Beating up on South Korea is not the right response from China to Seoul's decision to host the U.S. THAAD missile defense system because the agreement does not reflect hostility toward Beijing, a U.S. expert said Thursday.Instead, China should focus on reining in North Korea as Pyongyang's provocations not only provided justification for the deployment, but are endangering important Chinese security interests as well, Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, said."There is no

Defense Aug. 12, 2016

A man killed himself with a hunting rifle when he visited a gun shop in the central South Korean city of Daejeon on Thursday in an apparent suicide case, police said.Around 11:25 a.m., the 50-year-old man, one of the shop's regular customers, took a gun out of its showcase, loaded it with a bullet that he brought with him, and then pointed the gun at himself while the shop owner's attention was elsewhere.According to witnesses and footage from a CCTV camera located in the shop, the customer, who

Social Affairs Aug. 11, 2016

South Korea's electricity use hit a new record high again on Thursday as the country has been simmering in a weeks-long heat wave, the authorities said.The maximum electricity load soared to 84.49 million kilowatts as of 3 p.m., breaking the previous record of 83.7 million kilowatts set on Monday, according to the state-run Korea Power Exchange.The electric power reserve ratio went down to 8.5 percent, or 7.19 million kilowatts, marking the fourth single-digit ratio throughout the year. If the f

Aug. 11, 2016

South Korea has disclosed information on hundreds of its official development assistance projects to an international aid transparency agency, the Seoul government said Wednesday.The disclosure to the International Aid Transparency Initiative was part of Seoul's efforts to enhance transparency in the implementation of its overseas aid programs, officials at the Office for Government Policy Coordination under the Prime Minister's Office said. It marked the first time for an Asian IATI member to r

Aug. 11, 2016

South Korean stocks rose slightly on Thursday on the back of gains in tech stocks, extending its winning streak for a sixth consecutive session and hitting fresh yearly highs, despite a renewed slump in global oil prices. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 4.16 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 2,048.80. Trade volume was moderate at 342 million shares worth 4.42 trillion won ($4 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 419 to 370.Trading was choppy. The market opened slight

Aug. 11, 2016

Major South Korean tech firms have recently rolled out a number of automated translation applications for Korean and major foreign languages, industry officials and analysts said Thursday.Co-developed by local software firm Hancom Interfree Inc., and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, "Genie Talk" is capable of translating Korean, Japanese, English, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Russian and Arabic.The app will be available to athletes during the 2018 PyeongChang Winte

Technology Aug. 11, 2016

President Park Geun-hye on Thursday said her government will announce a plan in the near future to address mounting calls to overhaul South Korea's controversial electricity billing scheme that many say exceedingly overcharges users."The government has been exploring ways to help people struggling due to unusually high temperatures this year," the chief executive said during a luncheon with the newly elected Saenuri Party leadership, referring to public concerns about high utility bills caused b

Aug. 11, 2016

The antitrust watchdog has been investigating transactions between affiliates of Hanjin Group, South Korea's 15th largest conglomerate, to figure out whether children of the group's chairman took undue profits from unfair business practices, officials said Thursday. The investigation by the Fair Trade Commission focuses on transactions between Uniconverse, an IT service provider under Hanjin Group, and CyberSky, which operates an online duty-free shopping mall for Korean Air Co. It is the group'

Industry Aug. 11, 2016

Police on Thursday said they have arrested a British DJ, 52, on charges of smuggling in drugs to South Korea and handing them over to the executives of a local pharmaceutical company.The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said the DJ, whose identity was withheld, is suspected of bringing in a total of 3.78 liters of gamma hydroxybutyrate, a banned substance also known as a "date rape drug," over four times between January and June.  (Yonhap)The amount, worth some 370 million won ($340,000), is eno

Social Affairs Aug. 11, 2016

South Korea's overseas direct investment expanded 21.6 percent in the first six months of the year from a year earlier on a sharp rise in purchases of real estate overseas, government data showed Thursday.The country's overseas direct investment came to $21.75 billion in the January-June period, compared with $17.89 billion tallied in the same period last year, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.Investments by financial institutions, including insurers, soared

Aug. 11, 2016

The number of female subscribers to South Korea's state pension fund jumped remarkably in the past five years, data showed Thursday, indicating that more women are joining the workforce to guarantee they can financially support themselves in their later years.According to the data by the National Pension Service, the number of female subscribers increased from 7.66 million in 2010 to 9.41 million in 2015.As of May 2016, the total number of female subscribers came to 9.48 million, or 43.9 percent

Aug. 11, 2016

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Thursday vowed to make "all-out" efforts to secure parliamentary approval for a set of labor reform bills that languished at the previous National Assembly.Presiding over a national policy coordination meeting, Hwang highlighted the importance of the bills to create jobs for young people and reinvigorate the country's economy."It is regrettable that the passage of the bills for creating jobs and for other purposes is being delayed," Hwang said during the gathering

Social Affairs Aug. 11, 2016