‘Coca-cola in Pyongyang was a rumor’: official

The Coca-Cola Company officially denied the local news reports on making inroads into the North Korean market.“No representative of The Coca-Cola Company has been in discussions or explored opening up business in Pyongyang, North Korea,“ Kent Landers, a PR official of the company, told the Korea Herald via email on Friday.Meanwhile, Park Chul-soo, president of Chosun Daepoong Group also denied the

IndustryJuly 15, 2011

BOK cuts 2011 growth outlook to 4.3 pct

South Korea's central bank on Friday revised down its 2011 economic growth outlook on weaker domestic demand and construction investment, but raised its inflation projection on high oil and food prices.The Bank of Korea (BOK) lowered its growth projection to 4.3 percent for the year from an earlier 4.5 percent estimate made in April. In the second half, the economy is expected to grow 4.7 percent,

July 15, 2011

S. Korea's import price growth hits 7-month low in June

South Korea's import prices grew at the slowest clip in seven months in June as the local currency's ascent to the dollar overshadowed an on-year gain in oil prices, the central bank said Friday.In local currency terms, the country's import prices rose 10.5 percent in June from a year earlier, slowing from a 13.2 percent on-year expansion tallied in May, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).The Ju

July 15, 2011

Scientists develop highly efficient industrial catalyst

South Korean scientists said Friday that they have developed a highly efficient nanoporous industrial catalyst that can have a considerable impact on chemical and oil-refining sectors.The team of scientists led by Ryoo Ryong, a chemistry professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), said the solid zeolite compound developed in the laboratory has a reaction speed five

TechnologyJuly 15, 2011

State should take obese kids from parents: U.S. doctors

The government should have the right to remove severely obese children from their parents’ home and place them in foster care, two US doctors argued in a controversial editorial.“State intervention may serve the best interests of many children with life-threatening obesity, comprising the only realistic way to control harmful behaviors,” wrote Lindsey Murtagh of the Harvard School of Public Health

TechnologyJuly 14, 2011

Daum unveils ‘store view,’ first of its kind

Daum Communications, the nation’s second-largest Internet portal, has introduced a new service called “Daum store view” which enables people to view inside registered stores online.Store view shows a 360-degree panorama view of inside the store by clicking air tags on the street view. This means people can virtually experience the interior, seating, layout, menu and prices of the selected store.Th

IndustryJuly 14, 2011

Korea starts extracting lithium from sea

Korea has completed the construction of its first offshore plant to extract lithium from seawater in a bid to supply spiraling demand for the scarce metal in the automobile and electronics industries.The “Seawater Lithium Research Center” located in Gangneung in the country’s east entered test-production and will develop technology to churn out 30 tons of high-purity lithium carbonate annually sta

July 14, 2011

Hyundai-Kia best-selling car firm in Canada

Hyundai’s Sonata gets top marks in U.S. consumer surveyKorea’s Hyundai Motor Co. and its sister company Kia Motors Corp. ranked as the best-selling passenger carmakers in Canada in the first half of this year, industry sources said Thursday.The two leading automobile makers in South Korea sold a combined 64,671 passenger cars in the North American country in the January-June period for a market sh

IndustryJuly 14, 2011

Samsung chip lines ‘not linked to cancer’

GIHEUNG, Gyeonggi Province ― Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor manufacturing lines were not responsible for or directly linked to leukemia and related cancers diagnosed in former company employees, a report by an independent agency showed on Thursday. Representatives of Environ, a U.S.-based consultancy specializing in environmental and health issues, announced the results of the study commission

IndustryJuly 14, 2011

Sales at discount outlets rise in June

Sales at Korea’s major discount outlets and department stores rose from a year earlier in June on growing demand for groceries and goods for outdoor activities, a government report showed Thursday.Combined sales of the country’s three major discount outlets rose 2.7 percent in June from the same period last year with those of three leading department stores rising 8.2 percent on-year, according to

IndustryJuly 14, 2011

POSCO to buy shares in Canadian coal mine

POSCO, Korea’s leading steelmaker, said Thursday that its Canadian unit will set up a joint venture with Canada’s Fortune Minerals Ltd. to acquire a stake in a Canadian coal mine development project.POSCO said that POSCO Canada Ltd. will invest a total of 181 million Canadian dollars ($189 million) for a 20 percent stake in the Mount Klappan coal project. POSCO will pay 30 million Canadian dollars

IndustryJuly 14, 2011

Philip Morris Korea sponsors environment campaign

The non-governmental organization Beautiful Community Forum announced Thursday that it will host photo and sculpture exhibitions as part of the 2011 Philip Morris Korea Clean Beach Campaign.The exhibitions will be at Sokcho Beach in Gangwon Province and Hamdeok Beach in Jeju from July 30 through Aug. 1 to raise awareness for preservation of sea resources.For the photo exhibition, the forum is hold

IndustryJuly 14, 2011

Overseas tax dodgers targeted in probe

The National Tax Service said Thursday that it would launch a large-scale investigation into offshore bank accounts with lump-sum deposits this year. “The agency’s crackdown on tax evasion using tax havens abroad has seen some achievements in the first half of the year,” said an NTS official. “In the second half, we will step up efforts to probe further into people who have deposited more than 1 b

IndustryJuly 14, 2011

eBay agrees to fair online trade

The nation’s antitrust watchdog and eBay Inc. signed Thursday an agreement for fair trade in the growing online ecommerce market ― the first of its kind here. The U.S.-based company, which owns Gmarket and Auction, the nation’s No. 1 and No. 2 online marketplaces, will adopt a “Consumer Complaints Management System” to better protect consumer rights, the Fair Trade Commission said.The agreement ca

IndustryJuly 14, 2011

Inflation to ease but debt woes persist

Economists say debt may cool business sentiment in second halfEconomists expect inflation to cool with the arrival of harvest season but cautiously forecast that business sentiment will lose steam in the second half of the year on debt both at home and abroad.The central bank froze its policy rate at 3.25 percent Thursday even after having an inflation rate above its 3 percent target range for hal

July 14, 2011

Local banks’ short-term foreign borrowing up

Korean banks’ short-term foreign borrowing rose in June as lenders rushed to secure foreign currency funds amid worries the eurozone debt crisis may worsen, the financial watchdog said Thursday.A total of 16 local banks refinanced 107.4 percent of their maturing short-term foreign debt through fresh borrowing in June, up from 94.9 percent in the previous month, according to the Financial Superviso

July 14, 2011