Woori Financial Group is struggling to follow in the footsteps of KB Financial and Hana Financial by spinning off a credit card business from Woori Bank.In 2011, KB Financial Group launched a stand-alone credit card firm after the money-spinning unit was merged with the bank in 2003. In 2010, Hana Financial Group spun off Hana SK Card and began marketing cooperation with several SK Group subsidiaries.An official in the Financial Supervisory Service said Friday that the regulator was making inqui

Jan. 4, 2013

Hanjin Group Cho Yang-ho’s three children ― Hyun-ah, Won-tae and Hyun-min ― were all promoted in the company’s recent personnel reshuffle. The eldest, Hyun-ah, 39, was promoted to vice president of Korean Air, along with her younger brother Won-tae, 38. They were given the promotions just three years after they were made executive vice presidents in 2009. Cho Hyun-min, born in 1983, was made a managing vice president of the company. She had been a rank immediately below just two years earlier. K

IndustryJan. 4, 2013

Foreign shareholdings in Korean stocks and bonds have hit a record-high due to monetary easing overseas that led to the inflow of funds investing in higher yielding and riskier assetsEquity and debt investments by foreign investors reached 502.6 trillion won in total as of the end of 2012, mainly driven by funds from Europe and the U.S. where central banks had been printing and pumping money to stimulate their economies, according to Financial Supervisory Service data. It showed that the U.S. wa

Jan. 4, 2013

U.S. astronomers say a study suggests planets are in fact the cosmic norm and estimate the Milky Way galaxy contains at least 100 billion planets.A team of astronomers at the California Institute of Technology made the estimate while analyzing planets orbiting a star called Kepler-32, worlds they say are representative of the vast majority in the galaxy and are a perfect case study for understanding how most planets form.Kepler-32's planets were detected by the Kepler space telescope, and the re

TechnologyJan. 4, 2013

An online article pointing out difficulties in the Korean market sparked fresh debate over the cause of recent withdrawal-spree of foreign companies.　A blogger familiar with the matter posted Wednesday an article titled “Foreign companies leaving Korea: Have the locals successfully kicked the invaders out?” on his blog.A series of foreign enterprises recently decided to leave Korea in various industries. Global IT companies Yahoo Korea, Motorola, HTC, and RIM, as well as financial companies Gold

IndustryJan. 4, 2013

The number of “actually” unemployed people in South Korea has reached nearly 4 million as job seekers tend to give up on finding work amid prolonged weak labor market conditions, data showed Friday.According to the data by Statistics Korea, the country’s actually unemployed totaled about 3.89 million as of November last year, slightly down from 3.94 million tallied a year earlier.Actual unemployed people refer to those who give up looking for work, temporarily quit seeking employment to prepare

IndustryJan. 4, 2013

Korea may attain the goal of per capita gross domestic product of $30,000 by around 2017, analysts predicted on Thursday. Surpassing the $30,000 mark is widely regarded as a yardstick to determine if a country is advanced. But the analysts said whether the nation will be able to attain the feat depends on sustained economic growth and the pace of the local currency’s gain.Analysis has it that the Korean currency should appreciate about 33 percent to the U.S. dollar from the current level. The In

Jan. 3, 2013

ANCHORAGE (AP) ― The grounding of a petroleum drilling ship on a remote Alaska island has refueled the debate over oil exploration in the U.S. Arctic Ocean, where critics for years have said the conditions are too harsh and the stakes too high to allow dangerous industrial development.The drilling sites are 1,600 kilometers from Coast Guard resources, and environmentalists argue offshore drilling in the Arctic’s fragile ecosystem is too risky. So when a Royal Dutch Shell PLC ship went aground on

TechnologyJan. 3, 2013

PARIS (AFP) ― Astronomers using the most advanced land telescope in the world said on Wednesday they had unlocked knowledge about how formidable “gas giant” planets such Jupiter and Saturn come into being.These vast but uninhabitable worlds are created by gobbling up gas and dust that envelope young stars in a murky disc, they believe.The evidence comes from observations of a youthful star called HD 142527 which is located more than 450 light years from Earth.Stars are born from a cloud of cosmi

TechnologyJan. 3, 2013

Following is the 11th in a series of articles on President-elect Park Geun-hye’s key policies ― Ed. Korea has entered a period of low growth. A slew of analysts say it is heading in a direction similar to Japan’s “Lost Decade.”With 1 percent growth coupled with the global economy facing further slowdown in 2013, the outlook for Korean exports, the country’s main source of growth, is not looking rosy.President-elect Park Geun-hye, who has an engineering background, sees a need to overcome future

TechnologyJan. 3, 2013

This is your brain on sugar ― for real. Scientists have used imaging tests to show for the first time that fructose, a sugar that saturates the American diet, can trigger brain changes that may lead to overeating.After drinking a fructose beverage, the brain doesn’t register the feeling of being full as it does when simple glucose is consumed, researchers found.It’s a small study and does not prove that fructose or its relative, high-fructose corn syrup, can cause obesity, but experts say it add

TechnologyJan. 3, 2013

As the cold spell tightens its grip on the country, reports of flu-like illnesses have grown in the last few weeks. Health authorities advised Thursday that people maintain personal hygiene and consider flu shots to avoid illness.The number of people suspected of having influenza per 1,000 outpatients was 2.8 in the third week of December, a slight increase from 2.7 surveyed a week before, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report. If the rate reaches more than 4, the hea

TechnologyJan. 3, 2013