Foreign vehicle brands in South Korea saw a large boost to their sales last month, flashing a green light to their goal of selling over 100,000 cars in the local market for the first time, a local trade association said Tuesday.   A total of 8,659 imported vehicles were sold here in January, up 35.8 percent from the same period last year, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distribu

Mobility Feb. 8, 2011

  South Korea will hold a fashion show and set up a showroom in the United States during the upcoming New York Fashion Week in a bid to promote and introduce Korean designers overseas, officials said Tuesday.   The "Concept Korea: Cultural Treasures 2011" project, a government-led plan, is designed to expand global recognition of rising Korean designers and their fashion work through the influenti

Arts & Design Feb. 8, 2011

 Military officers from South and North Korea were set to hold working-level talks on Tuesday to lay the groundwork for a meeting of higher-level officials, the first such cross-border meeting since the North's deadly artillery attack on a border island last November, officials here said.    The colonel-level talks to be held at the border truce village of Panmunjom separating the two Koreas are a

North Korea Feb. 8, 2011

   A prolonged anti-government protest in Egypt could deal a blow to South Korean exports to the North African state and hamper the recovery of Asia's fourth-largest economy by pushing up commodity costs, watchers said Tuesday.   Thousands of protesters took to the streets of major cities in Egypt last week, demanding their president, Hosni Mubarak, to end his iron-fisted rule of 30-odd years.   M

Feb. 1, 2011

   Millions of South Koreans headed to their hometowns Tuesday, on the eve of the three-day Lunar New Year holiday, which will extend through the weekend.   This year's Lunar New Year holiday, which falls from Feb. 2-4, is followed by the weekend and could last for nine days for those who took off the preceding Monday and Tuesday.   According to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs

Social Affairs Feb. 1, 2011

  South Korea's anti-trust regulator said Tuesday that it has placed 10 additional companies on its watch list that limits mutual business investments and loan guarantees.   The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said a total of 1,360 affiliates from 51 conglomerates, including Samsung, LG and Hyundai Heavy Industries were on its list as of Tuesday.    The FTC said 33 firms were included as affiliates of

Feb. 1, 2011

   South Korea's trade surplus narrowed sharply in January from the previous month as soaring crude and commodity costs overshadowed record exports, a government report showed Tuesday.   The country's surplus reached $2.96 billion last month, compared with $4.08 billion in December, with exports surging 46 percent to $44.89 billion and imports gaining 32.9 percent to$41.93 billion, according to th

Feb. 1, 2011

  The number of unemployed college graduates jumped to an all-time high last year despite faster-than-expected economic recovery, the nation's statistics agency said Tuesday.   According to data offered by Statistics Korea, the number of jobless people with college degrees totaled 346,000 last year, the highest ever since the agency compiled related figures in 2000.   The jobless people in the cat

Social Affairs Feb. 1, 2011

LONDON (AFP) – A climber who fell around 300 metres from the summit of a Scottish mountain is lucky to be alive, his rescuers said Sunday.The helicopter crew sent to search for the man were astonished to find him standing up and reading a map.Adam Potter, 35, lost his footing on Saturday and fell down the craggy and near-vertical eastern face of Sgurr Choinnich Mor, a1,094-metre high mountain in the western Highlands."We got to an area where it is a bit more slippy and a bit icier... I slipped,

More Sports Feb. 1, 2011