Most Popular
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Blinken calls on China to press N. Korea to end its 'dangerous' behavior
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New celebrity-endorsed therapy for face contouring requires only a pair of rubber bands
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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[Weekender] How DDP emerged as an icon of Seoul
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Doctor group's incoming head renews call for govt. to scrap medical school quota hike for dialogue
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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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Hyundai Motor profit surges 35% in 2011
Korean auto giant aims to sell a record 7 million vehicles worldwide this yearHyundai Motor Co.’s annual profit jumped 35.1 percent last year on surging demand from North America and India, wrapping up a good year in which it beat its Japanese rivals.Net profit came in at 8.1 trillion won ($7.1 billion), up 35.1 percent from 6 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in an earnings report Thursday. Its fourth-quarter profit came in at 2 trillion won, marginally missing the 2.24 trillion wo
Jan. 26, 2012
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Shares up on foreign buying
Korean stocks finished 0.25 percent higher on Thursday as foreign investors continued buying local shares following the Federal Reserve’s pledge to keep interest rates low, analysts said. The local currency climbed against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark KOSPI added 4.95 points to reach 1,957.18, extending a winning streak to a fourth straight session. Trading volume was moderate at 403 million shares worth 5.46 trillion won ($4.86 billion) with gainers leading losers 511 to 286. “After the KOSPI
Jan. 26, 2012
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FSC’s ruling on Lone Star imminent
Financial regulators are been in the last stage before their ruling on Lone Star Funds’ eligibility as the biggest shareholder of Korea Exchange Bank.“Inspectors are finally reviewing the issue as to whether Lone Star has been a non-financial investor (which is banned from owning a local bank),” Financial Services Commission chairman Kim Seok-dong told reporters Thursday.But Kim said the FSC has yet to decide whether to announce its stance on the U.S.-based equity fund at the panel discussion, s
Jan. 26, 2012
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Hyundai Motor posts record profit in 2011
Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest automaker, said Thursday that its 2011 earnings reached a record high on brisk sales in domestic and overseas markets.Net profit reached 8.1 trillion won (US$7.1 billion) last year, up 35.1 percent from 6 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a reg
MobilityJan. 26, 2012
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Apple briefly passes Exxon as most valuable co.
NEW YORK (AP) _ Apple briefly surpassed Exxon as the most valuable U.S. company after an excellent quarter, though the oil company has regained the lead at the market's close. Employees walk through the new Apple retail location in Grand Central Terminal in New York. (Bloomberg)Apple's stock ro
TechnologyJan. 26, 2012
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Female workers top 10 million for first time in 2011
The number of female workers in Korea exceeded 10 million for the first time in 2011 due to the growing female population and a higher number of jobseekers among those supporting families, data showed Wednesday.Female workers totaled 10.09 million at the end of last year, up 1.8 percent or 177,000 from a year earlier, according to the data provided by the finance ministry and Statistics Korea, Korea’s statistics agency.The number of female workers has been rising since it exceeded 5 million in 1
Jan. 25, 2012
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Credit card spending jumps to 540 trillion won in 2011
Korea’s credit card spending jumped nearly 10 percent last year despite regulators’ policy that attempted to keep the purchases through plastic at bay, data showed Wednesday. According to the Bank of Korea and the Credit Finance Association, the country’s credit card spending last year is estimated at upward of 540 trillion won ($478.5 billion) as of the end of 2011, up from 493.7 trillion won in the previous year. The 2011 figure ranked second-highest after 622 trillion won recorded in 2002, a
Jan. 25, 2012
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Austrian firm to build $10m plant in Busan
Geislinger GmbH, Austria’s leading engine parts maker, will set up a manufacturing base in Busan to facilitate supplies to local shipbuilders, city officials said Wednesday.The Salzburg-based firm clinched an agreement with the Busan government to build a plant at the southern port city’s industrial complex and hire more than 100 workers by injecting $10 million, officials said. They did not give details on the time frame. The deal marks the largest project involving an international company sin
IndustryJan. 25, 2012
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Medipost seeks to export stem cell arthritis drug
Medipost, a Korean biotech startup, is seeking to export its stem-cell based arthritis medicine Cartistem to other countries in Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, company officials said Wednesday.Cartistem is the world’s first approved allogeneic stem cell drug. It is designed to regenerate knee cartilage using stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood. The Korea Food & Drug Administration gave approval for commercial sales of the new product last week. Dong-A Pharmaceutical, the count
IndustryJan. 25, 2012
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LG Electronics wins fridge patent dispute with Whirlpool
LG Electronics Inc., South Korea’s leading consumer electronics maker, said Wednesday that it won a patent dispute with Whirlpool Corp. over technology used in refrigerators.In 2009, Whirlpool, a major American producer of home appliances, filed complaints against LG Electronics with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, claiming that it developed technology used to make a water and ice dispenser in refrigerators earlier than LG.The U.S. patent agency did not accept Whirlpool’s claim as it faile
TechnologyJan. 25, 2012
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Samsung to unveil anti-collusion steps
Samsung Group, South Korea’s largest conglomerate, said Wednesday it plans to draft measures to root out price rigging practices by next month amid growing public criticism against price collusion by big businesses.The group quoted Kim Soon-taek, head of the group’s revived team named the Samsung Corporate Strategy Office, as saying that price collusion is a clear act of harming a company.The group, which controls tech giant Samsung Electronics Co., said it plans to determine causes of why price
IndustryJan. 25, 2012
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Hyundai Motor beats Toyota in Germany
Korea’s top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. became the best-selling Asian car brand in the competitive German market last year, edging out Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp., industry data showed Wednesday.Hyundai Motor sold 86,866 vehicles in Germany in 2011, while Toyota sold 83,204 cars, according to the German international manufacturing group VDIK.The sale of Hyundai Motor jumped 16.9 percent last year from 74,287 vehicles a year ago to surpass Toyota for the first time since it made inroads into the Ge
MobilityJan. 25, 2012
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Daewoo Electronics expands overseas portfolio
Daewoo Electronics is working to expand its overseas business by establishing two additional branches in Indonesia and Colombia, company officials said Wednesday.The company, which manufactures home appliances, is aiming to expand into other foreign markets such as Myanmar, Brunei, Laos and Cambodia this year.It entered other overseas markets including Singapore, the Philippines and Cuba last year as part of its global expansion efforts.“We must take the lead in newly emerging markets to maintai
IndustryJan. 25, 2012
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Iranian oil cheapest of Korea’s imports
Iranian oil was the cheapest of all crude oil Korea imports from abroad, except for Colombia, Oman and the Saudi-Kuwait neutral zone from where only small volumes are bought. Korea imported 846.59 million barrels of crude oil in the 11 months leading up to November from 23 countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iran and Oman, according to Petronet, an oil information provider run by the Korea National Oil Corporation. “Iran accounted for 9.76 percent of Korea’s crude oil imports and is
Jan. 25, 2012
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Citigroup Korea to strengthen wealth management
Citigroup Korea plans to resurrect an earlier project to set up a retail-based securities firm.It comes four years after financial regulators rejected an application from Citibank Korea for a brokerage business for individual customers in 2008.“In case a chance is given, we would like to establish a retail-based brokerage unit,” Ha Yung-ku, CEO of Citigroup Korea and Citibank Korea, said during a recent interview at his office in downtown Seoul.Citigroup Korea has been operating a wholesale-base
Jan. 25, 2012
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Ministry opposes introducing fat tax
Korea remains opposed to introducing the so-called fat tax, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday, saying that such a move is “not desirable” as it could ramp up food prices and aggravate overall inflation.“It is not desirable to introduce a new tax on foods given our own situations,” the ministry said in a report that analyzes policies of major countries in connection with obesity problems.Korea has a relatively low level of obesity among its citizens and an additional tax on foods could hurt low
IndustryJan. 25, 2012
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Korean exports to Mexico surge in 50 years: report
Korea’s exports to Mexico have skyrocketed since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties, thanks to a strong economic relationship, a report showed Wednesday.According to the report by the Korea International Trade Association, Korea’s shipments to Mexico came to $9.1 billion in the first 11 months of 2011, compared with a mere $55,000 in 1967.Korea and Mexico set up diplomatic relations in 1962, while Seoul began tracking bilateral trade five years later.Korea’s imports from Mexico surge
Jan. 25, 2012
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Businesses expect hard times in H2: report
Korean businesses are bracing for difficult times in the second half of this year, showed a report on the world’s high income, leading market economies on Tuesday.The business confidence index by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed Korea’s numbers standing at 96.2, the fourth lowest among the 23 countries checked.An index reading below the benchmark 100 mark means pessimists outnumber optimists.The BSI tallied in December by the Paris-based organization also showed T
Jan. 25, 2012
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ADB backs Korean consortium building plant in Uzbekistan
The Asian Development Bank said Wednesday it will help a Korean consortium build the largest petrochemical plant in Uzbekistan that could meet the country’s commercial and industrial need for gas.A consortium composed of three Korean companies, Honam Petrochemical Corp., Korea Gas Corp. and STX Energy Co., established a joint venture company called Uz-Kor Gas Chemical LLC with Uzbekistan’s state-controlled oil and gas company National Holding Company Uzbekneftegaz. The ADB said it will provide a
IndustryJan. 25, 2012
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Shares up on foreign buying
Korean stocks finished 0.12 percent higher Wednesday as foreign investors snapped up tech and auto exporters, but gains were trimmed by institutional selling, analysts said. The local currency rose against the U.S. dollar.After rising as much as 1.2 percent, the benchmark KOSPI gained 2.34 points to 1,952.23.Trading volume was moderate at 372 million shares worth 6.07 trillion won ($5.39 billion) with gainers leading losers 421 to 401. “Apple’s earnings surprise was a positive impact on the loca
Jan. 25, 2012