A dispute between Kumho Petrochemical and Kumho Asiana Group that also placed strain on the two brothers that run the companies has apparently come to an end after the former withdrew its legal complaint against the latter, the companies said Thursday.Kumho Petrochemical, run by young brother Park Chan-koo, said it has dropped all legal suits against Kumho Asiana Group, which is run by Park's older brother Sam-koo.The companies have been mired in a number of legal disputes.The latest suit raised

Companies Aug. 11, 2016

Police said Thursday a woman in her 20s admitted to having abused her 3-year-old nephew, who was found dead from an apparent drowning in Naju, South Jeolla Province, Wednesday. The accused, 25, was detained immediately for interrogation. She had reportedly been looking after the child since June after her sister, the mother of the child, found work at a factory away from their home in Naju.The suspect in a death of a 3-year-old boy is being taken in for questioning by police on Thursday. (Yonhap

Social Affairs Aug. 11, 2016

South Korea's finance minister on Thursday held a meeting with the head of the Green Climate Fund to discuss ways to enhance the country's contribution to the development of the organization, the finance ministry here said."The South Korean government is concerned about the development of the GCF, which is headquartered in our country," Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho was quoted as saying in a meeting with Hela Cheikhrouhou, the executive director of the GCF, in Seoul.South Korea`s Finance Minister Y

Social Affairs Aug. 11, 2016

Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea's top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, on Thursday said its second-quarter net profit plunged 38 percent from a year earlier, as its advertisement business suffered from falling seasonal demand and it spent big on new businesses.Net profit reached 13.2 billion won ($12 million) on a consolidated basis in the April-June period, compared with 21.4 billion won the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing. Operating income surged 133 percent on-year

Companies Aug. 11, 2016

South Korea's tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. on Thursday said it has signed a contract to acquire a U.S. premium kitchen appliance maker, Dacor, in a move to bolster Samsung's presence in the American luxury home-appliance market. The financial terms of the contract were not revealed, but Yoon Boo-keun, head of Samsung's consumer electronics business, said the deal allows Samsung to own a luxury brand that "gets recognition by the American people." Samsung plans to make "steady investments t

Companies Aug. 11, 2016

Apple launched the Apple Music service in Korea on Friday without a fanfare.IPhone users here found they were suddenly able to access the Music application that had been for a prolonged time a mere decorative presence on the home screen. Android users can also use the Apple Music service by downloading the application from Google’s Play Store. Apple initially excluded Korea from its list of serviced countries because it had failed to reach agreements with music copyright associations here.In Aug

Industry Aug. 5, 2016

Business owners who sell alcohol to minors might now face lighter penalties, with the previous 60-day suspension of their operations reduced to six days, provided they prove it was an honest mistake, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Thursday.  (123RF)The previous penalty for illegal sale of alcohol to minors was the suspension of the offender’s business for 60 days, for first-timers. For those who flout the rules a second time, the suspension is 180 days and on the third count, the offe

Social Affairs Aug. 4, 2016

Police on Thursday said they had yet to discover the motive behind the apparent suicide of a 12-year-old boy who hanged himself at after-school study center in Nowon-gu, northeast Seoul.The boy had been found hanging by his backpack straps inside a toilet cubicle at a speed reading private education institute at around 4:50 p.m. on Tuesday. The director of the institute discovered and reported the case to police. (YouTube Capture)The victim reportedly left to use the restroom in the middle of cl

Social Affairs Aug. 4, 2016

A Korean-Chinese dayworker at an industrial waste disposal house was found dead in a waste crusher Wednesday, the Gyeonggi Ilsan police said.According to the police, the 53-year-old man, surnamed Park, died on the first day of the job at the disposal house in Ilsan, Goyang-si around 5:20 p.m. He was discovered with part of his head caught under the crushing roller. (Yonhap)The witness, who had also instructed Park on how to use the machine, said he was making his way out when he turned around an

Social Affairs Aug. 4, 2016

Three men from Sinan County accused of gang raping a school teacher in May, reenacted the day of their crime for a court inspection on Wednesday. The usual media attention was absent from the scene, with Mokpo branch of Gwangju District Court specially restricting media access citing protection of the victim’s privacy and prevention of secondary suffering. The three suspects. (YouTube capture)Two judges and prosecutors were present, along with some 20 police.　The village onlookers were asked to

Social Affairs Aug. 4, 2016

On July 28, the cloud office company KukuDocs (CEO: Lee YuHo) announced that, with the recent elimination of ActiveX programs, demand for a cloud-based HTML5 viewer is increasing rapidly. “Until now, ActiveX had served as an impediment to the introduction of a cloud environment. But now that the government, financial institutions, and corporations are all removing ActiveX, the demand for a cloud-based office system, of which an HTML5 viewer is a major part, has increased significantly,” KukuDocs

Technology Aug. 4, 2016

On July 27, Spolive (CEO: Kim Wan-su) announced that, by early 2017, it will offer real-time broadcasts and information services on not only baseball, soccer, and basketball but also volleyball and ice hockey. Spolive is a sports portal that provides live broadcasts of major professional sports tournaments from around the world as well as information on leagues, teams, and players. On the company’s website and via its mobile application, users are able to watch games and conduct searches for spe

Industry Aug. 3, 2016

Dutch middle-school textbooks on history and geography had depicted South Korea as a cheap-labor economy dependent on fish processing. This was up until South Korean diplomats successfully persuaded the publishers to update their texts two years ago, officials at the foreign ministry here said Wednesday. Now, South Korea is portrayed as a "rich country" that produces cutting-edge smartphones and digital televisions.In another similar case, 11 Spanish middle- and high-school course books were rev

Foreign Affairs Aug. 3, 2016