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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Doctor group's incoming head renews call for govt. to scrap medical school quota hike for dialogue
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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L'Oreal heiress sells island paradise in Seychelles
L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, France's richest woman, has sold a string of private islands in the Seychelles to a firm linked to an ocean conservation foundation, a minister said Tuesday.Bettencourt, 89, bought D'Arros Island along with several neighbouring islets for $18 million in 1998 and recently sold them for $60 million (74 million euros) to a Seychelles-registered business, Housing a
IndustryAug. 2, 2012
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Korea, Turkey sign free trade deal
Korea and Turkey signed their free trade deal on Wednesday, paving the way for South Korean firms to tap deeper into the Eurasian nation, Seoul's trade ministry said.Seoul Trade Minister Bark Tae-ho and Turkish counterpart Zafer Caglayan signed the pact on merchandise in the Turkish capital of Ankara earlier in the day, according to the ministry."The Korea-Turkey FTA is expected to serve as a good
Aug. 1, 2012
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Minimum tax rate for big companies set to be raised
The government and the ruling Saenuri Party agreed Wednesday on raising the minimum tax rate for large firms that receive various tax benefits from the current 14 percent to 15 percent.The revised tax bill also includes lowering the tax cut limits for big businesses; imposing taxes on financial income of more than 30 million won, down from the current 40 million won; expanding taxation on gains from stock transfers by major shareholders; and introducing transaction taxes on derivatives. The Saen
Aug. 1, 2012
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SK scholarship benefits over 3,000 students
A nonprofit organization founded by SK Group has awarded a scholarship to its 3,000th student this year, SK officials said.According to the officials, the scholarship program has financially supported a total of 3,059 students as of July 29.The program is promoted by the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies, a non-profit organization established in 1974 with the aim of fostering talented scholars. SK Group founder and late chairman Chey Jong-hyun created the foundation to materialize his vision
Aug. 1, 2012
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Aussie company aims to run first uranium mine in Korea
Korea, the world’s fifth-largest user of nuclear power, is expected to start the production of its own uranium as early as 2015, Australian energy company Stonehenge Metals, which has the exclusive rights to the deposits, said Wednesday. “Our goal is to operate the first uranium mine in Korea, which would be both a massive national asset and a boon to the local communities,” Richard Henning, managing director of the Perth-based Stonehenge, said at a press conference in Seoul. In the 1980s, the
IndustryAug. 1, 2012
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STX Group signs $200 million contract to ship corn from U.S.
STX Group announced on Wednesday that it had formed a business partnership with Nonghyup Feed Co. in Portland, Oregon, to import U.S. corn for about one year starting November 2012. The partnership contract states that STX will be responsible for shipping about 700,000 tons of U.S. corn to Korea for livestock feed. The corn will be processed and distributed by Nonghyup Feed, which holds about an 18 percent share of the livestock feed market here. Among rising concerns regarding agflation ― a com
Aug. 1, 2012
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Trade surplus narrows on falling exports
Korea’s trade surplus shrank from a month earlier in July as exports slipped at a greater pace than imports, the government said Wednesday.The country’s trade balance came to $2.7 billion in the black last month, compared with a surplus of $4.96 billion in June, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.Still, July marks the sixth consecutive month the country has posted a trade surplus since January when the country’s trade balance went into the red for the first time in 24 months.Exports
Aug. 1, 2012
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July consumer prices grow at slowest rate in 12 years
Korea’s consumer prices grew at the slowest pace in 12 years in July as the slowing global economy drove down costs of crude oil and other products by cutting overall demand, a report showed Wednesday.The country’s consumer price index rose 1.5 percent in July from a year earlier, compared with a 2.2 percent on-year gain the previous month, according to the report by Statistics Korea.July’s reading marks the slowest growth since May 2000 when consumer prices gained 1.1 percent. It also marks the
Aug. 1, 2012
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Hyundai, Kia’s car sales inch up in July
GM Korea, Renault Samsung, Ssangyong post sagging salesHyundai Motor and Kia Motors saw their year-on-year vehicle sales increase last month on the back of robust performance overseas.Hyundai-Kia’s overseas factories in particular led the affiliated carmakers’ sales growth. They operate manufacturing plants in countries such as the U.S., China, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.Hyundai Motor said it posted sales of 332,027 units in July, up 3.1 percent a year earlier.The nation’s largest a
IndustryAug. 1, 2012
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Majority of experts see chance of ‘systemic risk’ in 3 years
A survey of local financial experts conducted by the Bank of Korea in July showed that a majority of them see a high chance of a “systemic risk” occurring in the next three years.Of the 74 respondents, 52.7 percent said the possibility of a systemic risk, or the risk of collapse of an entire financial system or entire market, occurring between one to four years from now was high. Twelve percent answered the opposite.As for the probability of a systemic risk occurring within a year, 27.1 percent
Aug. 1, 2012
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FSS seeks to ease household mortgage payments
Korea’s financial watchdog said Wednesday it is seeking to adopt steps to ease households’ repayment burden of home-backed loans as the slumping property market erodes the value of collateral.The Financial Supervisory Service said it is studying plans to have banks convert maturing mortgages exceeding a lending limit, or the loan-to-value ratio, into credit loans instead of retrieving them. The LTV ratio is one of the main tools to curb household loans by restricting the maximum amount of money
Aug. 1, 2012
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KB Kookmin vows ethical business
KB Kookmin Bank pledged to reinforce sincere business activities in a bid to regain customer confidence by eliminating practices with ethical breach.The commercial bank said Wednesday that it has formed a task force aimed at enhancing social responsibility, ethical management and customer-oriented business.The bank mapped out the new business policy after being criticized by the public when irregularities involving fabrication of its loan screening documents were revealed in the financial market
Aug. 1, 2012
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Trade dependence hits record high in 2011
Korea’s dependence on trade rose to an all-time high last year, data showed Wednesday, spawning concerns the country could become more vulnerable to the slumping global economy. The ratio measuring Korea’s reliance on trade for growth stood at a record 113.2 percent last year, up from 105.2 percent in 2010, according to data by the central bank. The ratio measures the value of exports and imports against gross national income.The ratio, which largely hovered near the 80-percent range in the mid-
Aug. 1, 2012
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Microsoft to phase out Hotmail, focus on Outlook email
Microsoft Corp., the world’s biggest software maker, will introduce a new, free Web-based email portal under its Outlook brand and phase out Hotmail over time as it seeks to draw users from Google Inc.’s Gmail. A preview of the new service went online today and Hotmail probably will be phased out in the next year, said Brian Hall, a general manager in Microsoft’s Windows group, in an interview. By going with Outlook, Microsoft is trying to capitalize on the brand behind the most-used corporate e
TechnologyAug. 1, 2012
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Samsung, Apple launch salvos in court battle
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. told jurors that its products are not copycats of Apple Inc’s iPhone but rather an example of legitimate American-style competition from the South Korean company.Lawyers for both tech giants faced off on Tuesday for opening statements in the highly anticipated U.S. patent trial, where Apple has accused Samsung of stealing iPhone features like scrolling and multi-touch.The stakes are high: Apple is being tested on its worldwide patent strategy against Google’s Android
TechnologyAug. 1, 2012
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Tapjoy targets Korea’s mobile ad market
U.S.-based firm joins hands with SK Planet to get business going in KoreaTapjoy, a San Francisco-based mobile advertising firm, said Tuesday it is putting its focus on the Korean market, claiming it is the company’s biggest after its home turf.Mihir Shah, president and chief executive of Tapjoy, said Korea is a special market due to its infrastructure and connectivity as well as its penetration of devices running on the fourth-generation Long Term Evolution networks.“Today, Korea is our No. 2 ma
TechnologyAug. 1, 2012
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Popularity of Diablo 3 plunges in Korea
The popularity of Diablo 3, one of the major online role-playing games in South Korea, has nosedived on the game rankings here, according to GameNote, a local website offering online game news.The latest ranking table released by GameNote on Aug. 1 showed that Diablo 3 has plummeted to the 11th place, which is eight steps down from the 3rd as recorded a week earlier.Diablo 3 was one of the most anticipated titles this year and it has managed to retain some popularity despite critical bugs and ex
TechnologyAug. 1, 2012
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Video game claims to treat depression
New Zealand developers said they have created a video game that will help young people overcome depression. SPARX, developed by the University of Auckland and Metia Interactive, is a role-playing game designed to teach teenagers how to cope with depression.“You can deal with mental health problems in a way that doesn’t have to be deadly serious,” said project leader Sally Merry in an interview with Britain’s Daily Mail. “The therapy doesn’t have to be depressing in and of itself. We’re aiming to
TechnologyAug. 1, 2012
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S. Korea's July trade surplus narrows on falling exports
South Korea's trade surplus shrank from a month earlier in July as exports slipped at a greater pace than imports, the government said Wednesday.The country's trade balance came to $2.7 billion in the black last month, compared with a surplus of $4.96 billion in June, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.Still, July marks the sixth consecutive month the country has posted a trade surplus
Aug. 1, 2012
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Smiling during stress may help the heart
(123rf)People who smile even though they don't feel like it had lower heart beat levels, U.S. researcher suggest.Psychological scientists Tara Kraft and Sarah Pressman of the University of Kansas conducted a series of experiments involving 169 participants from a Midwestern university.The study involved two phases -- training and testing. During the training phase, participants were divided into t
TechnologyAug. 1, 2012