Three Chinese military planes "briefly" flew into an overlapping air defense intensification zone of South Korea and China amid tensions between the two countries over Seoul's decision to place a missile defense system on its soil, a military source in Seoul said Monday.The Chinese planes, including a bomber engaging in its own military operations, flew into the airspace near South Korea's southern island of Jeju on Thursday, without prior notification, but left shortly after the South Korean mi

Defense Aug. 22, 2016

South Korean tax authorities can't track down about 27 percent of self-employed people's income, data showed Monday, as they evade taxation through a range of expedient means.According to the National Tax Office and the Bank of Korea, self-employed South Koreans filed tax returns for only 72.8 percent of their total income estimated at 120.4 trillion won ($107 billion) in 2014.This means that local tax authorities couldn't keep tabs on the self-employed's remaining income and collect taxes from

Aug. 22, 2016

South Korean refiners such as S-Oil Corp. have racked up decent profits in the first half of the year, driven by their better-than-expected sales and relatively high cracking margins, industry data showed on Monday.According to the data compiled by market researcher CEO Score, S-Oil, the country's third-largest oil refiner, posted the highest operating income to sales ratio of 14.9 percent among companies affiliated with the top 30 conglomerates in terms of sales.S-Oil logged an operating income

Industry Aug. 22, 2016

State-run Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS), the world's largest LNG importer, will soon place shipbuilding and maintenance orders with local shipyards, as part of efforts to help them weather their worst-ever slump, its chief said Monday.KOGAS president Lee Seung-hoon said it will advance the schedule of placing orders for two new LNG carriers to the first half of next year and assign sizable maintenance work for its large LNG carriers to local shipyards."We are working to place an order for two LNG ship

Industry Aug. 22, 2016

North Korea on Monday threatened to mount a "preemptive nuclear strike" on South Korea and the United States as the allies kicked off their annual military exercise aimed at countering Pyongyang's potential aggression. The command and control exercise Ulchi Freedom Guardian, began its two-week run on Monday, involving tens of thousands of South Korean and US forces.This year's drill came amid unusually heightened inter-Korean tensions following the defection of a London-based North Korean senior

North Korea Aug. 22, 2016

Several food and coffee franchises in South Korea have been put up for sale this year, giving the sluggish local mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market a shot in the arm, industry watchers said Monday.Early this year, South Korea's leading buyout fund VIG Partners sold the local chain of Burger King to a Hong Kong-based private equity fund, heralding the start of M&A activity in the local food franchise sector.In the latest case, Hollys F&B, which operates Hollys Coffee Co., is pushing to sell th

Industry Aug. 22, 2016

South Korean archers and a veteran pistol shooter were on target at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games, as they made their way into the record books.South Korea completed an unprecedented title sweep in archery.It all started with the men's team victory, followed by the women's team gold.Chang Hye-jin overcame some disastrous scores in windy conditions to take the women's individual gold. Ku Bon-chan capped off the historic run by capturing the men's individual title.In the process, Ku became the f

Olympic Games Aug. 22, 2016

With a combination of a slow start and underachieving athletes, South Korea came short of its gold medal target at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.The Rio Games drew to a conclusion Sunday, with 306 gold medals handed out in 28 sports.Nine of those gold medals were won by South Koreans -- four in archery, two in taekwondo and one each in fencing, shooting and golf.The country had set out to capture at least 10 gold medals and place inside the top 10 in the gold medal count for its fourth consecutive

Olympic Games Aug. 22, 2016