Most Popular
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Host of Miss Korea apologizes for 'inappropriate question' about deepfake
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Who's lying? Hybe vs. Min conflict continues to intensify
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Seoul should engage Kim Jong-un’s elites for change, ex-North Korean diplomat says
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'Shaman says president will die,' caller warns
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Boy's emergency medical treatment delayed 2 hours due to staff shortage
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Most teen sex offenders get away with slap on wrist
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Ex-Trump official calls for S. Korea to raise defense spending to 3 or 3.5% of GDP
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Man sentenced to 1 year, 8 months for stealing from elementary school classrooms
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Same-sex couple denied insurance clearance despite landmark ruling
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SK On offers voluntary retirement amid losses
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[Christopher Balding] Why China is prone to property bubbles
Chinese markets have rarely looked more like Vegas casinos. In recent weeks, investors have driven up trading volumes in China to astronomical levels, betting on everything from rebar to eggs. China traded enough steel in one day last month to build 178,082 Eiffel Towers and enough cotton to make at least one pair of jeans for every person on the planet.These commodity markets aren’t gyrating purely because Chinese are inveterate gamblers. Government policies have made China especially prone to
ViewpointsMay 9, 2016
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N. Korea mobilizes children and youth to praise Kim Jong-un during party congress
North Korea mobilized two youth organizations over the weekend to help glorify its leader Kim Jong-un during the ongoing congress of the ruling Workers' Party, the North's main newspaper reported Monday.The two groups comprising millions of members -- the Korean Children's Union (KCU) and the Kim Il-sung Socialist Youth League -- entered the venue of the party's seventh congress to congratulate the rare event while presenting a floral basket to the North Korean leader in reverence and loyalty, a
North KoreaMay 9, 2016
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[Ram Garikipati] Government role in corporate debt restructuring
The hot topic in Korean corporate circles today is undoubtedly the moves by the government and state-run policy banks to bail out the ailing shipbuilding and shipping companies.Given the importance of these sectors in Korea and their prolonged financial distress, it is understandable that the government has pushed the panic button. The process of bailing them out has been set in motion with some sort of consensus reached between the Finance Ministry and Bank of Korea.BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol has cau
ViewpointsMay 9, 2016
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[Albert R. Hunt] Get ready for U.S. politics to reach new lows
Americans may need to bring in the kids; the presidential election promises to get ugly, a race to the bottom.Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both arouse strong passions, many of them negative. Both play tough.She is a policy wonk, but Trump has little interest in a wide-ranging debate on issues. In the Republican primaries, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz all tried at times to challenge him on substance; he brushed them aside with pointed personal rejoinders. It worked remarkably well.But a
ViewpointsMay 9, 2016
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[Robert Litwak and Robert Daly] How to freeze North Korea’s nukes
Pyongyang’s version of YouTube recently featured a computer-animated clip of a nuclear strike on Washington delivered via a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile. The North, which a decade ago tested its first nuclear weapon, will soon cross another threshold that could make its video propaganda a genuine threat: It will be able to attack the U.S. homeland with nuclear-tipped long-range ballistic missiles.North Korea’s potential nuclear breakout is both quantitative and qualitative. Un
ViewpointsMay 9, 2016
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Former CEO resummoned in Oxy probe
The prosecution resummoned Monday former chief executive Shin Hyun-woo of Oxy Reckitt Benckiser who oversaw the sales of more than 4.5 million toxic humidifier sterilizers from 2001, reportedly seeking a warrant for his arrest.In late April, Shin appeared for a 17-hour-long prosecution investigation on suspicion that he pushed ahead with the sales of toxic humidifier sterilizer even after being aware of the toxicity of PHMG in the humidifier sterilizer.While he is believed to be chiefly responsi
Social AffairsMay 9, 2016
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Park's approval rating up after trip to Iran
President Park Geun-hye's job approval rating edged up after her recent groundbreaking visit to Iran and amid lingering tensions on the Korean Peninsula, a new poll showed Monday.A poll released by polling agency Realmeter on Monday showed 35.9 percent of people approved of the job Park is doing, up 4.9 percentage points from a week earlier.Those who disapproved of Park's job performance came to 59.9 percent, down 4.5 percentage points from a week before.Realmeter said conservatives -- the key s
Social AffairsMay 9, 2016
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Seoul shares down 0.45% on foreign, institutional selling
Korean stocks closed lower Monday as foreigners and institutions unloaded large-cap issues amid renewed worries over the global economy, analysts said. The local currency dropped against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 8.9 points, or 0.45 percent, to 1,967.81. Trade volume came to 338.21 million shares worth 5.18 trillion won ($4.4 billion), with losers outpacing gainers 514 to 291."With uncertainty lingering over the U.S. rate policy, anxiety among i
May 9, 2016
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Majority of ISAs nearly empty
More than a million Koreans have opened tax-efficient Individual Savings Accounts in banks in the first month since its launch here, but more than 70 percent of the accounts were found to have a balance of less than 10,000 won ($8.50), industry data showed Monday. Since Korean lenders began introducing their first tax-exempt ISAs, in March, some 1,362,800 accounts have been opened, with 631.1 billion won of subscriptions until April 15. This means that the average subscription for ISAs stands at
May 9, 2016
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BBC crew detained in N. Korea over reporting
A BBC correspondent and his team have been detained in North Korea and will be expelled for reporting that allegedly upset the communist country's leadership, the news channel said Monday.Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, along with producer Maria Byrne and cameraman Matthew Goddard, were detained on Friday as they were about to leave the country, the BBC reported.North Korean officials questioned Wingfield-Hayes for eight hours before making him sign a statement, it said.The three, who were in North Kore
North KoreaMay 9, 2016
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Dongkuk to start Brazil-based steel mill in June
Dongkuk Steel Mill, the country’s third-largest steelmaker, said Monday that it would start the operation of its Brazil-based steel mill in June, in the hope that it would be able to reduce its reliance on imported steel plates. The steelmaker has imported steel plates, which are mainly used for shipbuilding, from Japan and China at a relatively higher price, company officials said. (Dongkuk Steel Mill)“We will now be able to have a stable supply of steel plates from the mill in Brazil, which is
IndustryMay 9, 2016
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Kim’s Club sale faces delay on price differences
Talks between the E-Land Group and U.S. private equity giant KKR for the sale of local retail chain Kim’s Club are dragging on due to differences over price, local reports said Monday. E-Land is trying to sell its 37-branch hypermarket franchise to KKR for about 700 billion won, but the buyout firm is refusing to pay more than half of that price, Yonhap News reported, citing unnamed sources. Kim’s Club’s revenue last year was 660 billion won.“Negotiations are going smoothly,” E-Land said, in res
May 9, 2016
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CNP Cosmetics launches new luxury brand
CNP Cosmetics, owned by LG Household & Health Care, on Monday said it has launched a new luxury brand named CNP Rx, joining Korea’s lucrative market for high-end cosmetics.CNP Rx recently opened its first store inside the main Hyundai Department Store in Gangnam, Seoul, with plans to enter more department stores in the near future, LG H&H said. The newly opened CNP Rx store inside the main Hyundai Department Store in Gangnam (LG Household & Health Care)Unlike the original CNP Cosmetics brand --
IndustryMay 9, 2016
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Egyptologists differ on Tut tomb ‘hidden chambers’
CAIRO (AFP) -- Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said on Sunday new technology is needed to determine whether Tutankhamun's tomb contains hidden chambers which a British archaeologist believes may hide Queen Nefertiti’s remains. Anani spoke to archaeologists and reporters at a conference in Cairo dedicated to King Tutankhamun and his world-famous golden funerary mask. The mood at Sunday’s conference was skeptical months after former minister Mamduh Damati said the secret chambers pro
CultureMay 9, 2016
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Film fest, Busan appoint new BIFF chairman
The organizers of the Busan International Film Festival and the Busan Metropolitan Government have reached a compromise for the time being and will cooperate to hold the 21st edition of Asia’s largest film festival this year, BIFF announced on Monday. BIFF and Busan have jointly appointed Kim Dong-ho, BIFF’s executive director from 1996 to 2010, as the festival’s new chairman, with the city government agreeing to open the post of BIFF chairman to nongovernment personnel. Previously, BIFF’s cha
FilmMay 9, 2016
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Health-conscious consumers shell out cash for canned fresh air
Increasing concerns about air pollution and its impact on the human body have led to a sharp increase in consumer demand for oxygen and air purification products, data showed Monday.According to data released by online open market Gmarket, sales of air-related products have risen by nearly 2.5 times since three years ago. (123RF)Products that showed particularly notable growth were canned oxygen, whose sales rose by 76 percent over three years, and oxygen concentrators, whose sales increased fiv
IndustryMay 9, 2016
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Hyundai Motor chief seeks closer ties with Jiangsu province
Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo held talks with Jiangsu province Gov. Shi Taifeng at the company’s headquarters in southern Seoul for closer business partnership with one of the most popular Chinese destinations for Korean investors, the group said Monday.Chairman Chung and other Hyundai high-level officials, including his son and Hyundai Motor vice chairman Chung Eui-sun, guided the Chinese provincial leader. Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo (second from right) looks at
IndustryMay 9, 2016
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Caregen eyes growth in cosmeceuticals
Caregen is not a typical Korean biotechnology company local investors are most familiar with.When it comes to biotech shares trading on the stock market, LG Life Sciences or Medy-Tox would generally come to mind. They are big biotech players, with the market cap of LG Life Sciences reaching over 1 trillion won ($858.8 million) on the benchmark KOSPI. Medy-Tox ranks 6th with nearly 3 trillion won in market cap on the tech-heavy KOSDAQ.Caregen’s booth at the World Congress of Dermatology in Vancou
May 9, 2016
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SK C&C, IBM eye 'Korean Watson'
SK Holdings C&C, the information technology services unit of SK Group, said Monday it has teamed up with IBM to launch the Korean version of the U.S. tech giant’s artificial intelligence system Watson early next year. The two companies plan to develop a set of new application programming interfaces within the year that will allow Watson to understand Korean and communicate in Korean. Even after the service launch planned next year, the system will continue to learn Korean upon almost five years
TechnologyMay 9, 2016
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Radiohead releases new album ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ digitally
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Radiohead’s ninth studio album “A Moon Shaped Pool” is now available to purchase on iTunes and Amazon and streaming on Tidal and Apple Music. The groundbreaking rock group released two songs, “Burn the Witch” and “Daydreaming,” online earlier in the week in a lead-up to the 11-track album’s release Sunday. Physical copies of the album can be preordered too, but won’t be available until June 17. Radiohead begins a world tour on May 20 in The Netherlands. The band will visit Ne
PerformanceMay 9, 2016