Most Popular
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1 in 3 Koreans live alone, family types becoming diverse
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Korea, Japan finance chiefs vow to tame rampant FX market volatility
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US 'incredibly concerned' about suspected NK-Iran military ties
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K-pop group's manager dismissed for setting up spycam in theater dressing room
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K-pop singer lost consciousness after being hit by foul ball, cancels show
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Korean Muslim YouTuber's plan to build mosque in Incheon goes viral
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Why is Apple Pay struggling to get purchase in Korea?
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Yoon's office denies considering liberal figures for key posts
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Seoul says Fu Bao loan 'not going to happen'
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[Today’s K-pop] BTS pop-up event to come to Seoul
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Hyundai, Kia increase Europe market share
Hyundai Motor Co. and sister brand Kia, already boosting sales in Europe’s contracting auto market, are extending their challenge to Fiat SpA and PSA Peugeot Citroen by enlisting soccer stars to steal customers.The Korean carmaker is attracting Europeans by stepping up sponsorship of their favorite pastime, hiring soccer heroes like Germany’s Lukas Podolski and France’s Karim Benzema to promote Hyundai as part of a marketing blitz focused around the European championship, the region’s biggest to
MobilityJune 20, 2012
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SMEs vow to join nationwide effort to conserve electricity
South Korea’s small and medium enterprises pledged Wednesday to play an active role in cutting back on electricity use during the peak summer months.Members of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, the Korea Federation of Retail Organizations and the Korean Women Entrepreneurs Association met in Seoul to give support to government-led efforts to cut back on electricity use.The SME organizations said they will voluntarily reduce power use to ensure there is no shortage of power.Small
June 20, 2012
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Chung Foundation offers college loans
The Chung Mong-koo Foundation of Hyundai Motor Group said Wednesday that it will accept applications from college students for a tuition fee loan program, which offers low interest rates.“For the second semester, students will be allowed to enjoy college loans with interest rates that range between 0 and 3 percent per annum,” the automotive group said in a statement.The program is designed to support students struggling with high-interest loans from the secondary banking sector or private moneyl
IndustryJune 20, 2012
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OB seeks to cement No. 1 status with new CEO
Oriental Brewery Co. said Wednesday it has appointed Jang In-soo, the company’s deputy chief executive, as CEO.Jang, who took office as the top decision-maker on the same day, has taken the initiative to overtake Hite-Jinro in the local beer market since he was named the deputy CEO in charge of sales in January 2010, OB said in a statement. “We’ve captured 54.5 percent of the market while Hite-Jinro’s share stood at 45.5 percent,” a company spokeswoman said.“We surpassed Hite-Jinro for the eight
IndustryJune 20, 2012
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SK Hynix pushes for takeover of overseas firms
Chipmaker acquires U.S. controller firm to boost NAND Flash competence in latest M&A driveSK Hynix said Wednesday it signed a contract to acquire U.S. controller firm Link_A_Media Devices to strengthen its NAND Flash competitiveness as it has been actively pushing for mergers and acquisitions since obtaining a new owner in February.The company said it decided to take over the California-based storage solution firm, also known as LAMD, in a bid to upgrade the speed and reliability of its flash m
IndustryJune 20, 2012
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Taxi drivers strike, demanding lower fuel prices, higher fares
About 200,000 taxi drivers staged their first one-day nationwide strike on Wednesday, demanding that the government cut taxi fuel prices and hike fares, officials said.The Transportation Ministry said the government extended public transportation schedules in the day to minimize the impact from the strike.News reports said the strike of taxi drivers ended up causing little confusion to daily commuters in Korea, the world’s third most densely populated country.In Seoul, tens of thousands of drive
June 20, 2012
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Seoul stocks gain 0.65% on U.S. stimulus hopes
Korean stocks gained 0.65 percent Wednesday on expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will announce new stimulus measures to bolster economic growth, analysts said. The local currency gained against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index moved up 12.35 points to close at 1,904.12. Trading volume was light at 354 million shares worth just under 3.63 trillion won ($3.15 billion), with gainers clearly outpacing losers 555 to 276.“The market is waiting to see what measur
June 20, 2012
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Asset managers’ earnings drop 14 percent in 2011
Earnings of asset management firms in South Korea fell 14 percent on-year in the 2011 fiscal year as weak stock prices and a drop in the net value of holdings cut into profits, the financial regulator said Wednesday.The combined net earnings of 82 asset managers came to 305.2 billion won ($264.7 million) when fiscal 2011 ended in March, down 49.8 billion won from a year earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.“The total value of assets under management declined mainly because of
June 20, 2012
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New Nonghyup Financial chief faces union opposition
A former bureaucrat has been appointed the new chairman of Nonghyup Financial Group on Wednesday despite strong opposition from the labor union.Shin Dong-kyu, who built his career at the Finance Ministry, served as the chairman of the Korea Federation of Banks until November last year.He worked as the first commissioner of the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit and head of the Korea Export-Import Bank before taking the helm at the KFB in 2008. A Nonghyup Financial committee in charge of recommen
June 20, 2012
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Kookmin Bank opens first office in India
KB Kookmin Bank opened an office in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, hoping that it would help expand its banking service in the Asian country.The bank also announced on Tuesday that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ICICI Bank, India’s largest private bank. Following the agreement, KB’s customers in India will be able to do their banking through ICICI bank from opening accounts to exchanging foreign currencies and even getting bank loans based on KB’s financial guarantee. KB officials sai
June 20, 2012
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Google exec: Technology wave leaving many behind
JERUSALEM (AP) ― Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt on Tuesday warned that vast numbers of the world’s population are missing out on the advantages brought by the Internet.Schmidt said that about 2 billion people, less than a third of the world’s population, have Internet access, and 1 billion have smartphones. “The World Wide Web has yet to live up to its name,’’ he said. “Technology does not produce miracles, but connectivity, even in modest amounts, changes lives.’’ Schmidt served as Go
TechnologyJune 20, 2012
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NCsoft releases new blockbuster ‘Blade & Soul’
New multiplayer online game to go head-to-head with ‘Diablo 3’NCsoft will launch its long-awaited massively multiplayer online role-playing game “Blade and Soul” in Korea on Thursday, setting up a showdown with the most popular “Diablo 3” to dominate the local online game market.The online game developer said Wednesday that the new online game will be launched at 4 p.m. during a free open beta test. It is planned to be commercialized here within two weeks.So far, 210,000 people have signed up fo
TechnologyJune 20, 2012
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SK Telecom to make second LTE leap as it marks one year
By Park Hyong-kiSK Telecom, Korea’s biggest mobile carrier, is gearing up to make another leap in long term evolution and open the era of “LTE 2.0” in the country.Celebrating the first anniversary since the company launched its LTE service in July last year, SK Telecom’s LTE 2.0 refers to offering multicarrier and LTE Advanced (LTE-A) services, with faster speed and accessibility, the company told reporters on Wednesday.It will launch the multicarrier service next month and aims to make LTE Adva
TechnologyJune 20, 2012
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Cardif in Korea appoints new CEO
By Kim Min-ju Cardif in Korea, a subsidiary insurance arm of the BNP Paribas Cardif, announced Wednesday that it has named current deputy CEO Jean Christophe Darbes as its new incoming chief executive officer.Darbes was named to the post following a meeting of the board of directors on June 19. He will succeed current head Herve Giraudon on July 1. The company expressed its confidence in the new appointment, explaining that Darbes’ experience and relationships with both banks and financial gro
June 20, 2012
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Scientists find turtles fossilized while mating
German scientists have uncovered copulating turtle fossils, according to news reports.The turtle couples, which belonged to an extinct species known as Allaeochelys crassesculpta, are believed to have died from poisonous volcanic gas.Walter Joyce of the University of Tuebingen, who made the shocking discovery, said it was the first time that fossils of copulating vertebrates were found. The fossil
TechnologyJune 20, 2012
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Seoul shares open higher on global stimulus hopes
South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday on expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank will provide more stimulus to counter sluggish global economic growth, analysts said.The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 0.64 percent, or 12.03 points, to 1,903.80 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 0.48 percent, with to
June 20, 2012
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Asset managers' earnings drop 14 pct in 2011
Earnings of asset management firms in South Korea fell 14 percent on-year in the 2011 fiscal year as weak stock prices and a drop in the net value of holdings cut into profits, the financial regulator said Wednesday.The combined net earnings of 82 asset managers came to 305.2 billion won (US$264.7 million) when fiscal 2011 ended in March, down 49.8 billion won from a year earlier, according to the
June 20, 2012
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G20 leaders pledge to bolster growth and job creation, extend standstill commitment
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and other leaders of the world's major economies pledged Tuesday to accelerate growth and job creation to underpin the global economic recovery troubled by the eurozone debt crisis.The leaders of the Group of 20 economies said in a joint statement that they expect eurozone members to take all necessary measures to "safeguard the integrity and stability" of the
June 20, 2012
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South Korea plans public blackout drill
The government will carry out the nation’s first civil training against potential nationwide blackouts on Thursday at 2 p.m. for 20 minutes, officials said Tuesday. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy and other related government offices asked citizens and businesses for their cooperation in a joint news conference. Working under the possibility that the nation’s electricity reserves could fall below 2 million kilowatts, Thursday’s training will start with sirens and television and radio broadcast
IndustryJune 19, 2012
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Average age of Koreans to reach 50 in 2045: report
The average age of Koreans will reach 50 in 2045 thanks to the country’s rapidly aging population, the Royal Bank of Scotland said in a report Tuesday.“Korea has the fastest aging population on the planet and by 2016 its working-age population will contract,” Erik Lueth, an RBS analyst, wrote in the report titled “the economic impact of Korea’s demographic transition.” “Korea has just overtaken the U.S. in average age and will be older than Europe by 2020. By 2045, Koreans will be 50 years of ag
June 19, 2012