Most Popular
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Yoon sorry for shortcomings but insists policies were right
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S. Korea ‘strongly’ protests Japan’s claim over Dokdo in diplomatic bluebook
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US 'incredibly concerned' about suspected NK-Iran military ties
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Korean won weakens amid heightened uncertainty
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1 in 3 Koreans live alone, family types becoming diverse
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Sewol victims commemorated on tragedy's 10th anniversary
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Seoul says will cut power to porn festival planned on Han River
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Chanel, Louis Vuitton see muted growth in Korea
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Conservative bloc divided over Han’s role in election defeat
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Korea, Japan finance chiefs vow to tame rampant FX market volatility
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Korea boosting efforts to attract more visitors for PyeongChang Olympics
PYEONGCHANG -- South Korea is gearing up its efforts to attract more local and foreign visitors to the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, officials said Friday, with the quadrennial event just five months away. The Winter Games will be held in the alpine county of PyeongChang, 180 kilometers east of Seoul, from Feb. 9-25, 2018, and will be attended by about 6,500 athletes and officials from 95 countries.The government of Gangwon Province, where PyeongChang and other venues for the upcoming
Sept. 15, 2017
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Banks' foreign currency deposits fall in August
Foreign currency deposits at banks in South Korea fell in August from a month earlier as exporters decreased their deposits in the US dollar and Japanese yen, central bank data showed Friday.Outstanding foreign currency deposits held by banks here reached $67.14 billion at the end of August, down $1.97 billion from a month earlier, according to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea.Broken down, foreign currency deposits held by domestic banks came to $57.41 billion in August, down from $59.38 b
Sept. 15, 2017
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Health care costs for insured foreigners double over 5 years
Health care costs for foreigners covered by South Korea's state health insurance have more than doubled over the past five years as more subscribe to the scheme, data showed Friday.The total medical cost for covered foreigners came to 553 billion won ($487 million) last year, up 109 percent from 2012, according to the data by the National Health Insurance Service and the Justice Ministry.The amount is much larger than the 426 billion won paid by those covered foreigners in state health insurance
Sept. 15, 2017
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Korea seeks gradual fade-out of nuclear power: energy minister
South Korea's energy minister said Friday that the country is gradually pushing forward a zero nuclear policy that will extend into the next 60 years so as to meet the rising demand for safer and cleaner energy."It is the right time to transform our energy base into a safe and clean one," Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Paik Un-gyu said in a conference in Seoul. "There is a need to move away from the energy scheme of the past, which focused on promoting nuclear power plants
Sept. 15, 2017
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Finance Minister dismisses calls to delay religious taxation
Deputy Prime Minister for economic affairs and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon on Thursday reiterated the government’s plan to impose taxes on clergy, dismissing persistent complaints from Protestant church circles.“We shall make all preparations so that the religious taxation may take effect from next year without setbacks,” the minister told reporters after his meeting with Protestant leaders.“When I said that I would make a zero-based assessment of their demands, I mean
Sept. 14, 2017
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Household debt may limit policy maneuvering: finance minister
South Korea's top economic policymaker on Thursday expressed concerns that ballooning household debt may narrow room for policy maneuvering in Asia's fourth-largest economy when interest rates rise, while downplaying the chance of high household debt posing a threat to the overall economy."The risk of massive household debt will unlikely spill over to the entire economy," Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said in a policy meeting with Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol and high-ranking offici
Sept. 14, 2017
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Chemical industry to expand investment in Daesan complex
The domestic chemical industry has responded to the government‘s push toward active domestic investments and job creation demands as major chemical companies have vowed to expand large-scale investment projects totaling some 10 trillion won ($8.8 billion), the government said Thursday. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, S-Oil, Lotte Chemical and Hanwha Total Petrochemical signed a memorandum of understanding with the provincial government to invest in the Daesan Petr
Sept. 14, 2017
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Firms' Q2 sales growth at 5-yr high on brisk sales of electronic goods
South Korean companies' combined sales jumped 8 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier helped by increased sales of semiconductor and other electronic goods, central bank data showed Thursday.The on-year sales growth rate marks a turnaround from a 1.9 percent contraction in the second quarter of last year, the Bank of Korea said in a statement. The yearly growth rate for the second-quarter also marks the highest since the first quarter of 2012 when the comparable figure was 10.4 perce
Sept. 14, 2017
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Korea slaps anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese, Indian, Ukrainian ferroalloy
South Korea has decided to impose anti-dumping duties on ferroalloy imported from Vietnam, India and Ukraine, the trade commission here said Thursday.The Korea Trade Commission said it made the final decision to levy punitive duties of 4.06-19.06 percent on ferro-silico-manganese imported from the three countries for the next five years, for underselling their products here and causing damage to the local industry.Currently, a preliminary tariff of 6.08-32.32 percent has been imposed on the prod
Sept. 14, 2017
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N. Korean risks not high enough to change ratings on S. Korea: S&P official
Tensions over a raft of provocations by North Korea are not high enough to adjust ratings on South Korea, a senior official of the global rating agency Standard & Poor's said Thursday."As long as there is no actual war outbreak, I think the impact is relatively limited, and that's why we don't change our outlook on the rating of South Korea," Kim Eng Tan, senior director of Asia-Pacific sovereign ratings at S&P, said in a brief interview with Yonhap News Agency.Last month, S&am
Sept. 14, 2017
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[Herald Interview] ‘Forests are Korea’s largest resource’: minister
With Asia home to more than half of the world’s urban population, the depletion of natural resources, diminishing water quality, increased air pollution and adverse climate change effects are considered some of the biggest threats to humanity that experts are looking to combat amid growing urbanization across the continent. Therefore, Kim Jae-hyun, minster for the Korea Forest Service, is stressing the need for the government to use Korea’s vast greenery to improve the country&rsquo
Sept. 13, 2017
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Finance minister hints at slowing pace of minimum wage hike
Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said Wednesday that the government will carefully review how much it will raise the minimum wage from 2019, indicating that the government may slow the growth pace to reflect various conditions. In July, the government decided to raise the minimum wage by 16.4 percent to 7,530 won ($6.67) per hour next year, marking its biggest jump in nearly two decades. President Moon Jae-in has pledged to increase the minimum wage to 10,000 won by 2020, as part of his efforts to
Sept. 13, 2017
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Korea’s major manufacturing industries falter
Korea’s manufacturing industries have been losing their vitality, squeezed between worsening external conditions and domestic policies that are an increasing burden on them.Industrial facilities across the country ran at 71.6 percent of their capacities on average in the second quarter of this year, according to Statistics Korea.The figure is the lowest since the January-March period of 2009 when the Korean economy was struggling to pull out of the aftermath of a global financial crisis.&n
Sept. 13, 2017
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Job fair connects 2,500 intl. students to Korean firms
The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency is running a job fair for international students from Wednesday to Thursday.Organized by KOTRA, the two-day event runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Coex in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul. More than 2,500 international students from some 50 countries signed up for the fair. In addition, 129 Korean companies including Cuckoo electronics and Daewoong Pharmaceutical are participating to connect with the job seekers. Programs at the fair include one-on-on
Sept. 13, 2017
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[Monitor] Single-person households’ income drop
South Korea’s single-person households saw an income drop for a third consecutive quarter in the second quarter this year, data by Statistics Korea showed Wednesday.The decline was attributed to a decrease in temporary jobs, many of which are taken by the elderly and young people. Elderly retired persons tend to make up a large portion of single-person households, according to the Statistics Korea official. The average monthly income in the second quarter decreased by 2 percent to 1,642,54
Sept. 13, 2017
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Adjusted wages of Korean big biz workers much higher than US, Japan: report
The average adjusted monthly wage for workers at South Korea's big businesses far exceeds those of their US and Japanese counterparts, although South Korea's per capita GDP is much lower than the two advanced economies, a report showed Wednesday.The average South Korean employee at companies with more than 500 workers earned $6,048 per month last year when adjusted by the purchasing power parity, according to the report written by the Korea Small Business Institute.The comparable figures were $4
Sept. 13, 2017
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Taking China to WTO is one option being considered: trade minister
South Korea's trade minister said Wednesday that taking China to the World Trade Organization is one option being considered in response to that country's apparent retaliatory actions against Seoul's decision to deploy a US missile shield.The Beijing government slammed the deployment of the defense system, called THAAD, on South Korean soil, claiming that the system will threaten its national security.It also seemed to have banned Chinese travel agencies from selling group tours to South Korea a
Sept. 13, 2017
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Korea's semiconductor exports to exceed $90b this year: KITA
South Korea's semiconductor exports are expected to exceed $90 billion this year due to increased overseas chip demand and higher prices, an international traders organization said Wednesday.In the January-August period, outbound shipments of computer chips surged 52 percent on-year to $59.5 billion, the Korea International Trade Association said in a statement. "If the country reports an average of $8 billion a month in semiconductor exports for the rest of the year, the overall value (of
Sept. 13, 2017
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Korea's ICT exports hit record high in August
South Korean exports of information and communication technology products increased for the seventh month to hit an all-time high in August on brisk overseas sales of semiconductors and displays, government data showed Wednesday.A total of $17.4 billion worth of ICT products were shipped overseas, up 23.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Science and ICT.The monthly overseas shipments of ICT products is a new high surpassing the previous $16.53 billio
Sept. 13, 2017
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Single household income drops for 3rd straight quarter: govt. data
South Korea's single household income fell for the third consecutive quarter in the April-June period this year due to a drop in temporary jobs for the elderly and young people amid a sluggish pace of economic recovery, government data showed Wednesday.The average monthly income of a single household shrank 2 percent to 1,642,540 won ($1,455) in the second quarter from 1,676,003 won a year earlier, according to the figures provided by Statistics Korea.The number represents about 45 percent of th
Sept. 13, 2017