Woori Finance Holdings Co. put up a public notice on Friday to sell its brokerage unit and five other affiliates in the second phase of the government's process to privatize South Korea's top banking group.Woori Finance made it public that Woori Investment & Securities Co. and three other units -- WooriAviva Life Insurance Co., Woori Asset Management Co. and Woori FG Savings Bank Co. -- will be sold in a bundle. Woori Financial Co. and Woori F&I Co. will be put up for sale separately.The group a

Industry Aug. 16, 2013

North Korea displayed fake missiles in its recent street parade in an apparent bid to exaggerate its military prowess, a U.S. news report said Thursday, citing analysis by government and civilian experts here.A set of North Korean weaponry rolled through the streets of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, in a July 26 ceremony to mark the Korean War Armistice anniversary.It included a purported road-mobile Musudan medium-range missile and a Hwasong-13 intercontinental ballistic missile."Our asse

North Korea Aug. 16, 2013

Weeping relatives in search of loved ones uncovered the faces of the bloodied, unclaimed dead in a Cairo mosque near the smoldering epicenter of support for ousted President Mohammed Morsi, as the death toll soared past 600 Thursday from Egypt's deadliest day since the Arab Spring began. World condemnation widened for the bloody crackdown on Morsi's mostly Islamist supporters, including an angry response from President Barack Obama, who canceled joint U.S.-Egyptian military maneuvers.Violence sp

World News Aug. 16, 2013

The new head of KB Financial Group Inc. reiterated Wednesday that it is looking into possible options to strengthen its non-banking business ahead of the government's impending move to sell Woori Finance Holdings Co.'s brokerage units.Group Chairman Lim Young-rok, who took office a month earlier, said that as the group has heavily focused on its banking business, it is striving to strengthen the competitive edge of its non-banking business."The group is currently studying possible options by rev

Aug. 14, 2013

A Chinese man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly kidnapping a South Korean boy and demanding ransom, a news report said Wednesday. The 31-year-old Chinese man, Huang Xinghai, was sentenced for the kidnapping of the 10-year-old boy last December, with two other accomplices receiving eight and seven years in prison each by a local court in Beijing, the Beijing-based Jinghua News reported. The Korean boy was released shortly after his parents reported the kidnapping to local pol

Social Affairs Aug. 14, 2013

Prosecutors said Wednesday that they have apprehended a nephew of former President Chun Doo-hwan for questioning as part of their efforts to find concealed assets of the former military dictator convicted of taking bribes while in office in the 1980s.Lee Jae-hong, 57, a son of Chun's elder sister, is accused of managing Chun's properties worth 6 billion won ($5.36 million) hidden under borrowed names while running a mid-sized landscaping company, prosecutors said.Chun was ordered by the nation's

Social Affairs Aug. 14, 2013

South and North Korea resumed talks Wednesday aimed at restarting operations at a joint factory park in the communist country that has been shut down for more than four months.Working-level officials from both sides met six times last month, but no breakthrough has been made mainly due to disagreements on which country is responsible for the current suspension and safeguards to prevent another work stoppage at the Kaesong Industrial Complex. From the outset of negotiations, each side blamed the

North Korea Aug. 14, 2013

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest flat TV maker, rolled out its first 55-inch curved OLED TV with full HD capabilities in the U.S. with a price tag of US$8,999.Samsung Electronics follows the footsteps of its local rival LG Electronics Inc., which started receiving orders in April for the world's first-ever curved OLED TVs. In June, Samsung introduced the TV set on its home turf, joining the race for next-generation TV market. Consumers in the U.S. can order the 55-inch curved display

Industry Aug. 14, 2013

An executive of Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., one of the country's leading builders, has been detained for further questioning on charges of creating huge slush funds while participating in a project to refurbish the country's four major rivers, prosecutors said Wednesday. The director-level executive, only identified by his surname Ok, was locked up Tuesday night shortly after a Seoul court approved the prosecution's request for an arrest warrant, they said.Ok is suspected of siphoning

Social Affairs Aug. 14, 2013

Israel released 26 Palestinian inmates, including many convicted in grisly killings, on the eve of long-stalled Mideast peace talks, angering families of those slain by the prisoners, who were welcomed as heroes in the West Bank and Gaza. Buses carrying the inmates departed the Ayalon prison in central Israel late Tuesday, a nighttime release that was aimed at preventing the spectacle of prisoners flashing victory signs as has happened in the past. Relatives of the victims, many with their hands

World News Aug. 14, 2013

Brazil demanded answers Tuesday from the U.S. about National Security Agency spying in the country and warned that trust between the two nations would be damaged if U.S. explanations about the program were not satisfactory.Secretary of State John Kerry, who was visiting Brasilia, sought to allay Brazil's concerns about the program, saying the U.S. would work to provide answers to Brazil and other Latin American nations rankled by the NSA surveillance revealed by systems analyst Edward Snowden. “

World News Aug. 14, 2013

South Korea's jobless rate remained unchanged in July from a month earlier but job creation slightly quickened, raising hopes that labor market conditions are improving, a government report showed Wednesday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 3.1 percent last month. The jobless rate adjusted for inflation also stayed unchanged at 3.2 percent over the cited period.The pace of job creation quickened. The number of employed people was 25.47 million in July, up 367

Aug. 14, 2013