(123rf)South Koreans' direct trading of foreign stocks fell considerably in the first half of the year due to a sharp drop in investment in the Chinese market, data showed Sunday.The total transaction volume of foreign shares by South Koreans came to $6.23 billion, or around 7 trillion won, during the January-June period.  It marks a 15.96 percent decline from $7.41 billion recorded a year earlier and 7.74 percent decrease from $6.75 billion in the latter half of 2015.In particular, the trade vo

Samsung Heavy Industries Co., a financially troubled South Korean shipyard, has virtually secured a $2.5 billion deal to build a floating liquefied natural gas facility abroad, industry sources said Sunday.The shipbuilder, a unit of Samsung Group, is leading a consortium made up of French multinational Technip and Japan's JGC in the project, valued at a total of $5.4 billion. The order has been placed by the Italian hydrocarbon company ENI."It's safe to say that Samsung Heavy has virtually won t

North Korea may have removed all photos of the ruling Kim family from its textbooks out of fear that school children will scribble on them, a U.S.-based media outlet said Sunday.Radio Free Asia, citing a report carried by Asia Press International, said it recently acquired 75 North Korean primary, middle school and high school textbooks but found no photos of incumbent leader Kim Jong-un or those of his late father and grandfather.Kim inherited power after the sudden death of his father Kim Jong

A senior prosecutor was arrested early Sunday on suspicion of taking bribes from the country's leading online game maker and using them for stock investments.Jin Kyung-joon, 49, is accused of amassing massive amounts of wealth through shady stock transactions involving Nexon Co. The game maker allegedly gave some 400 million won ($348,000) to Jin in 2005, helping him make some 12 billion won in profits through stock transactions by 2015.The Seoul Central District Court issued the arrest warrant,

South Korea and the United States will go all out to verify that the powerful radar used in the advanced anti-ballistic missile shield poses no health risks, the military said Sunday.Last week the allies picked Seongju county in North Gyeongsang Province, as the location for the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.Seoul and Washington said the location, 296 kilometers southeast of Seoul, is an ideal spot to guard key South Korean and U.S. military installations from evolving North Ko

Eighty-four people were killed after a truck ploughed through crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day in the southern French city of Nice.Here is what we know so far about the attack that the Islamic State group claims was carried out by one of its “soldiers.”How did the attack unfold?A white 19-tonne rented refrigerator truck slammed into the crowd on Nice's seafront around 10:45 pm (2045 GMT) Thursday.Some 30,000 people had gathered on the glitzy beachfront avenue, the Promenade des Anglais,

Turkish authorities wrested back control of the country Saturday, after crushing a military coup by discontented soldiers seeking to seize power from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that claimed more than 250 lives.After facing down the bloodiest challenge to his 13-year rule, Erdogan triumphantly addressed thousands of supporters in his home Istanbul district after urging people to take to the streets following Friday's chaos in the strategic NATO member of 80 million people.The authorities blam

South Korean shares extended a winning streak into a fourth day on Thursday, paring early losses, as foreigners stuck to a buying mode. The South Korean won rose sharply against the U.S. dollar after the nation's central bank froze the key interest rate at the record low of 1.25 percent.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 3.22 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2,008.77.Trade volume recorded 334.3 million shares worth 4.2 trillion won ($3.7 billion), with decliners outnumbering advanc

South Korea and Japan have reaffirmed their commitment to implementing a bilateral deal to resolve the issue of the Japanese military's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday.South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam and his Japanese counterpart Shinsuke Sugiyama met in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Wednesday (local time) to discuss bilateral issues ahead of three-way talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken.In their talks, Lim stressed th

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., a troubled shipyard, is seeking to sell its brokerage unit as part of its restructuring drive, but its bid may fall through due to lack of potential investors, industry sources said Thursday.According to the sources, Hyundai Heavy plans to sell an 85.3 percent stake in HI Investment & Securities Co. which is held by its affiliate, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., a deal estimated at around 500 billion won ($439 million).Hyundai Heavy plans to complete the sale of the brok

The number of South Korean overseas travelers and foreign visitors here fell for the first time in six years last year amid a reduction in the number of people studying abroad, a government report showed Thursday.The number of international migrants, referring to those who stay in and out of South Korea for 90 days or more, stood at 1.3 million people in 2015, down 1.7 percent, or 23,000, from a year earlier, according to the report compiled by Statistics Korea. The number involves both foreigne

South Korea's central bank on Thursday named low global oil prices as a main cause of the country's slow consumer price increase in the first half, insisting its local demands have remained strong and will continue to expand.In the first six months of the year, the country's consumer prices have gained only 0.9 percent from the same period last year, falling far short of the central bank's 2 percent target for the 2016-2018 period, the Bank of Korea noted."This was partly because an upward press

A woman who burned her unfaithful lover alive has been sentenced to 12 years in prison in an appeals trial, the Seoul High Court said Thursday. The woman, 57, surnamed Jang, poured kerosene on the victim, 52, and lit him on fire after finding out he had an affair with another woman. (Yonhap)Jang and the victim had been in a 15-year-long adulterous relationship. The incident took place at Jang’s bar in Dongdaemun, central Seoul, in August 2013.The victim was hospitalized for five days before dyin

Eating after 6 p.m. could lead to more belly fat, said a health and nutrition study published Thursday.According to the Hallym University Medical Center research team, people who consumed 57 percent of their daily diet after 6 p.m. had a 1.3 percent higher risk of growing fat around the waist compared to those who ate only 18 percent of their meals after 6 p.m.  (123RF)The research had divided some 15,000 participants into five groups according to how much of their daily diet was consumed betwee

The CEO of Google Korea who formerly headed the local unit of Oxy Reckitt Benckiser has been indicted over the British firm's toxic humidifier sterilizers which resulted in numerous deaths and illnesses here, prosecutors said Thursday.John Lee has been accused of playing a part in the deaths of 73 people and lung damage to another 108 victims, according to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. He headed the consumer goods company from 2005 to 2010 when sales of the problematic steriliz

President Park Geun-hye on Thursday called for an end to "needless" squabbling over the planned deployment of an advanced U.S. anti-missile battery here, reiterating that it is a self-defense measure to counter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.Presiding over a session of the National Security Council, the commander-in-chief asked for public understanding, stressing that the government could not hold open discussions over the selection of the deployment site as it is a "grave" security i

China's commerce ministry has slapped anti-dumping duties of 4.1 percent on acrylic fiber manufactured by a South Korean chemical company, the foreign ministry here said Thursday. Taekwang Industrial Co. along with other companies from Japan and Turkey were accused of selling their products at below market prices in China that distorted the market and hurt domestic producers. Beijing began its probe into the allegation in July 2015 and issued a tentative ruling in April this year in which the Ko

South Korea's central bank on Thursday revised down its growth outlook for Asia's fourth-largest economy to 2.7 percent from 2.8 percent three months earlier, citing sluggish consumption at home and abroad.The quarterly revision by the Bank of Korea came shortly after the government slashed its outlook for 2016 to 2.8 percent from 3.1 percent."The local economy will maintain its modest growth trend on expansionary economic policies, but the bank believes local and external uncertainties surround

Prosecutors on Thursday summoned a senior prosecutor who has come under public scrutiny over suspicious stock transactions.Jin Kyung-joon appeared before the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in southern Seoul to face questioning over the wealth he amassed through shares of Nexon Co., the country's leading online game maker."I admit to my wrongdoings and take it seriously," Jin told reporters before entering the prosecutors' office."I sincerely apologize for hiding the truth to cover my

President Park Geun-hye plans to renew her calls for the expansion of free trade to curb the rise of protectionism during this week's Asia-Europe Meeting summit in Mongolia, she said in an interview on Thursday.In her written interview with Mongolia's Montsame news agency, Park stressed that promoting free trade among nations across the world is a "shortcut" to achieving a global economic recovery.The interview was published a day before the two-day ASEM summit in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanb