South Korea's oil refiners and chemical companies are expected to pay a record amount in corporate taxes for their 2016 business performance, as their bottom lines improved sharply, industry sources said Wednesday.Last year, SK Innovation Co. and the country's three other oil refiners racked up a combined operating income of 8.03 trillion won ($7.01 billion) on the back of improved cracking margins and inventory gains, an all-time high figure. (Yonhap)Also, four major chemicals firms, including

Industry Feb. 22, 2017

South Korea continues to profit from its bilateral trade with the United States, but its trade surpluses largely come from outbound shipments of intermediate goods needed by US manufacturers to produce their own finished goods, making their trade both complementary and mutually beneficial, a report said Wednesday.According to the report from the Korea International Trade Association, intermediate products accounted for 46.3 percent of overall South Korean exports to the US in 2015, when such goo

Feb. 22, 2017

South Korea's top naval officer on Tuesday called for watertight vigilance against any possible North Korean provocations following the assassination of its leader Kim Jong-un's half-brother Kim Jong-nam.Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Um Hyun-seong visited troops on two border islands of Udo and Yeongpyeong in the West Sea. "The murder of Kim Jong-nam clearly shows the regime's brutality and recklessness. The current security situation on the Korean peninsula and the region is at risk," the flag

Defense Feb. 21, 2017

South Korea ranks among the lowest in terms of women's economic empowerment, with its pay gap between men and women estimated to need more than 100 years to close if the current pace continues, an annual report said Tuesday.The Women In Work Index 2017 released by the PricewaterhouseCoopers put South Korea 32nd among 33 member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, with an index of 37.3 compared with the OECD average of 58.7. Mexico was the only lower-ranked country

Feb. 21, 2017

LG Electronics Inc. said Tuesday it has launched a trial service of its two intelligent robots at the Incheon International Airport, the main gateway to South Korea. LG unveiled the new line-up of robots featuring artificial intelligence technologies and voice recognition technology from Amazon's Alexa at the annual Consumer Electronics Show last month.  LG Electronics Inc.'s cleaning robot. (LG Electronics)One of the two robots serves as a notification center that displays information on its sc

Technology Feb. 21, 2017

Top South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co. and all its affiliates officially announced their withdrawal of membership from the Federation of Korean Industries on Tuesday, further casting a cloud over the fate of the once largest business lobby in the country.Officials from Hyundai Motor Group said all its affiliates were leaving the FKI as of Tuesday. (Yonhap)"Each of the 11 affiliates of the group has delivered their intention to quit as of Tuesday afternoon," a group official said.Affiliates

Mobility Feb. 21, 2017

South Korea will deliver 48 of its K9 self-propelled howitzers to Finland, the country's defense procurement agency said Tuesday.The Finnish government has recently approved the purchase of the 155mm howitzer systems from South Korea citing price competitiveness and overall capabilities, a spokesman for the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said. The contract is estimated to be worth 178 billion won ($155 million). This photo taken on Jan. 2, 2017, shows the K9 self-propelled howitzers

International Feb. 21, 2017

South Korea launched a government-civilian panel on Tuesday to serve as a "control tower" for finance-related support for efforts to promote new growth engines.The New Growth Committee is meant to effectively allocate policy funds in the field, as Asia's fourth-biggest economy prepares for the fourth industrial revolution era. Yim Jong-yong, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, in an undated file photo. (Yonhap)"Especially in the financial sector, the government will actively expand su

Technology Feb. 21, 2017

Chinese authorities have delayed the customs clearance of textbooks to be used at South Korean schools in China, pushing back the schools' classes for the new academic semester, sources with knowledge of the matter said Tuesday.South Korean residents expressed concerns that the postponement of the customs clearance is due to a row between Seoul and Beijing over the planned deployment of a ground-based, anti-ballistic missile system in South Korea by the US military. (Yonhap)China has opposed the

International Feb. 21, 2017

South Korea's opposition parties on Tuesday agreed to vote on extending the special investigation later this week if Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn fails to make the decision.The decision came as an independent counsel, which is investigating the corruption scandal of President Park Geun-hye and her confidante Choi Soon-sil, must end its probe at the end of this month unless the acting president gives permission to extend the investigation by a month.Acting President and Prime

Politics Feb. 21, 2017

Dozens of students and parents rallied at a high school in this southeastern city Tuesday for two consecutive days in protest against its adoption of state-authored history textbooks.Munmyeong High School in Gyeongsan, 331 kilometers southeast of Seoul, was designated by the government as the only institution to test the controversial textbooks which were rejected by all other schools amid controversy over the authors' alleged rightist interpretation of events in the nation's modern history.Stud

Social Affairs Feb. 21, 2017

Police said Tuesday they have arrested two employees of a security company in connection with stealing cash from ATMs at an outlet of a discount store chain last week.The heist occurred at the Costco store in the city of Yongin, south of Seoul, around 8:45 p.m. Friday.  (Yonhap)The employees, whose names were withheld, are suspected of stealing 230 million won ($200,700) from three of the five ATMs near the outlet's entrance in just three minutes.On Monday, most of the stolen cash, 229 million w

Social Affairs Feb. 21, 2017

The US military will complete its deployment of more than 80 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles to South Korea by the end of this month, the Eighth US Army said Tuesday, amid the need to prepare for possible instability in North Korea down the road.The US Army began fielding MRAPs -- heavily armored vehicles credited with saving many lives in Iraq and Afghanistan -- to "multiple locations" on the Korean Peninsula in December, Col. Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, U.S. Army Photo b

Defense Feb. 21, 2017

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se has voiced South Korea's reservations about any US agreement with North Korea that would reward Pyongyang for a nuclear freeze, sources said Tuesday, referring to the policymaker's recent talks with American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.Instead, any deal with Pyongyang should aim to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons program in a "complete, verifiable and irreversible" manner, the sources quoted Yun as telling Tillerson during their talks in Bonn, Germany o

Foreign Affairs Feb. 21, 2017

Samsung Group's sponsoring of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea won't be affected by the current leadership vacuum at the conglomerate, the competition's chief organizer said Tuesday.Samsung is a local sponsor for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games and is also a global Top Olympic Partner for the International Olympic Committee. In April 2015, Samsung reached an agreement with PyeongChang worth 100 billion won ($87.2 million).Lee Hee-beom, head of the organizing committee for the 2018 Pyeon

Social Affairs Feb. 21, 2017