South Korean shares traded lower late Friday morning but pared part of their earlier losses on the back of net purchases by retail investors. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 8.91 points, or 0.38 percent, to 2,352.76 as of 11:20 a.m. Large caps traded mixed with market kingpin Samsung Electronics falling 0.94 percent, and global chipmaker SK hynix up 0.45 percent. Hyundai M...

The government offered an apology again on Friday for the ballooning concerns over food safety stemming from eggs contaminated with illegal insecticides or chemicals, while promising to beef up a nationwide system to prevent similar cases from recurring. "I sincerely apologize for causing inconvenience and concerns," Agriculture Minister Kim Yung-rok said in a press conference held in Sejong, an...

North Korea said Friday that South Korean President Moon Jae-in miserably failed in improving inter-Korean ties during his first 100 days in office. The Rodong Sinmun, the main mouthpiece of North Korea, harshly critiqued Moon's performance, calling it "miserable and disappointing," and claiming that the South Korean president holds a hostile stance toward Pyongyang. "In particular, he failed i...

President Moon Jae-in's approval rating remained unchanged from a week earlier this week, a poll showed Friday, despite a series of events that may have negatively affected the popularity of the new president and his administration. In a survey conducted by Gallup Korea, 78 percent of 1,006 respondents said they approved of the president's management of state affairs. The reading marked the sec...

President Moon Jae-in reaffirmed his commitment to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula on Friday during a speech to a memorial for the late leader Kim Dae-jung who held the first inter-Korean summit in 2000. "I will work to ensure peace and economic prosperity on the Korean Peninsula with the type of security that will make peace rather than just preserving peace," the president said at a...

One of South Korean baseball's smallest players is in hot pursuit of one of the most hallowed and elusive marks in the game: a .400 batting average. Kim Sun-bin of the Kia Tigers, all of 165 centimeters, is leading the Korea Baseball Organization with a .392 mark through Thursday's games. After closing out the first half batting .380, Kim, the league's second shortest player, hasn't cooled off ...

South Korea's three major shipyards -- Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. -- maintained their top global ranking in terms of order backlog, industry data showed Friday. According to the data compiled by industry tracker Clarkson Research, Daewoo Shipbuilding's Geoje shipyard stood at 82 ships representing 5.96 million compe...

South Korea's household credit growth accelerated on month in July, the financial regulator said Friday, despite tighter lending rules aimed at reining in household debt. Household debt grew by 9.5 trillion won ($8.3 billion) in July, when the tighter lending rules came into force, compared to growth of 7.6 trillion won in June, according to the Financial Services Commission. Compared to a year...

The ruling party on Friday called on the government to conduct an expansionary fiscal policy and stronger restructuring of its expenditures to secure the wherewithal for its key policy tasks, including enhancing public welfare and national security. During their policy coordination meeting, the Democratic Party also demanded a hefty pay raise for military draftees to deliver on the new administr...

The quarantine agency said Friday it has stepped up inspections at airports and seaports against the transfer of venomous fire ants that were turning up recently in South Korea. Foods and plants coming in from Japan, China and Indonesia have been closely watched since last month, and people visiting or working at storage sites of such products are being notified of potential dangers from contact...

South Korean shares opened weak Friday, tracking losses on Wall Street overnight on a deadly attack in Spain and political uncertainties in the United States. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index slipped 17.82 points, or 0.75 percent, to 2,343.85 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Most large caps traded mixed with market kingpin Samsung Electronics falling 1.06 percent. Top automak...

Austria-based South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan showed he is in fine form ahead of his national team duty later this month, as he scored a goal in a playoff for a European club competition. Hwang struck the opening goal in Red Bull Salzburg's 3-1 win over Viitorul Constanta in their first leg of the UEFA Europa League playoff tie at Central Stadium Hagi Academy in Ovidiu, Romania, on Friday. T...

A package of government anti-speculation measures targeting mainly Seoul has poured cold water on the apartment auction market in the South Korean capital, a market tracker said Friday. Early this month, the government designated all 25 wards in Seoul and two cities -- Sejong and Gwacheon, south of Seoul -- as "speculative or overheated speculative districts" in a desperate bid to cool the overh...

Foreign ownership of stocks traded on South Korea's secondary stock market has hit a new high, data showed Friday, as offshore investors turn to undervalued tech firms there after exiting the main bourse. As of Thursday, offshore investors held 25.98 trillion won ($22.8 billion) worth of shares traded on the KOSDAQ market for tech and smaller firms, the highest level since the market opened in 1...

South Korea's major electronics firms -- Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. -- are expected to allocate a record-high investment to research and development projects this year, industry watchers said Friday. According to the sources, Samsung Electronics invested 7.9 trillion won ($6.9 billion) in research projects over the first half of 2017, up 5.7 percent from a year earlier. (Yo...