Most Popular
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Seoul blanketed by heaviest Nov. snow, with more expected
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NewJeans to terminate contract with Ador
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NewJeans terminates contract with Ador, embarks on new journey
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Seoul snowfall now third heaviest on record
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Korean Air gets European nod to become Northeast Asia’s largest airline
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Samsung shakes up management, commits to reviving chip business
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Hybe consolidates chairman Bang Si-hyuk’s regime with leadership changes
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Heavy snow of up to 40 cm blankets Seoul for 2nd day
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Chaos unfolds as rare November snowstorm grips Korea for 2nd day
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BOK makes surprise 2nd rate cut to boost growth
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Korea lags behind in spending for space development
Korea lags far behind other economies such as the U.S., Russia and Japan in space technology investment.The country is also behind China and India, which have made significant investments in the development of their lunar probe programs.The country hopes to conduct its first successful space rocket launch this week after two failed attempts in August 2009 and June 2010. The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, also known as Naro-1, is the country’s first locally assembled space rocket.Its first-stage t
TechnologyOct. 23, 2012
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Ssangyong E&C wins $180m deal in Singapore
Ssangyong Engineering & Construction Co. said Tuesday that it has won a $180 million contract to build a new college campus in Singapore.The deal signed with the National University of Singapore on Monday, calls for the South Korean company to build facilities, including dormitories, a library and lecture halls for Yale-NUS College.Ssangyong E&C said the project will be completed 29 months after work begins later this month.The latest order comes weeks after Ssangyong E&C’s creditor banks announ
Oct. 23, 2012
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POSCO Q3 net earnings more than triple
POSCO, South Korea’s leading steelmaker, said Tuesday that its third-quarter earnings more than tripled from a year earlier on cost-cutting efforts and a one-time factor.Net profit reached 723 billion won ($656 million) on a consolidated basis in the July-September period, compared with a profit of 229 billion won a year earlier, the company said.Sales, however, slipped 7.2 percent on-year to 15.74 trillion won, and operating income also dropped 17.6 percent to 1.06 trillion won over the cited p
Oct. 23, 2012
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Shares slip on earnings woes
South Korean stocks closed 0.76 percent lower as bleak corporate earnings outlook of local big-name companies weighed heavily on the market, analysts said. The local currency gained against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 14.78 points to 1,926.81. Trading volume was moderate at 528.4 million shares worth 4.11 trillion won ($3.72 billion), with decliners outnumbering gainers 435 to 377.“Investors already knew that companies performed bad in the third quarter.
Oct. 23, 2012
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EU rejects France’s complaint against Korean carmakers
The European Union has dismissed France’s request to monitor imports of Korean cars more closely to restrict the soaring sales of them in the country.According to the Trade Ministry in Seoul, the European Commission officially decided on Monday to reject France’s demand to put Korean autos on a prior surveillance list.Trade officials said the executive body of the EU reviewed the French request made in July and decided not to accept it. France apparently made the request with the aim of driving
Oct. 23, 2012
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GE Korea opens energy tech center
General Electric Korea, the Korean unit of General Electric Co., opened a new energy technology center near Seoul on Tuesday, seeking more business partnerships with domestic firms.Built within the firm’s research and development complex, in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, the energy technology center supports sustainable growth and efficient solutions, company officials said. “The work going to be done here is the synergy between the high-end research and application-oriented work that will bring be
IndustryOct. 23, 2012
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Hyundai eyes million-car production in China
BEIJING ― Following territorial disputes between Beijing and Tokyo, the dramatic fall-off in demand for Japanese vehicles has been an unexpected boon for Korea’s Hyundai in the all-important Chinese market. In September, when Toyota Motor Corp. saw its Chinese sales almost halve from a year ago, Hyundai Motor’s sales in China increased by 15 percent to post record sales. Some industry watchers warn the Toyota-led sales slump could drag down the Chinese car market overall. But Hyundai seems more
MobilityOct. 23, 2012
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Apple offered Samsung unfair deal: Groklaw
A U.S. legal news provider revealed an allegation that Apple Inc. made an unfair licensing offer to Samsung Electronics over patent payments in October 2010.Apple had offered Samsung an additional 20 percent discount for the Korean smartphone manufacturer’s usage of Apple’s licenses, including Windows phones and tablets, under the scenario of a cross license deal, Groklaw said in its recent report.The failed offer was based on the U.S. firm’s alleged intention to pressure Samsung to scrap its us
IndustryOct. 23, 2012
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Firms bogged down by Q3 woes
Fears of an earnings shock are sweeping across Korean industries as several major companies have already reported sharply declining profits in the third quarter.Amid economists’ diagnosis that the Chinese and U.S. economies hit bottom in the three months to September, both Korean companies’ exports and domestic sales have been worse than expected. Businesses are undercutting their earnings forecasts for the third quarter, although they are hopeful things will perk up in the final quarter of this
IndustryOct. 23, 2012
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Mattel builds on lifestyle brands with local partners
Barbie has been loved around the world for over half a century since 1959, and now she is more than just a perfectly figured doll that comes in various themes, professions and ethnicities.“Barbie is not a character brand; it is a fashion brand that has hundreds of licensees or partners that make Barbie perfumes, Barbie shoes, cosmetics, jewelry, laptops and even hair salons,” Claire Gilchrist, Mattel’s top executive of consumer products in the Asia Pacific region, said in an interview with The K
IndustryOct. 23, 2012
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Tobacco makers oppose new rules on social contribution
A silent but potent war is brewing between tobacco makers and the government over whether the companies should be permitted to contribute to social causes. In September, the Ministry of Health and Welfare signaled that it was time to end what they consider to be “promotion-oriented” contributions from cigarette companies by announcing a new legal revision. Under the new rule, companies, which had been permitted to sponsor sports-related campaigns for raising social awareness on significant issue
IndustryOct. 23, 2012
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Korea ranks 8th in business environment: World Bank
South Korea ranked eighth in terms of business environment this year partly thanks to its efforts to streamline regulations related to protecting investor rights and imposing taxes, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.The ranking by the World Bank was unchanged from the previous year and marked the second consecutive year South Korea was listed on the global top 10 list, according to the ministryThe Washington-based lender analyzed 185 countries’ business environments by breaking them down into 10
Oct. 23, 2012
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Apple Korea chief Dominique Oh gets pink slip by email
Dominique Oh notified of leave with single e-mailDominique Oh, the head of Apple Korea, stepped down last week, a move staged against his will, according to multiple industry executives Tuesday.“He was told to leave his position as general manager through an e-mail,” said a top industry executive. “The news was a shocker. I don’t know who will want the job after this.”Oh’s ouster came as a surprise as the Cupertino-based IT behemoth is currently looking forward to releasing its latest iPhone 5 h
IndustryOct. 23, 2012
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Cholesterol drug may cut cancer risk
Statins, a cholesterol lowering drug may lower the risk of esophageal cancer, especially in those with Barrett‘s esophagus, U.S. researchers say. Study author Siddharth Singh, a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist, said squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma are two main types of esophageal cancer.Barrett’s esophagus, a complication of gastroesophageal reflux disease, raises the risk of adenocarcinoma, the more common type of esophageal cancer. Barrett‘s esophagus is a precancerous condition in w
TechnologyOct. 23, 2012
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FDA: 5 died after drinking Monster Energy
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it found five people died in the past three years after downing the popular energy drink Monster Energy.The New York Times reported Monday the information does not prove a link between Monster Energy and the deaths or any health problems. The newspaper said the mother of a 14-year-old Maryland girl who died in December after drinking large cans of Monster Energy two days in a row obtained the FDA records recently under the Freedom of Information Act. Th
TechnologyOct. 23, 2012
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Many Android apps said ‘leaking’ data
Millions of people using Android apps are at risk of having their personal data revealed, security researchers in Germany report. Researchers at the University of Leibniz and Philipps University of Marburg tested 13,500 popular apps in Google‘s Play store and found almost 8 percent failed to protect bank account and social media logins. The insecure apps failed to implement standard scrambling systems, researchers said, allowing “man-in-the-middle” attacks to spy on data passed along when
TechnologyOct. 23, 2012
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Shy fish said to have better survival odds
Being shy or bold can be a matter of life or death for a trout, Canadian researchers say, with shyness being a better survival strategy.Fish respond to, and learn from threats, they said, and experiments show bold trout forget predator odor, and hence a potential predator threat, quicker than shy trout.As predators can be present in different locations and at different times, learning and retaining information about a predator threat, and being able to recall it at a later stage, is key to respo
TechnologyOct. 23, 2012
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Study: Male beluga whale mimics human speech
It could be the muffled sound of singing in the shower or that sing-songy indecipherable voice from the Muppets' Swedish Chef.Surprisingly, scientists said the audio they captured was a whale imitating people. In fact, the whale song sounded so eerily human that divers initially thought it was a human voice.Handlers at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego heard mumbling in 1984 coming from a tank containing whales and dolphins that sounded like two people chatting far away.In a mor
TechnologyOct. 23, 2012
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EU retorts France's complaint over Korean automakers
The European Union (EU) has decided not to accept France's claim that its domestic auto market has been hit by a surge in imports of South Korean vehicles, Seoul's trade ministry said Tuesday.On Monday, the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, reviewed a request made in July by France, and decided not to put South Korean autos on a prior surveillance list. The move could trigger a safeguard measure against imports from South Korea in the worst-case scenario, according to the minist
IndustryOct. 23, 2012
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Exports of military hardware to hit record high
The defense industry is projected to mark an all-time high in its weapon exports this year, according to the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade.While the nation had mostly exported ammunition and components for weapons, it recently diversified products such as self-propelled artillery and submarines.Among the major export destinations are the United Kingdom, Peru and India, KIET said in a report.The defense-related orders from abroad rapidly increased over the past few years ― fr
IndustryOct. 22, 2012
