The percentage of lawmakers in the new National Assembly who were exempted from serving in the military has fallen below the national average, data showed Wednesday, a development that reflects growing demand that elected officials fulfill their obligations before asking for votes.Of the 249 male lawmakers in the 20th National Assembly who were elected in the April 13 polls, 208 had fulfilled their military duties, with the exemption rate standing at 16.5 percent, the Military Manpower Administr

The global smartphone market share of South Korea's top smartphone maker Samsung Electronics Co. edged up in the first quarter of this year, a report showed Wednesday.Samsung took up 24.1 percent of the world's smartphone market in the January-March period in terms of revenue, a slight increase from 21.9 percent posted in Q4 of 2015, according to the latest research by industry tracker Strategy Analytics. LG Electronics Inc. saw its shares go down 0.6 percentage points to reach 2.7 percent, stan

Prosecutors raided Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME), one of the country's top three shipbuilders, on Wednesday over alleged accounting fraud and poor management amid an industrywide slump.The Supreme Prosecutors' Office said it dispatched some 150 investigators to raid the company's headquarters in central Seoul and its Okpo Shipyard on Geoje Island off the southern coast.State-run Korea Development Bank, the largest shareholder of the shipyard, as well as Deloitte Anjin LLC w

Mirae Asset Financial Group, South Korea's asset managing giant, will acquire a hotel in Hawaii for US$780 million in a business diversification strategy, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co., a major unit of the country's biggest asset management company by funds under its management, has recently signed to take over a whole 100 percent stake in the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa from the U.S.-based private equity fund Blackstone Group,

State-run energy-related companies suffered huge losses in 2015 as they were hammered by crippling debt and sinking commodity prices, government data showed Wednesday.The three public energy firms -- Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-Water), Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) and Korea Resources Corp. (KORES) -- chalked up combined losses of more than 12 trillion won ($10.4 billion) last year, according to the data by the finance ministry and the All Public Information In-One government web site

A North Korean fishing vessel was sent back home after it accidentally crossed the inter-Korean sea border early Wednesday, South Korea's military said.The vessel was reported by a South Korean fishing boat around 3:40 a.m. some 21 kilometers south of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border, in the East Sea, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff."A Navy ship was dispatched to the scene to search the boat, and found it had a problem with its navigation and (the crew) had no intenti

North Korea has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel to produce plutonium that can be used for nuclear weapons, a senior U.S. State Department official was quoted as saying Tuesday."They take the spent fuel from the 5 megawatt reactor at Yongbyon and let it cool and then take it to the reprocessing facility, and that's where they've obtained the plutonium for their previous nuclear tests. So they are repeating that process," Reuters quoted the unidentified official as saying. "That's what they'

The U.S. missile defense system is designed to counter "limited attacks from Iran and North Korea" and are not aimed at the strategic deterrence forces of Russia and China, the White House said Tuesday.The White House Office of Management and Budget made the point in a policy statement, expressing opposition to a proposal to remove the word "limited" from a section of the National Missile Defense Act of 1999 that says the U.S. policy is to deploy "an effective National Missile Defense system cap

A local court on Tuesday approved a filing by financially shaky STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. to be put under a court-led restructuring scheme, paving the way for the shipyard to avert liquidation.Last month, STX Shipbuilding, once the country's No. 4 shipbuilder, filed for receivership to stay afloat as its creditors decided to end a similar rehabilitation program for the shipbuilder.The shipbuilder has been under the control of its creditors since April 2013 amid a protracted slump in the sh

North Korea pledged Tuesday to develop more nuclear weapons as its existing arsenal has helped raise the country's strategic leverage in dealing with external relations, the North's state media said.North Korea plans to actively pursue diplomatic policy commensurate with its enhanced global status which has been earned thanks to its nuclear weapons program, according to Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper.The country has conducted four nuclear tests since 2006 with outside observers believ

The world's first web content festival will kick off in the southwestern city of Gwangju this month, organizers said Tuesday.Web content refers to cartoons, novels, dramas and videos created for the Internet or mobile devices.Co-hosted by the Gwangju city government and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the inaugural Gwangju World Web Contents Festival will be held at the Asia Culture Center from June 23 to June 26.About 20 popular web content creators and officials from domestic mult

A team of South Korean scientists have developed an electronic device that can stick to clothing, paving the way for wearable displays and monitoring censors, the science ministry said Tuesday. An electronic device attached to fabric via artificial cilia on its edges is called an electronic textile, said Ko Heung-cho, an associate professor at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology."We are ultimately targeting the development of an electronic device that can be used for a wearable computer

South Korea will play host to this year's world congress of the International Federation for Home Economics in the city of Daejeon on July 31-Aug. 6, organizers said Tuesday.The organizing committee of the 23rd IFHE World Congress, titled "Hope & Happiness: The role of Home Economics in the pursuit of hope & happiness for individuals and communities now and in the future," is expected to bring together about 1,000 scholars, policymakers and experts from 54 countries.The gathering is held every f

Creditors of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. may approve the embattled shipbuilder's self-restructuring plan worth 5.2 trillion won ($4.47 billion) Wednesday, industry sources said Tuesday.The shipbuilder has been under pressure from its creditors, led by state-run Korea Development Bank, to come up with a stronger rehabilitation scheme to tide over a protracted slump in the global shipbuilding segment and mounting losses.Under the plan presented to the creditors, Daewoo Shipbuildin

A U.S. cargo plane operated by United Parcel Service of America skidded off a runway at the main gateway to South Korea due to a breakdown in the landing gear. No casualties were reported, the aviation authorities here said Tuesday.Flight 5X61 bound for Anchorage in the United States was about to take off at Incheon International Airport at 10:48 p.m. on Monday, but instead rolled off the runway, according to the state-run airport operator.Five crew members, including one pilot, safely escaped f

South Korean stocks soared to surpass the 2,000-point mark on Tuesday as weaker than expected job data in the U.S. reduced the chance of an imminent rate hike in the world's largest economy. The Korean won sharply rose against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index jumped 25.79 points, or 1.3 percent, to close at 2,011.63. Trade volume was thin at 472 million shares worth 5.46 trillion won ($4.69 billion), with losers outnumbering winners 506 to 307.The local stock marke

The fitness software company ZOIT (CEO: Sung-Han Lee) announced on June 3 that it will be entering the Chinese market later this year with the release of a fitness bike that can be linked to smart devices. The fitness bike, developed in joint cooperation with a local health equipment company, is now in its final stages of completion. ZOIT made its debut in the simulated content industry back in 2007 with the release of a simulated horseback riding program in which users mount a mechanical horse

South Korea has opened an academy in Mexico that allows locals to experience first-hand what it is like to be trained into a K-pop star, the Korean Cultural Center here said Tuesday.The Mexico K-pop Academy is sponsored by South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and is part of the programs offered at Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and the Korean Cultural Center in the city.The 10-week program is divided into two parts -- the first six weeks will be dedicated to l

South Korea has implemented a project to build a multi-sports hall in the Bhutanese capital of Thimphu as part of efforts to improve the sports infrastructure in the Himalayan kingdom and enhance friendship between the two countries, government officials said Tuesday.Officials from the state-run Korea Sports Promotion Foundation and the Bhutan Olympic Committee held a groundbreaking ceremony at Jungshina, Thimphu, on May 27 to mark the construction of the hall.Among participants to the ceremony

The gang rape of a female teacher in a remote island village in Shinan County, South Jeolla Province, is igniting fierce public outrage. The teacher’s rape by three locals has sparked criticism against the lack of safety measures and flagrant disregard for the rights of women and teachers in rural areas.The regional government’s homepage is being bombarded with comments on the case and incompetence of the local officials, which some say was the cause for the attack. (123RF)More than 300 messages