The Korea Herald

Seoul to unveil new satellite for Naro space rocket

South Korea will this week unveil a new satellite that it will launch aboard its space rocket later this year, the government said Thursday.The Science and Technology Satellite-2C (STSAT-2C) will be revealed to the public Friday in a pre-shipment ceremony to be held at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.The satellite, indigenously developed by KAIST, is the third

TechnologyAug. 23, 2012

Korea awards first damage from EU FTA

South Korea has recognized damages from the country's bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) for the first time since the trade deal went into effect last year, the government said Thursday.The decision came at a meeting on Wednesday, in which the National Trade Commission accepted a claim from a local pork processing company that it suffered damages from the growing mar

Aug. 23, 2012

Seoul shares open lower on tech losses

South Korean stocks got off to a weak start Thursday led by losses in techs and shipbuilders, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 5.83 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,929.36 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Tech heavyweight Samsung Electronics retreated 1.03 percent and leading shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries fell 0.82 percent.The local currency was trading

Aug. 23, 2012

Korean firms' July direct financing up 9.5 percent

Direct financing by South Korean companies rose 9.5 percent on-month in July, led by an increase in initial public offerings (IPO) and corporate bond issuances, the financial regulator said Thursday. Local companies raised 11.9 trillion won ($10.5 billion) last month by issuing stocks and bonds, compared with 10.8 trillion won a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Aug. 23, 2012

Seoul-Tokyo tension affects bilateral investments little

Japanese purchase more Korean stocks since Lee’s visit to DokdoThe heightened diplomatic tension between Korea and Japan had little negative impact on bilateral investment and trade so far, data showed.Moreover, Japanese investors were net buyers on Korea’s main bourse for the four trading sessions after President Lee Myung-bak visited Dokdo islets on Aug. 10.“Japanese investors’ purchase of stocks and bonds surpassed selling over the sessions last week,” said an official of the Financial Superv

IndustryAug. 22, 2012

G-market expands popular social contribution program

Global Volunteer Team ranks most sought-after program, shoppers donate over 1.51 billion wonG-market, one of South Korea’s biggest online shopping malls, is also leading the electronic commerce market in terms of social contribution. EBay Korea, which acquired G-market in 2009, said that the online shopping mall spent 2.7 billion won ($2.4 million) in social contributions last year, which took up about 4.1 percent of the year’s operating profit and 0.6 percent of sales. The proportion is about 2

IndustryAug. 22, 2012

G-market expands popular social contribution program

LS Group sends volunteers to Vietnam

LS Group said it has dispatched university student volunteers to Xa Yen Phuong, near Hanoi, Vietnam, as part of its social contribution activities.The volunteers, comprising LS Group executives and employees and 20 students, will build a playground, repair school facilities and teach children in the Southeastern Asian country until this week.LS group has promoted the program in cooperation with Copion, a non-governmental organization specializing in dispatching overseas volunteers. (dunhil-mint@

Aug. 22, 2012

Daesang gives blood donor cards to the KACLC

Daesang Holdings, a food company, said that it has delivered 400 blood donation cards to the Korea Association For Children with Leukemia and Cancer. The cards will be used on medical treatments for youths suffering from leukemia and child cancer, company officials said.The company employees voluntarily participate in the frequent blood donation program, which is a part of Daesang’s social contribution campaign called “More Sharing, More Happiness.”Since 2006, Daesang has been constantly holding

Aug. 22, 2012

Daesang gives blood donor cards to the KACLC

Plans for more power plants delayed or scrapped

The construction of 10 nuclear power plants and one tidal power plant scheduled to be completed between 2013 and 2027 has been either put off or canceled, plant operators said, fanning concerns about power shortages.The 11 plants, if completed, altogether could have produced about 12.7 million kilowatts of electricity, which accounts for about 6.4 percent of the nation’s power supply.“We have postponed or canceled some plant construction deals because the government has become more careful about

Aug. 22, 2012

Seoul shares slip 0.41% on lack of momentum

South Korean stocks edged down 0.41 percent Wednesday ahead of major events in Europe and the United States in the coming weeks, analysts said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 8.03 point to close at 1,935.19. Trading volume was moderate at 418.4 million shares worth 4.04 trillion won ($3.56 billion), with losers outpacing winners 475 to 332.“There will be no big liquidity supply, corporate earnings or political events in the ne

Aug. 22, 2012

LG unveils ultra-def 3-D TV in Korea

LG Electronics announced the launch of its new 84-inch ultra-definition 3-D television on Wednesday, with it scheduled to roll out in the local market this weekend.About 70 units of the TV priced at around 25 million won ($22,000) have already been sold through pre-orders, according to Kwon Il-geun, senior vice president of LG’s TV R&D Laboratory.The new UD TV, showcased in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas for the first time, boasts four times the resolution of existing full

IndustryAug. 22, 2012

Hyundai Motor gives W1.6b to Olympic archery team

Hyundai Motor Group said Wednesday that its chairman Chung Mong-koo has awarded 1.6 billion won ($1.4 million) to the national archery team who won three gold and one bronze medal during the London Olympics. The auto giant, together with the Korea Archery Association, held a welcoming dinner at a Seoul hotel on Wednesday, with some 400 guests including the archers and their families as well as Culture and Sports Minister Choe Kwang-shik. Hyundai Motor vice chairman Chung Eui-sun, who took over h

IndustryAug. 22, 2012

Major privatization projects in doldrums

Privatization of Incheon Airport, KDB Financial hangs in the air due to political resistance The Lee Myung-bak administration’s plans to privatize public institutions including the sale of a state-owned stake in Incheon International Airport have been put on hold due to opposition from politicians.Plans to privatize KDB Financial Group and find a private company to run the KTX bullet train from Suseo in southeastern Seoul also face delays or suspension.The government decided not to submit a rev

IndustryAug. 22, 2012

Major privatization projects in doldrums

Bluebird Soft aims to strengthen business fundamentals

Korea’s No. 1 industrial smartphone maker eyes IPO to boost global recognitionWhen Lee Jang-won set out to establish his first venture tech firm in 1995, he built a company named Bluebird Soft that developed messenger software for enterprises.But its early tech products were “far ahead of its time,” said Lee, the founder and CEO of Bluebird Soft.“We were, then, making communication software for VoIP, and mobile and PC messengers that can be seen as today’s Kakao Talk,” Lee said.“Soft” is part o

TechnologyAug. 22, 2012

Bluebird Soft aims to strengthen business fundamentals

Kakao Game Center an instant hit

Kakao, the creator of Korea’s most-used mobile messenger Kakao Talk, is seeing rapid growth in its mobile gaming platform business.Since the launch of Kakao Game Center on July 30, two games released via Kakao’s gaming platform have topped the charts on Google Play, an app market for Android-based smartphone users.“Anipang,” developed by Kakao’s strategic partner Sundaytoz, has become the top grossing game in Korea, edging over the popular “Rule the Sky” by JCE, part of Korea’s biggest gamer Nex

TechnologyAug. 22, 2012

Samsung, Apple anxiously await court verdict on patent battle

Seoul court’s ruling may be deferred after U.S. jurors come up with conclusion early SaturdayThe world’s two global IT giants ― Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc. ― will face crucial court rulings this week to end their fierce patent fight as they came short of reaching an eleventh-hour compromise.The outcomes of their multibillion-dollar patent battles in the U.S. and Korea are scheduled to be released on Friday and Saturday.The two firms each completed their two-hour closing arguments at the c

TechnologyAug. 22, 2012

Samsung, Apple anxiously await court verdict on patent battle

S. Korean researchers find new way to watch 3-D movies

Researchers in South Korea have created a convenient way to watch 3-D movies without the glasses, according to news reports.Humans see the world in three dimensions because of the spacing between our eyes. The brain takes in the visual input from both eyes and is able to generate depth perception. The trick to achieving 3-D movies is to slightly offset the images for each eye. Therefore, in typical 3-D theaters, two different projectors display two images on the same screen. This is why the movi

TechnologyAug. 22, 2012

S. Korean researchers find new way to watch 3-D movies

The Face-Kini: A new way to avoid the sun’s rays

A new way to avoid the sun’s dangerous rays is by covering your head with a Face-Kini and your body with its matching body suit. The Face-Kini is like a thin balaclava, and covers the whole head, with holes for the eyes and mouth. This product is popular with beach-goers who want to protect their skin from the sun at the coast in China’s Shandong province, according to news reports.The Face-Kini is unisex and comes in a wide range of colors and patterns. Although this article of clothing was inv

TechnologyAug. 22, 2012

The Face-Kini: A new way to avoid the sun’s rays

Cosmetics from jellyfish’s collagen?

The government unveiled on Wednesday an unusual plan to fight the threat of jellyfish to the country’s bathers: turning the sea creatures into cosmetics. The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said that it aims to eradicate the jellyfish by exploring ways to extract collagen from the creatures to produce commercial cosmetics.To that end, the ministry has asked the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute to conduct research to find a way to carry out the plan. If

TechnologyAug. 22, 2012

Obese may lose memory sooner

(123rf)People who are obese lose their memory and thinking ability faster than thinner people, British and French researchers say. Researchers at University College London said the study was based on data from 6,500 federal British civil servants, whose health was monitored from the ages of 50 to 60, The Daily Telegraph reported. The study participants were weighed, measured, blood pressure and ch

TechnologyAug. 22, 2012