Korea's economy stumbles over Pyongyang's 6th nuke test, Washington’s FTA threat

Observers remain skeptical, citing North Korea and industry backlash

Security tension is most likely to return to focus in South Korea’s stock markets this week following the North’s sixth nuclear test Sunday, further dampening investors’ sentiment. A 5.7 magnitude tremor was detected in northeastern North Korea on Sunday at around 12:29 p.m., which North Korea claimed to be a test of a hydrogen bomb that can be loaded into its intercontinental ballistic missile....

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South Korea's top financial regulator said Sunday it will step up monitoring and carry out probes into money laundering, unauthorized financing and other illicit transactions of digital currencies. Joining Japan, China and other Asian nations in trying to regulate crypto-currencies, the Financial Services Commission warned that the recent transaction volume and volatility of digital currencies a...

US President Donald Trump said Saturday he would meet with his advisers next week to weigh a possible withdrawal from the US free trade agreement with South Korea. Trump made the remark to journalists during a trip to hurricane-hit Houston, Reuters said, shortly after the move was reported by the Washington Post. Citing multiple sources close to the process, the paper said Trump has instructed ...

The former Korea branch chief of U.S. equity firm Lone Star has been released in Italy, Seoul‘s justice ministry said Friday, dimming the prospects of his return to Korea for an inquiry into alleged irregularities surrounding the 2003 sale of a local bank. The ministry said that a Milano-based court has recently set free Steven Lee, the Korean-American who headed the Seoul office between 1998 a...

Deputy Prime Minister for economic affairs and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said on Friday the government intends to propose revisions to Korea’s Labor Standards Act in an effort to further clarify the legal scope regarding ordinary wages, amid intensifying legal confrontation between the labor and the management. “We plan to further strengthen business roadmaps and add support to the wage sy...

Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said Friday he will reinforce the manpower and conduct a reorganization of the Office of International Trade and Investment to effectively cope with possible revisions to the trade deal with the United States. Kim held a video conference with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer last month to exchange views on Washington's request for revisions to the South Kor...

South Korean stocks finished lower Friday, as investors continued to remain cautious in betting on risky assets. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 5.5 points, or 0.23 percent, to close at 2,357.69. Trade volume was a moderate 277 million shares worth 4.67 trillion won ($4.16 billion), with gainers slightly outnumbering losers 405 to ...

South Korea's central bank said Friday that it has picked four more companies for its coinless society project in the latest move aimed at enhancing convenience for ordinary people. Under the project that began in April, consumers can deposit small change left from purchases of goods into prepaid mobile cards that can be used at convenience stores, discount stores and department stores, accordin...

South Korean stocks traded slightly lower Friday morning as foreign investors continued to unload local shares. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 3.33 points, or 0.14 percent, to 2,359.86 as of 11:15 a.m. Bourse heavyweights traded mixed, with market kingpin Samsung Electronics up 0.39 percent. SK hynix, a major chipmaker, fell 0.44 percent, and POSCO, the No. 1 steelmaker, ...

South Korea has asked China to remove economic sanctions imposed on South Korea due to the diplomatic row over the deployment of a US missile defense system here, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Friday. China has been retaliating economically against South Korea since early this year over the stationing of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system. South Korea says the miss...

South Korea's top financial regulator on Friday urged credit card firms to cut marketing spending and provide safer and more convenient payment services. Choi Jong-ku, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, made the remark at a meeting with top executives of credit card companies as the industry has been under pressure over competition with online payment services and a cut in credit car...

The delinquency rate of South Korean banks' won-denominated loans edged up in July, due to a slight rise in people who could not pay off their debts, government data showed Friday. The rate for bank loans more than 30 days overdue stood at 0.48 percent at the end of July, up 0.05 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service. Compared to a yea...