Category Archives: News

Premium coffee shops to expand in Korea.

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CoffeeStarbucks Reserve, the chain’s premium cafe, is set to enter the Korean market. A branch will open in (Seoul) Gangnam District’s trendy Apgujeong neighborhood. A coffee explosion has taken place over the last 5 years and chains are exploring ways to differentiate themselves. Single-origin coffee beans and drip-coffee are the new specialties.

Other chains, such as Tom N Toms and Hollys Coffee, are following suit with single-origin coffee beans and boutique type cafes. Cafes provides an excellent social experience and that may be the key to what makes them so popular here.

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Korea’s first Bitcoin ATM installed in Seoul’s COEX.

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Korea’s first Bitcoin ATM went online at Coffee Sedona in the COEX complex in Seoul yesterday. The ATM machine exchanges Korean Won for Bitcoins and visa versa. The Bitcoin ATM does not require photo ID or biometric data to make transactions. Continue reading →

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Another Korean company hacked – 12 million accounts exposed.

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KT (Korea Telecom) is the latest in a string of companies with stolen customer data. This time, the records of 12 million accounts were compromised. The theft included names, phone numbers, bank accounts, email addresses, and job information.

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Hyundai Motor Company continues to fall in quality and dependability ratings.

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Hyundai moves to 16th place out of the 23 car makers ranked by Consumer Reports for 2014. This is the second year that it’s slipped. The American Tesla Model S was their top pick.

Hyundai was also ranked poorly for dependability by JD Power. That ranking comes from reported problems for the prior 12 months with ranking according to dependability (Hyundai took 27th place out of the 31 ranked brands). GM, with many cars designed and built in Korea, ranked highest with 8 segment awards.

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Korea makes the list – “Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants”.

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Opened in 2009, Jung-sik-dang in Sinsa-dong, Seoul comes in at #20 on San Pellegrino Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants (A50B) list. Over 900 people in the global restaurant sector contributed to the ranking. The #1 restaurant in Asia is located in Bangkok, Thailand and #2 in Tokyo, Japan. Here’s a CNN article discussing the entire list. Continue reading →

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What North Korea and South Korea look like at night.

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A nighttime shot of North and South Korea. The photo was taken from the International Space Station (ISS) on 1/30/2014. The article mentions that Seoul has over 25 million people living in the greater metro area, and it shows.

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80 South Koreans meet separated family members for first and last time this weekend.

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The first of this week’s Inter-Korean reunions between North and South Korean family members ended today in Mount Gumkang, North Korea. 80 eldery South Koreans met 180 North Korean family members for the first and last time in over 60 years. A total of 10 hours were spent together over the three-day period before saying their final goodbyes.

A second group of 361 SK’s and 88 NK’s will begin a 3-day meet up on Sunday. This is the fifth set of reunions between the North and South.

904-Inter-Korean Family Reunion Continue reading →

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