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    Fried chicken chain bhc expands US footprint with first Virginia restaurant

    Korean fried chicken giant bhc is planting its flag in one of the Washington metropolitan area’s busiest commercial hubs, anchoring its latest push into the United States with its first Virginia location. The chain, operated by Dining Brands Group, said Monday it opened its Arlington location in the Ballston neighborhood of Arlington County, marking its debut in Virginia as the company continues to broaden its North American presence. The restaurant is located near offices, residential complexes, shopping centers and recreational facilities, with convenient access to the Ballston-MU Metro station. The company said the area, which borders Washington across the Potomac River, attracts a steady mix of office workers, residents and visitors, making it a strategic location for growth. The approximately 169-square-meter restaurant offers full-service dining with 32 seats across 15 tables. Its menu has been tailored to local dining preferences, featuring wing- and tender-based combo meals, chicken sandwiches, Crispy Bun sandwiches, cheese balls and fries. Reflecting the popularity of dipping sa

    2 MIN READBy Lee Kyung-min
    Fried chicken chain bhc expands US footprint with first Virginia restaurant
  • Banking & Finance

    Winners of the 22nd Economic Essay Contest

    2 MIN READBy Lee Yeon-woo
    Winners of the 22nd Economic Essay Contest
  • Tech & Science

    Science ministry vows $650 bil. investment in AI data centers

    2 MIN READBy Yonhap
    Science ministry vows $650 bil. investment in AI data centers
  • Others

    Korea launches K-Chicken Belt to boost gastronomy tourism

    3 MIN READBy Ko Dong-hwan
    Korea launches K-Chicken Belt to boost gastronomy tourism
  • Companies

    Samsung, partner firms sign agreement for mutual growth

    2 MIN READBy Nam Hyun-woo
    Samsung, partner firms sign agreement for mutual growth
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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

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Companies

Hyundai Motor chief clears away Trump risk with bold leadership

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun made headlines for his bold multibillion-dollar bet on the United States to immediately eliminate the carmaker’s mounting tariff risks there. Chung is widely known for his corporate management philosophy focusing on manpower and engineering technology. He stood at the forefront of the latest decision on a surprise $21 billion (31 trillion won) investment in the U.S. mainland. The investment drew praise from U.S. President Donald Trump and drastically reduced concerns about the effect of Trump's upcoming 25-percent auto tariffs on the carmaker. The third-generation heir to the group took office in 2020 as the highest-ranking executive. Under his leadership, Hyundai has solidified its position as the world’s third-largest carmaker in terms of global auto sales. Chung has also played a crucial role in the carmaker preemptively expanding its market influence in electric vehicles (EVs) and eco-friendly mobility, as evidenced by its solid EV sales in the U.S. Hyundai Motor and Kia sold more than 120,000 EVs combined last year in the world’

Mar 26, 2025By Lee Min-hyung
Hyundai Motor chief clears away Trump risk with bold leadership
Tech & Science

Microsoft CEO vows support for Korean firms in AI ecosystem

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pledged the U.S. tech giant’s support for Korean partner companies within its artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem during the Microsoft AI Tour in Seoul forum on Wednesday. Nadella visited Korea a day earlier to host the AI forum, which brought together Microsoft’s Korean partner firms to discuss their stronger partnerships. During his two-day stay in Seoul, he also met a slew of CEOs of big-name businesses, including KT CEO Kim Young-shub, LG Electronics CEO Cho Joo-wan and HD Hyundai CEO Chung Ki-sun. During his keynote speech, Nadella stated that AI is quickly changing daily life and ways of working in Korea, and Korean firms in consumer goods, energy and various industrial sectors are creating new growth opportunities by adopting AI. “We are a tech company that is fundamentally driven by our mission to empower every person and every organization, starting with one country and one community at a time,” Nadella said. “It matters that we come back here each year to see the innovation in Korea by Korean entrepreneurs, businesses and public sector t

Mar 26, 2025By Nam Hyun-woo
Microsoft CEO vows support for Korean firms in AI ecosystem
Banking & Finance

Financial groups vow to fortify internal controls amid employee misconduct, loan scandals

The country’s three leading financial groups — KB Kookmin, Shinhan and Woori — vowed to strengthen internal control measures at their respective shareholders’ meetings Wednesday in a collective move to address brewing public criticism over a slew of employee embezzlement cases and poorly granted loans. Also among the groups’ efforts to restore investor confidence and shareholder returns were KB’s appointment of a woman outside director, Woori’s policy exempting shareholders from 15.4 percent financial income tax and Shinhan’s ethical management. According to KB Financial, the former head of KT Capital, Cho Wha-joon, was appointed chair of the group’s board of directors. The measures are part of bolstering diversity in the makeup of the group’s top decision-making body. Cho succeeds Kwon Seon-joo, a former CEO of the state-run Industrial Bank of Korea. KB Financial Chairman Yang Jong-hee said the group would improve its corporate structure and advance the business model for management efficiency and innovation. KB's wealth management and small- and medium-sized enterpri

Mar 26, 2025By Lee Kyung-min
Financial groups vow to fortify internal controls amid employee misconduct, loan scandals
Banking & Finance

'De-Seoulization' critical to tackling low birthrate: BOK, Statistics Korea

Korea should promote decentralization, granting fiscal and policy autonomy to municipalities with populations between 5 million and 10 million to enhance economic growth and administrative efficiency, according to the country’s central bank and statistics agency, Wednesday. The "de-Seoulization" efforts will be further solidified through improvements in living conditions for highly skilled workers in research and development, as well as region-specific policies that ensure a steady inflow of investments. This will help reduce the economic polarization between the Seoul metropolitan area and the rest of the country, a gap that has widened since the 2000s, as reflected in low birthrates and sluggish economic growth. These were the key findings of a study jointly conducted by the Bank of Korea (BOK) and Statistics Korea, presented at a conference hosted by the central bank. Officials from state-run think tanks and economists also shared their insights. The current balanced growth initiative fails to account for the rapid population declines taking place in a number of cities, according to

Mar 26, 2025By Lee Kyung-min
'De-Seoulization' critical to tackling low birthrate: BOK, Statistics Korea
Companies

KSPO fuels Korean baseball fever with new lottery events

The Korea Sports Promotion Foundation (KSPO) has introduced new lottery events to boost the popularity of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League, the country’s professional baseball league. Sports Toto Korea, a private lottery business operator commissioned by the KSPO, launched a promotion event from Friday to April 20. The promotion came a day before the new baseball season kicked off on Saturday. Sports Toto Korea launched the promotion on its online platform, Betman. The promotion features three different types of events, offering online betting credits to raffle winners. Participants who place bets on the platform automatically become eligible for the random draw. An official from Sports Toto Korea said the promotion event will hopefully encourage more people to enjoy baseball. “We’ll keep introducing various promotion events to spread healthy sports betting culture across the country,” he said. Sports Toto Korea will announce the winners of the promotion’s raffles on Betman on April 25. The company reminded participants that online money prizes will become invalid if

Mar 26, 2025By Ko Dong-hwan
KSPO fuels Korean baseball fever with new lottery events
Companies

Naver founder Lee returns as company board chief amid push for sovereign AI leadership

Lee Hae-jin, the founder of Korea's leading online portal Naver, returned to the company's board as chairperson on Wednesday, signaling a push for a sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) strategy within the domestic tech industry. Lee's appointment as the chair of Naver's board was confirmed at the company's annual general shareholders' meeting held in Seongnam, south of Seoul. Lee, who has been serving as the company's global investment officer (GIO), will oversee Naver's overarching business strategies. He had previously stepped down as board chairperson in March 2017 and left the board entirely in 2018 to focus on expanding Naver's global footprint in his role as GIO. His return comes amid growing concerns that Korea is falling behind global tech giants in the fast-evolving space of AI model development. Naver is expected to bolster the development of HyperClova X, the company's proprietary LLM first introduced in 2023. The company aims to integrate AI across key services, including search and commerce platforms, to enhance its existing ecosystem. "I think it's incredibly unfortunate

Mar 26, 2025By yonhap
Naver founder Lee returns as company board chief amid push for sovereign AI leadership
Banking & Finance

Woori Bank to help foreigners find jobs in Korea

Woori Bank has signed a business agreement with JobKorea, the country’s leading job search platform, to provide a job matching service and enhance employment support for foreign residents in Korea, the bank said Wednesday. Starting in the first half of this year, foreign nationals seeking jobs in Korea will be able to easily access job listings and recruitment information provided by JobKorea through the bank’s foreigner-exclusive platform, Woori WON Global. The customized mobile banking service enables foreign customers to conveniently access financial services such as account inquiries, transfers and international remittances in 17 languages, as well as essential daily life services, including departure maturity insurance services. “We hope this new service will assist our foreign customers in overcoming language barriers and limited access to job information,” a Woori Bank official said. “As the number of foreign residents in Korea has exceeded 2.65 million and continues to rise, we are committed to offering not just financial services but also a range of tailored services

Mar 26, 2025By Jun Ji-hye
Woori Bank to help foreigners find jobs in Korea
Companies

Regulator on lookout for best option for MG Non-Life Insurance amid liquidation woes

The country's financial regulator is working to find a feasible and desirable option for financially feeble MG Non-Life Insurance, its chief said Wednesday, as the insurer is facing a looming liquidation. Earlier this month, Meritz Financial Group decided to drop its status of preferred bidder for the non-life insurer, citing differences with its labor union over job security. After being designated as a financially weak company by the financial watchdog in April 2022, MG Non-Life Insurance has been on the selling block. So far, four rounds of a sale bid to sell the insurer have fallen through. Kim Byoung-hwan, the chief of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), said there are very limited options for the insurer. "We are closely analyzing what is a feasible and desirable option (for MG Non-Life Insurance)," Kim said, adding the insurer will be dealt with in accordance with laws and principles. According to the regulator, the insurer's financial footing has continued to weaken. The insurer's capital adequacy ratio under the Korean Insurance Capital Standard (K-ICS), a barometer of a finan

Mar 26, 2025By yonhap
Regulator on lookout for best option for MG Non-Life Insurance amid liquidation woes
Companies

Seegene presents model use case for Microsoft's AI solution at Seoul forum

Seegene, a Korean diagnostics solutions company, showcased its use of Microsoft’s artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in expediting diagnostic reagent development processes during the U.S. tech company’s AI forum in Seoul Wednesday. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella arrived in Korea Tuesday for the Microsoft AI Tour in Seoul forum, which brought together Korean firms involved in Microsoft’s AI ecosystem to present their model use cases to participants. According to participants of the closed-door event, Seegene participated in a panel discussion on the health-care industry and introduced the company’s plans to leverage Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service in its diagnostic reagent development processes. Azure OpenAI provides application programming interface access to OpenAI’s language models, such as GPT-4, through Microsoft’s secure cloud platform, Azure, enabling developers to integrate AI functions into their applications. During the panel discussion, Baek Young-seok, Seegene’s head of strategy and planning, introduced the company’s initiative to upgrade its automated dev

Mar 26, 2025By Nam Hyun-woo
Seegene presents model use case for Microsoft's AI solution at Seoul forum
Banking & Finance

IBK head apologizes for $60.2 mil. in improper loans

Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) CEO Kim Sung-tae issued an apology Wednesday and announced a comprehensive reform plan in response to the Financial Supervisory Service's (FSS) findings on improper lending practices totaling 88.2 billion won ($60.2 million). "I extend my sincere apologies to our customers and the public who may have been disappointed by this incident," Kim said. "We will take the FSS audit findings as an opportunity for serious reflection and will make every effort to restore trust." Kim delivered the apology during a meeting at IBK's headquarters attended by all senior executives of the bank, following the FSS announcement on Tuesday. The investigation revealed that a retiree with 14 years of work experience at IBK engaged in real estate development and colluded with 28 IBK employees. These included his spouse, who still works at the bank, colleagues and business associates. Between June 2017 and July 2024, the retiree submitted falsified loan documents, with IBK employees either conspiring with him or turning a blind eye to the misconduct. With additional minor cases inc

Mar 26, 2025By Lee Yeon-woo
IBK head apologizes for $60.2 mil. in improper loans
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