SPOTLIGHT

• Social affairs

  

  Hydrogen tank explosion kills 2 in Gangneung

  A hydrogen tank explosion killed two people and left six injured in the eastern city of Gangneung in South Korea, the firefighting authorities said Thursday. One was seriously injured and five others suffered minor injuries when the hydrogen tank blew up at Gangwon Technopark, a factory-type venture complex, in Gangneung, 240 kilometers east of Seoul, a spokeswoman at Gangwon Fire Headquarters said over the phone."We immediately deployed firefighters to the scene after receiving a call at 6

• World News

  

  Taiwan holds first gay marriages in historic day for Asia

  TAIPEI (AFP) -- Taiwan made history on Friday with Asia's first legal gay weddings as same-sex couples tied the knot in jubilant and emotional scenes, the culmination of a three-decade fight for equality.The weddings, which came a week after lawmakers took the unprecedented decision to legalise gay marriage despite staunch conservative opposition, places Taiwan at the vanguard of the burgeoning gay rights movement in Asia.Some dozen couples were among the first to arrive at a government office i

• Film

  

  ‘A Boy and Sungreen,’ a pleasant and loveable coming-of-age story

  Director Ahn Ju-young’s first feature film is not a masterpiece, yet it has a strange appeal to it.The narrative and the plot are a bit plain, and I felt like Ahn dropped the ball a bit in the climax, but it is well-cast, the two leads are fantastic and work extremely well together and the tone of the film is adorable. The small-budget film is getting barely any exposure, and without any big names and standout effects will likely drown rather quickly in sea of blockbuster films. But I feel like

• Technology

  

  Seoul to become first global city to use 5G network in public transit

  SK Telecom and Seoul city government agree to develop 5G-based map for self-driving cars

LATEST NEWS

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  Defense

  S. Korea to stage new civilian-military exercise next week

  South Korea plans to launch a new civilian-military exercise next week to better brace for various contingencies, the defense and interior ministries said Friday, the latest in a series of reorganizations of defense drills to support peace efforts with North Korea.The inaugural Ulchi Taegeuk exercise will take place from May 27-30 involving around 480,000 civilians, government officials and armed service members from about 4,000 government and related agencies, the ministries said. Replacing the

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  Defense

  US commander says Pyongyang’s recent missile launches ‘routine military activities’

  Gen. Robert Abrams, the top commander of the combined forces here, said the recent launches of short-range missiles by North Korea were part of routine military exercises and that the security situation on the Korean Peninsula has not changed. During a symposium in Honolulu on Wednesday, Abrams said joint military exercises between South Korea and the US were suspended in consideration of diplomatic efforts made by the two governments with North Korea. Abrams serves as the commander of the Unite

• 

  Industry

  Posco begins collective bargaining with union

  Posco, South Korea's top steelmaker, said Friday it has started this year's collective bargaining with its union.The union has made various requests to the management, including a base pay increase and an extension of the retirement age. Posco currently has two labor unions, but the one affiliated with the Federation of Korean Trade Union is recognized as the representing union with more than 6,600 members after receiving approval from the National Labor Relations Commission last December. 

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  North Korea

  Unification minister hopes better inter-Korean ties lead to resumption of nuclear talks

  Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said Friday that he will work hard to advance inter-Korean relations so as to resume the stalled denuclearization talks between the United States and North Korea."We will do our best to steadily improve inter-Korean relations in a way that will lead to the resumption of North Korea-US talks at an early date," Kim said at a forum in Seoul. "Despite the lull since the Hanoi summit, North Korea and the US still maintain the principle of resolving th

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  Economy

  Moon meets farmers planting rice in Gyeongju

  President Moon Jae-in visited a southeastern rural village Friday to encourage farmers who were busy planting rice. He briefly planted rice himself and attended the test operation of an agricultural drone and a self-driving rice-planting device in Oksan village in Gyeongju, 371 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to his office, Cheong Wa Dae."Given the reality of rural areas suffering difficulties from the aging population and labor shortages, there's a desperate need to develop and sp

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  Social affairs

  One Navy officer dead, four injured in accident involving destroyer docked at port

  One Navy officer was killed and four others were injured Friday in an accident involving a destroyer that returned home after a mission in waters off Somalia.The accident occurred at 10:15 a.m. at a naval base in the southern port city of Jinhae when a rope used to connect the 4,400-ton Choi Young destroyer to the dock snapped with a bang for an unknown reason, according to officials. A welcoming ceremony was being held at the time at the port to mark the safe return of the vessel that had been

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  Food

  Packages and promotions

  Avocado afternoon at Grand InterContinental Seoul ParnasLobby Lounge at Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas presents the Avocado Royal High Tea Set.The set offers avocado cream dacquoise; avocado scones with clotted cream; avocado brownies; brioche sandwich with roasted avocado; roasted avocado stuffed with mushroom, spinach and chicken; and avocado salad with harissa shrimp. Guests can choose either coffee or tea to accompany the food. The set costs 75,000 won person. It is available from 2 p.m

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  Film

  Movies in theaters this week

  The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil(Korea)Opened May 15Crime, ActionDirected by Lee Won-taeA notorious gangster Jang Dong-soo (Ma Dong-seok) narrowly survives a random attack by a serial killer, and sets out to bring justice to his attacker in his own way: by brutally murdering him. At the same time, a cop Jung Tae-suk (Kim Mu-yeol) seeks to arrest the killer. The two men join forces to form the most unorthodox and perilous team, which will break down the moment they locate Kang.Miss & Mrs. Cop

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  Travel

  Festivals, sights across Korea

  Everland Rose FestivalLaunched in 1985, the long-running Everland Rose Festival opens every year in May. This year it continues until June 16. With a 20,000-square-meter rose garden, visitors can see various kinds of flowers while enjoying the amusement park.It is held inside Everland, South Korea’s largest theme park in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, and is open to visitors of all ages.To find out more about the event, including admission fees and how to get there, visit the homepage at everl

• 

  Industry

  Green magic blooms in heart of Seoul

  Farming in the densely populated city of Seoul is nothing new. Many urban farmers make use of vacant spaces on top of apartment buildings, schools and public buildings to grow vegetables. Some rent privately owned spaces to start their own green experiments. As of 2017, Seoul had 170 hectares of these farms, about the size of 238 soccer fields combined. In 2011, the figure was 29 hectares. The Seoul Metropolitan Government is a key backer of this growing urban farming trend.Earlier this year, it

GRAPHIC NEWS

OPINION

• Columnists

  

  Trump confronts China's tech threat

  Huawei’s name is often translated in English as “Chinese excellence.” The Trump administration last week embarked on a campaign to rebrand the tech giant, in effect, as a “Chinese threat” and check its expansion in the West. The Huawei assault may be the Trump administration’s most important long-term strategic decision, because it confronts China’s technological challenge to America head on. The goal is to prevent Huawei from dominating 5G wireless communications, the next phase of the digital

• Columnists

  

  Insatiable ‘historians,’ enough is enough

  Korea today has an abundant supply of photo artists, poets and historians. New smartphones are equipped with high-definition cameras of 12 to 16 megapixels, which can produce great pictures. But our amateur photographers, many of whom are old, need something different. They go about on city streets, mountains and seashores carrying branded cameras -- the digital version -- with long lenses and even tripods to take thousands of shots of anything within their sight. Poets, of course self-styled, m

THE INVESTOR

• Startups & Investors

  

  Wongnai aims to become Thailand’s Naver

  BANGKOK -- Thailand-based restaurant review platform operator Wongnai founder and CEO Yod Chinsupakul wants to turn the startup into a tech company that can run internet portals and search engines. “In South Korea, there is Naver. In Thailand, we don’t have a tech company doing something like this. Whatever it takes, and how long it takes, we need to make a big tech company in Thailand,” Chinsupaku said in an interview with The Investor. He also added that Thailand needs a unicorn and he hopes t

• Startups & Investors

  

  Exit Daejeon announces W14.2b startup funding agreement

  DAEJEON -- Startups from across South Korea, global startup community leaders and representatives of Daejeon Metropolitan City flocked to Daejeon Convention Center on May 23 to mark the end of the three-day Exit Daejeon 2019 event. Located some 140 kilometers south of Seoul, Daejeon served as a venue where local startups were given an opportunity for more international exposure. In the meantime, global startup community organizers like Slush and Junction, as well as early-stage startup investors

• Deals

  

  Corrugated fiberboard maker Tailim put up for sale

  South Korea’s biggest corrugated fiberboard makers Tailim Packaging and Tailim Paper are up for sale, according to industry sources on May 23. Seoul-based private equity firm IMM PE, the largest shareholder of the two companies, has sent out a memorandum to a dozen potential buyers via the deal manager, Morgan Stanley, sources said. The expected price for a 70.9 percent stake in Tailim Packaging and 100 percent of Tailim Paper ranges from 650 billion won ($546 million) to 1 trillion won. Tailim

• Industrials

  

  K-water hosts global forum to address water scarcity

  Experts discuss measures to tackle severe drought DAEJEON -- Scientists, government officials and representatives of global environmental organizations gathered in Daejeon City on Thursday to discuss water shortage around the world and possible response measures at the 2019 International Drought Forum.Organized jointly by Korea Water Resources Corp., or K-water, the South Korean Ministry of Environment and Asia Water Council, the forum running through Friday touches upon a range of issues relate

K-POP HERALD

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  R&B Singer Katie is ready to step back into the spotlight

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  Katie: “Log” review -- a rising R&B star

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  [V Report] BTS teases live-streaming of upcoming London concert

HERALD INTERVIEW

• Technology

  

  The Shortcut to train talent from diverse backgrounds

• Technology

  

  Line pushes Thai startups to scale up

• Food

  

  What makes a good bar, and a good bartender

• Technology

  

  ‘Fortnite billionaire’ envisions VR social media

PHOTO NEWS

• Industry

  

  Green magic blooms in heart of Seoul

  Farming in the densely populated city of Seoul is nothing new. Many urban farmers make use of vacant spaces on top of apartment buildings, schools and public buildings to grow vegetables. Some rent privately owned spaces to start their own green experiments. As of 2017, Seoul had 170 hectares of these farms, about the size of 238 soccer fields combined. In 2011, the figure was 29 hectares. The Seoul Metropolitan Government is a key backer of this growing urban farming trend.Earlier this year, it

VIDEO

• Technology

  

  ‘Fortnite billionaire’ envisions VR social media

• Food

  

  Traditional liquor-based cocktails beckon adventurous drinkers

• Automode

  

  Experts urge joint efforts for ASEAN EV market formation, growth

• Industry

  

  Blue Bottle Coffee opens first store in Korea

FEATURES

• Social affairs

  

  Korea’s farming population decreases 42% since 2000

  SEJONG -- South Korea saw the number and percentage of population engaged in agriculture continue to drop, though the number of urbanites returning or turning to farming has notably increased over the past decade.According to Statistics Korea, the number of farm population (farming-household population in official) stood at 2.31 million as of 2018, which is a decline by about 750,000 individuals in the 2010s, compared to 3.06 million in 2010. (Graphic by Heo Tae-seong/The Korea Herald)Further, g

• Economy

  

  In efforts to curb apartment prices, rate hikes seemingly pushed aside

  SEJONG -- The Moon Jae-in government has repeatedly expressed its commitment to lower housing prices in Seoul, amid an extraordinary situation in which many apartments surged in price more than 50 percent from late 2016 through 2018.Most of its anti-speculation measures have been mapped out by the Finance Ministry, the Land Ministry and the Financial Services Commission.But the presidential office has refrained from seeking to normalize apartment prices by normalizing interest rates. This is des

• Social affairs

  

  Surging Sejong population appeals to mega-shopping malls, hospitals

  SEJONG -- It is now seven years since the government relocated numerous ministries and agencies to the newly developed special autonomous city of Sejong, neighboring the northwestern part of Daejeon, as part of its efforts to decongest Seoul.Sejong has 14 dongs -- administrative divisions -- including Eojin-dong where the Government Complex is located, one eup -- town -- and nine myeons –- townships. (Graphic by Heo Tae-seong/The Korea Herald)Though the city is rapidly expanding, its infrastruct

• Social affairs

  

  We saw helicopters firing in Gwangju: US missionary

  GWANGJU -- Gwangju streets at this time of the year are full of banners on events related to the May 1980 Democratic Uprising as the city remembers the brutal military crackdown on protesting citizens under former President Chun Doo-hwan, with exhibitions, forums, music contests and food sharing.The deadly military crackdown left an estimated 160 dead and some 5,000 injured in the course of 10 days from May 18, 1980.Experts say the figure is expected to be higher given that many of the dead were