Trading between companies affiliated with South Korea's large business groups has been on a steady rise despite tough regulations, the country's corporate watchdog said Monday. Under the current regulations, which were revised in 2014, inter-affiliate trading within a business group whose owner and family hold 30 percent or more of listed affiliates is banned. For unlisted subsidiaries, the limi...

South Korea's economy is expected to expand 3 percent this year as increased domestic consumption and government spending will offset sluggish exports and investment, a local think tank said Monday. The Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade projected South Korea's gross domestic product will post solid growth in 2018, although slightly below the 3.1 percent increase in 2017. The grow...

A UNESCO committee is expected to cite Japan's wartime brutality of forcing Koreans into harsh labor at some of its newly designated World Heritage sites, a government official here said Monday. UNESCO plans to hold the 42nd session of the World Heritage Committee in Bahrain through next Wednesday.The panel is reviewing Japan's implementation of its 2015 commitment related to winning the much-co...

Even after losing their first two matches at the FIFA World Cup in Russia, South Korea are somehow still alive in the tournament, with a chance to book a knockout spot by beating Germany in its Group F finale. In Group F, Mexico are the leaders with six points, and Germany and Sweden each have three points, followed by South Korea with zero. But if South Korea beat Germany by at least two goals...

The amount of payments made electronically in South Korea continued to rally in the first quarter of this year as a growing number of people are using mobile shopping and remittance services, central bank data showed Monday. The daily average amount of electronic financial transactions came to a record 581.53 billion won ($521.6 million) in the January-March period, up 13.2 percent from a quarte...

Nearly six out of 10 South Korean manufacturing companies forecast that the upcoming fourth industrial revolution will weigh heavily on employment, especially in labor-intensive sectors, a survey said Monday. According to the poll of 272 manufacturers conducted by the Bank of Korea, 59 percent said the fourth industrial revolution will lead to a decrease in employment, while 15.4 percent said it...

KT Corp., South Korea's second-largest mobile carrier, on Monday unveiled an emergency network service platform that features unmanned drones for search and rescue operations. Skyship, co-developed by local drone maker Metismake Inc., features a helium-powered airship and a high-resolution camera that can scan for mobile signals of people in need of rescue. The airship, which can scan for LTE o...

KCON, a global K-pop festival that brings music stars to overseas fans, took place over the weekend in Newark, New Jersey. The two-day event at the Prudential Center, attended by some 53,000 fans, was divided into two parts -- K-pop concerts and outdoor convention programs. The event brought to the US popular K-pop stars, including Heize, Pentagon, Red Velvet, Super Junior, EXID, Wanna One and ...

SHENYANG -- North Korean restaurants in Chinese cities near the border with the North are moving to resume business as relations between the two countries improve rapidly, sources said Monday. Following the three meetings this year between the leaders of North Korea and China, some North Korean restaurants in three northeastern Chinese provinces -- Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang -- have been s...

The two Koreas agreed to hold a series of working-level talks on economic cooperation this week, Seoul officials said Monday, as their reconciliatory efforts sparked by an April 27 summit agreement are expanding beyond military and humanitarian arenas. The two sides plan to have a meeting on linking and modernizing cross-border railways Tuesday at the Peace House, a South Korean administrative b...

The Koreas will hold four basketball matches in Pyongyang over two days next week as part of an earlier agreement, the South's sports ministry said Monday. Hwang Seong-un, spokesman for the ministry, told a press briefing that the Koreas will face each other in exhibition games and will also swap players for mixed competitions on July 4 and 5 in the North Korean capital. The two sides reached a...

South Korean retail giant Lotte's fast-food chain, Lotteria, opened its first Mongolian store in the country's capital city of Ulaanbaatar last week, its operator said Monday, as the company moves to expand its presence in the global market. The launch of the new store came after Lotte GRS Co. signed a franchise agreement with cinema equipment supplier Eugenetek Mongolia LLC in September last ye...

South Korea will build an information center in New York City, a global hub of culture and the arts, by July 2020, the government said Monday. The Korean Culture and Information Service, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said it will hold a ground-breaking ceremony for the facility, called the New York Korea Center, on Thursday. The new seven-story building o...

South Korea began a process Monday to select those who will meet their long-separated family members in North Korea in late August. The two Koreas agreed to hold their first family reunion event in nearly three years at the North's Mount Kumgang resort from Aug.20-26, a follow-up to the April 27 summit deal. It would enable 100 South Korean people, mostly elderly ones, to get together with thei...

Singer and actor Rain is planning to drop a new album in November, his agency said Monday. If the release goes as planned, the album will be his first in three years and 10 months since his sixth full-length album titled "Rain Effect" came out in January 2014. Singer and actor Rain (Rain Company) Rain Company said the star will focus solely on recording after finishing up shooting "Uhm Bok-don...