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INSPIRE rallies industry leaders to drive inbound tourism boom

INSPIRE Entertainment Resort said it hosted "Inbound Business Connect 2026" Wednesday, an event for inbound travel agencies and tourism industry stakeholders aimed at expanding international visitor numbers to Korea. The event, organized with the Korea Association of Travel Agents, drew about 250 participants, including agency member companies and other tourism industry representatives, INSPIRE said. The company used the gathering to showcase its tourism offerings, discuss strategies for attracting international guests and outline partnership programs, including casino incentive programs developed with its Casino Mass team. INSPIRE said the event was meant to build partnerships with the inbound travel sector as a channel for drawing international tourists and to develop new tourism products that combine its entertainment, hospitality and gaming facilities rather than focusing solely on accommodations. Participants also toured the resort and its Le Space venue. "Close collaboration with the inbound travel industry is essential to expanding international tourist visitation," said Kim Yu-na

Jul 9, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
INSPIRE rallies industry leaders to drive inbound tourism boom

CU convenience store chain opens 600th store in Mongolia

BGF Retail, operator of the CU convenience store chain, said it opened its 600th store in Mongolia, becoming the first Korean retailer to reach that milestone in a single overseas market, about eight years after opening its first store in the country in 2018. The store in the Bulgan Aimag region — about 600 kilometers west of the capital Ulaanbaatar — opened with a ceremony on June 26, which was attended by BGF Retail merchandising and overseas business head Jin Young-ho and Adilbish, chairman of Premium Nexus Group, CU's master franchise partner in Mongolia. The roughly 281-square-meter store sits along a highway route to Lake Khuvsgul, a popular tourist destination, and serves tourists and long-haul truckers. It includes shower facilities, solar power equipment and an electric vehicle charging station — Mongolia's first to be located at a convenience store — along with a section for locally-sourced food. Mongolian Prime Minister Uchral Nyam-Osor said the store's "Green Station" environmental model, developed through Premium Nexus Group's sustainability efforts, would serve as

Jul 9, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
CU convenience store chain opens 600th store in Mongolia

Hyundai Department Store opens 1st overseas flagship store in Tokyo

Hyundai Department Store is set to make a historic entry into Japan's retail landscape this Friday with the opening of its first overseas flagship store in Tokyo’s prestigious Omotesando shopping district. Operating under The Hyundai Global — the retail conglomerate’s specialized platform dedicated to exporting Korean fashion, beauty and entertainment brands — the launch marks the first time a Korean department store operator has established a large-scale flagship presence within a core Japanese shopping hub. Spanning approximately 620 square meters, the new venue, branded simply as The Hyundai, will occupy the third floor of the high-profile Tokyu Plaza Omokado shopping complex. The retail space is strategically organized into nine distinct sections, featuring seven permanent brand showcases and two dedicated pop-up spaces. The curated lineup covers fashion, beauty, food and beverage, and licensed entertainment content. To anchor its cultural appeal to regional consumers, the company has tapped K-pop boy group TWS to serve as the official brand ambassador. This flagship represe

Jul 9, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
Hyundai Department Store opens 1st overseas flagship store in Tokyo

SK bioscience secures WHO GMP approval via streamlined remote audit

SK bioscience completed on Thursday a periodic World Health Organization Good Manufacturing Practice (WHO GMP) review through a documentary assessment alone, without an on-site inspection, at its Andong L HOUSE manufacturing facility, the company said. According to the company, the three-year GMP review covered four WHO prequalification-approved vaccines: influenza vaccines SKYCellflu and SKYCellflu Quadrivalent, varicella vaccine SKYVaricella and typhoid vaccine SKYTyphoid. WHO GMP inspections typically require visits to production sites to verify manufacturing and quality management systems in person. For the Andong facility, the review was completed solely through submitted documentation, which SK bioscience said reflects WHO's confidence in the site's operations and quality systems. The company said the outcome is also linked to the growing international credibility of Korea's pharmaceutical regulatory system following the designation of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety as a WHO-Listed Authority. Under WHO's Regulatory Reliance policy, the organization can draw on the inspection r

Jul 9, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
SK bioscience secures WHO GMP approval via streamlined remote audit

LG Display study links higher refresh rates to better gaming performance

LG Display said it has completed an experiment and published a paper showing that higher refresh rates on gaming monitors improve players' real-time performance in first-person shooter games. The paper, "A Study on the Impact of Refresh Rate on Real-Time FPS Gaming Performance," found that players using monitors with higher refresh rates were better able to identify moving targets, improving both reaction speed and accuracy, the company said. The blind test involved 31 adult gamers who played a first-person shooter at four refresh rates — 60Hz, 240Hz, 360Hz and 480Hz — presented in random order. Researchers measured quantitative metrics including hit score and event interval time, as well as qualitative ratings on screen smoothness, ease of target tracking and overall preference on a five-point scale. Hit scores, a measure of shooting accuracy, improved 38 percent at 480Hz compared with 60Hz. The gain from 240Hz to 480Hz alone accounted for a 10 percent improvement, which LG Display said shows performance continues to rise as refresh rates increase, even from an already high baselin

Jul 9, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
LG Display study links higher refresh rates to better gaming performance

Nexen Group chairman donates $6.6 mil. in stocks to Pusan Nat'l University

Kang Byung-joong, chairman of Nexen Group, is donating 10 billion won ($6.6 million) of his personal Nexen Tire shares to Pusan National University, the tire maker said. Nexen Tire said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that Kang will donate 1,445,087 shares of the company, worth about 10 billion won ($6.6 million) at current market value, to the university's development foundation. "I'm pleased to be able to help Pusan National University at a time when universities are playing an important role in balanced national development alongside local communities and businesses," Kang said. "I hope more young people can dream and take on challenges in their own regions." Kang, who took charge of the foundation at Ibanseong Middle School in his hometown of Jinju in the mid-1970s, has supported education and cultural programs for five decades. Through personal donations and three foundations — the KNN Culture Foundation, the Nexen Wolseok Culture Foundation and the Wolseok Seondo Scholarship Foundation — he has given about 50 billion won and supported roughly 10,000 scholarship recipients, accord

Jul 9, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
Nexen Group chairman donates $6.6 mil. in stocks to Pusan Nat'l University

LS Electric targets growing ASEAN power market at Vietnam trade show

LS Electric is showcasing its integrated power and automation technology at ELECS Vietnam 2026, a trade show running from Wednesday through Friday at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in Ho Chi Minh City, as the company looks to expand in Southeast Asia's fast-growing electricity market. Occupying 16 booths across 144 square meters, the company secured the largest footprint among exhibitors. The expansive showcase is divided into four dedicated zones: artificial intelligence data centers, digital transformation, smart power management and smart factories. In the data center zone, LS Electric is presenting power infrastructure solutions designed for uninterrupted operation, including high-capacity remote power panels and closed transition transfer switches that allow seamless switching between utility and backup power. The digital transformation zone features K-EMS 2.0, a nationwide power grid management platform the company says is the fifth such system independently developed worldwide, which the company says can optimize power generation control and reduce the risk of large-

Jul 9, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
LS Electric targets growing ASEAN power market at Vietnam trade show

Hanwha Systems launches unmanned surface vessel for sea trials

Hanwha Systems, the defense arm of Hanwha Group, said Thursday it has launched a 30-ton-class unmanned surface vessel (USV) in the southeastern port city of Busan for sea trials to evaluate its operational capabilities. The company said the USV was launched near Gadeok Bridge in early June and has since been conducting sea trials between Busan and Jangmok Port on Geoje Island. The trials will evaluate the vessel's capabilities, including autonomous navigation through narrow waterways, safe operations in rough seas and strong winds, and long-range autonomous navigation over several hundred kilometers, the company said. The 30-ton vessel will serve as a testbed through the end of 2027 to validate artificial intelligence-based autonomous navigation technologies and open software architecture designed to comply with the U.S. Navy's Unmanned Maritime Autonomy Architecture (UMAA) standards. The company also plans to launch a 140-ton-class USV by the end of this year as it seeks to strengthen its position in the global market for unmanned maritime systems. Hanwha Systems has invested 70 billion

Jul 9, 2026By Yonhap
Hanwha Systems launches unmanned surface vessel for sea trials

SK Group chief to visit US for SK hynix's listing debut on Nasdaq

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won will visit the United States to attend a ceremony marking SK hynix Inc.'s listing of its American depositary receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq market, industry sources said Thursday. Chey is scheduled to attend Friday's (local time) listing ceremony in New York, alongside SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung and other senior executives, the sources said. During the event, Chey and the management team are expected to present SK hynix's technological competitiveness and long-term growth strategy to global investors. SK hynix plans to raise up to 45.45 trillion won ($29.4 billion) through a stock offering tied to its ADR listing to finance investments in production facilities. The company said the newly issued shares will be sold at 2.55 million won and listed on July 29, while each ADR will be priced at 255,500 won. The world's second-largest memory chipmaker said the proceeds will be used to build a new semiconductor fabrication plant and construct an advanced chip packaging facility in South Korea. The ADR listing follows the company's announcement in March that it would s

Jul 9, 2026By Yonhap
SK Group chief to visit US for SK hynix's listing debut on Nasdaq

Seoul, Busan grapple with rising costs of seniors' free subway rides

Seoul and Busan are facing mounting financial pressure from providing free subway rides to designated groups, raising concerns about the long-term sustainability of local governments' operation of the critical public transit system. The service, introduced in 1984 for people aged 65 or older, has now accumulated losses worth hundreds of billions of won for subway operators. While the ministries responsible for the laws underpinning the program have remained largely aloof to the growing financial strain, the only immediate relief in sight is a bill pending before a National Assembly standing committee. The losses are staggering, and as the population ages, the number of people who benefit from the service grows, fueling the problem. Seoul Metro, under the Seoul Metropolitan Government, operates subway lines 1 through 8 across Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province. Last year alone, it saw an operational deficit of 450 billion won ($290 million) from free rides, according to the National Assembly Research Service (NARS). That figure accounted for 54 percent of the company’s entire deficit

Jul 9, 2026By Ko Dong-hwan
Seoul, Busan grapple with rising costs of seniors' free subway rides
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