US President Donald Trump sent a "powerful and unmistakable" message to North Korea when he held a news conference after the communist nation carried out a surprise ballistic missile launch, a senior presidential aide said Sunday.Trump held the impromptu conference at his Florida resort jointly with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, just hours after the North launched a ballistic missile off its east coast in the first such launch since Trump came into office last month.Trump said the United S

Diplomatic Circuit Feb. 13, 2017

The Korean action film "Fabricated City" collected 896,606 viewers last weekend, rising to No. 1 on the local box office, data showed Monday.The latest by "Welcome to Dongmakgol" director Park Kwang-hyun, "Fabricated City" surpassed the 1 million mark in attendance Sunday, the fourth day of its run, according to figures from the Korean Film Council. (CJ E&M)Starring Ji Chang-wook, Shim Eun-kyung and Ahn Jae-hong, the film is about a jobless young gamer who is jailed after being framed as a rape-

Film Feb. 13, 2017

South Korea's chocolate market expanded nearly 10 percent in 2015 from a year earlier, with its imports rising sharply, a report showed Monday.Total shipments of chocolates amounted to 1.16 trillion won ($1 billion) in 2015, up 9.6 percent from the previous year's 1.06 trillion won, according to the annual report on local processed food markets compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. (Yonhap)The country accounted for 1.2 percent of the world's chocolate market worth $86.

Industry Feb. 13, 2017

South Korea's central bank will likely cut the key rate to a record low of 0.5 percent this year as a way to boost the economy amid the US Federal Reserve's tightening stance, global financial service firm Morgan Stanley said Monday.It expected that the Bank of Korea will slash the rate three times throughout 2017 from the current 1.25 percent to 0.5 percent by the end of the third quarter. (Yonhap)Other investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, also anticipate that the BOK will l

Feb. 13, 2017

Corporate deposits held by South Korean banks increased 10.2 percent on-year in 2016, marking the fastest growth in six years as businesses shunned major investments amid an economic downturn, data by the Bank of Korea showed Monday. Business deposits at banks rose to 383.4 trillion won ($332.4 billion) at the end of 2016, up 35.4 trillion won from the end of 2015, according to the BOK data.  (Yonhap)It was the fastest growth since 2010, when corporate deposits went up 52.5 trillion won. Househo

Feb. 13, 2017

South Korea's first-tier firms by market value saw their profitability improve last year on the back of their cost-cutting efforts and increased sales, industry data showed Monday.According to the data compiled by industry tracker CEO Score, 75 out of the country's top 100 market cap firms reported a 12.4 percent rise in their operating income at a combined 111.1 trillion won ($96.2 billion) last year, with their combined sales also rising 1.7 percent to 1,344 trillion won. (Yonhap)Of the survey

Industry Feb. 13, 2017

LG Electronics Inc. maintained its rank of third in the North American smartphone market in the fourth quarter of last year, data showed Monday, mainly on the back of strong sales of its flagship model V20.The South Korean tech company sold about 74 million smartphones during the October-December period, compared to 66 million units during the same quarter a year earlier, the data compiled by industry tracker Strategy Analytics showed. The figure translates into a market share of 14.2 percent. L

Industry Feb. 13, 2017

Although CEOs of big name conglomerates are expected to pass a regulator's test on their suitability as the main shareholders of nonbanking financial companies this year, there is less certainty they will pass it two years later when the unfolding corruption scandal will have taken its toll in courtrooms, officials said Monday.For the first time, the Financial Supervisory Service will be screening the biggest stakeholders of some 240 nonbanking financial firms on whether they are suited for thei

Industry Feb. 13, 2017

South Chungcheong Gov. An Hee-jung and Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn narrowed their gaps with liberal front-runner Moon Jae-in in a poll of potential presidential candidates released on Monday.Moon, former head of the main opposition Democratic Party, remained well ahead of the competition with 32.9 percent, up 1.7 percentage points from a week earlier, the survey conducted by Realmeter showed.Moon Jae-in, former head of the Democratic Party (Yonhap)Gov. An, also from the mai

Politics Feb. 13, 2017

Ban Ki-moon will receive the 2017 Individual Building Bridges Award from Pacific Century Institute on Feb. 23, according to PCI News.  Ban served from 2007 to 2016 as the UN secretary-general. He was responsible for several major reforms on peacekeeping, UN employment practices and climate change. The UN faced serious challenges in promoting international gender equality, along with inadequate funding during Ban’s two terms. Under Ban’s initiative in July 2010, the UN General Assembly created UN

People Feb. 12, 2017

Sales of imported beef are rising steeply in South Korea as the country has been struggling with foot-and-mouth disease and avian influenza, industry data showed Sunday.According to the data by leading retail chain E-Mart, imported beef sales rose 12 percent during the Feb. 5-9 period from a week ago, while those of Korean beef tumbled 19.6 percent. (Yonhap)The decline came as the fifth foot-and-mouth disease outbreak was confirmed earlier in the day following the first infection on Feb. 5. Near

Feb. 12, 2017

South Korea's mechanized troops staged a large-scale river crossing drill to highlight their ability to strike the North even under adverse weather conditions, the Army said Sunday.Units of the 11th mechanized division conducted a frozen fording exercise near Hongcheon, 102 kilometers east of Seoul, on Thursday, it said. In this photo provided by South Korea's military, K-200 armored personnel carriers cross a river near Hongcheon. (Yonhap)"The maneuver was carried out by the troops to check the

Defense Feb. 12, 2017

President Park Geun-hye and her attorneys are expected to focus on their legal argument and highlight new "information" to get the Constitutional Court to reject the impeachment motion, political observers in Seoul said Sunday.The chief executive, who was impeached by parliament on Dec. 9 in relation to corruption charges, has been suspended from exercising her powers for 66 days. This exceeds the 63 days that late President Roh Moo-hyun was suspended from office after he was impeached in early

Politics Feb. 12, 2017

US President Donald Trump said Friday the United States stands behind Japan "100 percent" in a previously unscheduled joint news conference he held with Japan's prime minister after North Korea conducted a surprise ballistic missile launch.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe opened the brief news conference at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, denouncing the North's missile launch as "absolutely intolerable" and urging the communist nation to comply with all UN Security Council resolutions."D

Diplomatic Circuit Feb. 12, 2017