Most Popular
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Korea enters full election mode
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Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
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Immigrant woman stabbed to death by Korean husband
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Lee Jong-sup resigns as envoy to Australia
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Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
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Yellow dust engulfs S. Korea, advisory alert issued
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S. Korea to boost support for single-parent families
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Court upholds jail term for man who attempted to murder ex-girlfriend
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Kia EV9 wins world car of year
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Korea misses out on global bond index boost
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Brokerages under probe for fixing CD rates
The nation’s antitrust watchdog launched on Tuesday an investigation into the possible collusion among local brokerages on their certificate of deposit rates, the benchmark for borrowing costs of local banks.According to industry sources, the Fair Trade Commission dispatched investigators earlier in the day to the nation’s 10 brokerages to secure relevant computer data and documents. The securities firms included Leading Investment & Securities, Dongbu Securities, Meritz Securities, Mirae Asset
IndustryJuly 17, 2012
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Card firms’ Q1 profits reach nearly 1tr won
Korean credit card companies saw their net profits nearly double in the first quarter from three months earlier, as more people favored cards for their transaction convenience and benefits, data showed Tuesday.The combined net profits of seven credit card firms reached 921 billion won ($804 million) in the January-March period, compared with 481 billion won in the previous quarter, according to industry data. No. 2 player Samsung Card Co. logged a profit of 509 billion, followed by industry lead
July 17, 2012
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Rate cut won’t squeeze bank income
Last week’s surprise interest rate cut by South Korea’s central bank will unlikely erode local lenders’ interest income significantly and will instead help improve their asset quality, a report said Tuesday.Beating market expectations, the Bank of Korea unexpectedly lowered the July level of the benchmark 7-day repo rate by a quarter point to 3 percent on Thursday, marking the first rate cut since February 2009.According to the report by Switzerland-based brokerage Credit Suisse, the rate reduct
July 17, 2012
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Finance minister rules out additional fiscal stimulus
Korean Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan ruled out additional fiscal stimulus for now, saying it could do more harm than good because the global economy is too weak to make it meaningful. “You don’t plant a tree in winter,” Bahk said in an interview with Bloomberg on Monday. While Asia’s fourth-largest economy retains room to boost growth both through monetary and fiscal measures, 3 percent growth “is not bad, given the global economy,” he said. Gross domestic product rose 2.8 percent in the first q
July 17, 2012
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Jin Air reports soaring profits for Q1
Budget carrier CEO says route diversification boosted profits by 256%JEJU ― Jin Air, a low-cost carrier, said Tuesday that its operating profit in the first half of this year had more than doubled, dismissing initial concerns that Korea is a deathbed for discount airlines. The subsidiary of Korean Air increased its year-on-year sales by 65 percent, to 119.5 billion won ($110 million). The carrier’s operating profit in the same period also increased by 256 percent, to about 7.8 billion won. The f
IndustryJuly 17, 2012
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Foreign ownership of Samsung Electronics hits 2-year low: data
Foreign stock ownership of Samsung Electronics Co., Korea’s biggest market cap, dropped to the lowest level in two years, data showed Tuesday, raising views the market bellwether is losing its charm with overseas investors.The portion of Samsung Electronics shares held by foreigner investors came to 49 percent on Monday, dropping to the lowest level since 48.96 percent in July 2010, according to the data by the Korea Exchange, the local bourse operator.The latest ownership by foreign investors m
July 17, 2012
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Korean builders hard pressed to meet interest payments
Nearly four in 10 South Korean construction companies were unable to meet interest payments with operating profit last year as a sluggish domestic market hurt their earnings, a report showed Tuesday.According to the report by the Construction Association of Korea, 36 percent of local builders could not cover interest payments with their operating profit in 2011. The report was based on an analysis of financial statements of 10,275 construction companies in the country.Of the companies checked, 1
July 17, 2012
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McDonald’s Korea launches McCafe
McDonald’s Korea officially launched McCafe in the leading hamburger chain’s Cheongdam-dong store in southern Seoul on Tuesday. As ten McCafes that test-opened throughout the nation last year are running successfully, McDonald’s Korea decided to operate a full-fledged caf business starting with the Cheongdam-dong store. It is to meet the needs of South Korean consumers’ new lifestyle, said the officials of the U.S. fast-food chain. First opened in Australia in 1993, McCafe is found in 34 countri
IndustryJuly 17, 2012
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Business leaders set to give up vacation
CEOs busily engage in activities for Olympics, eurozone crisisChiefs of major business groups are expected to have one of the busiest weeks between late July and August despite the summer holiday season.Aside from mapping out contingency plans to cope with negative impacts from the ongoing eurozone fiscal crisis, some of the business leaders will have to engage in corporate sponsoring for the London 2012 Summer Olympics.Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee is scheduled to leave for London in
IndustryJuly 17, 2012
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To lose weight, keep a food journal
Women who want to lose weight should faithfully keep a food journal and avoid skipping meals and eating in restaurants, U.S. researchers advise.Dr. Anne McTiernan and colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle said study participants were given the following tips for keeping a food journal: -- Be honest, record everything you eat. -- Be accurate, measure portions, read lab
TechnologyJuly 17, 2012
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Shares up on stimulus hopes
Korean stocks closed 0.23 percent higher on Tuesday as hopes for further stimulus measures outweighed concerns over slowing growth in major economies, analysts said. The local currency gained against the U.S. dollar.After opening lower, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index climbed 4.17 points to 1,821.96. Trading volume was moderate at 406.5 million shares worth 4.7 trillion won ($4.1 billion), with decliners outnumbering gainers 439 to 356.“Despite the International Monetary Fund’s g
July 17, 2012
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S. Korea rolls back decision to resume scientific whaling
South Korea has decided to scrap its plan to resume whaling for scientific research, a senior government official said Tuesday, after the move sparked international criticism.Earlier this month, South Korea notified the International Whaling Commission that it planned to lift an all-out whaling ban and start catching the animal for scientific purposes only in immediate waters surrounding the Korea
TechnologyJuly 17, 2012
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Women smarter than men in developed world
A study has found women in the developed world score higher than men in IQ tests, a researcher in New Zealand said.Women were as much as 5 points behind men when IQ testing began a century ago, but then gap -- which led some psychologists to propose a theory that women‘s brains are genetically inferior to men’s -- has been narrowing in recent years and this year women moved ahead, The Australian r
TechnologyJuly 17, 2012
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Ultimate champion of animal kingdom; lion or tiger?
A lion and a tiger would be fairly evenly matched in a fight, but a tiger will probably come out as the winner, a U.S. scientist said. “If I had to put my money on it, I would give the advantage to the tiger,” said Craig Saffoe, a biologist and the curator of great cats at the Smithsonian Zoo in Washington, D.C.While a male lion is more likely to have more combat experience than a tiger, a tiger’s "killer instinct" may be the deciding factor in a death-match between the giant felines. According
TechnologyJuly 17, 2012
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Parliamentary speaker calls for end of lawmakers' privileges
The parliamentary speaker called Tuesday for an end to a group of privileges granted to lawmakers, saying the National Assembly should win back public trust after last week's widely condemned rejection of an arrest motion for a fellow lawmaker."Now the National Assembly should indeed lay down their outdated privileges," parliamentary speaker Kang Chang-hee said in a speech in the National Assembly
IndustryJuly 17, 2012
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Lawmakers seek to require import ban following mad cow disease
A group of lawmakers are moving to force the government to immediately ban any beef imports from countries with a confirmed mad cow disease case, which the government said Tuesday might contradict with international regulations and the country's trade agreements.The move was proposed on May 30 by Rep. Kim Yung-rok of the main opposition Democratic United Party in a revision to the law on animal di
July 17, 2012
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Domestic sales of steel products drops 4.7 percent
Domestic sales of steel products in South Korea declined 4.7 percent on-year in the first five months of the year due to prolonged economic uncertainties and weak demand, a trade association said Tuesday.According to the Korea Iron and Steel Association (KOSA), domestic shipments of steel products amounted to 23.13 million tons in the January-May period.Experts said a drop in demand from shipbuild
July 17, 2012
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Seoul shares open lower on growth concerns
South Korean stocks got off to a weak start on Tuesday as concerns over global growth and weak U.S. economic data strained investor sentiment, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) slipped 14.1 points, or 0.78 percent, to 1,803.69 in the first 15 minutes of trading.On Monday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised down its 2013 forecast for global growth and
July 17, 2012
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IMF lowers 2013 world growth outlook by 0.2%
The International Monetary Fund lowered its revised 2013 world economy outlook by 0.2 percent to 3.9 percent, according to a report on Monday.The updated World Economic Outlook released by the Finance Ministry showed that the world economy growth projection for this year remains almost unchanged, compared with 3.5 percent forecast in April.Despite the recent economic slowdown, first quarter growth was better than expected so only a little change occurred in the yearly outlook, said the report. I
July 17, 2012
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Lotte Group products face massive boycott
Consumer and self-employed groups announced on Monday the start of their boycott against Lotte Group products. The Consumers’ Association to Save Small Businesses teamed up with 2 million members of about 80 self-employed business associations who run restaurants, bars, clubs, screen-golf clubs and lodging businesses to participate in the boycott for an indefinite period. More than 600,000 restaurants, clubs and karaoke bars therefore will no longer sell Lotte’s liquors such as Scotch Blue, Cheo
IndustryJuly 16, 2012