South Korean stocks declined 0.5 percent Tuesday, led by losses in tech and steelmakers, analysts said. The local currency lost ground against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) slid 9.6 points to close at 1,906,62. Trading volume was light at 286.3 million shares worth 3.32 trillion won (US$2.97 billion) with decliners outnumbering gainers 473 to 312. "A slew of upbeat economic indexes here and abroad since last week drove up the KOSPI. But this week's been

Aug. 6, 2013

The number of public officials in South Korea is likely to exceed the 1 million mark this year due to the government's pledge to increase police officers to guarantee public safety and security, data showed Tuesday. According to the data compiled by the Ministry of Security and Public Administration, the number of civil servants under the central and local governments amounted to 991,481 as of the end of June, up 1,058 from the end of 2012.Of all civil servants, some 61.7 percent work under the

Politics Aug. 6, 2013

South Korean footballer Park Ji-sung has completed his return to his former club PSV Eindhoven in the top Dutch league on a loan from Queens Park Rangers (QPR) in England, sources here confirmed on Tuesday."Park signed his agreement earlier this morning, Korean time," a source close to Park said. "He will be on a one-year loan, just as he'd wanted."Rumors of Park's move back to the Netherlands first surfaced in late July, when Dutch media reported that the midfielder had undergone a medical test

Soccer Aug. 6, 2013

South Korea's central bank is almost certain to freeze the key interest rate for the third month in a row for August amid improving signs of the local economy and concerns about China's slowdown, a poll showed Tuesday.All 20 analysts predicted that the Bank of Korea (BOK) is expected to leave the benchmark seven-day repo rate unchanged at 2.5 percent on Thursday, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency.In May, the BOK made its first rate cut in sev

Aug. 6, 2013

North Korea continued to ignore South Korea's proposal for final talks on the normalization of a suspended joint industrial park on Tuesday, blaming Seoul for the breakdown in stalled negotiations.The Ministry of Unification, which handles cross-border affairs, said the communist country did not send any message to the South regarding the dialogue offer when first daily contact was made at 9 a.m. via the communications line that runs through the neutral truce village of Panmunjom. Over a week ag

North Korea Aug. 6, 2013

South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday weighed down by a U.S. federal banker's remarks implying that a cut in its stimulus may be drawing near, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) declined 10.03 points, or 0.52 percent, to 1,906.19 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Blue-chip exporters lost ground. Tech heavyweight Samsung Electronics dipped nearly 2 percent, with steelmaker POSCO falling 1.7 percent. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fish

Aug. 6, 2013

The United Nations agency in charge of addressing world hunger has begun shipments of food to North Korean flood victims, a news report said Tuesday.The World Food Program (WFP) spokeswoman Nanna Skau said corn is being provided to households that have been hit hard by recent flooding caused by torrential rain, Radio Free Asia reported. She added that assistance is being offered because flooding has caused extensive damage to farmlands and irrigation systems.The radio broadcast monitored in Seou

North Korea Aug. 6, 2013

Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com founder who helped bring books into the digital age, is going after another pillar of “old media”: The Washington Post.Bezos, 49, struck a deal announced Monday to buy the venerable Washington broadsheet and other newspapers for $250 million. It was a startling demonstration of how the Internet has created winners and losers and transformed the media landscape.Bezos made his fortune by pioneering online shopping, first by selling books out of his Seattle garage in 1995

World News Aug. 6, 2013

New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez was suspended through 2014 and All-Stars Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta and Everth Cabrera were banned 50 games apiece Monday when Major League Baseball disciplined 13 players in a drug case _ the most sweeping punishment since the Black Sox scandal nearly a century ago.Ryan Braun's 65-game suspension last month and previous penalties bring to 18 the total number of players sanctioned for their relationship to Biogenesis of America, a closed anti-aging clinic in

Baseball Aug. 6, 2013

The IMF said Japan's "three arrows" economic stimulus program is boosting growth Monday but warned that the country must still follow through with fiscal and structural reforms.It urged Tokyo to adopt a "credible" medium-term program that includes raising consumption taxes and deregulating farming and the service industry.In its annual review of Japan's economy, the International Monetary Fund said aggressive stimulus efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had given a strong boost to growth.And it

World Business Aug. 6, 2013

As speculation grows over the drawn-out absence of a top North Korean communist party official from public events, an American academic said Monday it might be associated with a possible setback to Pyongyang's road-mobile missile program."In my judgment, North Korea aborted the planned Musudan test last April because of some technical glitches discovered in its untested missile system at the pre-launch stage," said Alexandre Mansourov, a visiting scholar at the U.S.-Korea Institute at the Johns

North Korea Aug. 6, 2013

The nation's intelligence chief reportedly said on Monday that he believes the late Former President Roh Moo-hyun made remarks to the effect of giving up the western sea border during the 2007 summit with late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a ruling party lawmaker said. Nam Jae-joon, the chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), made the remarks as a witness before a parliamentary investigative committee, said Rep. Kwon Seong-dong of the Sanuri Party after attending a closed-door inves

Politics Aug. 6, 2013