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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Doctor group's incoming head renews call for govt. to scrap medical school quota hike for dialogue
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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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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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S. Korea's consumer price growth slows in July
South Korea's consumer prices grew at a slower pace last month amid government efforts to keep inflationary pressure down, a report showed Wednesday.The country's consumer price index rose 1.5 percent from a year earlier in June, compared with a 2.2 percent on-year gain the previous month, according to the report by Statistics Korea.July's reading marks the first time since July 2009 that inflatio
Aug. 1, 2012
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Ruling party chief renews debate on extending retirement age
Hwang calls for introduction of peak salary systemThe ruling Saenuri Party chairman Hwang Woo-yea said on Tuesday that his party would take steps to obligate all businesses to set the retirement age at 60.At present, companies are only recommended to set the retirement age at 60. The average retirement age for local firms with over 300 employees is 57.4, and people actually retire at age 53 on average, according to the Korea Labor Institute.“We will initially push for extending the legal retirem
July 31, 2012
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KDB drops plan to buy HSBC retail branches
The Korea Development Bank said Tuesday it dropped the plan to take over HSBC’s 11 retail branches in Korea. KDB said in a statement that it agreed with HSBC to stop acquisition talks due to disagreements over employment conditions, and to no longer seek to buy the U.K.-based bank’s retail operations here.The state-run bank had begun talks with HSBC in April to acquire its local retail branches in the form of purchase and assumption, which does not involve a transfer of money as KDB was to take
July 31, 2012
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Korean cars on roll in Africa, Middle East
Shipments of South Korean vehicles to Africa and the Middle East soared nearly 35 percent in the first half of this year, helping the regions emerge as the country’s biggest markets, industry data showed Tuesday.South Korea’s five carmakers led by Hyundai Motor Co. exported $1.28 billion worth of vehicles to African nations in the January-June period, up 34.4 percent from a year ago, according to data compiled by the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association.The other companies are Kia Motors C
MobilityJuly 31, 2012
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World’s largest floating solar plant starts work
The world’s largest solar plant on water went into operation on Tuesday, paving the way for the commercialization of a new solar energy provider, said Korea Water Resources Corp., or K-water. The state-run water service company organized the three-year project in August 2008, and Korean industrial solutions firm LSIS undertook the plant construction in 2011 on Hapcheon Dam in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province. “K-water plans to form partnerships with private firms for the standardization and o
TechnologyJuly 31, 2012
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Foreign ownership of Hyundai Motor, Samsung growing
Foreign investors are cutting back their stakes in major Korean companies amid a sliding stock market hard hit by the European debt crisis.But they are expanding ownership at the nation’s top two conglomerates Samsung and Hyundai, Chaebol.com, a website tracking Korean conglomerate owners, revealed Tuesday. According to the research firm, 93 affiliates of the nation’s top 10 conglomerates saw their combined foreign ownership decline from 20.19 percent in March to 19.79 percent this month. The 0.
IndustryJuly 31, 2012
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Samsung, Apple begin court talks
Court attendance of key witness remains in questionSamsung Electronics and Apple have begun their U.S. court battle over intellectual property rights in San Jose, California, on Tuesday, local time, with both sides vowing not to step down.On the trial’s first day, the court selected a panel formed of 10 people ― seven men and three women ― and went forward with an objection hearing.Samsung asked U.S. Judge Lucy Koh to block Apple from using the photos of its late founder Steve Jobs throughout th
IndustryJuly 31, 2012
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Toyota aims to bounce back in Korea
Japanese carmaker pins hopes on hybrid vehiclesToyota Motor Corp. is outperforming General Motors in global sales again, bouncing back from a massive recall incident and natural disasters in its home country.The Japanese automaker said it sold 4.97 million vehicles globally in the first half of the year, while the sales of GM stood at 4.67 million units.While Toyota’s Korean unit is also set to wage uphill sales battles with German firms such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi, market insiders are w
MobilityJuly 31, 2012
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‘LTE users to hit 42m in 2013’
The number of Koreans who use smartphones with the Long Term Evolution network is expected to pass the 40-million subscriber mark in 2013, a Seoul-based consulting firm forecast on Tuesday.ROA Consulting said that the number of subscribers may hit 42 million, marking a new era in the domestic telecommunications industry. According to the company’s report, about seven out of 10 mobile device users in Korea will use a smartphone with 4G LTE technology in 2013. This represents a significant jump fr
TechnologyJuly 31, 2012
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Card firms earn over 2tr won in peripheral services
Korean credit card firms earned more than 2 trillion won ($1.76 billion) from their secondary businesses last year as they scrambled to diversify profit sources, industry data showed Tuesday.The card issuers’ combined revenue from insurance sales, travel agency business and mail orders reached 2.45 trillion won in 2011, up 36 percent from 1.84 trillion won a year earlier, according to the data by the Korea Credit Finance Association. Their ancillary revenue has grown five-fold in 10 years, with
July 31, 2012
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Korea basks in exports of cultural products this year
Korea earned income by selling its cultural products and services this year on the back of the popularity of Korean culture in overseas countries, data by the central bank showed Tuesday.The account tracking exports and imports of cultural products and contents hit a record high of $30.1 million in May, compared with $12.5 million tallied in April, according to the Bank of Korea.The account also posted a surplus of a combined $72.7 million in the March-May period, marking the first time that it
July 31, 2012
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Peru FTA boosts Korean cars, TVs
The Korea-Peru free trade pact has boosted the competitiveness of Korea-made products over its first year of implementation, with the nation’s automotive and TV manufacturers outpacing Chinese and Japanese rivals in the South American country. The Korea International Trade Association said on Tuesday that the nation’s exports to Peru increased 28.9 percent in the 11 months up to June, though imports from the country decreased 7.6 percent during the same period. The growth figure surpassed the 6.
IndustryJuly 31, 2012
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Cheil Worldwide acquires U.S. marketing firm
Cheil Worldwide Inc., South Korea’s largest advertising agency, said Tuesday that it has taken over a U.S. marketing firm in a bid to expand its global business.Cheil Worldwide said in a filing that its U.S. unit, Cheil USA Inc., acquired a 100 percent stake in Mckinney Ventures LLC. It did not elaborate on financial terms of the deal.The U.S. firm, founded in 1969, has led global advertising campaigns for Nike Inc. and Sony Corp. It posted $37 million in revenues in 2011.Cheil Worldwide said th
IndustryJuly 31, 2012
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Best summer holiday reads for CEOs
Since 2004, Samsung Economic Research Institute has conducted surveys of CEOs and their reading habits. This year a total of 567 CEOs participated in the survey and recommended more than 1,000 books to read. Among them, SERI picked the 14 best summer reads, including seven on economy and management and the rest on humanities and culture. In the economy and management category, the first to make the list was “Multipliers.” The authors classify leaders as diminishers or multipliers. Diminishers ar
July 31, 2012
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Business uncertainties likely to raise M&A opportunities
But analysts say supply may exceed demand in auction marketResearch analysts predict some large local enterprises will be put on the market for mergers or acquisitions in the coming months.They cite worsening financial situations for some companies, hit by the eurozone debt crisis and global uncertainties, for a possible vitalization of the nation’s M&A market.According to brokerage industry data, three sectors ― construction, shipping and shipbuilding ― have been hit severely by rapidly declini
IndustryJuly 31, 2012
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Seoul shares jump 2.07 percent on eurozone hopes
South Korean stocks finished 2.07 percent higher Tuesday as investors' sentiment was boosted by expectations that stimulus measures from Europe and the U.S. will come, analysts said. The local currency rose sharply against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) soared 38.2 points to close at 1,881.99 Trading volume was moderate at 353.6 million shares worth 5.55 tr
July 31, 2012
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Romance is over when photos are stashed
The point at which people put an ex-partner‘s photo away after a split is usually when they are emotionally ready to move on, a British psychologist says.“It’s not surprising that nearly half of us keep some kind of visual memento of past partners -- this goes for partners who were divorced or died as well -- a photo generates strong emotions as it unleashes memories of past attachment and times,” Corinne Sweet, behavioral psychologist said in a statement.A survey for Friends Reunited, a social
TechnologyJuly 31, 2012
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Twitter clocks half-million users: Monitor
Over 500 million people are on micro-blogging site Twitter and Americans and Brazilians are the most connected, according to a study by social media monitor Semiocast released Monday.Twitter surpassed the half-billion mark at the end of June, with the United States accounting for both the most users and largest number of “tweets” or short messages of no more than 140 characters posted on the site.The Paris-based monitor carried out the study by analysing data like time zone, geolocation and lang
TechnologyJuly 31, 2012
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Apple to debut its new iOS devices on Sept. 12
Apple is planning to announce the launch of the iPhone 5 and a new iPad at a special event on Sept. 12 according to technology blog iMore.Citing sources who “have proven accurate in the past,” iMore said Apple’s new iPhone and iPad Mini, a new smaller-sized tablet computer, will be open to the market on Sept. 21, nine days after the announcement.The article also said that a new iPod Touch will make an appearance at the event, as well as a new iPod Nano.A French website App4Phone.fr also said tha
TechnologyJuly 31, 2012
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Humans would be also-rans in all-species Olympics: study
(AP)Human beings would be made to look decidedly unimpressive were animals allowed to compete in the Olympics -- outperformed by the likes of kangaroos, gorillas and ostriches, a science paper said Saturday.Usain Bolt, currently the world's fastest man, may just be able to outrun a Dromedary camel but would trail the cheetah, greyhound and ostrich in a sprint race, said a feature in the Veterinary
TechnologyJuly 31, 2012