The cost of preparing a traditional Lunar New Year ceremonial table in South Korea rose by more than 4% from a year earlier, underscoring how food inflation remains embedded in household budgets during one of the country’s most important holidays. In South Korea, Seollal, as the Lunar New Year is known, is a multiday family gathering centered on ancestral rites

(Photo=Hotel Shilla) The global travel-retail industry is still recalibrating after the pandemic, with airport and inflight duty-free operators facing thinner margins, volatile passenger flows and rising financing costs. As those pressures persist, companies are increasingly reassessing whether overseas investments built for a pre-2020 growth cycle still justify the capital they tie up. Against that backdrop, Hotel Shilla, a South Korean

(Photo=Celltrion) In the U.S. healthcare system, access matters more than approval. A drug can clear regulators and still fail commercially if it cannot pass through the tightly controlled formularies run by pharmacy benefit managers. This month, one South Korean pharmaceutical company crossed that threshold in one of the most closely guarded corners of the American drug market. Celltrion has secured

Photo=Hyundai Motor Group's South Korea’s largest labor federation pushed back against criticism of its opposition to Hyundai Motor Group’s adoption of humanoid robots, saying it is not resisting technological progress but calling for broader discussion on the impact of automation on jobs. Yang Kyung-soo, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), said on Feb. 5, local time in

(Photo=CJ Schwan’s) As U.S. food manufacturers pour money into automation and energy efficiency to protect margins, a frozen pizza plant in Salina, Kansas, has emerged as an example of how those pressures are reshaping where—and how—food is made. The facility was recently named Plant of the Year by a U.S. industry publication, but its significance extends beyond the award itself.