Bank lending rates on new household loans rebounded in September for the first time in six months and interest paid by banks on new deposits also increased, central bank data showed Thursday.The average interest rate on fresh household loans extended by local banks came to 3.03 percent last month, up 0.08 percentage point from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea.The BOK data came a week before the government is set to announce a set of measures to cool the country's housing market

President Park Geun-hye on Thursday attended an event marking the Day of Local Autonomy in the southern port city of Busan, as the embattled leader moves to contain the fallout from a burgeoning influence-peddling scandal involving her longtime confidante.Amid escalating public furor over the scandal surrounding Choi Soon-sil, Park carried out her official duties by participating in the event, which takes stock of the evolution of the country's provincial autonomy.Choi -- the daughter of Park's

South Korea's credit card spending increased 7.7 percent on-year in September, as the prices of agricultural products rose due to an unusual heat wave, data showed Thursday.South Koreans usually spend more before and during the Chuseok holiday, one of the largest annual celebrations. Chuseok, the equivalent of Thanksgiving Day in the U., fell on Sept. 15 this year.This year, especially, a record hot spell drove up the prices of agricultural, livestock and fishery products. The nation's consumer

Sales at South Korean duty-free stores fell 2.52 percent in September from a month earlier as the number of customers dropped, data showed Thursday.Sales reached $943.58 million in September, compared to $967.93 million the previous month, according to data compiled by the Korean Duty Free Association.It said the number of people who visited duty-free stores stood at 4.16 million in September, down 6.7 percent from a month earlier.Still, sales at local duty-free stores rose 36.4 percent in the f

Shareholders of Samsung Electronics Co. on Thursday approved the nomination of Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong to the electronics giant's board of directors. The approval enables the 48-year-old Lee, the only son of the ailing Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, to more actively participate and take formal responsibility in the company's important decision-making, Samsung said in a statement. (Yonhap)Another Samsung vice chairman, Kwon Oh-hyun, said the approval was met "with applause" as most

South Korea's air passenger traffic surged from a year earlier in September with both international and domestic passengers continuing to increase, the government said Thursday.The number of international air passengers to and from the country spiked 21.7 percent on-year to over 5.99 million last month, with the number of domestic air passengers gaining 8.4 percent to 2.62 million, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.Overall air passenger traffic jumped 17.3 percent t

South Korean Army's special warfare command and its US counterpart have recently carried out a joint exercise to practice "surgical strikes" against North Korea's nuclear and missile facilities, military officials said Thursday. "The US Air Force's 353rd Special Operations Group conducted a combined striking exercise against an enemy's facilities with the South Korean Army's special forces brigade at a military base in Gunsan (274 kilometers south of Seoul)," a defense official said told Yonhap

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's largest mobile carrier, on Thursday reported a 13.5-percent drop in its third-quarter operating profit on the impact from the Galaxy Note 7 problem and more subscribers using contract-based mobile fee discounts.SK Telecom's operating profit amounted to 424.3 billion won ($372 million) during the July-September period, down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, according to its consolidated balance sheet.Its revenue also fell 0.4 percent on-year to 4.24 trillion won, whi

S-Oil Corp., the third-largest oil refiner in South Korea, said Thursday it swung to the black in the third quarter from a year earlier thanks to higher oil prices.Net profit reached 172 billion won ($151 million) in the July-September period, compared to a loss of 44 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.Operating income surged to 116 billion won in the third quarter, from a year earlier.But sales dipped 6.5 percent on-year to reach 4.14 trillion won over the cited

The South Korean government said Thursday it will announce a set of measures to cool down the country's real estate boom next week amid concerns over mounting household credits.At a ministerial-level meeting in Seoul chaired by Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho, the country's economic policymakers discussed pending issues, including an overheating in the local property market and the ongoing corporate restructuring of the shipbuilding and shipping industries.They decided to announce the government's co

South Korea's No. 2 automaker Kia Motors Corp. said Thursday that its third quarter net profit jumped 20.8 percent from a year earlier despite a slight drop in sales.In the July-September period, Kia Motors' net profit came to 664.3 billion won ($583.23 million) on a consolidated basis, compared with a net profit of 550.1 billion won in the same period last year, the company said in a regulatory filing.Sales dropped 3.1 percent on-year to some 12.7 trillion won over the cited period, with operat

South Korea's top Internet portal operator Naver Corp. said Thursday its net profit soared 69.5 percent from a year earlier in the third quarter as its sales reached a record high on growing sales from overseas and its mobile business.In the three months ended Sept. 30, net profit came to 198 billion won ($174.1 million) on a consolidated basis, compared with a net profit of 116.85 billion won in the same period last year, the company said in a regulatory filing.Sales jumped 20.5 percent on-year

Choi Soon-sil, a close confidante of President Park Geun-hye who is under suspicion for exercising influence on state affairs, admitted to receiving presidential documents but denied all other allegations, including claims she unlawfully raised funds for public foundations, a local news report showed Thursday.Choi, known to be in Germany at present, confirmed in an interview with South Korea's daily Segye Times that she did some editing on speeches, but it was only to "help better convey Park's

 Cheong Wa Dae on Thursday said that Choi Soon-sil, President Park Geun-hye’s aide at the center of controversy, should return from overseas so as to clear the allegations on her meddling in state affairs.The office, however, has maintained silence over possible follow-up measures from the president, especially as to whether she would carry out an overhaul of the Cabinet, which includes Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs Woo Byung-woo, who has been closely intertwined in Choi’s corr

South Korean stocks opened higher on Thursday as investors attempted to buy oversold shares.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 6.93 points, or 0.34 percent, to 2,020.82 in the first 15 minutes of trading.  Most large caps traded mixed with market kingpin Samsung Electronics rising 0.38 percent. Samsung C&T, Samsung's de facto holding firm, lost 0.9 percent.Top automaker Hyundai Motor rose 0.36 percent, and SK hynix was up 0.58 percent on its better-than-expected third-quarter e

North Korea's two failed missile tests earlier this month could have involved the KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the continental US, not the shorter-range Musudan missile identified by the US and South Korean militaries, an American expert was quoted as saying.Jeffrey Lewis, a nonproliferation expert and director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, raised the possibility, citing satellite photos of the l

North Korea will be the "most intractable" issue for the next US president, a former Swedish prime minister said, calling for greater efforts to enlist China's help in reining in the recalcitrant regime.Carl Bildt, who served as Sweden's prime minister from 1991 to 1994 and as foreign minister from 2006 to 2014, made the remark in a recent article to the Project Syndicate, warning that Pyongyang is "slowly but surely progressing toward a deliverable nuclear weapon.""While the crisis in Syria may

South Korea's air traffic soared from a year earlier in the third quarter on a sharp increase in international flights to and from the country, the government said Thursday.In the July-September period, the country's overall air traffic came to 192,913 flights, up 15.2 percent from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The increase was largely attributed to a steep rise in the number of international flights to and from the country.In the thr

Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday its third-quarter operating profit slipped 29.6 percent from a year earlier, mainly hit by the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone over safety concerns. The world's largest maker of smartphones said its operating profit for the July-September quarter stood at 5.2 trillion won ($4.6 billion), compared with a profit of 7.3 trillion won a year ago. Compared with a quarter earlier, Samsung's operating profit plunged 36.1 percent. Revenue for the thir

A South Korean fishing company has successfully farmed salmon at a seawater cage off the east coast for the first time in the country, paving the way for the mass-production of the fish, officials at the Gangwon provincial government said Wednesday.The salmon farmer, Donghae STF, which made a shipment of salmon farmed at the cage off the coastal town of Goseong on the country's east coast this week, plans to supply 400 tons of farmed salmon to outlets of the country's major discount store chains