Dividend payments to the owners of South Korea's top 10 conglomerates were tallied at 1.46 trillion won ($1.24 billion) for the past five years, despite their firms' sluggish earnings, data showed Wednesday.Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Kun-hee, South Korea's richest man, topped the list with a total of 681 billion won in dividends from 2011-2015, according to the data by Chaebul.com, a corporate information provider on large businesses. Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee (Yonhap)La

June 15, 2016

Interest rates paid by local lenders are nearing zero percent after the country's central bank slashed its policy rate to a fresh record low, which translates into negative returns on bank deposits when price inflation is adjusted, market observers said Wednesday.According to the observers, Citibank Korea has slashed the annual interest rate on its savings accounts for companies to 0.01 percent from 0.1 percent.A 0.01 percent interest rate yields 1,000 won ($0.85) per year in interest on every 1

June 15, 2016

South Korea's export prices continued to drop from a month earlier in May, central bank data showed Wednesday, partly contributing to a prolonged slump in the country's exports.In local currency terms, export prices fell 4 percent on-year last month, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.May marks the fifth consecutive month there was an on-year drop following a revised 5.2 percent decline in the previous month.From a month earlier, export prices gained 2.4 percent.The on-month in

June 15, 2016

The chairman of embattled South Korean retail giant Lotte Group said Tuesday he is "sorry for causing concern" over corruption allegations and pledged to fully cooperate with the investigation.Chairman Shin Dong-bin made the remark to reporters at the groundbreaking ceremony for a joint venture chemical plant in Lake Charles as prosecutors stepped up the investigation into allegations that Lotte created slush funds through illicit means.It was the first time Shin has spoken to the media since th

Industry June 15, 2016

A Seoul court on Tuesday rejected a prosecution request for an arrest warrant for a former Hanjin Shipping chief accused of illegal stock trading.Last Sunday, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office filed for a warrant to arrest Choi Eun-young, who is facing charges of misusing insider information to sell company stocks. Choi Eun-young (Yonhap)However, the Seoul Southern District Court said Choi is not considered a flight risk, nor is it concerned that Choi would attempt to destroy evide

Industry June 15, 2016

Prosecutors on Tuesday filed for an arrest warrant for the former head of the scandal-ridden local unit of Oxy Reckitt Benckiser.John Lee, currently CEO of Google Korea, has been under investigation over Oxy's toxic humidifier sterilizer, which has caused dozens of deaths and illnesses in South Korea since 2011. John Lee, head of Google Korea (Yonhap)Lee led the South Korean unit of the consumer goods company from June 2005 to May 2010, while sales of its sterilizer product were at their peak.Th

Industry June 15, 2016

The suspect in the Mount Sapaesan murder case has admitted he had intended to rape the victim, Uijeongbu police said Tuesday. The suspect, a 45-year-old man surnamed Jeong, had previously been indicted under charges of robbery and murder.The police continued their investigation to discern whether Jeong had also attempted sexual assault, as the victim, a 55-year-old lone female hiker, had been found partly naked.  (Yonhap)Jeong initially insisted that he had only been after money, and that he had

Social Affairs June 14, 2016

The South Korean finance minister said Tuesday that the government will announce a package of fiscal policies that would sufficiently stimulate the economy in the second half amid growing concerns over further economic downturn.Asia's fourth-largest economy has been in the doldrums since the beginning of the year as faltering exports, the key economic driver, weigh heavily on the entire economy, especially production. Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho (Yonhap)The latest data showed that South Korea's i

June 14, 2016

South Korea's advertising expenditure for 2015 was the sixth largest among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a report showed Tuesday.Advertising expenses in the country reached $11.8 billion last year to trail behind the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, and France, according to the report by the Korea Advertisers Association.The report said the local advertising market expanded by 5.4 percent and 6.2 percent on-year in 2014 and 2015, respective

June 14, 2016

Creditors of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. on Tuesday pressed the embattled shipbuilder's workers to refrain from going on strike, saying that a potential walkout would deter the ongoing efforts to salvage the financially shaky firm.The move came as 85 percent of some 7,000 unionized workers at Daewoo Shipbuilding voted for a strike earlier in the day, according to the labor union. They have claimed that the shipbuilder's restructuring schemes submitted to creditors only calls for

Industry June 14, 2016