South Korean shipbuilders, reeling from massive losses, are planning to pay bonuses to their employees for the Lunar New Year's holiday, as part of efforts to boost morale, industry sources said Friday.According to the sources, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. are set to pay one-off bonuses to employees, amounting to 100 percent of their basic monthly salaries.The Lunar New Year's falls on Feb. 8 this year, with a five-da

Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest carmaker, has set its sales target in Iran at around 20,000 units for this year as it is seeking to fully resume exports after years of suspension due to U.N.-led international sanctions, industry sources said Friday.Kia Motors' sales target in Iran was set "internally," the sources told the English division of Yonhap News Agency.Company officials did not confirm the figure, nor did they elaborate on when the company will resume exports to Iran in f

South Korea tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. sold the largest number of so-called smart connected devices in the world in the first nine months of 2015, data showed Friday. Samsung Electronics sold 266 million smart connected devices -- a collective term for smartphones, tablets and personal computers -- worldwide in the January-September period, accounting for 19.3 percent of the total, the International Data Corporation said. U.S. tech behemoth Apple ranked second, selling 205 million iPhone

Trade volume between South and North Korea reached an all-time high in 2015 despite strained inter-Korean ties over the North's pursuit of nuclear weapons, a trade association here said Thursday.Trade between the two Koreas came to $2.71 billion last year, up 15.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data provided by the Korea International Trade Association. The figure was the largest ever on record. South Korea's shipments to the North grew 11 percent on-year to $1.26 billion, while i

Approximately four in 10 South Korean households have no concrete plans to cope with life after retirement, a report showed Thursday.The report by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs on circumstances facing senior citizens showed 38.5 percent of local households are unprepared for old age, while those who claim they are ready expect difficulties in maintaining current living standards."Many South Koreans don't have plans for life after retirement because they have to educate their

The global market for Ultra HD TVs is set to lead the global TV industry throughout 2016, data showed Thursday, beating its full HD rivals in market share for the first time. According to the data compiled by industry tracker IHS, UHD TVs are expected to take up 49 percent of global TV sales this year, hovering far above the 36.6 percent estimated for full HD models. LG Electronics' UHD TVs UHD TVs, often referred to as 4K TVs, boast a resolution of 3,840×2,160, while their full HD counterparts

 South Korea's central bank moved quickly to minimize the fallout from what could be North Korea's nuclear test on the local economy Wednesday, convening an emergency meeting of the monetary policy board.   "In regard to the North Korean issue, the Bank of Korea plans to hold an emergency meeting of its monetary and financial policy task force at 2 p.m. today," the bank said in a short text message. The Bank of Korea (Yonhap News)   The decision to hold an emergency meeting comes only hours afte

Woori Bank president Lee Kwang-goo (left) poses with Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board chairman Franky Sibarani after signing a mutual cooperative agreement for strategic partnership in downtown Seoul on Friday. (Woori Bank)　

Delayed report prompts concern over complianceFollowing is the text of the press release from Japan Tobacco International .-- Ed.On the third anniversary of Australia’s controversial "plain" packaging legislation for tobacco products, the Government is still refusing to admit its failure. This would explain why the Department of Health is pushing back the publication of its Post-Implementation Review.Since the introduction of the branding ban in December 2012, the Government’s own data has shown

BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol presides over a meeting of the monetary policy committee in Seoul on Thursday. South Korea's central bank froze its benchmark interest rate at a record low of 1.5 percent for November on Thursday, as it continues to gauge the impact of its previous rate cuts amid recovering local demand and a looming U.S. rate hike.   This marks the fifth consecutive month the Bank of Korea  has kept the policy rate unchanged at the current level since it slashed the rate by a quarter percen

The top 10 percent of South Koreans control 66 percent of the country's wealth, with the inequality gap becoming more acute over time, a report showed Thursday. According to the report by Kim Nak-nyeon, an economics professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, Asia's fourth-largest economy is encumbered by a sizable difference in wealth between the haves and have-nots. While the rich monopolized wealth that includes both financial and property holdings, the lower 50 percent only accounted for 2 perc

The head of South Korea's central bank drew a rather gloomy picture for the future of the local and global economies Wednesday, saying they both face great uncertainties caused by the world's two largest economies. "It is hard to think of a time when the domestic and global economies did not face uncertainties, but I believe the keyword that best describes recent conditions in the global economy is uncertainty," Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said in a monthly breakfast meeting with econom

 About half of South Korean major conglomerates have decided to adopt a wage peak system from next year as the Seoul government pushes to reform the country's rigid labor market, a survey showed Tuesday, according to Yonhap News.Eleven conglomerates including Samsung Group, LG Group, Lotte Group and POSCO Group will embrace the new type of remuneration at all affiliated companies starting from the beginning of 2016, according to the poll of 21 large businesses conducted by the Korean Federation

 South Korea's three mobile carriers plan to start preorders for the latest iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus this week, industry sources said Sunday, a move that may cause a dent in sales of high-end models from local brands Samsung and LG, according to Yonhap News. SK Telecom Co., KT Corp., and LG Uplus will begin preorders Monday, ahead of the official release slated for Friday at both online and offline shops, the report said. While the mobile carriers earlier planned to start preorders last week

South Korean retailers witnessed a whopping sales increase for the first two weeks of October as they joined the nationwide consumption-promoting campaign, data showed Sunday, according to a report.The 22 retailers that joined the Black Friday Korea campaign saw their sales increase by a total 719.4 billion won ($634.9 million), or 20.7 percent, on-year over the cited period, data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy showed, Yonhap News reported.The government and large retail

Golfzon, the nation’s top golf simulator maker, said Thursday it signed an exclusive product distribution contract with Guangzhou-based Byron Asset Management in its efforts to expand its business in mainland China. “Under the contract, the company will supply at least 200 golf simulators to China’s third largest city via the Chinese partner for the next two years,” Golfzon said in a press release. “The contract has set a milestone for the company to tap the Chinese market with high growth poten

 Former STX Group chairman Kang Duk-soo said Wednesday that he would think about rebuilding the troubled conglomerate whose some of its major affiliates suffering liquidity shortages and mounting debts.Kang made the remarks after being released from prison in the day following a higher court's decision to give a suspended sentence to him for embezzlement and negligence of duty. The Seoul High Court sentenced the business tycoon, who headed the group from 2003 to February 2014, to three years in

  South Korean brokerage houses saw their employees decrease by more than 7,000 in the past four and a half years as the industry has undergone a wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&As), market data showed Wednesday, Yonhap News reported.   The combined workforce of securities firms reached 36,078 as of end-June this year, down from 43,364 tallied at the end of 2010, according to data compiled by the Korea Capital Market Institute, according to the report.   The number of brokerage firms operati

 South Korea's domestic demand is gaining momentum as the positive effects of the extra budget start to materialize and nationwide promotional sales events prod people to spend more, the top economic policymaker said Wednesday, according to a report.   Yonhap reported that chairing a meeting of economy-related ministers in Seoul, Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said private spending has recovered from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome scare that crippled consumption and forced the government

South Korea's top tech behemoth Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday its third-quarter operating income is estimated to have risen 79.8 percent from a year earlier, far beating market estimates.Operating income is estimated at 7.3 trillion won ($6.25 billion) for the July-September period, compared with the 4.06 trillion won posted a year earlier, Samsung said in a regulatory filing.   (Yonhap)The third-quarter operating income also marks a 5.8 percent rise from the 6.9 trillion won posted for