Business - The Korea Times

Coupang tops FTC fine among Korean conglomerates over past 3 years: report

Coupang Inc., a leading e-commerce company in South Korea, has received the largest amount of fines from the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) among conglomerates over the past three years, a parliamentary report showed Sunday. According to the report compiled by the FTC and submitted to Rep. Choo Kyung-ho of the main opposition People Power Party, Coupang was fined a total of 162.8 billion won ($114.3 million) from the first half of 2022 to the first half of this year. Last year, the FTC imposed the fine on the company for manipulating search algorithms to boost the "Coupang ranking" of its private-label and directly purchased products. Top carmaker Hyundai Motor Group followed with cumulative fines of 119.4 billion won, trailed by poultry-processing company Harim Group with 101.6 billion won and SK Group with 64.5 billion won. The top 10 conglomerates were fined a combined 744.6 billion won during the three-year period. Hyundai Department Store Group recorded the highest number of violations, 38 in total, mostly due to multiple collusion cases involving its furniture affiliate Hyundai Livart

Oct 19, 2025By Yonhap

Coupang tops FTC fine among Korean conglomerates over past 3 years: report

LG Innotek CEO shares career insights with KAIST students

LG Innotek CEO Moon Hyuk-soo shared his career journey from starting as an engineer to becoming CEO to students at his alma mater, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), the auto parts company said Sunday. Moon gave a lecture at KAIST’s Daejeon campus on Friday, discussing his experiences and ideas on career transitioning with more than 200 master’s students in attendance. Moon earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at KAIST and joined LG Cable — now LS Cable — in 1998, before moving to LG Innotek in 2009. At LG Innotek, he led the optical solutions business as a camera module expert. In 2023, he was appointed chief strategy officer and later that year became CEO. “You may think making good products is the ultimate goal for an engineer, but I believe it means little if you can’t sell them properly to customers,” Moon said. “I found it fascinating to meet customers in person, understand their needs and create added value for our products. My experience as an engineer helped me quickly grasp what customers wanted as a business leade

Oct 19, 2025By Nam Hyun-woo

LG Innotek CEO shares career insights with KAIST students

SK Energy apologizes over worker death in factory fire

SK Energy Co., a major oil refinery in South Korea, issued an apology Saturday over the death of a worker in a pipeline fire accident the day before. The fire broke out at an SK Energy factory in Ulsan, Friday, during maintenance work on hydrogen facilities, resulting in the death of one person and injuring four others. "We take responsibility for the accident at our Ulsan plant and view it as a serious matter," the company said in the written apology. "We will immediately provide all necessary support to the bereaved family (of the dead worker) and do our utmost to ensure the swift recovery of the injured workers," it added. SK Energy said it will "faithfully" cooperate with the investigative authorities to identify the cause of the accident and devise measures to prevent any recurrences.

Oct 18, 2025By Yonhap

SK Energy apologizes over worker death in factory fire

HD Hyundai promotes founder's grandson to chairman

HD Hyundai Executive Vice Chairman Chung Ki-sun was promoted to chairman Friday, ending three decades of management at the family-owned shipbuilding group by non-family executives. The 43-year-old’s elevation follows his promotion last year to executive vice chairman from vice chairman. Incumbent Chairman Kwon Oh-gap will step down from management after the shareholders’ meeting scheduled for March next year, as the 74-year-old has been named honorary chairman. Following an earlier-than-expected year-end executive reshuffle, HD Hyundai announced the promotion of Chung — one of the grandsons of late Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung and the eldest son of Asan Institute for Policy Studies Honorary Chairman Chung Mong-joon, the group’s largest shareholder. Chung’s father, who entered politics as a lawmaker in the late 1980s, has not been involved in the company's management since then. “The latest executive reshuffle reflects our determination to pioneer a new era under new leadership amid increasingly fierce and diversified global business environments,” an HD Hyundai offi

Oct 17, 2025By Park Jae-hyuk

HD Hyundai promotes founder's grandson to chairman

Biz leaders from Korea, Japan vow efforts for Seoul to join CPTPP

The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) and the Japan Business Federation, known as Keidanren, pledged Friday to coordinate efforts for the Korean government to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). During the 32nd Korea-Japan Business Summit in Tokyo, the two business associations agreed that Korea's CPTPP participation is crucial to responding to unstable global trade conditions triggered by U.S. protectionism and supply chain disruptions. “The participants shared the view that Korea’s membership would help Japan and other existing members stabilize supply chains and promote cooperation in the trade of advanced materials,” FKI said in a press release. The CPTPP, a multinational trade pact led by Japan, serves as a high-standard free trade agreement among member nations. It currently consists of 12 countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. Although both the liberal Moon Jae-in and conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administrations pursued CPTPP memb

Oct 17, 2025By Park Jae-hyuk

Biz leaders from Korea, Japan vow efforts for Seoul to join CPTPP

Cambodia risk weighs on LCCs

Local airlines are worried about reduced tourist demand for flights to Southeast Asia, as multiple reports of Koreans tortured and abducted in Cambodia escalate tourists' fears. Low-cost carriers (LCCs) with a heavy sales reliance on Southeast Asian countries are particularly exposed to the abrupt shift in sentiment on travel to Cambodia, as it may disrupt travel not just to Cambodia but also Vietnam and Thailand — two particularly popular destinations for Korean overseas travelers. According to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, more than 1.95 million tourists visited Southeast Asia in August, the second highest after Japan, which topped the list with 2.16 million. Compared to full-service carriers, LCCs have a limited revenue structure, generating most earnings from the operation of passenger routes to mid- to short-haul routes and limited long-haul flights. Even if fears surrounding Cambodia do not have an immediate influence on earnings, the situation bodes ill for the budget airlines' earnings outlook. According to data from market tracker FnGuide, most L

Oct 17, 2025By Lee Min-hyung

Korea is one of most important strategic partners in Asia: Airbus top executive

Calling Korea one of the most strategic partners in Asia, the head of Airbus Korea said Thursday that Airbus will continue contributing to the country’s industrial growth in aerospace and defense. “In 2024, Airbus carried out multiple projects worth hundreds of billions of won with Korea’s leading aviation and defense players, such as Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), Korean Air and LIG Nex1, and we will further expand these partnerships as Korea’s strategic importance continues to rise,” Airbus Chief Representative Korea Lee Hee-hwan said during a press conference in Seoul. The event took place ahead of the upcoming Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (ADEX) 2025, scheduled to run for five days starting Monday. Airbus plans to showcase its latest aircraft and a range of advanced aviation technologies at the event. Korea currently operates more than 160 Airbus commercial airplanes, 60 helicopters and 30 military transport aircraft. According to the Airbus executive, the country has forged multilateral partnerships with Airbus in areas such as the joint develop

Oct 16, 2025By Lee Min-hyung

Korea is one of most important strategic partners in Asia: Airbus top executive

Supreme Court eases control risk for SK chairman in divorce ruling

A Supreme Court decision Thursday to send back a lower court ruling on SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won’s divorce from his estranged wife, Roh Soh-yeong, for recalculation of the settlement amount has partially eased uncertainty over his control of Korea’s second-largest conglomerate. The top court's decision overturned a key reason behind the Seoul High Court’s May ruling that favored Roh. The lower court had accepted her claim that her father, former President Roh Tae-woo, had supported SK Group through an illegal slush fund worth 30 billion won ($22 million), thereby recognizing her contribution to the couple’s marital assets and ordering Chey to pay her 1.38 trillion won ($970 million). The Supreme Court ruled that the former president’s actions — even if proven — cannot be legally recognized, and that the money cannot be considered Roh's contribution when determining the division of assets. Given this, the high court is expected to take a closer look at the alleged slush fund and recalculate the couple’s marital property. ‘Sunkyong — 30 billion won’ The divorce c

Oct 16, 2025By Nam Hyun-woo

Supreme Court eases control risk for SK chairman in divorce ruling

Data breach scandals drag down telecoms’ Q3 earnings

The telecom sector is bracing for a steep drop in third-quarter earnings as the fallout from a series of cybersecurity incidents continues to weigh, with the combined operating profit of the three major telecoms — SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus — expected to slip below the 1 trillion won ($705 million) mark. According to financial data provider FnGuide, the three carriers’ aggregate third-quarter operating profit is projected at around 829.2 billion won, a roughly 33 percent fall year-on-year from more than 1.24 trillion won. The main reason behind the slump is SK Telecom’s large-scale leak of the universal subscriber identity module (USIM) data of nearly 27 million users. Analysts warn that the company could post its first quarterly loss since it began releasing earnings, with regulatory fines, compensation payouts and customer losses from the data breach dragging down its overall performance. The company’s third-quarter revenue is estimated at about 3.94 trillion won and operating profit at 43.7 billion won, plunging 12.96 percent and 91.8 percent, respectively, from the same pe

Oct 16, 2025By Lee Gyu-lee

Data breach scandals drag down telecoms’ Q3 earnings

PHOTO Partnership for West Coast Energy Expressway project

HD Hyundai Electric CEO Kim Young-ki, third from left, poses with Niklas Persson, second from left, managing director of Hitachi Energy's grid integration business unit, after signing a memorandum of understanding on the sidelines of the Korea-Sweden Sustainable Partnership Summit at Grand Hyatt Seoul, Thursday. The two companies agreed to cooperate in the high-voltage direct current transmission business to provide the Korean government with a transmission system for the West Coast Energy Expressway project. Courtesy of HD Hyundai Electric

Oct 16, 2025By Park Jae-hyuk

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