Most Popular
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[Exclusive] Korean military set to ban iPhones over 'security' concerns
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[AtoZ into Korean mind] Humor in Korea: Navigating the line between what's funny and not
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Yoon seeks rebound, taps 5-term lawmaker as chief of staff
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Korean, Romanian leaders discuss defense tech, nuclear energy
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N. Korea sends economic delegation to Iran amid suspected military cooperation
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[Graphic News] 77% of young Koreans still financially dependent
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[Herald Interview] Why Toss invited hackers to penetrate its system
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S. Korea calls on Japan to confront history amid Yasukuni Shrine visit
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S. Korean envoys convene to navigate strategy amid Middle East tensions
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Yoon’s jailed mother-in-law excluded from latest parole list
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Virtual currency exchange lobby to persuade govt. not to regulate excessively
The lobby of South Korea's cryptocurrency exchange operators said Friday it will make efforts to ensure the government does not excessively restrict the trading of virtual currencies.The Seoul government has been striving to rein in the virtual currency frenzy in Asia's fourth-largest economy while contemplating a bill to ban cryptocurrency exchanges.Amid concerns over a bubble, the government last month banned the opening of new virtual accounts for cryptocurrency investors and required virtual
Jan. 26, 2018
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Seeking fool's gold, young people jump into cryptocurrency frenzy
Looking at a smartphone app showing the prices of cryptocurrencies, Lee Jae-sung sighed. The 24-year-old university student bought 5 million won ($4,666) worth of a little-known cryptocurrency called Nxt last month.To date, the cryptocurrency has lost about 64 percent of its value, and Lee has been suffering from insomnia these days."I am repeatedly asking myself whether I should sell this at a loss, but I can't make a decision," Lee said.Lee is one of many young and Internet-savvy cry
Jan. 26, 2018
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Kiwoom Securities head to lead brokerages' association
Kwon Yong-won, chief executive of Korea’s online-only brokerage Kiwoom Securities, was elected the chairman of the Korea Financial Investment Association Thursday. Starting Feb. 4, the 56-year-old will serve his three-year term for the self-regulatory organization for financial investment industry in Korea. Kwon is the fourth chairman of the association founded in 2009. Kwon earned 145 votes out of 231 participants to beat contenders, former chief Woori Investment & Securities Hwa
Jan. 25, 2018
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W11.2tr earmarked for midrange borrowers
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission said Thursday it plans to circulate a combined 11.2 trillion won ($10.6 billion) this year for local retail borrowers that hold midrange credit scores while having trouble finding corresponding loans.The FSC pledged to pour a combined 8 trillion won into state-run loan products sold at banks, including those designed for refinancing. The remaining 3.2 trillion won will be spent to encourage private banking institutions to develop and sell midrang
Jan. 25, 2018
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SC Bank Korea refurbishes mobile banking app
Standard Chartered Bank Korea released updates to its flagship mobile banking app “Self Bank” on Jan. 8, almost a year after the app was released.The app is designed to allow its retail customers to buy banking services without visiting a brick-and-mortar branch. Since the app was launched in February 2017, Standard Chartered Bank Korea has sold 53,000 products ranging from checking products, deposits, savings, credit cards, consumer loans to insurance through the app. The update ena
Jan. 25, 2018
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Seoul mulls taxation on virtual currency transactions: finance minister
Korea is considering imposing taxes on virtual currency transactions as part of its efforts to curb excessively speculative investment in cryptocurrencies, the country's top economic policymaker said Thursday. "We are reviewing (taxation) because (cryptocurrency) is seen to be taxable," Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon told lawmakers. "We are looking at a variety of cases in other countries." The finance minister also stressed that virtual currencies are not legal tender, addin
Jan. 25, 2018
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Korea to begin real-name crypto coin purchases Jan. 30
South Korea’s financial watchdog on Tuesday unveiled a set of guidelines to employ a real-name transaction system for virtual coins encrypted on distributed ledger platforms like blockchain, starting Jan. 30. Once the new real-name transaction system comes into effect, cryptocurrency traders will be able to resume the purchase of encrypted coins like bitcoin, ether or ripple in Korea.Traders in Korea have faced hurdles in depositing money to buy more coins since the government in December
Jan. 23, 2018
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PM calls for tighter discipline after official found to profit from cryptocurrency info.
Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon instructed the Cabinet on Tuesday to come up with stronger codes of conduct for public servants after a financial watchdog official was found to have profited from information on cryptocurrency regulations.According to a government inspection, the Financial Supervisory Service worker earned about 7 million won ($6,550) in profit from selling about half of his virtual currency holdings last month, just two days before the government announced a package of measures aimed
Jan. 23, 2018
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Banks to issue new trading accounts for cryptocurrencies next week
Six South Korean banks will begin issuing new trading accounts for cryptocurrencies next week by introducing a system that bans the use of anonymous accounts in cryptocurrency transactions, a senior financial regulator said Tuesday.When the banks introduce the system of verifying cryptocurrency investors' identification next Tuesday, current virtual accounts for virtual coins will be banned the same day, Kim Yong-beom, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission, told reporters.Financial
Jan. 23, 2018
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[Advertorial] Eximbank, K-sure partner to foster builders’ overseas projects
The Export-Import Bank of Korea and Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-sure) signed a memorandum of understanding Monday to help Korean companies secure more construction and shipbuilding projects overseas and create jobs. Eun Sung-soo, chief of the Eximbank, and Moon Jae-do, head of K-sure, vowed to enhance cooperation for policy support on bidders looking to win overseas projects, in a meeting held Monday in Eximbank headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul. Eximbank and K-sure agreed to share i
Jan. 22, 2018
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Kakao Bank to start housing deposit loan service
Kakao Bank, South Korea’s biggest direct bank, announced Monday it would start selling housing deposit loan products for either a two-year period jeonse (lease with down payment) contract or monthly rent, from Tuesday.A face-to-face process when submitting documents will not be required, like other products of the online-only bank, partly with the help of scraping technologies that enable the bank to extract documents regarding housing deposit loan borrowers’ identification.The annou
Jan. 22, 2018
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Govt. to collect 24.2% of taxes on income by virtual currency exchanges
The government said Monday it will collect up to 24.2 percent of corporate and local income taxes from South Korea's cryptocurrency exchanges this year.The Seoul government has been striving to rein in the virtual currency frenzy in Asia's fourth-largest economy while contemplating a bill to ban cryptocurrency exchanges.Amid concerns over a bubble, the government last month banned the opening of new virtual accounts for cryptocurrency investors and required virtual currency traders to change the
Jan. 22, 2018
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[Kosdaq Star] Test-prep firm MegaStudyEdu surges on takeover deals
This is the 49th in a series of articles analyzing major companies traded on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market. -- Ed.On South Korea‘s second-tier stock market, not only tech and bio companies are on the rise, but also one unique industry has been steadily growing: education services. Reflecting the country’s high enthusiasm for education and aspirations for better jobs, education services companies have been gaining presence in the market dominated by tech companies. MegaStudyEdu, a test
Jan. 21, 2018
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Seoul to require banks to keep record of cryptocurrency transactions
The government plans to require banks and exchanges to keep records of cryptocurrency transactions, in a potential move to impose taxes on the largely covert deals, financial authorities said Sunday.Coming in the wake of the government’s earlier order to convert all cryptocurrency accounts into real-name accounts, the idea reflected Seoul‘s efforts to assume control of the overheated market.The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit is currently working on a set of anti-money laundering g
Jan. 21, 2018
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[Monitor] Korean cryptocurrency exchange tops world in trade volume
Among cryptocurrency exchanges around the world, the one with the largest volume of transactions is based in South Korea, showed data from tallying website CoinMarketCap. As of 10:40 a.m. Thursday, the transaction volume for 24 hours at Upbit based in South Korea reached $7.577 billion, far ahead of Hong Kong’s Binance, which ranked second.Except for the No. 1 and No. 3 spots, most exchanges with large transactions were located in Hong Kong and China. Although Upbit topped the world market
Jan. 19, 2018
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Justice Ministry official depicts crypto coin founders as scammers
A high-ranking Ministry of Justice official on Thursday described cryptocurrency founders as scammers and insisted that any purchase of encrypted coins in Korea translates into an outflow of cash.Shim Jae-chul, an official at Justice Ministry in charge of policy and planning, said in a panel session held in the National Assembly Thursday that the recent cryptocurrency speculation in Korea stems from coin founders’ proclamation that their coins would turn into an alternative to gold or a me
Jan. 18, 2018
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FSS official who profited from cryptocurrency was involved in govt measures: report
A Financial Supervisory Service employee who allegedly sold off his cryptocurrency coins just before the release of the government’s anti-speculative measures was found to have been a member of the task force preparing the plans.The Office for Government Policy Coordination and the FSS said Thursday that the official who reportedly sold his coins right before the government’s announcement was an FSS employee dispatched to the Policy Coordination Office to prepare measures aimed to cu
Jan. 18, 2018
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'Bitcoin success story’ sparks debate online
Amid the South Korean government drawing up measures to regulate the recent craze for cryptocurrency, an anonymous post online has sparked heated debate. Last month, an online poster shared his sympathies for a fried chicken restaurant owner and said, “I buy fried chicken with the money I earned through bitcoin trading. It is very easy to earn money if you learn the rules of (cryptocurrency) trading. I feel sorry for the restaurant owner, who keeps his business up and running until the lat
Jan. 18, 2018
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Cryptocurrency ban could destroy economies for decades: Tapscott
Best-selling author and blockchain advocate Don Tapscott on Wednesday called for South Korea’s “sensible regulation” on cryptocurrency tokens and initial coin offerings, warning the government could otherwise “destroy economies for decades,” during a press conference in Seoul.Tapscott called bans on cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings “heavy-handed approaches used by dictators and undemocratic countries,” and contrasted them with “sensible
Jan. 18, 2018
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[Newsmaker] Policy drive, biotech boom bring Kosdaq to 16-year high
South Korea’s second-tier Kosdaq hit a 16-year high, crossing 900 points at Tuesday’s close for the first time since the decline of the US-led information technology boom of the early 2000s, this time on lofty expectations for state policy support and an ongoing biotech boom. The Kosdaq closed at 901.23 Tuesday, up 1.1 percent from Monday’s close. The index has jumped 36.7 percent in three months. The closing mark topped 900 for the first time since March 2002. On Wednesday, th
Jan. 17, 2018