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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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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[Weekender] How DDP emerged as an icon of Seoul
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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Med schools expect 1,500+ new admission slots next year
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Statoil books, Total cancels North Sea crude tankers for Korea
Statoil ASA hired a supertanker to haul North Sea crude from Mongstad in Norway to South Korea, while Total SA canceled a booking it made yesterday, according to Optima Shipbrokers Ltd.Statoil booked a very large crude carrier, the Front Ariake, to transport crude from Mongstad to South Korea at an undisclosed rate, loading on Oct. 14 to Oct. 15, Athens-based Optima said today. Chartering and Ship
Sept. 14, 2012
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S&P upgrades Korea’s credit ratings to ‘A+’
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services raised on Friday South Korea’s credit rating from “A” to “A+,” the fifth-highest level on its rating system. It is the first time in seven years that the international ratings agency has upgraded Korea’s ratings. It maintained the rating outlook for Asia’s fourth-largest economy at “stable.” “The upgrade reflects our less negative assessment of the geopolitical risks on the Korean Peninsula. It follows what we judge to be a smooth change of leadership in the De
Sept. 14, 2012
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Kia Motors sees sales in China rise 1.7% in Aug.
HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― Kia Motors Corp.’s sales in China rose 1.7 percent in August from a year earlier amid the country’s economic slowdown, an industry group said Friday. South Korea’s second-largest automaker sold 35,610 units in China last month, compared with 35,015 units in the same month of last year, according to the China Passenger Car Association.The figure was a 7.5-percent increase from 33,111 in July this year.In the first eight months of the year, Kia Motors sold 289,817 vehicle
Sept. 14, 2012
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GS Caltex sets up Chinese unit
GS Caltex Co., South Korea’s second-largest refiner, said Thursday it has set up a wholly owned subsidiary in China in an effort to build its presence in the world’s No. 2 economy. GS Caltex China, based in Beijing, is in charge of areas including lubricants, petroleum and petrochemicals, the refiner said in a press release. The refiner first opened a regional Beijing office in 2007 before recently making it a wholly owned subsidiary, and also opened an office in Shanghai in June this year. GS C
Sept. 14, 2012
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Darby seeks to tap NPS, Eximbank for Colombian infrastructure investment
Darby Overseas Investments is seeking to tap the National Pension Service, Korea’s pension fund, and the Export-Import Bank of Korea as its potential institutional investors for infrastructure in Colombia.The U.S. private equity is considering setting up its largest fund yet to invest in “segments” of Colombia’s $20 billion road project, which will be announced next week, Darby CEO Richard Frank told The Korea Herald.Darby has normally managed funds sized at around $300 million, and invests in i
Sept. 14, 2012
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Korea urges more investment from U.S.
Korea-U.S. Business Council appoints Qualcomm CEO Jacobs as chairmanThe Korean government expressed hopes on Friday for more investment from U.S. businesspeople, stressing that Seoul would grow as a gateway to many Asian countries.Korea’s Vice Finance Minister Shin Je-yoon made the request when he spoke before a meeting of Korean and U.S. business leaders in Seoul. “South Korea is not just geopolitically located near China and other Asian countries. In addition, it has signed a free trade agre
Sept. 14, 2012
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Poor spend bigger percentage on smoking
High cigarette taxes are effective at reducing cigarette smoking, but U.S. researchers say they disproportionally burden low-income smokers.Chief scientist Matthew Farrelly, senior director of RTI International‘s Public Health Policy Research Program, said the study showed low-income smokers in New York, which has the nation’s highest state cigarette tax at $4.35 per pack, spent nearly a quarter of their household income on cigarettes. Nationally, those with the lowest incomes spend about 14 per
Sept. 14, 2012
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S&P upgrades S. Korea's credit rating to 'A plus'
Global credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's said Friday that it has upgraded its sovereign credit rating for South Korea by one notch, citing reduced geopolitical risks stemming from North Korea. According to an e-mailed statement, S&P raised Korea's credit rating from "A" to "A plus," the fifth-highest level on its rating grade, and maintained its rating outlook for Asia's fourth-largest e
Sept. 14, 2012
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Cancer biggest cause of death in Korea
Cancer, cerebrovascular disease and heart problems claimed nearly half of all deaths in Korea last year, data showed on Thursday.According to figures released by Statistics Korea, a total of 257,396 people died last year, up 0.8 percent from the previous year.Cancer topped the list of the causes for death in 2011. The number of those who died of cancer was 142.8 per every 100,000 people. It was followed by celebrovascular disease (50.7 people) and heart problems (49.8 people). Suicides came in f
Sept. 13, 2012
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Average corporate board member pockets W850m; employee earns W57m
The average annual salary of registered board members at the nation’s top 100 companies amounted to 850 million won ($753,000) last year, data showed on Thursday.Employees at those companies received an average annual wage of 57 million won, the Financial Supervisory Service said in its report.The wage disparity was the highest in tech giant Samsung Electronics Co., where general employees received 78 million won on average last year, while board members each raked in 10.9 billion won, according
Sept. 13, 2012
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Hyundai Heavy wins $620m drill ship order
Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., South Korea’s leading shipbuilder, said Thursday that it has clinched a $620 million order to build a drill ship.Under the deal with the U.S.-based Rowan, Hyundai Heavy will deliver the vessel by the end of the first quarter of 2015, the company said. The contract includes an option to build an additional drill ship.In June last year, Hyundai Heavy won a $1.12 billion deal from Rowan to build two drill ships.A drill ship is a maritime vessel with drilling apparatus
Sept. 13, 2012
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Biz lobby opposes toughening rules on chaebol
A lobby group of Korea’s large businesses on Thursday expressed its objection to a proposed bill on strengthening rules to ensure manufacturing and financial companies will not exert too much control over each other.The opposition came hours after a group of ruling Saenuri Party lawmakers committed to so-called “economic democratization” announced a plan to submit the bill to the National Assembly next week at the latest.The bill, among other things, is meant to limit voting rights of financial
Sept. 13, 2012
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NPS invests $640m in troubled eurozone nations
South Korea’s state-run pension fund has invested some $640 million in debt-stricken European countries, a report showed Thursday, sparking concern over losses due to the persistent eurozone sovereign crisis.The National Pension Service had $639.8 million of exposure to Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy and Portugal as of June, according to the NPS report. Equity investment reached $339.8 million, with bond holdings making up the remainder.By country, investment in Italy was the largest at $310 mill
Sept. 13, 2012
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BOK freezes key rate at 3%
Central bank wants room to maneuver in case economic conditions worsen, analysts sayThe South Korean central bank unexpectedly froze the key interest rate for two consecutive months, dashing market expectations that it would cut the rate to boost sagging domestic demand and exports. The Bank of Korea announced on Thursday that it will keep the rate at 3 percent for September. The decision came as a surprise as many expected that the bank would cut the rate as an additional measure to bolster the
Sept. 13, 2012
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Crisis looms large in Korea’s housing sector
Lee Ji-sun managed to sell off her small apartment in southern Seoul last month amid rising concern that a prolonged economic slowdown could send home prices into a downward spiral down the road.The price of the 73-square-meter apartment rose to its record high of 600 million won ($530,000) in late 2009, but it tumbled to 450 million won in August, a steep decline that analysts blamed on a litany of economic woes.“I sold my apartment out of fear that its price could drop further,” the 40-year-ol
Sept. 13, 2012
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Samsung launches construction for chip plant in Xian
Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chipmaker, started work on a semiconductor plant in central China on Wednesday as part of its move to diversify production lines and meet growing demand for chips.The company said earlier it will initially inject $2.3 billion to build the plant in Xian, China. The spending on the construction will reach up to $7.0 billion in the coming years, making the project Samsung’s single largest overseas investment for a chipmaking plant, according to th
Sept. 13, 2012
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Report points to rising income inequality
GENEVA (UPI) -- Income inequality, based on trends in the past three decades, has been increasing both within countries and between them, says a U.N. report.The report by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development said the share of wages in total income fell in most developed and in many developing countries in the past 30 years, such as 5 percentage points or more in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States and by 10 percentage points or more in France, Germany and Ireland.“In seve
Sept. 13, 2012
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BOK freezes key rate for 2nd month
South Korea's central bank unexpectedly froze the key interest rate for the second straight month on Thursday in an apparent bid to save ammunition for any worsening of economic conditions.Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo and his fellow policymakers unanimously left unchanged the benchmark 7-day repo rate at 3 percent for September. The decision surprised the market as most analysts had pre
Sept. 13, 2012
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Seoul shares open lower ahead of Fed announcement
South Korean stocks started lower Thursday as investors sat on the sidelines ahead of a key decision by the U.S. central bank, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 9.96 points, or 0.51 percent, to 1,940.07 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Most shares traded bearish, with top shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries falling 0.61 percent and steelmaker POSCO sliding
Sept. 13, 2012
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Income gap between farmers, urban workers hits record high
The income gap between the country‘s farm workers and non-farm workers widened to a record high last year, with earnings of farmers shrinking due to a rise in costs, the government said Thursday.The average income of farmers stood at 59.1 percent of that of urban households in 2011, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. It is the first time that the ratio fell below the 60 percent mark.Up until the mid-1980s, the average income of farm workers exceeded that of c
Sept. 13, 2012