Business - The Korea Times

Naver Connect Foundation partners with SNU on AI talent development

Naver Connect Foundation and Seoul National University (SNU) on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding to expand artificial intelligence (AI) education and talent development in Korea. Under the agreement, the two institutions will jointly develop and operate AI education programs and support university students across the country in accessing quality training. They also plan to pursue joint research and explore new education models on an ongoing basis. The partnership will launch with the AI Agent Challenge, a hands-on program for 200 students from 10 regional national universities conducted in cooperation with SNU's University Alliance Regional Talent Development Center. Participants will design and build AI agents to address problems encountered in daily life. Developers and planners from the Naver group of companies will serve as mentors, providing group feedback and lectures to help students build practical skills. Naver Connect Foundation said it has worked to bring practical AI education to university settings. A course on AI-assisted frontend development, co-developed with S

May 29, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan

Naver Connect Foundation partners with SNU on AI talent development

Korean Air, Asiana complete joint emergency drill ahead of merger

Korean Air said Thursday it has successfully completed a joint emergency evacuation drill with Asiana Airlines cabin crew, a key milestone in the two carriers' ongoing integration process. The drill, conducted this week at Korean Air's headquarters and cabin training center in western Seoul under the supervision of aviation safety inspectors from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, marked the first time the two airlines' cabin crew have trained together across two different aircraft types simultaneously. Some 200 executives, employees and ministry officials attended the training, including Korean Air Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Woo Kee-hong. Twenty-eight cabin crew members — 14 from each airline — took part alongside eight Korean Air flight crew. The drill covered four areas: oral examinations on emergency landing and ditching equipment, a life raft boarding demonstration, an aborted takeoff evacuation on a Boeing 737-900 simulating an engine fire during the takeoff roll, and a water ditching evacuation on a Boeing 787-9 simulating a dual-engine failure requirin

May 29, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan

Korean Air, Asiana complete joint emergency drill ahead of merger

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

Demands from labor union 'huge burden' on company, says Kakao's management

Kakao said Friday a compensation package demanded by its union could place a huge burden on the company's operations, after workers said they would proceed with a strike next month. The official statement came after Kakao's management and its labor union failed to reach an agreement in the second round of negotiations mediated by the government. Unionized workers at Kakao's five units, including its headquarters, Kakao Pay and Kakao Enterprise, had previously voted in favor of a walkout. "The total amount of compensation package demanded by the union is on the level that could place a huge burden on the company's operations," the operator of South Korea's popular messenger app said in an official statement. Early this month, Kakao's union said the company has offered only "limited" compensation to its employees, while compensation for its executives grew, despite the company posting record profits in recent years. The members are seeking to redesign its performance-based incentive structure to include restricted stock units, a form of equity compensation given out by the company. Kakao req

May 29, 2026By Yonhap

Demands from labor union 'huge burden' on company, says Kakao's management

Korea's HMM finalizes plan to repair vessel stricken in Hormuz Strait

Korean shipper HMM has completed plans to repair one of its vessels that was attacked in the Strait of Hormuz early this month, industry sources said Thursday. The repair work on the HMM Namu will take place at Drydocks World in Dubai, the largest ship repair facility in the Middle East, and is expected to take more than two months, the sources added. HMM is said to have secured a route to get the necessary parts to the stricken vessel, but have yet to assess the total cost associated with getting the ship in working order again. On Wednesday, the government concluded that the "unidentified airborne objects" that struck the Namu were likely "Noor-series anti-ship missiles developed by Iran." The announcement followed a weekslong probe into the incident, which included onsite inspections as well as a detailed analysis of debris from the missiles.

May 28, 2026By Yonhap

Korea's HMM finalizes plan to repair vessel stricken in Hormuz Strait

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

Hyundai Mobis releases mobility software in open-source project

Hyundai Mobis is accelerating its mobility software development through the adoption of an open-source approach. By publicly releasing internally developed technologies, the company is moving to enable more developers to create value out of Hyundai Mobis’ software and ultimately establish it as an industry standard. To this end, Hyundai Mobis said Thursday that it has joined the software-defined vehicle (SDV) working group under the Eclipse Foundation, the world’s largest nonprofit open-source development association, and will participate in the S-Core Project to develop an SDV software platform. The S-Core Project is a global initiative launched — primarily by European companies — in late 2024 to standardize foundational technologies such as software platforms and middleware. It is the first open-source-based software platform development project to meet ASIL-B, the automotive industry's functional safety standard. Currently, a total of 13 companies are participating in the project and prioritizing the implementation of core technologies required for SDVs, as standardized founda

May 28, 2026By Lee Min-hyung

Hyundai Mobis releases mobility software in open-source project

Hillstate Seonam Lake Park opens sales amid Ulsan housing market rebound

Ulsan’s housing market is showing clear signs of recovery as key indicators improve, with apartment prices, transaction volumes and unsold inventories all moving in a positive direction. According to data from the Korea Real Estate Board, apartment prices in Ulsan rose a cumulative 2.1 percent in 2025, marking the highest increase among noncapital metropolitan areas nationwide. Ulsan is a city in the nation's southeast most famous for Korea’s industrial powerhouses in areas, such as automobiles, shipyards and refineries. The upward trend has continued this year, with the city recording a cumulative housing price increase of 1.68 percent as of the first week of April, the second-highest growth rate in the country after Seoul. The number of unsold homes has also declined sharply. Ulsan’s unsold housing inventory fell from 3,811 units in February 2025 to 1,402 units in January 2026, a decline of roughly 63.2 percent over the course of a year — the steepest drop among major cities and provinces nationwide. Against this backdrop, Hillstate Seonam Lake Park, a new residential complex b

May 28, 2026

Hillstate Seonam Lake Park opens sales amid Ulsan housing market rebound

KEPCO launches Guam power plant, expands overseas energy portfolio

Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) commissioned the Ukudu combined cycle power plant in Guam on Thursday (local time), marking a major step in strengthening its overseas energy portfolio. The state-run utility said it held an inauguration ceremony for the new plant, joined by Guam government officials including Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and representatives from Korean organizations such as Korea East-West Power (EWP) and Doosan Enerbility. Ahead of the ceremenomy, KEPCO CEO Kim Dong-cheol met with the governor and officials from the Guam Power Authority (GPA) to outline Korea’s advanced energy technologies and discuss cooperation. The parties have agreed to share the vision for supporting Guam’s carbon neutrality goals and to expand long-term cooperation across future energy businesses. The Ukudu plant, with a capacity of 198 megawatts, is jointly owned by KEPCO, which holds a 60 percent stake, and EWP, which owns the remaining 40 percent. The facility is capable of supplying around 75 percent of Guam’s peak electricity demand, positioning it as a critical baseload asset in a region wi

May 28, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee

KEPCO launches Guam power plant, expands overseas energy portfolio

FTC’s decision to revive conglomerate probe unit feared to stifle corporate activities

The Fair Trade Commission's (FTC) move to revive a long-defunct investigation bureau is reigniting debate over whether the step will strengthen market oversight or further weigh on corporate sentiment. The antitrust watchdog said it will launch a new Key Investigation Planning Bureau to handle large-scale violations involving online platforms, monopolistic practices and major conglomerates. The unit is widely viewed as a revival of the FTC’s former Investigation Bureau, which was dismantled in 2005 amid criticism that it excessively interfered in corporate management activities. The previous bureau had gained notoriety for conducting sweeping investigations into major business groups, often dubbed the “grim reaper of the business community.” FTC Chairman Ju Biung-ghi said the new body would function as a specialized organization capable of quickly identifying and correcting complex, high-profile cases. “It will serve as a rapid-response task force that can improve the speed and effectiveness of investigations when nationwide consumer damages issues arise,” Ju told reporters duri