More savings banks in South Korea are feared to face bankruptcies this year as continued losses wiped out their capital, industry sources said Sunday.   According to the Financial Supervisory Service and industry sources, four out of 16 savings banks reported that their capital base was fully impaired last year and six more players suffered capital erosion last year.   Of the ten savings banks, two players were already suspended and one is set to sell shares to boost their capital base, accordin

Feb. 17, 2013

President-elect Park Geun-hye named the chief of the state-run Korean Development Institute Huyn Oh-seok as the deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs, Park's transition team said Sunday.   Park also named North Korean expert Ryoo Kihl-jae as unification minister in a series of nominations that also included nine other Cabinet posts, transition team chief Kim Yong-joon said.   In her organizational shakeup of the incoming government, Park decided to elevate the status of the finance

Politics Feb. 17, 2013

   CAIRO -- A South Korean man was arrested in the Libyan city of Benghazi and is under investigation for being involved in illegal missionary work along with three other foreigners, Libyan police and the South Korean embassy there said Sunday.   The Libyan police arrested the South Korean, an Egyptian, a South African, and a Swede who was traveling on a U.S. passport, on Tuesday on suspicion of printing and distributing books which called for conversion to Christianity, according to the officia

Social Affairs Feb. 17, 2013

GENEVA -- North Korea insisted Tuesday it would never give in to "unreasonable" international resolutions against its nuclear arms program, insisting the prospects of denuclearising the Korean peninsula were deteriorating in the face of US hostility."The US and their followers are sadly mistaken if they miscalculate the DPRK (North Korea) would accept the entirely unreasonable resolutions against it," Jon Yong Ryong, the first secretary of North Korea's mission in Geneva, told the UN Disarmament

North Korea Feb. 13, 2013

A united U.N. Security Council strongly condemned North Korea's nuclear test and pledged further action Tuesday, calling Pyongyang's latest defiant act “a clear threat to international peace and security.’‘All 15 council members, including North Korea's closest ally China, approved the press statement hours after the latest underground test. The statement called the atomic blast a “grave violation’‘ of three U.N. resolutions that ban North Korea from conducting nuclear or missile tests.The swift

North Korea Feb. 13, 2013

  South Korean President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, an official said, as an artificial tremor in North Korea suggests that the communist nation went ahead with a threatened nuclear test.   Lee will convene the meeting at 1 p.m., the official said.   A magnitude 5.1 tremor occurred at 11:58 a.m. and was centered in Kilju County in North Korea's northeast, where the country's Punggye-ri nuclear test site is located, officials said. The government

North Korea Feb. 12, 2013

An earthquake was detected Tuesday in North Korea just north of a site where the country has conducted nuclear tests, providing strong indication that Pyongyang has gone ahead with a highly anticipated third test. There was, however, no confirmation of the test. The South Korean Defense Ministry, which raised its military alert level after the quake, said it was trying to determine whether it was a test. Nuclear blasts can create tremors but they are distinct from those caused by natural earthqu

North Korea Feb. 12, 2013

 Samsung Electronics Co. will be fined up to 1 million won ($923) for belatedly reporting last week's fatal hydrofluoric acid gas leak at its chip plant that killed one worker and injured four others, police said Wednesday.   Police said they plan to impose the fine on Samsung and its subcontractor, named STI Service, for violating the Toxic Chemicals Control Act that stipulates the firms to notify the authorities promptly when such an incident breaks out.   Up to 10 liters of diluted hydrofluor

Social Affairs Jan. 30, 2013

President Lee Myung-bak hailed South Korea's first successful launch of a space rocket on Wednesday as the first step toward opening an "era of space science" for the country, his spokesman said.   The launch of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, better known as "Naro," marked Seoul's third attempt to join the global space club after its two earlier attempts in 2009 and 2010 ended in failures.The rocket blasted off at 4 p.m., reached its target altitude and put a science satellite into orbit.   "

Politics Jan. 30, 2013

The following is a chronology of major events related to South Korea's development of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, which is set to blast off from the country's Naro Space Center later Wednesday.   March 2001 - South Korea joins the Missile Technology Control Regime, an informal international association that oversees the proliferation of unmanned delivery systems capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction.   August 2002 - South Korea and Russia confirm plans to develop the Korea Spac

Technology Jan. 30, 2013

 Outgoing President Lee Myung-bak is expected to issue a special presidential pardon this week, a senior aide said Sunday, despite opposition from the transition team of his successor Park Geun-hye that it is wrong for an outgoing president to issue pardons for corrupt people.   The justice ministry has recently completed its review of a special pardon proposal and the issue is likely to be tabled at a Cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday, the official told Yonhap News Agency.   "What is left i

Politics Jan. 27, 2013

 South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. sold more than 400 million mobile phones last year, outstripping Nokia Corp. as the world's leading handset vendor, an industry report showed Sunday.   According to the latest report by International Data Corp., Samsung's shipments of smartphones and other handsets jumped 22.7 percent on-year to 407 million in 2012, taking up 23.7 percent of the global cellphone market.   In comparison, last year's top global vendor Nokia saw its sales tumble 19.5

Technology Jan. 27, 2013

South Korea's listed heavy industry companies saw their market capitalization plunge by 34 trillion won ($32 billion) in the last four months, hit by the Japanese yen's rapid descent, industry data showed Sunday.    The combined market cap of local heavy industry firms, including automakers and shipyards, tumbled 19.2 percent to 142.8 trillion won as of last Friday, compared with the 176.8 trillion won tallied on Sept. 17, 2012, the highest number recorded for the second half of last year, accor

Industry Jan. 27, 2013