South Korea's current account surplus widened sharply in March from the previous month, backed by strong auto and petrochmical exports, the central bank said Friday.   The current account surplus reached $3.04 billion last month, up from $560 million in the black tallied in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The figure is larger than the $1.33 billion surplus tallied a year

April 27, 2012

Smartphones, displays up but chip down for tech giant in Q1　By Park Hyong-kiSamsung Electronics saw its first-quarter earnings hit an all-time high thanks to brisk global sales of smartphones, the company said on Friday.The Korean tech manufacturing giant said that its operating profit reached a record of 5.85 trillion won ($5.15 billion) in the period of January to March, up 98.4 percent from 2.9

TechnologyApril 27, 2012

Report says the nation should take caution in developing social welfare programsThe Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast Korea’s economic growth to be around 3.5 percent this year and 4.3 percent next year despite a slowdown in world trade. If the global economy were to experience a serious downturn, Korea can respond with fiscal stimulus, given its strong fiscal position, and monetary policy easing, the OECD said in its 2012 economic survey.The OECD said Korea faces tw

April 26, 2012

KT Corp. said Thursday the company was considering acquiring Woongjin Coway, the nation’s largest water purifier manufacturer up for sale since February. “We are considering possible acquisition of stakes at Woongjin Coway but nothing has yet been decided,” the nation’s second-largest telecom carrier said in response to an inquiry from the Korea Exchange on the day. “Within one month or when any details are finalized, we will make a new announcement.” According to industry sources, KT had receiv

IndustryApril 26, 2012

A recent survey found Thursday that Chinese travelers pick the Dongdaemun area as their favorite shopping destination in Seoul, while Japanese prefer Namdaemun traditional market. The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry surveyed 200 Chinese and Japanese travelers here on their shopping preferences while in Korea.The business lobby said that their favorite shopping areas also determined which the items they purchased.Chinese people, due to the Korean Wave in their country, favored the latest f

IndustryApril 26, 2012

KT Corp. said Thursday that the company has saved 26 years of time over the past year thanks to its smart work program that started last April. The nation’s second-largest telecom carrier also held a conference celebrating the first anniversary of the program, pledging to expand its smart work initiative to other firms. Since last year, KT has encouraged its 20,000 employees to work at home or “smart-working” centers located near their residential areas. Currently, some 4,000 people are working

IndustryApril 26, 2012

World’s No.2 DRAM chipmaker takes cautious stance on acquisition of ElpidaSK Hynix said Thursday that it is currently developing its own controller chip for NAND Flash memory, widely used in smartphones and tablet PCs, and plans to have it ready for production by 2014.Park Sung-wook, head of research and development at the firm, said it is making its own controller chip to apply it to next generation NAND Flash solutions during its quarterly earnings conference.He also said that the company is e

IndustryApril 26, 2012

National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives, a Korean lender known as Suhyup, is marketing a five-year dollar-denominated bond of at least $300 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.Suhyup is marketing the notes to yield between 275 basis points and 285 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, the person said, asking not to be identified because the details are private.Han Jae-kwon, the head of international financing of Suhyup, was not available to comment on the

April 26, 2012

South Korean stocks closed effectively unchanged Thursday as lingering eurozone concerns canceled out overnight U.S. gains, analysts said. The local currency rose against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged up just 0.10 percent, or 2.06 points, to close at 1,964.04. Trading volume was moderately heavy at 597 million shares worth 5.26 trillion won ($4.62 billion), with losers outpacing gainers 534 to 301.“Investor sentiment was hurt by lingering concerns about th

April 26, 2012

Single-person households are expected to emerge as the most dominant living arrangement in South Korea this year due to the rapid breakup of nuclear families, a government report showed Thursday.The report by Statistics Korea showed single person homes will make up 25.3 percent of all households this year, followed by those with two and three people.This is a change from 2010, when two-member households were the most numerous, followed by a single person family unit and those with three people.

April 26, 2012

South Korean banks’ average lending rate moved up in March from the previous month mainly due to the slight rise in rates offered to businesses, the central bank said Thursday.The average interest rate on new household, corporate and public sector loans stood at 5.74 percent last month, up 0.03 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea. The bank lending rate on new household loans fell 0.05 percentage point to 5.62 percent, with the interest on fresh corporate loans m

April 26, 2012

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The U.S. government insisted Wednesday that American beef is safe to eat despite reports of the first case of mad cow disease here in six years.It pledged to fully update South Korea on related developments.“Our investigation is ongoing, but here are a few things that we do know for a fact: It is perfectly safe to eat beef and drink milk without concern for BSE,” Matt Herrick, an official at the Department of Agriculture, said in an inquiry by Yonhap News Agency. The d

April 26, 2012

Trade commission says tech firm did not infringe on property rights related to LEDsThe Korea Trade Commission said Thursday that LG Innotek did not infringe the patent rights of Osram light-emitting diode package manufacturing.Following its inspection of seven different LED packages, the commission under the Ministry of Knowledge Economy decided that the inspected items of LG Innotek did not infringe the Munich-based firm’s intellectual property, including the white convergence technology.“We be

IndustryApril 26, 2012