North Korea on Thursday threatened to make a "merciless" retaliation against South Korea, claiming that Seoul repeatedly violated its territorial waters and airspace off its western coast.South Korea's reconnaissance drones made flights over the Yellow Sea along the de facto western maritime boundary on Tuesday and intruded three times into North Korea's territorial airspace to carry out aerial reconnaissance, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said.It claimed the drones flew upward

Hyundai Motor Co.'s Porter truck was the best-selling vehicle in South Korea in the first five months of this year, industry data showed Thursday, in a sign that the relatively cheap commercial model appealed to small self-employed merchants.The country's largest automaker sold a total of 44,696 units of the Porter 1-ton truck during the January-May period, according to the data.If the current sales pace continues, the Porter could become the best-selling vehicle not only in the first half but f

Uganda has told North Korea that it won't renew its military contracts with the communist nation, a government source said Thursday, carrying out its pledge to sever their military ties.Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni made the pledge during a summit meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye last month in what was seen as a diplomatic victory for Seoul.South Korea hopes that deepening the North's isolation from the international community will force the regime in Pyongyang to abandon it

The South Korean antitrust watchdog said Thursday that it will raise the asset ceiling for its conglomerate watch list for the first time in seven years as part of its efforts to pave the way for local mid-sized business groups to conduct more activities.In a report submitted to an economy-related ministers' meeting held in Seoul, the Fair Trade Commission will increase the minimum asset criteria from the current 5 trillion won (4.3 billion) to 10 trillion won in September, with state-run corpor

The South Korean market for desserts has been expanding rapidly over the past years despite the country's prolonged economic slump, industry data showed Thursday.The dessert market was estimated at 1.5 trillion won in 2015, up a whopping 90 percent from the previous year. Last year, the market more than doubled to 800 billion won from 300 billion won in 2013.In a recent report, Eugene Investment & Securities Co. predicted the figure to breach the 2 trillion won mark this year as several domestic

A Chinese portal website has opened an online platform that publishes South Korean news to help expand exchange between the two countries, its local affiliate said Thursday.Renghuangwang (http://www.ifeng.com) has opened the news site (http://kr.ifeng.com), becoming the first Chinese portal to do so with the purpose of boosting exchange, Renghwangwang Korea Media said, adding the service is also available as a smartphone app. Screenshot of http://kr.ifeng.comThe portal owned by Phoenix New Media

In a surprise move, South Korea's central bank slashed its policy rate by 25 basis points Thursday, apparently anticipating a further delay in what many believe an imminent U.S. rate hike.The Bank of Korea slashed the key rate to a new record low of 1.25 percent for June, marking the first rate cut in 12 months.The BOK had stood pat on the key rate after sending it to the previous record low in four rate cuts between August 2014 and June 2015.The decision came as a surprise to many as the South

South Korea's No. 1 tech firm Samsung Electronics Co. is forecast to see the combined sales of the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge reach 15 million in the second quarter of this year, industry sources said Thursday.The sources estimate that Samsung's combined shipments of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will hover at 15 million units in the April-June period. The two models went on sales on March 11. Samsung Galaxy S7 (Yonhap)Noticeably, the sales of the Galaxy S7 Edge, which is more expensive, will

North Korea plans to convene a major parliamentary meeting in late June, the North's state media said Thursday, amid the possibility that the country's leader Kim Jong-un could take another title to further solidify his grip on power.The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly has decided to hold the fourth session of the 13th assembly on June 29, according to the Korean Central News Agency.The SPA, the legislative body of the reclusive country, rubber stamps decisions by more powerful organi

The United States views North Korea's actions with "great concern," the State Department said Wednesday, following reports that the communist nation has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel to harvest plutonium.A senior State Department official was quoted by Reuters as saying Tuesday that the North took spent fuel from the 5-megawatt reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex and took it to the reprocessing facility to produce the element that can be used for nuclear weapons."We have been very cl

China told a North Korean delegation last week that it wants to realize the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, South Korea's top nuclear envoy said Wednesday after meeting with his Chinese counterpart. Kim Hong-kyun, South Korea's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs, made the remarks after holding talks with Wu Dawei earlier in the day, during which the Chinese official briefed Kim on last week's visit by a top North Korean official, Ri Su-yong, to Be

The South Korean economy faces headwinds both at home and abroad due mainly to rapid aging and faltering exports, with its growth potential slowing down at the same time, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday."With income levels still short of the OECD frontier, (South Korea's) potential growth has slowed," the IMF mission, which had an annual consultation with the South Korean government, said a press release."At the same time, Korea is facing major structural headwinds including: rapi

One North Korean woman was killed and several others injured while working in freezing cold weather on the construction site of a power plant, Pyongyang's state media said Wednesday.The North's main newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported that a female nurse died as she tried to stop equipment from slipping at the construction site of the Paektusan Hero Youth Power Station near the border with China. It did not elaborate or provide details regarding the nurse's identity.The paper also said several work

South Korea should capitalize on its evolving robotics technology to cope with future combat operations, a local researcher said Wednesday, noting that ground-based military robots would put the country at an advantage in a potential conflict with poorly-equipped North Korean forces.Kim Do-jong, a researcher at the state-run Agency for Defense Development, said in his latest research paper that the South can utilize robots as part of its "reverse asymmetric weapons systems" to counter the North'

China on Wednesday called for the relevant countries to resume dialogue with North Korea as the U.N. nuclear watchdog warned that the North appears to have restarted its main nuclear bomb fuel plant. If the warning by the International Atomic Energy Agency is correct, it would be the latest move by North Korea in expanding its nuclear weapons program, despite tightened international sanctions. When asked about the IAEA warning, China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei replied that China is co

South Korean shares closed at their highest level of this year on Wednesday on the back of foreign buying, helped by market kingpin Samsung Electronics' rally on its robust outlook. The local currency rose against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 15.45 points, or 0.77 percent, to 2,027.08, the highest closing level this year. Trade volume was moderate at 490 million shares worth 5.7 trillion won ($4.92 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 411 to 395.Fo

South Korea's major shipbuilders are expected to tread water over the next three years as orders are drying up amid the prolonged industry slump stemming from the oil price plunge, company and government officials said Wednesday. The nation's big three players -- Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering -- have come under growing pressure to overhaul its money-losing businesses as the slump in oil prices has led to delays or cancella

Shares of Samsung Electronics Co. rose for the sixth consecutive session Wednesday as local analysts unleashed optimism on the top-cap company's earnings for the second quarter.Samsung closed up 0.57 percent at 1,406,000 won ($1,216.40) on South Korea's main bourse on the back of strong foreign buying, ending above the 1,400,000 won level for the first time in 13 months. At one point in morning trade, Samsung's stock price hit a fresh 52-week high of 1,419,000 won.The company's market value came

Despite tougher mortgage loans, lending by South Korean banks to households in May rose at the fastest clip this year on increased collective loans, central bank data showed Wednesday.Outstanding household loans extended by local lenders came to 660.9 trillion won ($573 billion) as of end-May, up 6.7 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea.It marked the sharpest on-month increase this year as well as an acceleration from the 5.3-trillion-won gain in the pr

A woman in her 30s was arrested for punching a senior citizen in his 70s, police in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province said Wednesday.Police said the woman, surnamed Kim, hit and kicked the man for “staring at her in a way that made her feel uncomfortable.” (YTN capture)She is also accused of assaulting four other citizens who attempted to pull them apart. The police investigation revealed that Kim had been booked a month earlier for similar allegations of hitting a woman on the streets for “scowling.” Ki