Most Popular
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AI textbook bubble could burst, expert warns
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Samsung tightens its belt amid crisis winds
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Food tycoon Paik Jong-won's Theborn Korea pushes toward IPO
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North Korean trash balloons cross border day after Seoul military parade
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Prosecution closes 'Dior bag' case amid opposition uproar
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SF Giants outfielder Lee Jung-hoo back home after injury-shortened rookie season
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Court confirms sentence for rapper who attempted to evade national service
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N. Korea may revoke 1991 Inter-Korean Basic Agreement in parliament: Seoul
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[Kim Seong-kon] Understanding uniquely American things
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Ministry confirms irregularities in national soccer coach hiring
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Korea to probe more Volkswagen models for faked emissions
South Korea will likely examine more vehicle models by German carmaker Volkswagen following the U.S. environment agency's announcement that some of its larger models were also found to have faked emission results, government officials said Tuesday. Earlier, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency posted a notice on its website, alleging that Volkswagen had faked emissions results for 3.0-liter vehicle models. The models are the 2014 VW Touareg, the 2015 Porsche Cayenne, and the 2016 Audi A6 Q
IndustryNov. 3, 2015
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Gov't to roll back excise tax base on imported luxury goods
The government will rescind its earlier decision to adjust excise taxes on certain imported luxury goods after it has found no actual price benefits reaching consumers, the finance ministry said Tuesday. In late August, the finance ministry raised the minimum tax base for seven luxury items as of Aug. 27 in a bid to get companies and importers to lower prices that can spur consumer spending. The seven are jewelry, furs, handbags, watches, furniture, carpets and cameras. The government raised t
Nov. 3, 2015
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3 soldiers under investigation over comrade's apparent suicide
Three soldiers have been detained in an investigation into the apparent suicide of their junior comrade last week, military officials said Tuesday. The incident took place last Thursday at around 5 a.m., when the private first class moved about 100 meters away from a guard post near the western border with North Korea, where he and his fellow soldier were on patrol duty. The 20-year-old was killed at the scene as a grenade he was holding went off soon after he moved away from the guard post.
Social AffairsNov. 3, 2015
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Hankook Tire's Q3 operating profit falls 12.4%
Hankook Tire Co., South Korea's top tire maker, said Tuesday that its third-quarter operating profit dipped 12.4 percent due to slow growth in China's auto market. Consolidated operating profit came to 241.7 billion won ($213.2 million) in the July-September period, compared with 276 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. The manufacturer did not provide net profit figures. Sales, however, edged up 0.6 percent on-year to 1.73 trillion won, it noted. Hankook Tir
IndustryNov. 3, 2015
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Building materials-maker USG to shift focus to Asia
U.S. building materials-maker USG has expanded its business in the Asian region with a joint venture it formed with Australian firm Boral to strengthen its foothold in the plasterboard market, the company president said.USG president and CEO James Metcalf (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)“Korea is our second-largest market and is one of the big elephants along with Australia, Thailand and Indonesia,” James Metcalf, USG president and chief executive officer, said in a recent interview with The Kor
IndustryNov. 3, 2015
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FM Yun to visit Iran, discuss North Korean nukes
Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se will visit Iran this week as the two countries seek to bolster bilateral ties in the wake of a nuclear deal with implications also for North Korea, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Yun's visit to Tehran on Saturday will be the first by a South Korean foreign minister in 14 years, and comes four months after Iran struck a landmark deal with the United States and other world powers to curb its uranium enrichment program in exchange for sanctions relief. Yun is sch
DefenseNov. 3, 2015
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Hyundai, Kia see China sales bounce back in Oct.
Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Tuesday that their combined sales in China grew for the first time in six months in October. The two leading South Korean carmakers said that they sold a total of 156,575 vehicles in China last month, up 4.7 percent from a year earlier. This followed an 11-percent drop in the previous month. It also marked the first rise since April when they posted 2.4 percent growth in total sales. Hyundai Motor sold 100,069 cars last month
IndustryNov. 3, 2015
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Korea's dependence on China trade deepens: data
South Korea is becoming more reliant on its trade with China, data showed Tuesday, a worrisome development as the world's No. 2 economy is expected to grow at a slower pace in the future. Figures released by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Statistics Korea, showed Asia's fourth-largest economy becoming more dependent on its neighbor for its exports. In the nine months of this year, South Korea shipped US$102.1 billion worth of goods to China, accounting for 25.7 percent of all o
Nov. 3, 2015
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Japan Series MVP Lee Dae-ho declares intent to play in MLB
South Korean baseball slugger Lee Dae-ho on Tuesday declared his intent to play in Major League Baseball, saying it's always been his dream to become a big league player. At a press conference in Seoul, the reigning Japan Series MVP for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks said he will exercise his option with the Nippon Professional Baseball club and become a free agent. "All baseball players dream of playing in the majors, and I'd like to pursue that dream," he said. "If I can give 100 percent, like I
BaseballNov. 3, 2015
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Seoul shares up 0.5% in late-morning trade
South Korean stocks traded 0.51 percent higher late Tuesday morning as investors snapped up local shares in line with a global stock rally, with auto shares leading the gains. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 10.29 points to 2,045.53 as of 11:20 a.m. Auto shares traded bullish after data showed Monday that Korean carmakers' sales expanded 8.7 percent in October from a year earlier on robust demand at home and abroad. Top automaker Hyundai Motor rose 2.94 percent, and its
Nov. 3, 2015
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BOK sees low risk of China's economic hard landing
The chance of a hard landing for China's economy is low but its slowdown will inevitably have a negative impact on South Korea's exports down the road, Seoul's central bank said Tuesday. In a biannual report submitted to the National Assembly, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said volatilities in the global financial market will continue to increase for some time due to uncertainties related to China. "This is because a slowdown in China's economy will lead to greater concerns over a global economic sl
Nov. 3, 2015
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Korea confirms state textbook plan, says private publication failed
Prime Minster Hwang Kyo-ahn announced Tuesday that South Korea would officially reinstate government-issued history textbooks for secondary education, saying that the current private publication system had failed after four years into implementation.Prime Minster Hwang Kyo-ahn (Yonhap)“It is realistically impossible to author a correct history textbook under the current system. It is the government’s conclusion that the privately-authored system has failed,” Hwang said during a briefing at the S
Social AffairsNov. 3, 2015
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North Korean computers can use new time zone: ex-Google employee
North Korean computers can use the country's newly established time zone, according to a former Google employee. Will Scott, who bought a copy of North Korea's "Red Star 3" computer operating system during a visit to Pyongyang, captured images of its on-screen appearance and posted them in an article dated Nov. 1 in Business Insider. "When installing Red Star 3, you're prompted to select a city for your time zone," reads the article. "Interestingly enough, Seoul, South Korea, isn't an option."
North KoreaNov. 3, 2015
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Court dismisses request to change English name in passport
A court Tuesday rejected a complaint demanding the modification of an English name in a person's passport citing possible degradation of reliability in South Korean identification. The plaintiff, whose identity was withheld, filed a suit against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which rejected her request to change her English name to "Jeong," instead of "Jung." "Since I have long been using 'Jeong' to spell my name in and outside South Korea, I have to prove every time I stay abroad that I am
Social AffairsNov. 3, 2015
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Kakao launches premium taxi-hailing app
Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea's most widely used messenger app KakaoTalk, said Tuesday it began running its latest mobile application that offers taxi-booking services for luxury vehicles, following a two-week test run. Introduced late last month, KakaoTaxi Black is a high-end cab-hailing tool for smartphone users that takes a customer to a requested destination via a Mercedes or Lexus, for a minimum fare of 8,000 won ($7), compared to 3,000 won charged for general taxis. It is no
IndustryNov. 3, 2015
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Coupang to invest 1.5 tn won in expanding logistics capacity
Coupang, a leading South Korean e-commerce operator, said Tuesday it will invest 1.5 trillion won ($1.32 billion) in expanding logistics capacity over the next three years to step up its same-day delivery service. Coupang launched an ultra-fast delivery service called "Rocket Delivery" in March 2014 by establishing its own logistics system and employing couriers, joining the global wave of delivery wars led by online retail behemoth Amazon. The company said it has hired about 3,500 full-tim
IndustryNov. 3, 2015
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Gov't announces plan for publishing state-authored history textbooks
The government Tuesday announceed the plan for reintroducing state-authored history textbooks for secondary school students, prompting the opposition party to vow to boycott a parliamentary session in protest. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea made the announcement on the revision of the publication system for history textbooks for middle and high schoolers starting in the 2017 school year. The announcement comes after the Education Ministry collected public opi
PoliticsNov. 3, 2015
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[Editorial] After the summits
On the surface, the gathering of the leaders of South Korea, China and Japan in Seoul seemed to have achieved their primary goal -- restoring the three-way cooperation that had stalled dues to historical territorial disputes for more than three years. President Park Geun-hye declared after hosting talks with the Chinese and Japanese leaders Sunday that the three countries have “fully” restored their trilateral cooperation through the Seoul summit. Economic cooperation topped the leaders’ agree
EditorialNov. 3, 2015
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[Editorial] Prosecutor nominee
President Park Geun-hye has nominated Kim Soo-nam, deputy head of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, to succeed Prosecutor General Kim Jin-tae, whose two-year term expires early next month. As is usual with the president’s choice of the top prosecutor, Park’s nomination of Kim immediately generated a debate on his qualifications, with the focus placed on his regional background. Kim hails from the same southeastern city of Daegu as Park. Blue House officials insist that Kim’s hometown has nothing
EditorialNov. 3, 2015
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Consumer goods fair kicks off with retail giants
Hundreds of global retail companies like Amazon.com Inc. gathered in Seoul on Tuesday to purchase quality consumer goods and seek new business opportunities in South Korea, the trade ministry said. The Korea Consumer Goods Showcase 2015 kicked off for a two-day run, bringing together Amazon.com, China's No. 2 online shopping mall JD.com Inc., Japan's Rakuten Inc., U.S. Lowe's Companies Inc., French Yves Rocher and many other retailers and shopping mall operators, according to the Ministry of Tr
IndustryNov. 3, 2015