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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Brit pop legend Oasis to perform in Seoul next year
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Seoul mayor suggests shift in immigration policy
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Restructuring boon for M&A market
Spurred by restructuring of industries and the government’s move to ease regulations, Korea’s mergers and acquisitions are expected to see another boom in 2016 after 2015, when M&A deals reached an all-time high, dealmakers said. Amid a prolonged global economic downturn, a growing number of Korean firms, once used to pursue the octopus-style business diversification, are now move to streamline their business portfolio to concentrate on their flagship businesses through M&A deals. (123rf)In 2015
Dec. 31, 2015
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Oil investors see red for a second year
Another horrendous year is drawing to a close in the oil patch. After starting out with hopes of a rebound, 2015 will instead punctuate the worst two years ever suffered by U.S. crude producers.West Texas Intermediate futures are heading for their biggest-ever two-year drop, while the Standard & Poor’s Energy Sector Index is set to mark its first consecutive decline since 2002. Futures and equities will post December decreases, signaling more discomfort as 2016 starts.Oil has tumbled since Saudi
IndustryDec. 31, 2015
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Gov't puts 19 troubled big firms on restructuring list
South Korea's financial watchdog said Wednesday it has picked 19 large companies to be placed under debt restructuring this year as part of efforts to prevent a sudden default in major industries.It is the result of the second inspection the Financial Supervisory Service carried out this year into 368 firms whose credit expansion surpassed 50 billion won ($42.59 million) and which show signs of going bust. Wednesday's decision brought the total number of companies subject to the forced restructu
Dec. 31, 2015
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BOK chief vows to keep easy money policy to fuel growth
South Korea's top central banker said Thursday he will seek an easing monetary policy to boost growth while guarding against any financial instabilities."It is necessary to put the focus on downward risks in economic growth and prices, while closely checking the macroeconomic circumstances," Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said in his New Year's message, noting that the country has seen a moderate recovery amid little inflation pressure."Next year, the local economy is forecast to continue such a
Dec. 31, 2015
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Park vows to boost economy through structural reforms in New Year's message
President Park Geun-hye pledged Thursday to accomplish structural reforms in four major sectors of the society to revive the economy and create more jobs next year."(The government) will firmly root the creative economy and cause the culture to flourish, eventually to revitalize our economy and to create more jobs," Park said in a New Year's video message uploaded on YouTube and posted on her Facebook page.The government has pushed ahead with structural reforms in four major sectors, including t
Dec. 31, 2015
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Koreans mixed on 'comfort woman' deal: poll
South Koreans are split nearly equally over the recent deal between their country and Japan regarding Tokyo's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, a local survey showed Thursday.Some 50.7 percent of the respondents disapproved of the Monday agreement, under which Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apologized for his country's atrocity and promised to pay 1 billion yen ($8.3 million) in damages, a survey by South Korean pollster Realmeter showed.Those who supported it accounted
Social AffairsDec. 31, 2015
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Russia has options
From Turkey to the European Union, the search for alternatives to Russian gas is on. The Syrian fiasco continues to fester and with the downing of a Russian warplane by Ankara, no one can say for certain that peace will come anytime soon to the troubled land. Although on the surface, there is acrimony between the State of Israel and Turkey, they do have a common interest at heart — to break Russia’s resurgence as a player in the Middle East. Then of course there is the question of securing alte
ViewpointsDec. 31, 2015
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Happy ‘New You,’ everybody
The Earth has completed another orbit around the Sun. Our planet is doing that at roughly 100,000 kilometers per hour, which is over 20 times faster than the fastest bullet humans have ever produced. (Meanwhile, our solar system is orbiting the center of our galaxy at almost eight times the speed our planet is orbiting the sun. And that pales in comparison with the speed our galaxy is hurtling through space — at over 2 million kilometers per hour.) I don’t pretend to know what that means. But i
ViewpointsDec. 31, 2015
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The year the world turned upside down
Looking back on 2015, it can be remembered as a year in which conventional wisdom and expectations were inverted on an astounding number of fronts. The rise of the political outsider: People are so fed up with the establishment that Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has been able to maintain a wide lead by ripping up the traditional Washington playbook. This phenomenon will last as long as people aren’t beholden to the kind of fear that makes them reach for a more conventional se
ViewpointsDec. 31, 2015
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Forecast for Year of Monkey based on traditional beliefs
As the new day of the new year begins, many wonder what the year 2016 has in store for them. Many Koreans visit fortune tellers to learn how their fate will unfold in the new year. But traditional signs and beliefs also offer insight into what to expect for the new year. The year 2016 is the Year of the Red Monkey, the ninth animal of the 12 Chinese zodiac signs. Red monkeys are known to be the liveliest and bossiest among many other types of monkeys. People born in the Year of the Monkey (1944,
CultureDec. 31, 2015
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‘It’s time for webtoons to go global in 2016’
In the 1980s and ‘90s, young children and students needed to hide their comic books from teachers and parents in order to secretly enjoy them.When they were caught furtively reading comics like “Dragon Ball” or “Slam Dunk” from Japan, or Korean series featuring famous characters such as baseball player Dok Gotak and Kkachi, instead of studying for college exams, they were immediately punished, while the seized comic books were ripped to shreds and thrown out. Comic books were considered dangerou
Life&CultureDec. 31, 2015
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Korean IMO chief to take office next month
The newly elected chief of the United Nations maritime body will start his four-year term in the beginning of next year, the South Korean government said Thursday.Lim Ki-tack, a former head of South Korea's local port operator, was elected in June to head the International Maritime Organization.Lim will replace Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu to become the 9th IMO secretary-general starting Jan. 1.His inauguration was approved unanimously by the IMO's general assembly last month, according to th
InternationalDec. 31, 2015
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No. of firms on antitrust list drops in Dec.
The number of South Korean business groups' affiliates subject to restrictions on mutual investments and loan guarantees declined in December from the previous month, the antitrust watchdog said Thursday.The Fair Trade Commission said the number of firms on its watch list came in at 1,658 as of Thursday, down 10 from the previous month.Such affiliates are owned by the country's 61 largest business groups.Samsung, CJ, Doosan and nine other groups reduced the number of their affiliates through sta
IndustryDec. 31, 2015
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Market value of apartments in Korea tops 2,000 tln won
The aggregate market value of apartments in South Korea has topped 2,000 trillion won for the first time, driven by more construction and rising housing prices, industry data showed Thursday.According to Real Estate 114, a real estate information provider, about 6.83 million apartments nationwide were estimated to be worth 2,127 trillion won ($1.81 trillion) as of end-December based on their market value. This is up 166 trillion won from a year earlier and marks the largest-ever value since rela
Dec. 31, 2015
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Korean court to open formal suit on wartime sex slaves
A local court has opened a formal damage suit that ten former South Korean sex slaves for Japan's World War II soldiers filed against Tokyo, after failing to find solutions through a mediation process.The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday ended the mediation process after the Japanese government repeatedly rejected to participate in the procedure, court officials said.The decision came a few days after Seoul and Tokyo reached a breakthrough deal in which the Japanese government apologize
Social AffairsDec. 31, 2015
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[Herald Review] ‘Chasing’ never finds direction or laughs
Director Oh In-chun’s upcoming feature “Chasing” is a true team effort. The director and both main actors Kim Seung-woo and Kim Jung-tae are all signed with the same company, The Queen D&M, which produced the film. This is what made it all the more shocking when lead actor Kim Seung-woo told reporters at a preview press conference that he “didn’t like the film” and that it failed to “provide laughs, as promised.” A still from "Chasing" (Opus Pictures) On second thought, one can’t help but feel
FilmDec. 31, 2015
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Most Chinese people oppose Korea-Japan deal on wartime sex slaves
Most Chinese people believe that Beijing should not accept conditions set by South Korea and Japan in possibly resolving the long-running grievance of Chinese victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery, a survey by a state-run Chinese media showed Thursday. The online survey, conducted by the Global Times, published by the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, found that 95 percent of 10,686 respondents say the deal between South Korea and Japan on wartime sex slaves "can
InternationalDec. 31, 2015
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Kim Jong-un offers condolences to his key aide's death
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has offered "profound" condolences over the death of his key aide who handled inter-Korean affairs, Pyongyang's state media said Thursday.On Wednesday, Kim visited the mortuary of Kim Yang-gon, a secretary of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, who died on Tuesday in a car accident, according to the Korean Central News Agency.North Korea held a state funeral for Kim, who is called "the closest comrade-in-arms" of the North Korean leader, earlier in the day.The KC
North KoreaDec. 31, 2015
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Maestro Chung leaves Seoul Phil
Maestro Chung Myung-whun has left the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra amid allegations of embezzlement and a police probe into whether his wife slandered the former chief conductor.On Wednesday, Chung conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, the SPO's final performance of the year, which also happened to be his final gig with the orchestra he'd been with for 10 years.Chung had warned earlier that Wednesday would be his last day with the orchestra. His letter of resignation came shortly after his wife
CultureDec. 31, 2015
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Billionaires' stock value hits all-time high
The combined market value of stocks held by the top 100 stock-rich people surpassed the 100 trillion-won ($849.25 billion) mark for the first time, aided by a rise in stock prices of cosmetics and bio firms, data showed Thursday.According to data compiled by market researcher Chaebol.com, the country's top 100 stock-rich people held 103.83 trillion won worth of stocks as of Wednesday.The figure is equivalent to 8.3 percent of the total market capitalization and 27 percent of South Korea's budget
Dec. 31, 2015