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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[Music in drama] An ode to childhood trauma
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NCsoft to see China sales surge: report
HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― NCsoft Corp., a leading online game developer in South Korea, will likely see its sales in China rise sharply this year largely thanks to its new partnership with a Chinese distributor, Goldman Sachs said Wednesday.NCsoft currently distributes its flagship massively multiplayer online role-playing games ― Lineage I, Lineage II and Aion ― in China through a contract with Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd., a Shanghai-based operator of online games. The company has ter
TechnologyMarch 14, 2012
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Economic downturn hurts consumer goods makers: poll
Korea’s economic slowdown and a general drop in demand has put a dent in roughly half of all consumer product manufacturers in the country, a poll showed Wednesday.The survey of 350 domestic demand oriented companies conducted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry showed 47.7 percent of the respondents saying they are feeling the pinch of sluggish economic growth.Asia’s fourth-largest economy is expected to grow 3.7 percent this year, down from 3.8 percent last year and 6.2 percent growt
March 14, 2012
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Seoul shares hit 7-month high on U.S. optimism
South Korean stocks soared to a seven-month high on Wednesday as exporter shares posted firm gains on the back of optimism over the U.S. economy, analysts said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark KOSPI climbed 20.04 points, or 0.99 percent, to 2,045.08, the highest close since 2,066.26 on Aug. 3. Trading volume was heavy at 534.4 million shares worth 6.3 trillion won ($5.6 billion), with gainers outnumbering decliners 461 to 356.“Better-than-expected retail sales data
March 14, 2012
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Retailers to boycott Samsung Card
Company attacked for offering exclusive benefits to Costco in service feesAbout two million retailers nationwide are poised to boycott consumers’ payments via Samsung Card from next month.They demand the nation’s third-largest credit card issuer cut settlement service charges on retailers and cease offering exclusive benefits to Costco Wholesale Korea, a large discount chain.The association, composed of small- and mid-sized retailers, demanded the card issuer cut the service fee to 1.5 percent o
March 14, 2012
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Samsung lead triples in Chinese market as iPhone fails to gain
Apple Inc. got a second partner in China to sell the iPhone in the world’s biggest mobile-phone market. The deal may be too late to catch Samsung Electronics Co., with a market share that’s three times larger and growing. China Telecom Corp. began selling the iPhone last week as Apple tries to build on its 7.5 percent share of the country’s smartphone sales. Samsung controlled 24.3 percent of the market for phones that can play videos and games, according to Gartner Inc., using a strategy of all
TechnologyMarch 14, 2012
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Korea’s smart meters could cut electricity consumption
South Korea’s plan to install smart meters in half the country’s households by 2016 could cut electricity consumption equivalent to the cost of one nuclear power plant. “We want to make the utility industry intelligent and efficient,” said Choi Kyu-chong, director of the Smart Grid & Electricity Market Division of the Knowledge Economy Ministry. South Korea expects it will be able to save the cost of building a reactor by 2016 by helping households and utilities to manage electricity consumption
TechnologyMarch 14, 2012
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‘Smart work’ system gains popularity in Korea
Recent survey shows eight out of every 10 are smart workersThe mass introduction of smart gadgets in the country has not only changed the lifestyles of many Koreans, but also impacted the way people do their jobs here.A recent consumer study conducted by U.S.-based firm VMware found that at least eight out of every 10 employed Koreans could be dubbed “smart workers,” indicating that they have somehow adopted a flexible working style ― mobile offices, virtual meetings and working in remote areas
TechnologyMarch 14, 2012
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Scientists produce retina structure from blood-derived cells
U.S. scientists have succeeded in making early retina structures by using stem cells from blood, marking a breakthrough toward treating eye diseases, Science Daily reported Tuesday.The new findings can help study degenerative retinal disorder such as retinitis pigmentosa, a prominent cause of blindness in children and young adults, according to a statement by the University of Wisconsin- Madison research team.Last year, the group led by Doctor David Gamm was able to create the most primitive str
TechnologyMarch 14, 2012
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Jobless rate hits 11-month high of 4.2 percent in February
Korea’s jobless rate jumped to the highest level in 11 months in February, indicating that the job market conditions remain cloudy despite the continued economic recovery, a report showed Wednesday.The jobless rate stood at 4.2 percent last month, up from 3.5 percent in January, according to the report by Statistics Korea. It was the highest since March last year when the rate reached 4.3 percent.Job creation also decelerated, with a total of 447,000 jobs added to payrolls in February compared w
March 14, 2012
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U.S. FTA brings cheaper goods, expands exports
Same tariff incentives will apply to online, offline purchases of American goodsThe Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement went into effect on Thursday, making Korea the first Asian country to have FTAs in effect with the world’s largest economy and the European Union. Tariffs were immediately removed for 82.1 percent of U.S. items such as shirts, jeans, cosmetics, handbags and wine, and 80.5 percent of Korean items. Tariffs on American cars will be removed gradually.The effectuation, which experts pre
March 14, 2012
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Korea to adopt new growth-sharing program
Participating firms will get incentive points in bidding for public projectsThe Korean government said it will kick off a new growth-sharing program between small and big enterprises in April amid the slower-than-expected adoption of shared growth practices in the country’s corporate sector. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said on Wednesday it will introduce a “growth-sharing certification program” next month, offering incentives to big businesses that support their suppliers or other small fi
March 14, 2012
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Introduction to Pilates
CHICAGO ― With some fitness regimens, that first trip to the gym can nearly kill you.Pilates, with its emphasis on core training and an abundance of moves, works the other way.“The first time is almost the easiest,” says Alycea Ungaro, owner of Real Pilates in New York (realpilatesnyc.com and author of “Pilates: Body in Motion” (DK Publishing). “It gets harder after that. Once you know what to do, the bar gets higher, the demand gets harder. You see things you’re doing wrong and you fix them. Yo
TechnologyMarch 14, 2012
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LG Display to start building plant in China
HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― Korea’s LG Display Co. will likely start building its 8.5 generation liquid crystal display plant in China next month, in a bid to garner a larger market share there, a source said Wednesday. In December 2010, the world’s No. 2 maker of LCD panels obtained approval from the Chinese government to build an LCD factory in the southern city of Guangzhou.The South Korean company, however, has been delaying breaking ground on its Guangzhou factory due to prolonged sluggish de
IndustryMarch 14, 2012
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Korea mulls Japanese seafood origin labeling
The Agriculture Ministry is considering mandatory origin labeling at restaurants selling pollack and mackerel, responding to fears about radioactivity in Japanese waters. “The ministry began studying measures to enforce origin labeling to help customers filter out Japanese imports,” said a spokesman at the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.“We have been promoting honest origin labeling at eateries, but more consumers have been complaining about having to eat seafood without
IndustryMarch 14, 2012
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KT&G to launch pharmaceutical business
KT&G Corp., Korea’s largest tobacco and ginseng product manufacturer, said Wednesday that it will jump into the pharmaceutical business in a bid to diversify its business portfolio.The company said it launched KT&G Life Sciences Corp., formerly known as Mazence Inc., which KT&G acquired late last year to spearhead the business.KT&G said it will focus on developing treatments for cancer and osteoporosis and drugs for atopic diseases, as well as new medicines for diabetes and obesity that Mazence
IndustryMarch 14, 2012
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Rats as good at decision-making as humans: study
Rats are smart, that's a well known fact. But US researchers said Tuesday a series of tests have shown they may be just as good as humans at juggling information in order to make the best decision. A white rat in a laboratoryThe discovery could help scientists better understand how the brain works i
TechnologyMarch 14, 2012
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Scientists claim nuke could stop asteroid Armageddon
A huge asteroid hurls toward Earth. In desperation, scientists send a group of astronauts to blast the deadly rock with a nuclear bomb and save humanity.It is a scenario that has been depicted in Hollywood films, but new a U.S. study suggests that a timely nuclear explosion could save us from a devastating asteroid impact.Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory conducted a supercomputer simulation to test the effects of a nuclear weapon on an asteriod, according to Space.com.They “hit” a 50
TechnologyMarch 14, 2012
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Samsung Supplies Apple With Touch Screen for New IPad
Samsung Electronics Co. will supply the screen for Apple Inc.’s new iPad after LG Display Co. and Sharp Corp. didn’t meet the U.S. company’s quality requirements, according to an analyst with iSuppli. Samsung, the world’s top flat-panel maker, currently is the sole vendor of the display for the 9.7-
IndustryMarch 14, 2012
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South Korean researchers to clone mammoth
A private bioengineering laboratory led by disgraced stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk said Tuesday that it agreed to work together with a Russian university in cloning an extinct woolly mammoth.The agreement with the North-Eastern Federal University calls for the use of biological samples taken from mammoth remains so they can help make a live animal using a somatic cell nuclear transfer process, the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation said.It said the school in the Russia’s Sakha Federal Republi
TechnologyMarch 13, 2012
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‘Korea will emerge as hub of FTAs’
‘FTA negotiations with China to begin within first half of this year’This is the first of a series of interviews of top officials on FTAs as the Korea-U.S. FTA takes effect on March 15. ― Ed.The free trade agreement with the United States, which goes into effect Thursday, is anticipated to help Korea attract foreign investment in addition to boosting exports to the world’s largest market.“Being a country that depends heavily on trade, our competence means strong exports to the advanced economy,
March 13, 2012