But Samsung, Hyundai, LG buck the trend by posting higher operating income Korea’s major companies are expected to post slower earnings in the fourth quarter of last year, hurt by slowing demand amid growing worries over the eurozone debt crisis, data showed Wednesday. According to brokerages’ estimates compiled by financial information provider FnGuide, Korea’s top-ranked business groups such ...

The market share of semi-large cars such as the Hyundai Grandeur surged past 10 percent for the first time last year, shrinking that of midsize vehicles. Passenger cars sold by the nation’s five automakers are classified into six segments in terms of size and engine displacement in Korea ― large, semi-large, midsize, semi-midsize, compact and mini-cars. The semi-large segment is comprised of th...

The government is working on a bill that would require tobacco makers to disclose the harmful substances in their products in a bid to curb smoking. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Wednesday that it also will come up with a roadmap for when and by how much to raise cigarette prices. Under the bill all tobacco makers would be required to notify consumers of the additives and other harmfu...

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest chipmaker, is seeking to build a new plant in China to produce high-tech NAND flash memory chips, the Seoul government said Wednesday. The move that could lead to technology leaks was filed by Samsung on Dec. 6 and was approved Wednesday by a government committee on industrial technology security, according to the Ministry of Knowledge E...

SEOUL, Jan. 4 (Yonhap) -- The government said Wednesday it will expand beneficiaries of its daily one-hour parental leave to include pregnant public servants and male officials who have a baby younger than one year old, as part of efforts to boost the country's birthrate. Currently, only female officials who have a baby aged 1 or younger are eligible to take one hour special leave each day for c...

Prosecutors said Tuesday they have launched an investigation into allegations that a former aide to the communications watchdog’s head received massive bribes from an operator of a local education institution, who is also suspected of embezzlement. The probe was opened to verify the allegations that the aide, surnamed Jeong, received nearly 200 million won ($173,800) from Kim Hak-in, the chairma...