The Fair Trade Commission plans to investigate commission fees at the nation’s top three department stores next month, an official said Monday. The investigation is allegedly aimed at Lotte, Shinsegae and Hyundai department stores that have given favors to foreign luxury brands with lower fees, the official said. Smaller traders have been increasingly critical of the high commission fees and ot...

LG Electronics on Monday said it has inked a deal with Japanese game developer CAPCOM to release the popular video game “Street Fighter IV,” on its HD Android smartphones that is expected to be launched before the year is out. It will mark the first time for the game series to debut on an Android-powered smartphone, the Seoul-based company said. IPhone users currently are able to play the “Stre...

Korean companies in Myanmar are wrestling with the Southeast Asian country’s strengthening currency as it increasingly chokes the viability of their exports, a report said Monday. Burma’s currency, the kyat, is rapidly climbing against the dollar and its counterparts in Asia, up about 30 percent from the beginning of the year. A dollar now costs about 650 kyat, versus 1,000 a year earlier. Kore...

STX Group, a South Korean shipbuilding and shipping conglomerate, said Monday that it has decided to drop its bid to buy stakes in Hynix Semiconductor Inc., citing global uncertainties and the size of future investments needed to bolster competitiveness of the world's No. 2 memory chipmaker. STX Group and SK Group, another South Korean conglomerate, have been racing to buy a controlling 15 perce...

SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korea‘s government said Monday that there were a total of 91 failures in operations of nuclear reactors in the country over the past 10 years due to mechanical glitches and other problems. In a report to the National Assembly, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said the Gori-1 reactor, South Korea’s oldest nuclear reactor, went offline due to an electrical malfun...

LG Electronics Inc., the world's third-largest handset maker, said Sunday that it will launch a new smartphone model here in South Korea next week that targets young consumers who prefer computer-like QWERTY keyboards. The Optimus Q2 is equipped with a 1.2 GHz dual core processor, 4-inch display, 500 mega pixel built-in camera and wider QWERTY keyboard, as well as being thinner and lighter than ...

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. on Sunday denied reports that it will be building a shipyard in Nigeria. On Friday, Reuters reported that Hyundai Heavy will be investing $7 billion to build a shipyard in the African country, quoting the company’s chief executive Lee Jai-seong. The company, however, said that while Lee was in Nigeria over the Chuseok holidays, he did not mention any plans for a shi...

European fashion brands are enjoying increased demand here after a free trade pact between Korea and the EU took effect on July 1, industry sources said Friday. French brand Louis Vuitton logged 91.2 billion won ($82.6 million) between July 1 and Sept. 14, up 16.9 percent from 78 billion won a year earlier. Chanel sales increased 14.6 percent to 44 billion won during the same period, while Herm...

TOKYO ― Sony Corp. on Thursday said it will be releasing in November a new range of headphones, predicting that sales will soar over the next few years on the back of the smartphone craze. “With this tiny headphone driver, Sony will make a big splash this autumn,” said Katsuya Nakagawa, senior general manager and head of Sony’s Personal Entertainment Division at a press conference. He told The ...

European fashion brands are enjoying increased demand here after a free trade pact between Korea and the EU took effect on July 1, industry sources said Friday. French brand Louis Vuitton logged 91.2 billion won ($82.6 million) between July 1 and Sept. 14, up 16.9 percent from 78 billion won a year earlier. Chanel sales increased 14.6 percent to 44 billion won during the same period, while Herm...

Independent gas stations could start operating under a common brand as early as next year, the association of independent gas stations said Thursday. Independent gas stations can sell fuel produced by any of the country’s refiners, as opposed to being tied to a refiner such as GS Caltex or S-Oil. As such establishments are able to sell at lower prices, the government has been drawing up support...