Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Saturday that North Korea should take concrete stepsdemonstrating its seriousness of purpose and first hold dialoguewith South Korea if six-party nuclear talks are to reopen.Maehara also said that inter-Korean dialogue should be the starting point for any talks with North Korea and urged the communist nation totake specific steps demonstrating its commi

South Korea's state-run asset management corporation plans to conduct probes on real estate-related project financing operations under the control of local savings banks, a source said Saturday.The Korea Asset Management Corp. (KAMCO) source said 386 project financing projects are to be checked, as concerns have been raised about deteriorating conditions that can cause trouble for the lenders.Afte

South Korean outfielder Choo Shin-soo of Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians has filed for salary arbitration in hopes of getting a raise following thebest season of his career.Choo was among 119 players who filed for arbitration on Saturday (Korean time), according to Major League Baseball. The left-handed outfielder received US$461,100 last year, slightly above the major league minimum, wh

South Korea's stock market is expected to continue doing well next week although gains will be more modest as investors may take on a more wait-and-see approach, local analysts said Saturday.The country's benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 18.69 points to close at a record high of 2,108.17 on Friday, a month after the bourse surged past the 2.000-point mark on Dec. 14.The K

South Korea confirmed a single case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) on Saturday in the country’s southeastern region, as nationwide vaccinations and quarantine efforts have started to help stem new outbreaks.The additional case in Cheongsong, 285 kilometers southeast of Seoul, brings the total number of confirmed FMD outbreaks to 119, since animals started showing symptoms in late November, the Mi

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on China Friday to faithfully implement sanctions on North Korea, imposed by U.N. resolutions, for the North's nuclear and missile tests in the past years.  In a speech at the State Department ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit here early next week, Clinton said, “Until North Korea demonstrates in concrete ways its intention to keep its comm

CES dominated by new models of 3-D televisions, tablet PCs and upgraded smartphonesLAS VEGAS ― The world’s largest technology tradeshow bore witness to several major technology trends that can be summed up as: 3-D vision and “smart” devices.Top electronics firms showcased upgraded 3-D televisions that promised to become more comfortable living room features by becoming bigger, yet thinner, and mor

Electronics bellwether aims to sell 60 million smartphones this yearLAS VEGAS ― Samsung Electronics plans to unveil in February its next generation of smartphones running on an upgraded operating system and a dual core processorThe new phones to be revealed at the Mobile World Congress will run on the Gingerbread operating system ― an upgraded Android platform ― with a super AMOLED plus display fo

Company outlines ‘access, align, amaze and act’ as guidelinesLAS VEGAS ― Samsung Electronics’ Yoon Boo-keun had memorized his lines perfectly. Yes, his English was a bit stilted and he didn’t get the jokes quite right, but his keynote speech sent the message that Samsung was out to give: Sound human. The right photo shows Samsung Electronics’ promotional booth. (Yonhap News)Product demonstrator Mi

LAS VEGAS ― LG Electronics and German-based telecommunications firm T-Mobile on Wednesday (Las Vegas time) unveiled the G Slate, the first tablet PC manufactured by LG.The world’s third-largest handset manufacturer sought to re-enter the smart device race after it lost out in the smartphone battle last year. The G Slate underscores the company’s attempts to get back into the groove, industry watch

Electronics firm to look overseas to help raise competenceLAS VEGAS ― Samsung Electronics expects up to $200 billion in sales by 2015, noting that it has recorded about 150 trillion won ($132 billion) this year.Samsung Electronics is scheduled to reveal its fourth quarter earnings on Friday in Korea. “I believe we were not wrong to believe that we can hit the $400 billion sales mark by 2020,” said

Company resumes business with Sony after seven-year lull: CEOLAS VEGAS ― Leading LCD panel manufacturer LG Display on Wednesday (Las Vegas time) offered a sanguine business outlook for this year, predicting that its cheaper 3-D television panels that better protect the eyes would dominate the market with a 70 percent stake.The Seoul-based firm also said that, as of the end of last year, it has beg

Smart devices and tablet computers are expected to steal this year’s largest electronics tradeshow, which kicks off Thursday in Las Vegas. “We expect smart devices to be the most central feature of this show,” said Choi Jun-hyuk, a spokesman for LG Electronics. “Now that the consumers are familiar with the smart trend, we’ll be focusing more on how to make the devices more convenient and more user