Unionized workers at South Korean steelmaker POSCO began a second partial strike Wednesday after failing to narrow differences with management in wage negotiations. The 120-hour walkout began at 7 a.m. at POSCO's steel plants in Pohang and Gwangyang in southern South Korea, the union said. "We will call off the strike before the end of the five-day walkout if the company comes up with an acceptable proposal," union spokesperson Yi Jae-hyuk said by phone. POSCO has about 17,000 employees, including around 10,100 union members. The strike follows a 48-hour walkout that began at 7 a.m. last Wednesday and involved 120 workers, marking the first strike by POSCO workers since the company was founded in 1968. The union said the second strike would cause inevitable disruptions as about twice as many workers are participating compared with the first strike. POSCO said, however, that there would be no major disruption to plant operations, with about 60 workers each from its Pohang and Gwangyang plants expected to join the strike. The union has demanded a 7.1 percent increase in base pay, a performanc

SK hynix’s production workers’ unions on Wednesday approved a revised tentative agreement reached between their representatives and management, under which employees will receive half of their performance bonuses in cash and the other half in company shares, concluding this year’s wage and collective bargaining negotiations without a labor dispute. According to SK hynix, the two production workers’ unions at the company approved the tentative agreement with a 57.08 percent vote in support. More than 15,000 of the unions’ 16,000 eligible members took part in the vote. The two unions respectively represent production workers at the company’s Icheon plant in Gyeonggi Province and Cheongju plant in North Chungcheong Province. A key feature of the agreement is that half of the performance bonuses, known as excess profit-sharing, will be paid in cash, while the other half will be paid in the form of treasury shares. The revised agreement replaces an earlier tentative deal that called for 60 percent of the bonuses to be paid in treasury shares and the remainder in cash, which the t

S-Oil CEO Anwar Al-Hejazi, second from left, prepares “songpyeon,” traditional Korean rice cakes, during an event at the oil refiner’s headquarters in Seoul, Wednesday, with company employees, children from nearby day care centers and Saudi Arabian students. The participants also delivered 50 million won ($36,000) worth of songpyeon and Chuseok gifts to low-income families living near the headquarters. Courtesy of S-Oil

The Walt Disney Company’s long-standing legacy in animation, entertainment and consumer products is entering a new chapter in Korea, where the company sees the country’s global content power as a new source of inspiration for next-generation consumer experiences. Walt Disney Company Korea on Wednesday unveiled its new campaign, “ICONS UNLEASED: Global Icon Becomes Center of New K-Wave.” It builds on K-pop, Korean heritage and original Korean content, with plans to develop new businesses from each area. Disney Korea will collaborate with K-pop management companies like Kakao Entertainment, SM Entertainment, HYBE and Starship Entertainment to combine their artists’ unique worldviews with stories from Marvel to create new fan experiences. The company cited the successfull collaboration between G-Dragon’s fashion lineup PEACEMINUSONE and Disney’s "Toy Story” franchise in July to introduce new toys, apparel and goods as precedent. Korean cultural heritage will be combined with Disney intellectual properties (IP) to introduce new region-based tourism products for global touris

Korean cybersecurity firm Ahnlab said Wednesday it plans to invest 100 billion won ($73.14 million) over the next three years in an effort to restructure its business around subscription-based services. Such plans were announced at a press conference in Seoul as it vowed to transform the company into an "artificial intelligence native" cybersecurity firm. According to the company, the investments will focus on building artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, as well as improving its research and development capabilities and attracting AI-related talent. Building on this, the company also plans to triple its sales from 300 billion won this year to 1 trillion won by 2035, Ahnlab's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kang Suk-kyoon explained. "We need to grow by an average of 15 percent every year to attain that goal, but given our growth trend, we think such a goal is achievable," he said, noting the company could consider carrying out merger and acquisition deals or new investments to scale up. Ahnlab also plans to expand its overseas sales to 30 percent by 2035 from the current 10 percent

LG Energy Solution and Hyundai Motor Group are distancing themselves from the legal actions of workers against the U.S. government over their detention during last year’s immigration raid at the companies’ joint battery plant in Georgia. An LG Energy Solution official told The Korea Times Wednesday that the company was not aware that employees were taking legal action until media reports emerged Tuesday night. The official added that the company would not get involved because the legal actions were based on individual decisions by the workers, and the company is not tracking who is joining the campaign. An official at Hyundai Motor Group also said none of the company’s employees were among those detained at the time, adding that it is not involved in legal action taken individually by workers from partner companies or those dispatched to the site. A day earlier, CNN reported that more than 300 Korean workers detained during the raid started filing administrative claims with nine federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I

The industry ministry's planned briefing to the National Assembly this week on Korea's investment project in the United States has been delayed for undisclosed reasons, sources said Wednesday. According to the sources, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources originally planned to hold a closed-door parliamentary briefing Thursday on Korea's first investment project in the U.S. under a bilateral agreement reached last year. In October, Korea and the U.S. reached an agreement on Seoul's $350 billion investment pledge made in return for lower U.S. tariffs. The investment will comprise $150 billion for shipbuilding cooperation and $200 billion for projects in various strategic sectors. The industry ministry, however, asked the parliament's trade and finance committees to postpone the scheduled briefing without providing details on the reasons. Observers said the delay apparently came as Seoul and Washington failed to reach an agreement during the final stages of negotiations. "Negotiations with the U.S. are currently under way," an official from the industry ministry said. The delay is e

Woori Bank’s specialized prepaid card for foreign visitors, dubbed the “NOL World Card,” reached the 10,000-issuance mark within just three months of its market debut, the bank said Wednesday. The card, jointly introduced by the bank, travel platform operator NOL Universe and fintech company Kona I, aims to make local financial transactions and daily shopping more convenient for international travelers amid the surge in inbound tourism and the corresponding need for easy-to-use local payment options. Data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism show that foreign arrivals reached 10.71 million in the first half of this year, representing a 23.1 percent year-on-year increase. However, short-term visitors have long struggled with local financial barriers, as opening bank accounts or securing domestic credit and debit cards can be difficult, often leaving them reliant on cash exchanges or international payment methods. Designed to address these issues, the NOL World Card can be collected immediately upon landing at Woori Bank exchange counters at Incheon International Airport

KT, one of Korea's major telecommunications service providers, has joined forces with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) to open the nation's first 400-gigabit-per-second (Gbps) international dedicated circuit linking Korea and the United States, creating a faster route for massive research datasets. The circuit connects KISTI’s headquarters in Daejeon with Chicago, a major hub for research networks serving North America and Europe, KT said Wednesday. The new connection quadruples bandwidth from the previous 100 Gbps and is designed to support faster, more stable transfers for international scientific collaboration. Demand for cross-border data exchange has grown as research involving artificial intelligence (AI), large-scale science and astronomy increasingly depends on vast volumes of data, KT said. The new network is expected to accelerate transfers of large research datasets, strengthen global connectivity for Korea’s national research network and expand support for international collaborative research. KT and KISTI also completed technical tests aim

Stella Artois is introducing Pure Gold, a new premium lager in Korea that combines zero sugar and zero gluten with a lower alcohol content of 4.2 percent. The Belgian beer brand said Wednesday that Pure Gold, its first new lineup introduced in Korea, is designed around a lighter drinking experience while retaining a delicate, clean flavor. The launch makes Korea the first market in Asia to receive Pure Gold, which was first introduced in Brazil and will begin appearing in stores and restaurants nationwide from late September. Stella Artois said Pure Gold contains about 16 percent less alcohol than its existing beer. The new lager will be available in 330-milliliter and 500-milliliter cans and 500-milliliter bottles. Bottle sales will begin primarily at premium restaurants in Seoul and the capital region before expanding to other restaurants, while online platforms will offer assorted packages. A 500-milliliter eight-can package will go on sale Sept. 28, followed by a package containing eight 500-milliliter cans and a dedicated Stella Artois chalice on Oct. 15. The packaging takes its cues