Units of South Korea's top 10 family-controlled conglomerates contributed nearly 60 percent to the first-half operating income of all listed companies, data showed Monday, pointing to their huge presence here. The combined operating income of 91 listed companies belonging to the leading business groups soared 72.1 percent on-year to 39.3 trillion won ($34.7 billion) in the January-June period, w...

Foreign investors hold more than half of electric and electronics shares listed on South Korea's main stock market, data showed Monday. Foreign ownership of those stocks traded on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index market came to 51.2 percent of their total market capitalization as of Wednesday, the highest among all industrial sectors, according to the data from the Korea Exchange. The comm...

North Korea warned Monday that the United States will suffer the "greatest pain" if it pushes ahead with new tougher UN sanctions over its sixth nuclear test. Pyongyang's threat comes as the US asked the United Nations Security Council last week to vote on new sanctions Monday in response to the North's most powerful nuclear test. North Korea's foreign ministry said it will make the US pay a "d...

WASHINGTON -- An influential American senator on Sunday called for serious consideration of redeploying US nuclear weapons to South Korea. In an interview with CNN, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he thinks "it ought to be seriously considered" in the wake of North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile threats. South Korea's conservative main opposition p...

WASHINGTON -- North Korea is suspected of working with Syria on its chemical weapons and ballistic missile programs in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, a UN panel of experts has said. The eight-member panel tasked with monitoring sanctions implementation against Pyongyang made the observation in a 111-page report published online on Saturday, two days before the US-proposed date for...

President Moon Jae-in's approval rating saw a substantial dip from last month as the government faces an increasing security dilemma over North Korea's nuclear brinkmanship, according to a poll released Sunday. According to the poll conducted by the Korea Society Opinion Institute, 78.2 percent of those surveyed said the new president was doing a good job in managing state affairs. The reading m...

South Korea's wage increase rate has been halved after the 2008 global financial crisis that rocked the country, a market report showed Sunday. The findings released in the Bank of Korea's latest foreign economic focus report showed that average wage gains dropped to 3.4 percent in the 2014-2016 period from 7.3 percent tallied in 2001-2007. It cited a drop in overall labor productivity and gene...

South Korea is not considering the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons into the country, the presidential office said Sunday, in response to a US media report that hinted the Trump government is willing to take it as a viable option should Seoul ask for it. "There is no change in the government's policy principle of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and we have never reviewed a re-ad...

Hyundai Motor Co. and its sister company Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's two biggest carmakers, said Sunday they will promote its subcompact crossovers in the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show amid growing demand for SUVs in the global market. In the motor show, to be held in the German city from Sept. 14-24, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors said they plan to lure European customers with the Kona and the St...

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest producer of memory chips and smartphones, may beat market expectations and post earnings growth in the third quarter despite earlier predictions of adjustments, market watchers said Sunday. Forecasts for a leveling off are centered on expectations that prices of both liquid-crystal displays and organic light-emitting diodes will fall due to current ma...

The number of workers covered by employment insurance declined sharply in the shipbuilding industry last month from a year earlier, government data showed Sunday, as yards undertake massive restructuring in the face of sluggish business conditions. South Korea's top three shipyards suffered a combined operating loss of 8.5 trillion won ($7.5 billion) in 2015 due largely to increased costs stemmi...

INCHEON -- Trade ministers of 16 regional countries, including India and China, will meet in South Korea next month to discuss a regional mega free trade agreement, the Incheon Metropolitan City said Sunday. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is a proposed open trade pact between 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and six other countries with which ASEAN ...

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will come to South Korea early this week to meet people forced to endure World War II sexual slavery, an organization representing the victims said Sunday. Schroeder is due to visit the House of Sharing, a shelter for the surviving victims of the sexual enslavement in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, located on the outskirts of Seoul, on Monday, the organiza...

President Moon Jae-in opted to take a brief respite after returning from Russia as he is tasked with resolving the escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula following North Korea's latest nuclear test, his office said Sunday. The chief executive was seen going on a hike on Mount Bugak on Saturday, as some netizens posted pictures of him online, wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts. The lib...