Most Popular
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Hyundai Motor eyes 80,000 jobs, W68tr investment at home by 2026
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Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
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Korea enters full election mode
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Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
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Dialogue hopes fade as doctors pick hard-liner as new head
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Coupang pledges W3tr to expand Rocket Delivery nationwide by 2027
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[Election Battlefield] Political novice to face off star politician in ‘swing district’
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Immigrant woman stabbed to death by Korean husband
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[Kim Seong-kon] The April 2024 election will decide our future
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Seoul’s bus union prepares for strike
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'Vampire' dinosaur preferred plant diet
A dwarf dinosaur weighing less than a modern house cat had a sharp beak and fangs like a vampire but was a plant-eater, a U.S. paleontologist says.The single specimen of the new species was originally chipped out of red rock in southern Africa in the 1960s but lay mostly unexamined in a fossil collection at Harvard University until Paul Sereno, a paleontology professor at the University of Chicago
TechnologyOct. 4, 2012
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Foreign investors in politics-driven stocks may face probe
KRX looks into possible involvement of local cartels in election-themed stock riggingThe Korea Exchange said on Wednesday that it will look into a possible stock price rigging scheme, regarding recent mass purchases of stocks linked to key politicians by foreign investors.Foreigners made net purchases worth 37 billion won in eight trading days between Sept. 19 and 28 of so-called “politically-themed” stocks linked to presidential election frontrunners such as Ahn Cheol-soo and Park Geun-hye. Obs
Oct. 3, 2012
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KaKaoStory, Anipang Korea's favorite mobile pastimes
The smartphone application hits “KakaoStory” and “Anipang the Puzzle” have become the nation’s most popular sources of mobile entertainment, research has found.Launched on March 20 this year, KakaoStory provides a cyber forum for users to put up daily photos and add comments, similar to a personal blog. The application made a rapid expansion in seven months since launching, with about 650 million postings, 6 billion comments and 11 million daily hits. Kakao, the developer firm of social network
TechnologyOct. 3, 2012
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Oil refinery supports family of deceased firefighter
S-Oil Corp. has donated funds to the family of a firefighter who died on duty only a couple days before Chuseok, the Korean thanksgiving, the company said on Tuesday. The country’s third-largest oil refiner delivered 30 million won ($27,000) to the bereaved family of Kim Seong-eun, the deceased firefighter.Kim died after inhaling an excessive amount of toxic gas while extinguishing fire at a corporate warehouse in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, on Sept. 27. The firefighter was immediately transfe
Oct. 3, 2012
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Conglomerates expand business reach in past decade
South Korea’s top 10 conglomerates, including Samsung and Hyundai Motor, have been expanding the number of areas they do business in over the last decade, data showed Wednesday.The country’s 10 biggest family-owned conglomerates had companies in 56 industries as of late last year, up 43.5 percent from 39 in 2001, according to the data by the Fair Trade Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service.The data also showed that business operations of the so-called chaebol were present in 73.4 perc
Oct. 3, 2012
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Rate cut might do little for growth: BOK policymaker
One policymaker at South Korea’s central bank told last month’s rate-setting meeting that a rate cut might do little to boost consumption and investment due to a prolonged global economic slowdown, the bank’s September minutes showed Tuesday.Trumping market players’ bet on a rate cut, Bank of Korea Gov. Kim Choong-soo and his six fellow policymakers left the benchmark 7-day repo rate unchanged in September. In July, the central bank made a surprise rate cut.“It would be difficult to make a turna
Oct. 3, 2012
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Nonlife insurers likely to face losses
South Korean nonlife insurers are expected to face losses for the 2012 fiscal year due to a cut in auto insurance premiums and decreasing returns from asset management, industry data showed Tuesday.Ten local nonlife insurers reported a combined operating loss of 103.2 billion won ($92.6 million) in insurance operations in the April-May period of this year, according to the data. The operating loss of Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co., the country’s leading nonlife insurer, came to 3.4 billion
Oct. 3, 2012
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Shinsegae sanctioned for favors to bakery chains
The nation’s antitrust watchdog said Wednesday that it has imposed fines worth 4 billion won ($3.6 million) on three retail units of Shinsegae Group for offering unfair favors to their sister bakery chains.It is the first time that bakery chains affiliated with a major conglomerate here are facing sanctions for irregularities amid growing criticism that their fast proliferation is threatening other independent mom-and-pop stores. The Fair Trade Commission said Shinsegae Department Store, E-Mart
IndustryOct. 3, 2012
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Samsung claims jury foreman misconduct tainted Apple trial
Apple’s billion-dollar trial victory in August was tainted by the jury foreman’s failure to disclose a lawsuit and his personal bankruptcy, Samsung Electronics Co. said in a request to a judge for the verdict to be thrown out. Samsung said foreman Velvin Hogan was asked during jury selection whether he’d been involved in lawsuits and didn’t tell the judge that he had filed for bankruptcy in 1993 and had been sued by his former employer, Seagate Technology Inc. Samsung has a “substantial strategi
TechnologyOct. 3, 2012
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DSME gains upper hand in drillship order
Order leads company to meet annual target earlier than rivalsDaewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, or DSME, the nation’s second-biggest shipbuilder, announced on Wednesday that it won a deal worth 2.3 trillion won ($2 billion) to build four drillships for U.S.-based Transocean, the world’s biggest offshore drilling company. It is the second drillship-building order for DSME this year, following one worth 600 billion won to build a drillship for Atwood Oceanics, an U.S. offshore drilling con
IndustryOct. 3, 2012
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Welfare budget to increase W20tr by 2016
Budget for four public pension funds to increase by average 10.8 percent per year The mandatory welfare budget is expected to increase by 20 trillion won ($17.9 billion) by 2016, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said on Wednesday. The budget, which was 59 trillion won this year, will rise to 62.9 trillion won in 2013; 67.7 trillion won in 2014; 72.6 trillion won in 2015; and 78.8 trillion won in 2016, according to the ministry. The four public pensions ― the national pension fund, pension fu
Oct. 3, 2012
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Galaxy Note 2 faces off with iPhone 5 in Hong Kong
HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― Supply issues could hinder Apple Inc. in its latest smartphone showdown with Samsung Electronics Co. as the two tech behemoths face off in Hong Kong following the release of their new mobile gadgets here last month. Samsung Electronics started selling the Galaxy Note 2 in Hong Kong last Thursday, six days after Apple’s iPhone 5 hit the Chinese territory.So far, Hong Kong and Britain are the only places in the world where the latest products from the two top smartphone m
TechnologyOct. 3, 2012
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CTI agrees with Gwangju on solar power investment
CTI Co., a local partner of SoloPower, a U.S.-based thin-film solar photovoltaic producer, said Wednesday that it signed a memorandum of understanding with Gwangju Metropolitan City to build a production site and R&D center for SoloPower Korea, a joint venture between the two companies.Under the MOU, CTI will invest 111 billion won ($100 million) to build two facilities in the region, while Gwangju City will fully support the company to implement its investment plan by offering administrative su
IndustryOct. 3, 2012
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KIPO urges efforts to tackle patent disputes
Commissioner Kim stresses need to resolve intellectual property chasm between rich and poor countries“Patent war” and “intellectual property chasm” are the biggest crises the international intellectual property system is facing and a joint effort is needed to resolve it, a top Korean official said.Korean Intellectual Property Office Commissioner Kim Ho-won made the remarks at the 50th Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization, or W
IndustryOct. 3, 2012
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Media reliance on Naver growing concern
Sensationalistic news tires consumers, firms hit by ruthless tabloidsWhy go through the trouble of navigating the Internet to look up your favorite news sites when you can see all the news you want at once on Naver? That’s a question being asked by many in Korea ― officially the world’s most wired country ― who surf the Internet in search of the day’s news. People who don’t have the time or patience to visit the individual websites and want everything at the same place, at once, fast. Naver doe
IndustryOct. 3, 2012
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Space station to move to avoid debris
The Russian space program's Mission Control Center says it will move the International Space Station into a different orbit to avoid possible collision with a fragment of debris. Mission Control Center spokeswoman Nadyezhda Zavyalova said the Russian Zvevda module will fire booster rockets to carry out the operation Thursday at 07:22 a.m. Moscow time (0322 GMT). The space station performs eva
TechnologyOct. 3, 2012
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Watchdog slams Shinsegae for unfair affiliate aid
South Korea's fair trade watchdog said Wednesday it has imposed fines and sanctions on retail giant Shinsegae subsidiaries for inappropriately supporting affiliates through low sales commission rates.The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said it gave fines of 4.06 billion won (US$3.65 million) to three Shinsegae companies -- Shinsegae, E-mart and Everyday Retail -- and ordered them to correct their prac
IndustryOct. 3, 2012
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Chinese company sues President
A Chinese-owned company has filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal lawsuit against President Barack Obama for blocking its wind farm project deal in Oregon.In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, Ralls Corp., owned by Chinese nationals, alleged Obama acted in "an unlawful and unauthorized manner" in issuing his order without providing "any evidence or reasoned explanation" for hi
Oct. 3, 2012
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Modern day alchemists use bacteria to produce gold
U.S. scholars said that by using a metal-tolerant bacteria Cupriavidus metallidurans, it is possible to turn the toxic chemical gold chloride into pure gold.According to researchers at Michigan State University, the metal-tolerant bacteria is able to withstand a concentrated dosage of gold chloride, a gold and chlorine compound found in nature, and produce gold.“Microbial alchemy is what we’re doing -- transforming gold from something that has no value into a solid, precious metal that’s valuabl
TechnologyOct. 3, 2012
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Two nuclear reactors halted; 7 shutdowns this year
Officials downplay safety concerns despite incident frequencyReactors at Shin-Kori Nuclear Power Plant in Busan and Younggwang Nuclear Power Plant malfunctioned on Tuesday, adding to public concerns about the safety of the nation’s ageing nuclear reactors. The shutdown at Younggwang was the seventh this year for a nuclear reactor, coming just hours after Shin-Kori 1 reactor witnessed the sixth. It was also the first time two reactors halted operation on the same day. The state-run Korea Hydro &
Oct. 2, 2012