Korea Electric Power Corp. CEO Cho Hwan-eik was named Tuesday as the new chairman of the organizing committee for the 22nd World Energy Congress to be held in Daegu between Oct. 13 and 17, 2013.The post had been led by acting chairman Kim Young-hoon, chairman of Daesung Group, since November last year, following the resignation of former KEPCO CEO Kim Joong-kyum. Cho said the organizing committee will prepare for the event as a festival for all participants. The 2013 WEC in Daegu, the world’s la

Jan. 29, 2013

PSA Peugeot Citroen launched the Citroen DS5 in Seoul on Tuesday, renewing its commitment to the Korean market and its official importer Hanbul Motors that has been struggling from sluggish car sales amid the strong presence of German carmakers. The DS5 crossover sedan, launched in late 2011, is the high-end model for Citroen’s DS line that used to only consist of the DS3 and DS4 compacts. The car became known after it was offered to French President Francois Hollande for his inauguration ceremo

IndustryJan. 29, 2013

The state-run Korea National Oil Corp. presented on Monday its future business vision to help small and medium-sized oil companies reinforce their international competitiveness.“Our vision is to achieve a global oil company that embraces small-scale companies,” said KNOC president and CEO Suh Moon-kyu.“These efforts will contribute to boosting small and medium-sized oil business units here.”To realize such a goal, the company suggested three major slogans ― reinforcing the competitiveness of sma

Jan. 29, 2013

Overall outlooks on the nation’s economy for this year are negative as the Bank of Korea predicted lower growth and local industries are concerned about a protracted business slowdown.It is, however, such pessimism that discourages and aggravates the economy, not the other way around, according to an economist.“Negativism in economics has a self-fulfilling power,” said Choi Yong-sik, chief of the Turning Age Economic Research Institute, in an interview with The Korea Herald. “Our country’s econo

Jan. 29, 2013

KOMIPO has developed social responsibility activities to generate happiness when it goes abroad. “Power is a necessity for life of people, and without it people cannot be happy. Generating happiness is tied to our core business,” KOMIPO CEO Choi Pyeong-rak said.When KOMIPO goes abroad, the company seeks out such activities to deliver its corporate value to local people as part of its global corporate citizenship program. Following a series of discussions, the power generation company developed e

Jan. 29, 2013

This is the second in a series of case studies on the nation’s leading state-run companies which have made success stories overseas. ― Ed.The Korea Midland Power Co., or KOMIPO, has big plans, seeking to emerge as a global brand for power generation by 2020.“I am confident that the successful launch of a power plant in the fast-growing Indonesian power generation market last year will lay the foundations for the company’s drive for overseas expansion,” KOMIPO CEO Choi Pyeong-rak told The Korea H

Jan. 29, 2013

The president of Hanbul Motors, the Korean importer of Peugeot and Citroen brands, on Tuesday harshly criticized the heated dealer competition among import carmakers, especially the top sellers BMW and Mercedes-Benz.“Strong sales would satisfy their foreign headquarters. But their excessive sales activities are led to consumer damages,” Hanbul Motors president Song Seung-cheol said when asked about the French carmaker’s sluggish sales in Korea during the launching event of the Citroen DS5. “Almo

IndustryJan. 29, 2013

People spend several years of their life worrying about all sorts of things, which could lead to harmful health effects, a British health group said. According to a survey conducted by Benenden Health, a British health organization, adults spend five years of their life on average worrying about day-to-day issues. Adults’ concerns usually involve weight problems, finances and job security. Being overweight, getting old, having a lack of savings and staying fit were the top four worries on the li

TechnologyJan. 29, 2013

Twitter's iPhone video-snippet sharing service Vine had concerns about porn exposed on Monday after adult content was bared briefly in an "Editor's Picks" section.Twitter apologized for the mistake, blaming "human error" but providing little detail, and quickly removed the video.The globally popular one-to-many message sharing service last week launched Vine, a service that lets people share video snippets from iPhones or iPod touch devices.Perpetually looping video clips up to six seconds each

TechnologyJan. 29, 2013

Smokers’ craving for cigarettes is directly linked to brain’s self-control circuitry, a study showed Monday.A research team studied the relationship between the changes in brain activities and the level of craving for a cigarette after participants watched a neutral video and a video of people smoking. Before the experiment, some respondents were told that smoking would be allowed after watching the video, while others were told to wait 4 hours to smoke after the experiment was over. Scanning th

TechnologyJan. 29, 2013

U.S. college students who get their education paid for by parents may not study as hard, but they have better odds of graduating, a researcher says.Laura T. Hamilton, a sociology professor at the University of California, Merced, found students‘ GPAs decreased with increased financial support from their parents.However, the study also found students with financial aid from their parents were more likely to complete college and earn a degree.“Students with parental support are best described as s

TechnologyJan. 29, 2013

WhatsApp, which allows text messaging over the Internet without incurring SMS messaging charges, violates Canadian and Dutch privacy laws, officials say.Canada’s privacy watchdog, in a joint investigation with Dutch authorities, determined the popular mobile messaging app breaches Canadian and Dutch privacy laws by forcing many of its users to grant access to their entire address book to use it, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. News reported Monday.“The address book contains phone numbers of both [Wh

TechnologyJan. 29, 2013