South Korea's exports to Japan have declined sharply this year as the Japanese yen's weakness, coupled with a stronger Korean won, has reduced demand for Korean goods, data showed on Tuesday.Shipments to Japan declined 13.32 percent on-year in August this year, dropping for the seventh consecutive month, according to the data compiled by the Korea International Trade Association.Exports to Japan accounted for 5.94 percent of South Korea's total outbound shipments in August, also down from 7.7 pe

South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday as investors sat on the sidelines ahead of the announcement of the United States' jobs data for September slated for later this week, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) moved down 3.11 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,049.90 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Shares lost ground across the board, with market behemoth Samsung Electronics falling 1.02 percent and No. 1 carmaker Hyundai Motor losing 0.38 percent. Leading chipma

A top U.S. Army commander in charge of the Asia-Pacific region said Friday the current schedule for the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) of Korean forces from Washington to Seoul is "realistic," but further assessment is needed to determine whether it's appropriate in terms of political realities.Army Gen. Vincent Brooks, commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, said a proper timeframe from the military perspective is a matter to be discussed by new South Korean and U.S. defense l

The delinquency ratio of loans extended by South Korean insurers inched up n August from a month earlier due mainly to growth in both corporate and household loans, the financial regulator said Tuesday. The average bad debt ratio of local life and non-life insurers came to 0.75 percent at the end of August, up 0.03 percentage point from the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Compared with a year earlier, the figure dropped 0.1 percentage point from 0.85 percent

South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor will voluntarily recall around 27,500 Genesis sedans sold in the United States, a company official said Monday as U.S. authorities opened a probe into their potential brake problems.Hyundai plans to notify the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) this week of the decision, company spokesman Miles Johnson said in an emailed statement.Dealers will change the brake fluid and inspect the electronic brake control modules of cars produced fro

Joining a growing list of angry allies, France on Monday demanded an explanation from Washington of a report that the U.S. swept up 70 million French telephone records and text messages in its global surveillance net, even recording certain private conversations.The fallout prompted a phone call from President Barack Obama to President Francois Hollande and, the White House said, an acknowledgment by Obama that the episode raises “legitimate questions for our friends and allies” about how U.S. s

Syria's president cast doubt Monday on the chances of holding a long-delayed international peace conference to end the country's civil war, saying the factors that would help such talks succeed do not currently exist. The United States and Russia have been trying for months to convene a conference in Geneva to negotiate a political solution to a conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people and forced some 2 million more to flee the country. The U.N. chief has set mid-November as a target fo

A student at a Nevada school opened fire on campus just before the starting bell Monday, wounding two boys and killing a math teacher who was trying to protect children from their gun-wielding classmate.Teacher Michael Landsberry was being hailed for his actions outside Sparks Middle School, where 20 to 30 horrified students witnessed the shooting.“In my estimation, he is a hero. ... We do know he was trying to intervene,” Reno Deputy Police Chief Tom Robinson said.The unidentified shooter was k

The education ministry said Monday that it has recommended publishers of all eight government-approved Korean history textbooks revise hundreds of factual errors and imbalanced descriptions they were found to contain.The ministry has reviewed the textbooks endorsed for use at high schools around the country from the 2014 school year after one of them, published by Kyohak Publishing Co., sparked the ire of opposition lawmakers, liberal historians and civic activists for containing a conservative

- 윤 "검사장 모시고 갈수 없다"…조 "정당한 절차 지켜야 한다"- 與 "항명•제2의 검란" vs 野 "진실 밝히자는 것"서울중앙지검에 대한 국회 법제사법위원회의 21일 국정감사에서는 국가정보원 정치•개입 의혹 사건의 수사 및 의사결정 과정을 둘러싸고 지휘 책임자인 조영곤 서울중앙지검장과 실무팀장이었던 윤 석열 여주지청장의 진술이 정면으로 충돌했다.조 지검장과 윤 지청장의 발언은 '보고가 정상적으로 이뤄졌는지', '결재•승인이 있었는지', '지휘 체계', '수사 외압 여부' 등을 놓고 논박이 이어졌다. 윤 지청장이 발언하면 조 지검장이 반박하고 다시 윤 지청장이 발언하는 형태로 발언이 이어졌다.우선 보고 과정과 관련, 윤 지청장은 "수사 보고서와 향후 계획을 갖고 15일 밤 에 검사장 집을 찾아가 보고했다"고 주장했다.그는 "공소장 변경 신청은 사안이 중하다고 생각해 그렇게 했다"며 "공소장 변경 신청은 4차례 검사장의 재가를 받았다. 부팀장이 (검사장에게서) 2번 승인을 받았고

South Korean stocks closed almost flat Monday as investors sat on the sidelines amid weak growth momentum on the main bourse, analysts said. The local currency traded lower against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) inched up 0.61 point, or 0.03 percent to finish at 2,053.01. Trading volume was light at 277.6 million shares worth 4.09 trillion won ($3.85 billion), with gainers outpacing losers 421 to 381."Although the Seoul bourse traded higher in the third q

Rival political parties stepped up their attacks on each other Monday amid fresh claims about the state intelligence agency's alleged meddling in last year's presidential election.Last week, Rep. Kim Kwang-jin of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) claimed that members of the defense ministry's cyber warfare command conducted an online smear campaign against then opposition presidential candidate Moon Jae-in in a bid to sway public opinion in favor of the ruling party ahead of the December

The daily volatility of the South Korean currency fell to the lowest in three quarters in the July-September period on eased concerns over the Federal Reserve's monetary stimulus tapering, the central bank said Monday.The average daily volatility of the local currency reached 5.3 won in the third quarter, compared with 6.6 won three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).The third-quarter data marked the lowest volatility since 2.9 won in the fourth quarter of last year.The on-day

South Korean stocks traded almost flat late Monday morning due mainly to a lack of market momentum, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 0.99 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,053.39 as of 11:20 a.m.Tech shares lost ground, with market behemoth Samsung Electronics falling 0.2 percent and top chipmaker SK hynix losing 1.16 percent. Flat panel maker LG Display shed 0.6 percent.Carmakers traded mixed, with No. 1 player Hyundai Motor adding 2.14 percent and its aut

The Financial Supervisory Service said Monday that it will launch a special probe into Shinhan Bank following claims by opposition lawmakers that the bank looked into their accounts without their consent.Shinhan would inevitably face sanctions by the financial regulator should it find evidence that the bank probed lawmakers’ backgrounds via their accounts.This marks the third investigation against Shinhan by the FSS. The bank would likely suffer tougher penalties this time such as operational su

South Korea's tax agency said Monday that it has collected about 6 trillion won ($5.7 billion) less in taxes on-year during the first eight months of this year as the slowing economic recovery undercut corporate and other revenues. In its briefing to lawmakers ahead of a parliamentary audit session, the National Tax Service (NTS) said that it had collected 129.6 trillion won in national tax during the January-August period, which is 5.9 trillion won less compared with that in the same period a y

Held back by sloppy fielding and sluggish bats, the LG Twins lasted just five days in their first Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) playoff in more than a decade.The Twins, owner of the second-best record during the regular season, crashed out of their first postseason since 2002, succumbing to their Seoul rivals, the Doosan Bears, in four games of the best-of-five second round series. The 5-1 loss on Sunday was the final blow.The Bears, which finished fourth in the regular season, had battled t

South Korean stocks opened higher Monday as investor sentiment got a boost from rising hope that the U.S. may delay the tapering of its quantitative easing moves, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) moved up 7.64 points, or 0.37 percent, to 2,060.04 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Blue-chip shares led the market gain, with tech giant Samsung Electronics adding 1.02 percent and the country's No. 1 portal operator NAVER advancing 5.16 percent. Oil refiner SK In

Japan's trade deficit in September surged 64.1 percent from a year earlier, extending its string of shortfalls to a record 15th consecutive month.A weaker yen has been helping Japan's export picture, but the volume of shipments was down last month while the country's energy bill remained high due to imports of pricey fossil fuels. Energy imports surged after the 2011 Fukushima crisis forced the shutdown of Japan's nuclear reactors.On Monday, the finance ministry said Japan recorded a trade defic

Reflecting confusion in efforts to convene an international conference to end Syria's civil war, the Arab League chief announced on Sunday that talks will take place next month in Geneva, only to have the U.N. envoy flatly deny a date has been set. The bizarre diplomatic two-step between Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and the U.N. envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, at a joint news conference added to the uncertainty surrounding the proposed peace talks. A decision over whether the long-delayed n