Shareholders of Daum Communications Corp. and Kakao Corp. on Wednesday approved the merger of the two firms that will create the biggest company on South Korea's secondary bourse."As the merger deal passed the last step, (Daum and Kakao) will finalize the related procedures and officially launch the new entity on Oct. 1," the two firms said in a press release."With this, we have begun our full-fledged efforts to emerge as a global communication-information-life platform provider," they said.The

Technology Aug. 27, 2014

South Korea has narrowed down the candidates for its men's national team head coach to four or five, the sport's technical director said Wednesday.Lee Yong-soo, head of the technical committee at the Korea Football Association, told reporters that the goal is to fill the coaching vacancy within September but did not name any of the candidates."We have contacted four to five candidates about the position," Lee told reporters at the National Football Center in Paju, north of Seoul. "We hope to hav

Soccer Aug. 27, 2014

More than half of criminal suspects who have fled the country to escape punishment have not yet been rounded up, a report showed Wednesday.A total of 3,890 offenders absconded overseas after committing crimes on South Korean soil in the past five years, the report showed. Of that total, 2,175, or 55.8 percent, are still on the run. Rep. Lee Sang-min of the ruling Saenuri Party released the report based on data the justice ministry submitted to the National Assembly for an annual audit.China was

Social Affairs Aug. 27, 2014

South Korea's major conglomerates increased spending on research and development in the first half of this year on expectations of a global economic recovery, data showed Wednesday.The combined amount of R&D investment made by 55 affiliates of South Korea's top 10 conglomerates increased 8.28 percent on-year to 30.12 trillion won ($29.64 billion) in the January-June period, according to the data reported in their regulatory filings.Of the tallied firms, 31 companies expanded their spending on R&

Aug. 27, 2014

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. has resumed its supply of dynamic random access memory products to its rival U.S. Apple Inc. for the iPhone 6 to be released next month, industry sources said Wednesday, in a sign of reconciliation after a series of patent disputes.The world's No. 1 maker of smartphones recently has been providing its 20-nano level mobile DRAM for Apple's new iPhone, the sources said. The U.S. tech player has been resorting to SK hynix Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. for the

Technology Aug. 27, 2014

A brother of the late shipping tycoon blamed partly for April's ferry disaster has requested a district court to temporarily release him from jail to attend his brother's funeral, court officials said Tuesday.Yoo Byun-ill, 75, the elder brother of Yoo Byung-eun, submitted the request to the Incheon District Court in this western port city on Monday, they said. The elder Yoo is currently on trial on charges of embezzlement.The body of the 73-year-old millionaire, whose family owns Sewol operator

Social Affairs Aug. 26, 2014

The main opposition party launched a sit-in Tuesday in protest of the ruling party's refusal to discuss a controversial bill aimed at uncovering the truth behind April's deadly ferry sinking in a new format involving family members of the victims.The sit-in, staged by leaders of the No. 1 opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy in a conference room inside the National Assembly, is a new development in an ongoing parliamentary impasse over the bill.On Sunday, Park Young-sun, the NPAD floor

Politics Aug. 26, 2014

South Korea's top financial regulator said Tuesday it will pull back almost entirely from punishing individuals at financial institutions for missteps, in a move to encourage them to make riskier but potentially lucrative loans to start-ups.The Financial Services Commission said it will cut down on punitive measures against individuals by as much as 90 percent and instead leave disciplinary decisions to companies. It said it will continue to monitor and reprimand institutions for wrongdoing."Exc

Aug. 26, 2014

South Korea's finance minister on Tuesday called on lawmakers to break the prolonged parliamentary deadlock and "swiftly" pass major economy-related bills to help the government jump-start slowing economic growth."The pulse in our economy is weakening," Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said in a joint statement with other key policymakers."If those bills related to the livelihoods of the people do not pass during this session, and if we fail to revive the embers of economic recovery, the economy

Aug. 26, 2014

The proportion of households spending more than they take in inched up in the second quarter from a year earlier, government data showed Tuesday, suggesting that people are finding it harder to make ends meet amid slowing economic growth.According to the data provided by Statistics Korea, the proportion of households whose consumption spending exceeded their disposable income stood at 23 percent during the April-June period, up 0.9 percentage point from a year earlier. The increase is attributab

Aug. 26, 2014

The size of the long-term evolution market in China is expected to become the world's largest in 2014 by overtaking that of the United States, a report showed Tuesday."We predict China will overtake the U.S. as the number one LTE market in terms of LTE smartphone sales in the second half of 2014," Neil Shah was quoted in the report by Hong Kong-based industry tracker Counterpoint.China, which introduced the LTE service in December 2013, moved into the world's No. 2 position in LTE smartphone sal

Technology Aug. 26, 2014

A nuclear reactor on South Korea‘s southeast coast halted operation on Monday as rainwater flooded in, plant operators said.The Gori-2 nuclear power plant, about 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, was manually shut down at about 3:54 p.m. No immediate threats of a radiation leak have been detected, according to the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co.“As excessive water flowed into a building that takes in seawater to cool down turbine steam, we decided to manually halt the operation of the nuclear

Social Affairs Aug. 25, 2014