South Korea's main delegation for the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics departed Tuesday as they begin the quest for a solid performance at the quadrennial competition.Eighty athletes from seven sports -- swimming, archery, judo, tennis, rowing, table tennis and athletics -- flew to Atlanta where their training camp is based. They will train in the US city about a week before landing in Brazil.This is the first time that the South Korean Paralympic delegation will have an overseas training camp before

South Korean shares opened slightly higher on Tuesday, rebounding from a sharp drop in the previous session.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 3.63 points, or 0.18 percent, to 2,045.79 in the first 15 minutes of trading.On Monday, the index lost 14.08 points, or 0.68 percent, to close at 2,042.16.Large caps traded mixed with most tech shares in negative terrain.Market bellwether Samsung Electronics shed 0.12 percent, while global chipmaker SK hynix remained flat at 36,000 won

South Korea and Ecuador will hold the third round of talks to discuss ways to boost economic and investment exchanges, the trade ministry here said Tuesday.The negotiations on the strategic economic cooperation agreement, a type of free trade pact, will be held in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito starting Monday (local time) and run through Friday, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.Officials from the two countries will discuss various trade issues involving manufactured good

Olympic golf champion Park In-bee returned home to South Korea to a hero's welcome on Tuesday. Park was crowned the first Olympic women's golf champion in 116 years, with a comfortable five-shot victory over the world No. 1 Lydia Ko in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday. The victory made Park the only golfer, male or female, with an Olympic gold and a career grand slam -- which entails winning four different majors at least once."In Korean time, I played the game early in the morning," Park said after s

An international festival on the world's oldest extant book printed with movable metal type will kick off in Cheongju in September to shed new light on its creative value, bringing together world-renowned writers and scholars, organizers said Tuesday.The Jikji Korea Festival will open Sept. 1 in the central South Korean city, some 130 kilometers south of Seoul, for an eight-day run under the theme of "Jikji, Enlightening the World," with the main venues including the Cheongju Arts Hall and the C

Insurance companies in South Korea saw their assets surge more than 10 percent on-year in the first half of 2016, but life insurers suffered a plunge in earnings due mainly to increased insurance payments, data showed Tuesday.The combined assets of the country's 25 life and 32 nonlife insurance firms came to 1,002.2 trillion won ($890 billion) as of the end of June, up 10.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service. It marks the first time for their

The South Korean government recouped 436.4 billion won ($389 million) of bailout funds, mostly used to help ailing financial firms during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, in the second quarter of 2016, the nation's top financial regulator said Tuesday.The retrieval of taxpayers' money came largely from dividends from bailed-out firms, according to the Financial Services Commission.The government spent a total of 168.7 trillion won to bail out financial firms and help stabilize the financial s

South Korea's state-run oil company said Monday that it has decided to pull out of its eight-year-old exploration project in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, costing Korea National Oil Corp. about $130 million.The company said its board of directors made the decision recently to withdraw from Sangaw South on the grounds that the project has no profitability.The KNOC said on its website that it had obtained operatorship of Sangaw South in the Kurdistan region of Iraq with a 60 percent stake by signi

A French woman is recovering at a hospital after being treated for a stroke in South Korea, the hospital said Monday.The 58-year-old woman was rushed to the nearby Seoul St. Mary's Hospital on Aug. 11 by one of her fellow tourists who came to South Korea with the woman after she suddenly dropped her hand-held luggage and stopped understanding conversation.Doctors at the hospital conducted surgery after confirming the patient was suffering from a cerebral infarction through a computed tomography

The South Korean economy is expected to attain 2.6 percent growth this year, the same rate recorded in 2015, as sluggish domestic spending and shrinking exports continue to weigh on Asia's fourth-largest economy, a local think tank said Monday.Its growth will likely slow to 2.4 percent in the second half following an estimated 3 percent growth in the first half, the Korea Institute of Finance said in a report."Private consumption is expected to post 1.4 percent growth in 2016, lower than 2.2 per

A gathering of professionals from academic and industrial research communities in the fields of materials, coatings and surfaces worldwide opened for an eight-day run in the coastal city of Busan on Monday.The opening ceremony for the 20th International Vacuum Congress(IVC-20) brought together about 1,000 people, including Busan Mayor Suh Byung-soo; Mariano Anderle, chief of the International Union for Vacuum Science Technique and Application; and Kang Hee-jae, head of the IVC-20 organizing comm

National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun on Monday vowed to forge a parliamentary climate in which lawmakers work harder and pass uncontested economic bills in a timely manner.During a speech at a forum, hosted by the Korea News Editors' Association, Chung also said that the Assembly is pushing to establish a voting information system, which will reveal how actively each lawmaker carries out his or her legislative duties. The system will be up and running by the time the regular parliamentary se

Mary Barra, the top executive officer of US automaker General Motors Co., will visit South Korea next week, a US business lobby in Seoul said Monday.The top executive of General Motors Co. is scheduled to offer a special speech at a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce next Tuesday, according to AMCHAM.Officials at GM Korea, the South Korean unit of the US carmaker, confirmed her scheduled visit.They, however, did not provide any other details, only saying it will be part of her "regular"

South Korea's defense ministry on Monday said it will check alternative sites for the deployment of an advanced US missile defense system after residents of Seongju county formally requested that other locations be examined for suitability.The announcement came as residents living near a state-chosen site for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense asked Seoul to review different sites within their county to deploy the defensive system, instead of the original site, which is currently used as a

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday it will showcase a new smart washing machine at the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin early next month. The new "AddWash" washing machine allows users to put extra items of laundry into the machine after a wash cycle is started, through a little window on the upper part of the main door.  (Yonhap)In addition, the new machine enables users to deodorize their clothes with heated air, using a technology called "Air Wash." Using anoth

South Koreans, who make direct purchases of foreign goods, prefer overseas online shopping malls over local retailers to get better deals, especially on luxury goods, and baby and health products, a survey showed Monday.According to the survey conducted by the Korea Consumer Agency on 1,000 consumers, 80 percent used international online stores to buy cheaper products, considering their price tags are an average of 31.7 percent lower than those offered by domestic retailers. The respondents used

South Korea's food exports to China are on the rise, helped by shipments of new products that recently found their way to Asia's largest economy, a report said Monday.In the first five months of the year, shipments of farm products to China gained 7 percent from the same period last year, while the country's overall food exports gained 2.9 percent on-year over the cited period, the agriculture ministry said earlier.Such an increase compares with a prolonged slump in the country's overall exports

South Korean tax authorities can't track down about 27 percent of self-employed people's income, data showed Monday, as they evade taxation through a range of expedient means.According to the National Tax Office and the Bank of Korea, self-employed South Koreans filed tax returns for only 72.8 percent of their total income estimated at 120.4 trillion won ($107 billion) in 2014.This means that local tax authorities couldn't keep tabs on the self-employed's remaining income and collect taxes from

South Korea announced another attempt Monday to privatize Woori Bank, a leading lender in the country, saying the possibility of a successful sale is "higher than any other time."The government has agreed to sell off 30 percent of its stake in the bank to several different buyers by the end of this year, according to the Financial Services Commission."It's judged that potential demand for investment has been confirmed on a level (enough) to push for the sale," FSC Chairman Yim Jong-yong said at

The administrative chief of Seongju on Monday formally asked the defense ministry to designate an alternate site within the county for the deployment of the advanced U.S. antimissile system, instead of the original location picked by Seoul last month. During a press conference, Kim Hang-gon cited recent poll results that found a "vast majority" of Seongju residents wanted the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system to be stationed in a new site rather than occupy the anti-aircraft missile bas