South Korean Muslim YouTuber Daud Kim, who announced his plan to build a mosque on land he purchased in Incheon, faces myriad challenges, including a request to terminate the land contract, difficulties in obtaining permission due to road conditions, and resistance from the local neighborhood. Kim, a content creator in his 30s with more than 5.52 million YouTube subscribers, uploaded a post on his Instagram on April 11 announcing his plans to build a mosque, a Muslim place of worship, on land th ..read more

Actor Bae Doo-na, who stars as sword master Nemesis in Netflix original “Rebel Moon -- Part Two: The Scargiver,” said she suggested costume and makeup ideas for this mega-scale Hollywood project. Director Zack Snyder, who has also helmed “Justice League” and “300,” has stressed several times before that Bae’s character, Nemesis, is rooted in Korean identity. “In the original script, Nemesis didn’t wear anything particularly Korean, such as a ..read more

S-Oil, one of major refineries in South Korea, made a donation of 560 million won ($405,000) on Friday to the Korea National Council On Social Welfare to support its ongoing program assisting firefighters and their families, the company said. The KNCSW, a charity organization under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, will allocate the fund to the Heroic Firefighter Protection program. The program covers the medical expenses of injured firefighters, provides scholarships for the children of firef ..read more

Only 25 percent of 254 directly elected National Assembly representatives during the April 10 general election made climate-related policy pledges, according to a report issued by a coalition of 16 non-profit environmental organizations, including Local Energy Lab, on Thursday. Out of the 63 elected representatives who have presented climate policies, 53 belong to the liberal main opposition Democratic Party of Korea and 10 belong to the conservative ruling People Power Party. Additionally, one ..read more

South Korean Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok unveiled the country's plan to bolster green investment in the private sector by establishing a venture capital fund worth 23 trillion won ($16.6 billion), the ministry said Friday. Emphasizing the importance of leveraging private capital for climate financing, Choi made the announcement during the Group of 20 finance leaders' meeting held in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday, the ministry said. During a session on sustainable finance, Cho ..read more

South Korean IT solutions provider LG CNS announced Friday that it has partnered with Yonsei University to establish a new Master's degree program dedicated to nurturing intelligent data and optimization specialists. During the signing ceremony on Thursday, LG CNS Chief Executive Officer Hyun Shin-gyoon and Yonsei University President Yoon Dong-sup agreed on creating the Department of Intelligent Data and Optimization at Yonsei University. “We will focus on nurturing DX specialists wh ..read more

Swedish electric vehicle maker Polestar will launch the Polestar 4, an all-electric coupe-style sports utility vehicle, in June, the carmaker’s Korean office said Friday. “The Polestar 4 is an all-around premium EV that has an outstanding commercial value in many aspects ranging from design, performance, sustainability, safety, spaciousness and (advanced driver assistance system),” said Ham Jong-sung, managing director of Polestar Korea. “We are working on various prepara ..read more

Kia has unveiled 30 new vehicle display themes on Friday based on the logos and colors of 30 NBA teams to tailor to basketball enthusiasts, ahead of the NBA playoffs starting this weekend. The Korean carmaker said it first introduced over-the-air updates for EV9 display themes in the US on April 9, and will expand the service to Korea in the latter half of this year for vehicles equipped with its connected car navigation cockpits and OTA capabilities. (Kia ..read more

South Korea on Thursday voted in favor of a UN Security Council draft resolution aimed at facilitating full United Nations membership for Palestine, reaffirming its endorsement of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, South Korea clarified during a meeting of the UN Security Council that its vote did not amount to recognition of Palestine as an independent state. A total of 12 out of 15 Security Council members, including South Korea and Japan, voted for the draft ..read more

Sungsimdang, a local bakery brand based in Daejeon, outperformed the country's top bakery franchise giants, Paris Baguette and Tous les Jours, logging record sales last year, a regulatory filing showed Friday. Rosso, Sungsimdang's holding company, said the bakery recorded sales figure of 124.3 billion won ($89.7 million) in 2023, a 52.1 percent increase from the previous year’s 81.7 billion won. It is the first time a local bakery has achieved more than 100 billion won in sales w ..read more