebreakers to maritime plants and combat support ships. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries said Park and Davies discussed how collaboration between the two companies can improve the Canadian shipbuilding sector. The Korean firm said that potential cooperation with Davie Shipbuilding, which has a subsidiary shipyard in Helsinki, will be able to use the Finnish operation to expand the pair’s global markets to the northern hemisphere. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, which is jointly pursuing Canada’s submarine project with Hanwha Ocean under a consortium, proposed a supplementary business package worth trillions of wo

May 28, 2026By Ko Dong-hwan
HD Hyundai ramps up bid to win Canadian submarine contract
Companies

Alibaba.com unveils Accio Work AI platform for Korean SMEs

E-commerce giant Alibaba.com announced Thursday the launch of Accio Work, a new artificial intelligence (AI)-based business support system designed to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Korea more easily reach global consumers. The subsidiary of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group said Accio Work’s agentic AI performs tasks automatically for entrepreneurs, including one-person companies, with a level of efficiency typically available only to large corporations. “AI is no longer a futuristic technology. It is a core infrastructure changing ways of business operations right now,” said Shawn Yang, general manager for the APAC region at Alibaba.com, at a press conference in Seoul. “Accio Work brings a large-size company’s operational efficiency to SMEs and one-person startups, allowing them to debut the global market.” The AI agent in Accio Work automatically tackles the entire business process, from market research to product planning, sourcing, price negotiations, product registration, global marketing and store operations. A core feature is that, beyon

May 28, 2026By Ko Dong-hwan
Alibaba.com unveils Accio Work AI platform for Korean SMEs
Companies

Starbucks fiasco puts Shinsegae under financial strain

Starbucks Korea’s recent marketing blunder, seen as mocking the country’s democracy movements of the 1980s and leading to widespread public outrage, is posing a financial risk to Shinsegae Group, the retail conglomerate that controls the coffee chain through its affiliate Emart. Starbucks Korea has become a core business for the conglomerate, which has 59 subsidiaries. The fallout from the controversy surrounding a promotional event called “Tank Day,” which launched on May 18, has raised questions over whether the cafe chain will face challenges from the blowback and create a negative impact on the conglomerate headed by Chairman Chung Yong-jin. One of the financial risks is a possible loss of 640 billion won ($427 million) if Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. seeks to buy Starbucks Korea back from Emart. The scenario is plausible, thanks to a call option agreed on by the U.S. company and Emart in 2021. At the time, Emart acquired an additional 700,000 shares in unlisted Starbucks Korea from Starbucks Coffee International (SCI), the overseas business and licensing arm of Starbucks

May 28, 2026By Ko Dong-hwan
Starbucks fiasco puts Shinsegae under financial strain
Companies

Incheon airport to expand Smart Pass corridors for faster boarding

Incheon International Airport will increase Smart Pass corridors to boost convenience for users of the smartphone app that allows faster identification process for boarding passengers. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on Wednesday it will increase Smart Pass entry points at Terminal 2 from two to three starting Thursday. Terminal 1 will also add a second Smart Pass entrance. With the expansion, Smart Pass corridors will account for 31 percent of all departure entrances at the airport. The government said up to 50 percent of departure entrances at the country's largest airport will be equipped with Smart Pass corridors by October. The system expansion addresses complaints that the three existing Smart Pass corridors are insufficient for handling growing passenger demand. The corridors’ locations, concentrated outside the terminals’ central areas, lowered accessibility. Smart Pass users, once joined by nonusers in security lines, said they could not feel the app’s purported rapid boarding process. Due to these inconveniences, passengers using Smart Pass only ac

May 27, 2026By Ko Dong-hwan
Incheon airport to expand Smart Pass corridors for faster boarding
Companies

Cosmax breaks down K-beauty at New York Suppliers’ Day

Cosmetic original design manufacturer Cosmax highlighted latest cosmetic technologies and market trends at a global forum in New York, where a special session was dedicated to K-beauty and its worldwide boom. This year’s New York Society of Cosmetic Chemists (NYSCC) Suppliers’ Day, held May 19-20, dedicated a session to examining technologies and principles developed by Korean companies. Cosmax said Tuesday that two of its officials took part in the large-scale program titled “Next Generation K-Beauty Trend.” The NYSCC said the session was aimed at highlighting a “global phenomenon in which the popularity of K-beauty has evolved beyond a passing trend into a global movement.” Cosmax officials and other experts at the forum pointed to “K-skincare philosophy” as a key reason for K-beauty’s global success. They analyzed that an approach prioritizing “prevention” and “skin-first” health has resonated with global consumers via social media, driving the continuous growth and global expansion of Korean beauty products. They added that while the skin care market previou

May 26, 2026By Ko Dong-hwan
Cosmax breaks down K-beauty at New York Suppliers’ Day
Companies

Starbucks Korea crisis blamed on historical ignorance, approval chain failure

A lack of sensitivity toward one of the country’s defining pro-democracy movements, along with a broken approval chain that failed to screen for potential issues, were identified as the main causes behind Starbucks Korea’s recent marketing fiasco, which critics said inappropriately referenced Korea’s democratization movement of the 1980s. Four executives of Shinsegae Group, whose affiliate Emart is the largest shareholder of the coffee chain operator, on Tuesday disclosed the findings of a weeklong internal investigation into Starbucks Korea following the launch of the controversial “Tank Day” promotion on May 18. They admitted there were “serious loopholes in the company’s system for marketing planning and risk management.” Shinsegae Group said the “Tank Day” promotion, launched on the same date as the annual commemoration of the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising, was conceived and submitted for approval by five employees in Starbucks Korea’s e-commerce division. The investigation found that some of the employees lacked sufficient awareness of the country’s democ

May 26, 2026By Ko Dong-hwan
Starbucks Korea crisis blamed on historical ignorance, approval chain failure
  • Beleaguered Shinsegae chairman apologizes for Starbucks crisis
Companies

Beleaguered Shinsegae chairman apologizes for Starbucks crisis

Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin apologized to the public in person on Tuesday for the controversial "Tank Day" marketing event by Starbucks Korea, which has been criticized for disparaging the 1980 Gwangju Uprising and pro-democracy movement. The apology came eight days after the coffee chain's campaign was released on May 18, the anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising. It was the chairman's first in-person apology since he took over the group's leadership in March 2024. On May 19, he issued a written apology over the promotion. Emart, a Shinsegae Group affiliate, is the largest shareholder of Starbucks Korea. "Regardless of the reason, the fact that we have hurt the hearts of our citizens carries a heavy responsibility," Chung said during a press conference in southern Seoul. "I will make no excuses. All responsibility for this matter lies with me. It is my fault." He continued, “Everyone at Shinsegae, including myself, will remember our society's history and sacrifices, and always deeply understand and respect the hearts of the public." Chung said his group would review internal

May 26, 2026By Ko Dong-hwan
Beleaguered Shinsegae chairman apologizes for Starbucks crisis
  • Starbucks Korea crisis blamed on historical ignorance, approval chain failure
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