Dominance is shifting in the global display market as Chinese companies are fast emerging to challenge Korea’s giants in advanced technology. Korea’s liquid crystal display panels in terms of global output and shipment saw their market share slide from 48.9 percent in 2010 to 48.8 percent in 2013. The share taken up by the Chinese players, meanwhile, jumped from 4.7 percent to 12.5 percent duri...

Tension is intensifying further in Northeast Asia after Japan protested the launch of new facilities devoted to a Korean independence fighter in China, triggering strong condemnation from Seoul. Tokyo’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Monday slammed the memorial hall that opened a day before to honor Ahn Jung-geun, who fatally shot Japan’s first Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito in Harbin in...

The country’s credit cards firms are facing their worst crisis on record with people rushing to cancel accounts following yet another massive data leak scandal. Data breaches of various scales have been uncovered recently and banks here have been raising their security measures to protect customers’ data. Yet, this time some of the major credit card firms, such as KB Kookmin Card, Nonghyup and ...

U.S. lawmaker Mike Honda’s push for historical justice gained greater momentum last week with the passage of a spending bill that included a provision pressuring Japan to apologize for its wartime sexual enslavement of Asian women. Albeit nonbinding, the provision brought fresh international attention to the women whose human dignity was trampled as they were forced to serve at frontline brothel...

The political arena is swamped by talk of June 4 local elections, but the political parties continue to bicker over one of its most basic rules. Abolishing party nominations for candidates for provincial governments and councils was central to President Park Geun-hye’s political reform pledge. The system was introduced in 2006 as part of political reform measures. However, it has since been abus...

The main opposition Democratic Party’s North Korean policy is under the spotlight following party chairman Rep. Kim Han-gil’s mention of a new policy on relations with Pyongyang. On Monday, Kim said that his party would draw up a North Korean policy centered on “national unity,” saying that the issue should no longer divide the nation. The progressive bloc has preferred engaging North Korea, whi...

PARIS (AP) ― A sex scandal is the last thing France’s president needs. Three-quarters of the French already think Francois Hollande is doing a lousy job of running the world’s No. 5 economy. And now a big policy address Tuesday is sure to be overshadowed by personal troubles so awkward that even the famously blase French can’t ignore them. His first lady, journalist Valerie Trierweiler, is hosp...

Seoul Archbishop Yeom Soo-jung will be the third Korean to become a cardinal ― the second-most senior position in the Roman Catholic Church after the pope. Yet, he will be the only representative of Korea in the case of a conclave, a convention of cardinals younger than 80 for electing a new pope. Korea’s first cardinal, Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, died in 2009, and its second Cardinal Nicolas Cheong ...

JERUSALEM (AFP) ― Ariel Sharon, who died on Saturday aged 85, was one of Israel’s most skilled but controversial political and military leaders, whose ruthless methods earned him the moniker “The Bulldozer.” The veteran soldier fought in all of Israel’s major wars before embarking on a turbulent political career in 1973 which ended dramatically in January 2006 when he suffered a massive stroke a...

The dispute over a local history textbook is turning into an ideological war as lawmakers locked horns over reinstating a government textbook. Lawmakers from the main opposition Democratic Party condemned the ruling Saenuri Party’s proposal to bring back the state textbook system. Saenuri leaders had stressed the need for a single textbook in order to avoid disputes over historical accuracy such...

As record-low temperatures dogged the northern United States for the past several days, the weather dominated the news stateside, and gained extensive coverage globally. Some electricity generators said they had been forced offline due to the cold, making it difficult for others to cope with the surging demand. Schools closed and flights were halted. Railways and roads suffered blockages and de...

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se is set to confer with key officials in Washington over North Korea and relations with Japan frayed by its premier’s visit to a controversial war shrine. During a three-day stay, he is scheduled for talks with U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on Monday and Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday. Yun also plans to meet with other former and incumbent officials ...

Former Environment Minister Yoon Yeo-jun has once again created a stir in the political arena by joining independent Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo’s “new politics” movement. In 2012, Yoon sent ripples across the conservative bloc when he joined the presidential campaign of the Democratic Party’s Rep. Moon Jae-in. The move, unexpected because of his long-running conservative ties, earned him strong criticis...

Chairmen of Korea’s top conglomerates started off the year on Thursday by urging executives and employees to brace for crisis. Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee emphasized that the business behemoth should keep trying to shed old things in running business in order to embrace a new global management system. “To be a leader in an environment that lacks certainty and visibility, we must go beyon...

Korea unveiled a new promotional video on Dokdo on Wednesday, countering Tokyo’s increasing territorial assertions and lambasting Japanese politicians’ visits to a controversial war shrine. The 260-second clip was released at midnight on YouTube and the Foreign Ministry’s website (dokdo.mofa.go.kr). It was an update to a previous piece that was uploaded in late October but taken down shortly due...