Gift Cards Market 2018 Industry Trends, Sales, Supply, Demand, Analysis & Forecast to 2025

Twin pandas born at a Korean amusement park in Yongin, just south of Seoul, will be sent to China in the third week of December, a park official said Wednesday. China has ownership of all pandas, including those born outside of China, and sends them to other countries only on a lease basis. Rui Bao and Hui Bao, who were born in Korea on July 7, 2023, will leave before they turn four, when pandas' reproductive maturity begins, as required. Everland amusement park said the exact travel date and destination will be finalized based on factors including their health. The park plans to host farewell programs for visitors. "We ask for your great interest and warm support for the twin pandas' new start," a park official said. Previously, their older sister, Fu Bao, who triggered a massive fandom craze in Korea, returned to China in April 2024 before reaching her fourth birthday.

Korea's antitrust watchdog said Wednesday it has begun deliberations on allegations Korean Air Lines Co. failed to meet seat capacity requirements imposed as conditions for its takeover of Asiana Airlines Inc. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said its examiner's report recommended taking actions against Korean Air, its affiliate Jin Air and Asiana Airlines for providing fewer than 90 percent of the seats offered in 2019 on routes connecting the central city of Cheongju and the southern resort island of Jeju between December 2024 and December 2025. Under the merger conditions, the watchdog required the airlines to maintain seat capacity on designated routes at no less than 90 percent of corresponding 2019 levels. The report found the airlines had violated the FTC's requirements and recommended imposing penalties for noncompliance and referring the case for criminal investigation. In a separate case, an examiner's report recommended rejecting Korean Air and four affiliated airlines' request to lower the minimum seat capacity requirement from 90 percent to 70 percent of 2019 levels on routes

The chief of Korea's space agency said Wednesday preparations for the fifth launch of the homegrown Nuri rocket are proceeding as planned ahead of the launch next week. Oh Tae-seok, administrator of the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA), made the remarks during a meeting with reporters ahead of the launch scheduled for Oct. 7 at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, about 473 kilometers south of Seoul. "Preparations have been proceeding without any problems so far," Oh said. The Nuri rocket will carry 15 satellites, including five satellites that will form part of the country's first domestically launched microsatellite constellation. The payload consists of five New-space Earth Observation Satellite Constellations for National Safety (NEONSAT) as the primary payload and 10 CubeSats as secondary payloads. Oh stressed that a key challenge will be precisely deploying all 15 satellites from the launch vehicle and placing them into their designated orbits. "The ability to launch different satellites into different orbits is a key capability for commercial launch services, so we need to build u

Cutting greenhouse gas emissions does not automatically generate revenue. Companies must first measure and verify the reductions, then have them recognized as carbon credits before they can sell them. For smaller businesses with limited staff and capital, navigating those steps can be difficult. Hooxi Partners, a climate fintech company, was founded to help close that gap. Before establishing it in 2021, CEO Lee Haeng-youl saw an opportunity in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) market as environmental gains were difficult to measure, and businesses had few ways to turn them into financial value. He believed reliable emissions data could provide the basis for tradable carbon credits. “For carbon reduction to be sustainable, those making the cuts must receive an economic reward. Telling companies to do it because it is the right thing will not work for long,” Lee said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. That idea is reflected in the company’s slogan, “We make money from carbon credits.” Since founding the company, Lee has sought to change how businesses view

Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul on Wednesday visited the command and control center of the Navy to inspect the military readiness posture and encourage troops, his office said. Kang visited the command center of the Republic of Korea Fleet in the southeastern port city of Busan, where he was debriefed on the maritime operational situation, according to the defense ministry. "The waters you defend are the very source of Korea's national strength and future, and these waters are a sea of victory that your fellow seniors guarded with their blood and sweat," he said, urging the troops to "firmly" respond without hesitation in the event of enemy provocation. The defense chief was also briefed on preparations for the dispatch of the 49th contingent of the Cheonghae unit to Somalia early next month as part of its rotational deployment. The unit is currently on an anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden off the Somali coast. He called on the troops to follow through on their mission with the mindset that they are on the front lines to safeguard the lives of the people and international peace.

President Lee Jae Myung on Wednesday paid an unexpected visit to the soldiers injured in last week's land mine explosion inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and pledged to provide due compensation, a presidential spokesperson said. Lee visited the wounded soldiers at a military hospital and offered words of comfort to them and their family members, presidential spokesperson Kim Sung-wan said. On Sept. 21, two mine explosions on the southern side of the DMZ, a military buffer zone between the two Koreas, left three soldiers wounded, two with serious injuries. A joint investigation by the South Korean military and the United Nations Command (UNC) has determined the mines had been planted there by North Korean forces in what the UNC called earlier Wednesday a "violation" of the Korean armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, earlier dismissed the outcome of the South Korea-UNC investigation, accusing Seoul of "cooking up" such results with a malicious intent. Lee told the soldiers to focus on recovering, and promised to

Sungkyunkwan University climbed 19 places to 68th in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2027, strengthening its position as a leading research-intensive university. The university said Wednesday that the rise was driven by across-the-board improvements in all five categories: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry partnerships and international outlook. The result marks the university’s fourth consecutive year of climbing the rankings released by the U.K.-based global university rankings agency, underscoring its rapid growth on the global stage. The university made significant gains in both teaching and research in the academic reputation survey conducted among scholars worldwide. Indicators reflecting the quality and impact of the university’s research showed clear upward trends. The university also ranked first among private universities in Korea and third overall among Korean universities. “This achievement is a meaningful result of the collective dedication of all members of the university, including students, faculty and staff, to enh

Three professors from Kookmin University, Chung-Ang University and Texas A&M University have won the Best Paper Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for their international collaborative research. Kookmin University said Tuesday that the award ceremony was held Monday at Rice University in Houston, Texas. The award recipients are Ko Tae-woo, a professor at Kookmin University’s School of Architecture; Lee Jee-hee, a professor at Chung-Ang University’s School of Architecture and Building Science; and H. David Jeong, a professor in the Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M University. Their paper, titled “Project Requirements Assignment Using BERT-Based Multilabel Classification and Interactive Mapping System,” appeared in the Journal of Management in Engineering, an academic journal published by ASCE. Each year, ASCE selects one paper published in the journal for its Best Paper Award in recognition of outstanding academic and practical contributions, innovation and impact. The award-winning paper presents an artificial intelligence (AI)-based technolog

One of South Korea’s two major publishing organizations has announced a set of principles for the use of artificial intelligence (AI), seeking to address mass-produced books created with AI, often referred to as “click-to-publish” books. The Korea Publisher Society said the principles aim to ensure that books remain trusted in the AI era by clearly defining human responsibility and roles throughout the publishing process. The organization said it will use the establishment of the principles as a starting point for further efforts to improve systems protecting the rights of authors and publishers. The Korea Publisher Society held a publishing and AI policy forum at Mapo Central Library in Seoul on Tuesday, where it unveiled the “Principles for the Use of AI by Publishers and Authors for Readers,” consisting of five chapters and 20 articles. Eleven organizations, including the Korea Publisher Society, the Writers Association of Korea and the Critics Alliance, participated in drafting the principles. It marks the first time the publishing industry has established AI-related guide

The Ministry of Education on Wednesday launched a six-month national campaign aimed at reshaping school culture. Today, more than 210,000 students enrolled in primary and secondary schools come from multicultural or immigrant backgrounds — a figure that continues to hit record highs year after year. Running through February 2027, the initiative, launched with the National Institute for Lifelong Education, pivots from passive lectures about abstract cultural awareness toward structured, shared experiences between immigrant and nonimmigrant youth. Findings from the 2024 National Multicultural Acceptance Survey, published by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, revealed a stark generational divide: Younger Koreans who regularly interact with peers from varied backgrounds demonstrate significantly higher levels of cultural openness (69.77 points) compared to older adults (53.38 points). To foster these essential daily interactions, the new campaign introduces monthly interactive programming designed to bring students together inside the classroom. In October, schools will host Small

Samsung Electronics held its annual artificial intelligence (AI) forum Wednesday, bringing together global experts to discuss how agentic AI — systems that can make decisions and carry out tasks on their own — can be turned into real-world business results. The Samsung AI Forum 2026, held at the company's Seocho office building in southern Seoul, marked its 10th year with the theme "The Agentic Shift: From Intelligence to Impact." Discussions focused on agentic AI and physical AI, which refers to AI that operates in the physical world, such as robots. About 400 people attended, including 100 professors and researchers from Korean graduate schools and 300 Samsung employees. The event also streamed live on YouTube. "Agentic AI will go beyond simple technological innovation to bring fundamental changes to the way we work and to organizational culture," Samsung Vice Chairman and CEO Jun Young-hyun said in his welcoming remarks. In the morning keynote session, Richard Ho, head of hardware at OpenAI, discussed how agentic AI built on large language models could change businesses and industr

Korea’s premier defense and space contractor Hanwha Aerospace has begun assembling a reusable rocket technology demonstrator, marking a critical step toward developing vertically landing launch vehicles similar to SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Hanwha Aerospace said Wednesday that it started full assembly of the demonstrator as part of a project led by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), with Vitzro Nextech and Hanyang ENG also participating. The project aims to complete technology demonstrations by 2028, including a vertical takeoff and landing flight test designed to verify core technologies needed for reusable launch vehicles. The demonstrator stands 12.2 meters tall and 1.5 meters in diameter and is designed to carry one staged-combustion cycle turbopump engine. During a planned 2028 flight test, the vehicle is expected to rise vertically to an altitude of 500 meters within about 90 seconds before returning for a controlled vertical landing. Hanwha Aerospace said the test will focus on technologies including engine thrust control, attitude control and guidance, all considered essen