South Korea's main bourse said on Sunday it has asked 175 of listed companies to disclose key management decisions and other information in English starting this week, a move meant to boost foreign shareholders' value.The 175 firms, or about 23 percent, of all 769 companies listed on the main stock exchange are also asked to release earnings results, forecasts and investment decisions in English from Monday in its own KIND regulatory filing system, the Korea Exchange said in a statement."There h

Debts owed by South Korea's three major shipbuilders more than doubled over a period of five years ending in 2015 due to disadvantageous contract terms, according to their business reports Sunday.The combined borrowings by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Samsung Heavy Industries Co., and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. jumped to 23.9 trillion won ($20.68 billion) at the end of 2015 from 10 trillion won at end-2010, the data showed.Industry analysts said a sharp increase in the so-call

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has laid out a five-year strategy for economic growth, stressing the need to improve the people's livelihood and ease an electric power shortage, the country's state media said Sunday.The North's leader did not spell out detailed plans to prop up the country's moribund economy, but emphasized efforts to log sustainable economic growth in the face of tougher U.N. sanctions over its latest nuclear and missile tests."It is imperative to carry through the five-year st

South Korea's automobile exports extended their losing streak to six straight months in April due mainly to shrinking demand from emerging markets, the government said Sunday.Outbound shipments of vehicles came to 228,502 units last month, down 19 percent from 282,044 units tallied a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.The April figure widened from a 5.1 percent on-year drop in March and an 8.4 percent fall in February.From a month earlier, it also fell 12.8 per

Tourist arrivals here from Japan rose for the second consecutive month in March, industry data showed Sunday.According to the data released by the Korea Tourism Organization, a total of 224,328 Japanese tourists visited South Korea in March, marking a rise of 55.3 percent over the previous month and a year-on-year increase of 2.5 percent from 218,932 in the same month of 2015.In February, 144,493 Japanese came to visit South Korea, rising 1.3 percent from 142,587 recorded a year earlier.Before F

Some 10 buoys that North Korea installed last year to apparently identify the western inter-Korean sea border were washed away, a government source said Sunday, amid constant concerns that the communist state would violate the maritime boundary.There are no signs yet of the North trying to reinstall the buoys -- with a diameter of less than 1 meter each - after it put in place a monitoring device on a deserted island some 12 kilometers northeast of the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong, t

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed not to use nuclear weapons first unless the country's sovereignty is violated at the North's key party congress, the country's state-run media said Sunday.At the ongoing party congress of the Workers' Party of Korea, the North's leader also said that Pyongyang will seek to "improve and normalize" its relations with countries that will ditch their hostile policy toward it. (Yonhap)"As a responsible nuclear weapons state, our republic will not use a nuclea

A woman who discarded her newborn baby in a plastic bag was sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison suspended for three years Wednesday by the Suwon District Court.  (Yonhap)The 26-year-old woman surnamed Hong was indicted in August 2015 for discarding her baby girl in a black plastic bag in the veranda of her apartment. She had given birth in the bathroom of her residence in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. The baby was rescued by a passerby who heard her wail and reported Hong to the authorities. The Suw

The murder victim whose dismembered body was found in Gyeonggi Province’s Daebudo Island is a 40-year-old Korean, according to the police who confirmed the victim’s identity through his fingerprints. The Ansan Danwon police, who is in charge of the case, will keep the rest of the victim’s personal information confidential until the case is closed. (Yonhap)According to the police, the victim was yet to be reported missing, which led the police to assume he had no family or had separated.The Natio

A Korean man was arrested along with four Thai females for brokering sex trade on Wednesday. The 31-year-old man surnamed Park had used a smartphone chatting application to arrange paid sex between the Thai women and Korean men since February. (123RF)The Mokpo Police said Park had used a suggestive profile photos to attract male customers. Each meeting cost 100,000 won ($86) to 150,000 won at motels and rented flats in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province. The Thai women were turned over to the Korea Im

A new suspect for the Jejudo Korean-Chinese murder case has surfaced from surveillance camera records shared by the victim’s Chinese bank on Wednesday. The police are trying to confirm the identity of the man who was photographed using the victim’s debit card at an ATM.  (Yonhap)The Jeju Seogwipo police said they found a photo of a man withdrawing 2 million won ($1,730) from an ATM with the victim’s debit card, around the end of last year when the victim went missing. The man in the photo wore a

South Korea plans to sell 3 trillion won ($2.6 billion) worth of Treasury bills this month to help stabilize the money market and cover government expenses, the finance ministry said Wednesday.The bills will have a maturity of 63 days and will be sold in three separate auctions throughout the month, it added.Treasury bills are designed to raise money to cover short-term financial shortfalls, and thus are generally sold with a maturity of less than a year.Following the planned sales of additional

The number of visitors allowed for the nighttime stroll at Changdeokgung Palace in Seoul will increase from the original 100 to 150 per session, the Cultural Heritage Administration announced Wednesday. Additional 700 tickets for the increased spots in May and June will go on sale from Friday at 1 p.m. at Interpark, the online shopping mall for event tickets. (http://ticket.interpark.com/Ticket/Goods/GoodsInfo.asp?GoodsCode=16001708)Each ticket is priced 30,000 won ($26).  (Cultural Heritage Adm

A five-day outdoor beer festival took off Wednesday at Coex Mall, Gangnam, heralding the beginning of a rare long-weekend holiday in Korea. At the Great Korean Beer Festival 2016, homegrown craft beer brands introduced their own specialty brews enriched with hints of coconut, chocolate and raspberries. Beer of all types -- IPAs, lager, ale and stout -- are available at individual brewery booths for purchase. (Great Korean Beer Festival)Food that goes well with the beers -- like sausages and frie

A majority of companies estimate increased corporate taxes this year from last year and expect to pay more when new tax codes become effective in 2017, a survey said Wednesday.Responses drawn by the Federation of Korean Industries, in its survey of 200 company officials in charge of tax filings, said 61.5 percent reported higher corporate taxes this year than last. Another 67 percent said they see taxes rising next year under new codes that reduced allowed write-offs for carryover business losse

The upper half of a body matching a lower half found on Sunday was discovered on Gyeonggi Province’s Daebudo Island on Tuesday. On Sunday, a tourist had discovered the severed lower-half of a male body in a trench, naked except for the blanket and the gunny sack in which it was wrapped.  (Yonhap)More than 900 police had searched the area with drones and boats, finally finding the upper half of the body in a gunny sack. The Ansan Danwon police, which is in charge of the case, said the victim’s fa

A Japanese high school student has sued a Korean cosmetic surgeon for using photos of her taken before and after her surgery without her permission. 　The student, aged 18, had suffered an extreme case of depression due to dissatisfaction with her looks. She had even attempted suicide.  (123RF)In 2014, while attending a school in North America, she briefly visited Busan, Korea, accompanied by her parents for nose and eye cosmetic surgeries. They left the country after explicitly asking the hospit

North Korea could opt to carry out another nuclear test ahead of the country's rare ruling party congress set for later this week as it has completed all preparations at its Punggye-ri test site, the defense ministry said Tuesday.North Korea appears to be "plotting further strategic provocations including a nuclear test, the test-firing of a Musudan intermediate range missile and another submarine-launched ballistic missile launch," the Ministry of National Defense said in a parliamentary report

아래는 브렌단 돈리 (Brendan Donley)로부터 받은 마지막 사진들이다. 돈리의 종조부는 만 18세의 나이로 미군에 입대해 한국 전쟁 직후인 1953년부터 1954년 사이 약 2년간 부산과 수색 등지에서 국토 재건축 사업에 함께했다. 그 시간 동안 그가 촬영한 사진들에 60여년 전 우리네 삶의 모습이 고스란히 담겨 있다.코리아헤럴드 임정요 기자 (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)[단독]②50년대 한국, 미군의 눈으로 보다[단독]①50년대 한국, 미군의 눈으로 보다

A public school teacher in Busan was removed from his position after allegedly insinuating paid dates with minors. According to the Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education on Tuesday, the teacher, in his 50s, told his pupils he had “dated a young foreign girl” in the past, after which more than 10 female students alerted the school authorities that they felt sexually humiliated as “potential dates.”The teacher defended his case, saying that he had only told the story of his first love, howev