South Korea’s top three life insurers posted greater losses in their overseas operations in fiscal 2010 from a year ago due mainly to increased start-up costs, the financial watchdog said Tuesday.The combined net loss of the eight overseas subsidiaries operated by the three biggest life insurance firms, including Samsung Life Insurance Co., came to $13.1 million last year, compared with $7.7 milli

April 26, 2011

About one month has passed since the government rolled out measures to boost the sluggish real estate market. The centerpiece of the policy was to offer tax benefits and ease financing limits.Despite the policy and such positive economic indexes as soaring stock prices, however, the market has no signs of rebounding. Moreover, there are growing concerns of a further contraction in housing sales, d

April 25, 2011

S-LCD Corp., a venture between Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Corp., said Monday that it will reduce capital through a share cancellation as part of efforts to improve its capital structure.In a regulatory filing, the venture said the number of its shares will be reduced to 660 million from the current 780 million, with its capital base to be cut to 3.3 trillion won ($3.05 billion) from 3.9 tril

Industry April 25, 2011

The chief of SK Group, a South Korean conglomerate, has suffered a loss of more than 100 billion won ($92.5 million) from futures investment, sources said Saturday.The National Tax Service, the country’s tax agency, found that Chey Tae-won had invested in the futures, but lost most of his money, according to the sources. The tax agency launched tax probes into the group’s key affiliates, such as S

Industry April 24, 2011

The United States is “mindful” of progress South Korea and the European Union have achieved in ratifying their free trade agreement, the top American envoy here said Wednesday, as Seoul and Washington make their last push to bring their own deal to life.“Yes, we are very mindful that our friends in Europe also have a free trade agreement,” U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Kathleen Stephens said duri

April 20, 2011

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) ― U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday called for more investment in broadband lines and other infrastructure in the United States to catch up with South Korea and other countries.“Our roads, our bridges, our sewer systems are all deteriorating,” Obama told a town hall meeting at Northern Virginia Community College, in Annandale, Virginia. “We don’t even have a serious high-spee

Industry April 20, 2011

South Korea’s credit card spending expanded 16.2 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier amid the country’s consumer price advance, a trade association said Wednesday. Purchases made by credit card amounted to 105.2 trillion won ($96.9 billion) during the January-March period, compared with 90.6 trillion won in the same period last year, according to the Credit Finance Association.The dat

April 20, 2011

South Korea’s LG Electronics Tuesday unveiled a refrigerator which suggests recipes as it forecast a bright future in the potentially lucrative market for “smart” household appliances.LG will roll out smart fridges, washers and other appliances in South Korea and North America by the end of this year to compete against rivals including Samsung Electronics and Whirlpool, Lee Young-ha, president of

Industry April 20, 2011

South Korea aims to reach the top 10 in quality competitiveness in the world by 2015 as part of its ongoing effort to boost its growth potential, the government said Tuesday.The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said South Korea ranked 22nd among the 57 countries checked last year in terms of quality competitiveness in the manufacturing sector, mainly because the general corporate atmosphere was focus

Industry April 19, 2011

The largest association of overseas-based Korean business leaders put forward an ambitious vision Monday to offer overseas internship positions for 10,000 young Korean adults as it celebrated its 30th anniversary with a pledge to expand the “business territory” of their homeland.The World Federation of Overseas Korean Traders Association, or World-OKTA, also vowed to take advantage of its deep-rea

April 19, 2011

South Korea’s telecom titan KT Corp. said Monday that it has started offering cloud services in three cities in the United States and Germany, aiming to attract game developers and other content providers. The telecom company rolled out remote storage services that allow streaming and downloading data from online servers in New York, Los Angeles and Frankfurt, it said in a statement. The company a

Technology April 18, 2011

South Korea will not raise its present foot-and-mouth disease alert level despite a fresh outbreak in the southeastern part of the country over the weekend, a government official said Monday.Deputy Farm Minister Lee Sang-kil said animals at the small farm in Yeongcheon, 344 kilometers from Seoul, were affected by the “type O” FMD virus that had devastated South Korea since November.The farm owner

Industry April 18, 2011