Most Popular
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Psy's touch or new trend in music? P Nation’s solo stars lose their shine
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Seoul to hold grand military parade on Tuesday, disrupting major city routes
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Yoon warns North Korea against nuclear attack attempt
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Park Zi-a, the actor who played 'The Glory' heroine's mother, dies
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Miss Universe Korea names 80-year-old model 'best dressed'
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Shut up and dance
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NewJeans fans corner Hybe amid PR backlash, looming National Assembly audit
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Israel targets Palestinian group in first strike on Beirut center
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Seoul mayor suggests shift in immigration policy
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Brit pop legend Oasis to perform in Seoul next year
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Sales ban on cigarettes in Jeju Duty Free faces opposition
The government‘s attempt to ban the sales of cigarettes in the duty-free shop of Jeju International Airport faces mounting opposition from smokers, industry sources said. “The (Finance Ministry’s) move to ban duty-free cigarettes in Jeju International Airport, while leaving out Incheon International Airport, is clearly a sneaky way of raising more tax,” said an official of I Love Smoking, the country’s largest online community of smokers. Travelers purchase duty free products at a duty free sho
IndustryJan. 5, 2016
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Gas prices nearing 7-year low
Domestic gasoline prices are expected to keep sliding and soon hit the 1,300 won ($1.09) per liter mark due to a steady decline in international crude oil prices, according to government data. Data compiled by the Korea National Oil Corp. showed gasoline prices at nationwide service stations standing at just over 1,400 won per liter. Industry watchers say prices are likely to hit 1,300 won for the first time in seven years. “It looks like gas (prices) will go downhill for the time being as the m
BusinessJan. 5, 2016
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Asian stocks find some support in morning session
TOKYO – Asian markets fared better this morning after stocks took a nosedive Monday.In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite Index opened lower, but managed to post some gains before the lunch break. Trading in Shanghai was suspended Monday after the CSI 300 plummeted more than 7 percent. The CSI 300 is a benchmark of the biggest companies listed on either the Shanghai or Shenzhen stock exchanges and is compiled by the China Securities Index Company.Japan’s benchmark Nikkei also recovered its p
BusinessJan. 5, 2016
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Gas prices nearing 7-year low
Domestic gasoline prices are expected to keep sliding and soon hit the 1,300 won ($1.09) per liter mark due to a steady decline in international crude oil prices, according to government data. Data compiled by the Korea National Oil Corp. showed gasoline prices at nationwide service stations standing at just over 1,400 won per liter. Industry watchers say prices are likely to hit 1,300 won for the first time in seven years. A car pulls out of a gas station in Seoul. Yonhap“It looks like gas (pr
IndustryJan. 5, 2016
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Six cement makers fined for price rigging
South Korea's antitrust watchdog said Tuesday that it has fined six local cement makers a combined 199.4 billion won ($167.6 million) for fixing the prices of cement products and divvying up the market.According to the Fair Trade Commission, cement companies have allegedly colluded to rig the prices of cement products by controlling output and market share in 2011.The suspected companies are Ssangyong Cement Industry Co., Tongyang Cement & Energy Corp., Hanil Cement Co., Sungshin Cement Co., Hyu
IndustryJan. 5, 2016
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Demand for bank loans expected to shrink in Q1: poll
Demand for bank loans by local companies and households is expected to decrease in the first three months of the year, a survey showed Tuesday.The overall index measuring demand for bank loans came to 15 for the January-March period, down from 25 for the previous quarter, according to the survey of 15 local banks conducted by the Bank of Korea.The fall comes as local firms apparently expect worse business conditions down the road, while households expect borrowing rates to go up as well."Demand
Jan. 5, 2016
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Park calls for watertight defense, greater military power
President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday called on her top aides to strengthen defense capabilities and maintain airtight readiness posture, saying this year marks a “turning point” in her diplomatic and security policy. Presiding over the first Cabinet meeting of the year, she also pledged to make constant efforts to put cross-border relations back on track, in an upbeat response to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s New Year address in which he said Pyongyang would strive to improve the ties and cont
DefenseJan. 5, 2016
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North Korea ends preventive steps against MERS virus
North Korea has lifted a set of measures aimed at preventing the spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak as Seoul declared full control of the disease last month, the Unification Ministry said Tuesday.The North said that as of Monday it stopped checking the body temperatures of South Koreans who move in and out of Kaesong Industrial Complex, a joint industrial park located in the North's border city of Kaesong, according to the ministry.Since June, North Korea has used three ther
North KoreaJan. 5, 2016
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Seoul shares up 0.8% in late morning trade
South Korean stocks traded 0.8 percent higher late Tuesday morning, recovering from the previous session's plunge triggered by China's stock rout.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 4.81 points to 1,933.57 as of 11:20 a.m.Tech firms led the overall market gain. Top market cap Samsung Electronics gained 0.17 percent, and global chipmaker SK Hynix rose 2.65 percent.In contrast, No. 1 automaker Hyundai Motor remained unchanged, and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors went down 0.2 pe
Jan. 5, 2016
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Korea, Japan mull 'Abe letter' to former sex slaves: reports
South Korea and Japan could soon discuss the possibility of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sending a letter to Korean women forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers during World War II, according to Japanese news reports.According to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se asked his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, to take "steps to approach the victims" during their talks in Seoul last week.The talks produced a landmark agreement under which Japan
Foreign AffairsJan. 5, 2016
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Self-employed people struggle with snowballing debts
Loans taken by self-employed people in South Korea reached a record high in 2015, with some 20 percent of them at risk of becoming insolvent, a report showed Tuesday.According to the report by the Hana Institute of Finance, self-employed South Koreans owed a combined 520 trillion won ($437.5 billion) to local financial institutions as of end-June.Of the total loans, 18.5 percent were mortgages in excess of the government-imposed lending cap, known as the loan-to-value ratio that allows homebuyer
Jan. 5, 2016
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Korea downplays impact of China stock rout
South Korea downplayed the impact of China's stock market crash on its domestic financial market on Tuesday, saying the market will regain stability again.Chinese stock tumbled nearly 7 percent Monday on the year's first trading session due to concerns over its manufacturing sector, rattling South Korean and other financial markets.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) plunged more than 2 percent to a four-month low on Monday, with the South Korean currency sinking to the lowes
Jan. 5, 2016
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Korean medicine exports triple in 10 years: data
South Korean medicine exports jumped threefold in the last 10 years as local pharmaceutical companies have become more competitive on the global stage, government data showed Tuesday.According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Asia's fourth-largest economy shipped out 2.54 trillion won ($2.13 billion) worth of medical drugs in 2014, up 9 percent, or 210 billion won, from the year before. The total is 3.1 times larger than 820 billion won in exports tallied in 2005.In the past decade, medi
IndustryJan. 5, 2016
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Park receives pay raise of more than 3%
The Cabinet raised President Park Geun-hye's annual salary by more than 3 percent in a wage hike that also affected all other civic servants across South Korea, officials said Tuesday.Park is set to earn 212 million won ($178,000) this year, compared with 205 million won last year, according to officials at the Ministry of Personnel Management.Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will be paid 164 million won, up3.4 percent, while Cabinet ministers are set to earn 120 million won, according to the minist
PoliticsJan. 5, 2016
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North Korean leader inspects firing test by military units
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected a firing test by the military's artillery units as his first "field guidance" of the new year, Pyongyang's state media said Tuesday.Kim observed the artillery contest by combined units under the Korean People's Army (KPA), according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). As usual, it did not reveal the date of his public activity.The KCNA said that "all the contestants hit every target with perfect marksmanship they acquired in routine drills."Kim
North KoreaJan. 5, 2016
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Carmakers in Korea rush to unveil new models to preempt market
Carmakers in South Korea are rushing to unveil their new models in an apparent bid to preempt the domestic market this year by appealing to customers with upgraded and enhanced functions and designs, industry sources said Tuesday.Hyundai Motor Co., the country's largest automaker, plans to launch the Ioniq hybrid mid-January, which marks its first time to unveil a car exclusively developed as an electric vehicle, as opposed to cars based on existing models.Following the hybrid version deemed to
IndustryJan. 5, 2016
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Ambulances to be banned from using sirens in non-urgent situations
Emergency vehicle drivers who turn on their sirens and warning lights in non-urgent situations will be fined starting this year, police said Tuesday.The National Police Agency said a revision to the traffic law passed the parliament last year and will take effect in July.According to the revision, offenders can be fined up to 200,000 won ($168), except for certain situations, such as for a patrol or during training. The revision is aimed not only at protecting the right of way held by the police
Social AffairsJan. 5, 2016
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Korean tourism industry hit hard by MERS in 2015
South Korea's tourism industry suffered a severe setback due to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in 2015, but most industry players are upbeat on this year's business outlook, a poll showed Tuesday. According to the survey by the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute, nearly half of 332 tour agencies said the tourism industry was stuck in a slump last year due to a sharp fall in foreign travelers since the MERS onslaught in late May.The number of inbound travelers through November was 1
IndustryJan. 5, 2016
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BigBang's Seungri reports colleague to prosecutors over $1.7 mln fraud
Seungri of the boy band BigBang has filed a complaint with the prosecutors over an alleged fraud committed by his colleague that caused him losses of 2 billion won ($1.7 million), his agency said Tuesday."Seungri is extremely shocked by this incident," a YG Entertainment official said, adding the complaint has been filed by Seungri himself. "YG will deal with this situation together to make sure he suffers no more losses."In the complaint, Seungri reportedly said a female singer whom he consider
PerformanceJan. 5, 2016
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Actor Jung Woo-sung says seniority overrated
As with any other society in South Korea, the film community here has long espoused a culture of seniority -- the more experienced and successful you are, the greater respect you command from neophytes. But actor Jung Woo-sung says he's not one to subscribe to that kind of ideology. The 43-year-old is the leading man in the upcoming arthouse film "Remember You." The mystery romance feature is directed by a rookie, Lee Yoon-jung. Jung briefly worked with her on a separate movie directed by someon
FilmJan. 5, 2016