Domestic sales of Samsung Electronics' new Galaxy Z foldable smartphone have increased following the unveiling of Apple's first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, industry sources said Thursday. Sales of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 in Korea rose about 10 percent in the week following the unveiling of the iPhone Duo from the previous week, according to the telecommunications industry. The increase is believed to have been driven in part by consumers who had delayed their purchases while waiting for Apple's new product and subsequently opted for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 instead. The iPhone Duo's price and hardware specifications are also considered factors in Korean consumers' purchasing decisions, they said. The iPhone Duo is priced at 3.29 million won ($2,380) for the 256-gigabyte model in Korea, more than 1 million won above the 2.28 million won price of the 256GB Galaxy Z Fold 8. The 2-terabyte iPhone Duo model is priced at 5.09 million won. The price gap in Korea is relatively wide compared with the United States, where the 256GB models of the two smartphones differ by about $100 in price.

POSCO Group Chairman Chang In-hwa is bringing together the group’s senior executives to map out the next phase of its three-pronged growth strategy, as geopolitical shifts and technological change reshape global competition for resources. The group’s annual POSCO Forum began Thursday and will run for two days in Incheon. The event brings together senior executives to discuss future growth and innovation while hearing from outside experts. This year’s forum will focus on turning the strategy announced in July into concrete action plans. Chang's three-part strategy centers on areas of industrial resources such as steel; strategic resources including lithium, cathode and anode materials and rare earths; and energy resources such as liquefied natural gas and renewable energy. “The ability to execute quickly is the key to survival at a time of major change, as geopolitics and technological paradigms are shifting,” Chang said. “To successfully implement the strategy and expand our businesses around resources, we need to anticipate the direction of change and find clear answers on w

JB Financial Group has teamed up with Upstage, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) company, to develop AI-based tools for practical use across the financial sector as part of its broader effort to accelerate company-wide AI transformation, the group said Thursday. JB Financial Chairman Kim Ki-hong and Upstage CEO Kim Sung-hoon signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday, laying the groundwork for cooperation in financial AI technology and new business opportunities. JB Financial identified AI transformation as one of its key priorities at its executive strategy meeting in August. The partnership will bring together the financial group and its major subsidiaries, including Jeonbuk Bank, Kwangju Bank and JB Woori Capital, to create a group-wide AI collaboration network. Using Upstage’s proprietary large language model (LLM) technology, the companies will work on developing AI agents customized for banking and other financial services. The two sides also agreed to pursue a range of joint projects, including developing and testing new AI applications for finance, exchanging employees

Korean Air is counting on its existing shareholder base to contain Hoban Group’s growing influence, as the builder continues to increase its stake in Hanjin KAL to challenge Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae's control over the aviation conglomerate. Hoban has raised its Hanjin KAL stake to 20.15 percent, just 0.42 percentage point below the 20.57 percent held by Cho and his related parties. The narrowing gap has fueled speculation that Hoban could eventually seek a greater role in the management of Korean Air, the flagship carrier controlled by Hanjin KAL. An official from the airline said the most favorable scenario for the company would be for Korea Development Bank (KDB) not to sell its stake. KDB has long held a 10.58 percent stake in Hanjin KAL. If the state-run bank continues to hold its stake, Cho’s side would retain a significantly larger bloc of friendly shares than Hoban, reducing the immediate threat to the current management’s control. Delta Air Lines, which holds a 14.9 percent stake in Hanjin KAL, is widely considered a long-term ally of Korean Air. KDB, which received

Grand Korea Leisure (GKL), the state-run operator of the foreigner-only Seven Luck casino brand, is teaming up with traditional market merchants ahead of Chuseok, Korea's harvest holiday, on a joint marketing campaign aimed at drawing foreign tourists and boosting local businesses, the company said. From Sept. 22-26, GKL will hold the "K-Traditional Market Dessert Festa" at its Seven Luck Casino Gangnam Coex branch, introducing foreign visitors to the food culture of Korea's traditional markets. About 10 stalls from the Yeongdong Traditional Market merchants association in Nonhyeon-dong, Seoul's Gangnam District, will serve visitors Korean snacks including rice cakes, sweet and crispy fried chicken, twisted doughnuts and steamed buns. The event will also give away 200 sets of hand-pressed, domestically produced sesame oil. GKL President Yoon Doo-hyun said the event aims to boost tourist satisfaction and support the local economy by giving foreign visitors to Seven Luck an unusual chance to experience Korean traditional snacks. The event follows a visit by employees from GKL's Seoul Dragon

SAN JOSE — "Stop playing games." Roblox game developer Gold Octopus, whose real name is Cho Young-gwang, says his parents rarely nagged him to stop playing games. While his parents were at work and often came home late, he spent his time on online games. The middle school student developed games before the platform became widely known in Korea. That childhood hobby became a profession, bringing the 20-year-old digital creator an income of more than 100 million won ($67,800). Roblox reported about 144 million daily active users in March, making it a major platform in the creator economy. Gold Octopus, an early developer on the platform, spoke with the Hankook Ilbo in an interview Friday at the Roblox Developers Conference 2026 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in California. He taught himself game development instead of going to college. He also taught himself Japanese and recently began collaborating with a Japanese company. The young developer built his reputation with his flagship game, Sol's RNG, winning Best Experience of the Year and Outstanding Creator of the Year at the

Naver has decided not to acquire a stake in Korea's largest food delivery platform, Baemin, four months after a report alleged that the mobile platform company was considering forming a consortium with Uber to take over Baemin. “We reviewed scenarios on acquiring a stake in Baemin, but we have decided not to proceed with the acquisition, due to changes in the business environment and other factors,” Naver said in a regulatory filing Thursday. The filing came in response to a news report in May that Naver and Uber were considering forming a consortium with a 20-80 ownership split to acquire a stake in Baemin operator Woowa Brothers from its German parent company, Delivery Hero. At the time, Naver said it was reviewing various measures to strengthen its business competitiveness and that no concrete decisions had been made. However, the situation changed when Uber agreed in July to acquire a 100 percent stake in Delivery Hero for $14.8 billion. If completed, the deal would also bring the German group’s wholly owned Korean subsidiary, Woowa Brothers, under Uber. Uber said the deal is ex

The alliance between Korea and the United States is expanding beyond its traditional security role, as the two countries deepen cooperation in trade, technology and other strategic industries, senior political and business leaders said at a gathering in Seoul on Thursday to mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) hosted the commemorative dinner in Seoul, bringing together about 180 officials from the political, business and military communities from both countries. Prime Minister Han Seong-sook, U.S. Ambassador to Korea Michelle Steel and U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson attended the event, along with former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Among Korean business leaders were Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae, LS Group Chairman Koo Ja-eun and Korea Zinc Chairman Choi Yun-beom. Ranking executives from Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor and LG also attended the event. The gathering highlighted the military foundation of the bilateral relationship. Six veterans of the 1950-53 K

Huawei Technologies on Thursday unveiled a new computing architecture that it says could make as many as 1 million processors work as a single computer, putting its UnifiedBus interconnect technology at the centre of an ambitious effort to rethink how large data centres are built. The Peerium Computing Architecture combines nested parallelism, unified memory addressing and peer-to-peer interconnect, with UnifiedBus serving as the high-speed fabric connecting processors, memory, storage and...

Their meeting in Washington is a golden opportunity for the two leaders to make real progress towards an AI risk reduction framework.