South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. is quickly catching up on Sony Corp. in the Ultra HD TV sector, expanding its foothold in one of the Japanese firm's most successful business areas, data showed Wednesday.The world's No. 1 maker of TVs held 14.9 percent of the global UHD TV market in the fourth quarter of 2013, narrowing its gap with Sony which commanded 18.2 percent, according to market researcher DisplaySearch.Following the rise of South Korean and Chinese tech giants, the once unchallenge

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has warned against factionalism in the nation's ruling party, its official media said Wednesday, as part of ongoing efforts to reinforce ideology education after the stunning execution of his uncle for treason charges. "(We) failed to learn and root out the emergence of a modern-time faction within the party in advance" despite diverse efforts to set the monolithic control system, Kim was quoted as saying by the North's Korea Central News Agency.He made the remark

The government will suspend the enforcement of a bill to reduce the workweek for up to two years even if it wins parliamentary approval this year, the labor minister said Wednesday.Last year, the government proposed a bill that would cut the maximum weekly working hours, including overtime and holiday work, to 52 hours from the current 68 hours.The bill is aimed at protecting employees from long working hours and improve the nation's economy through job sharing. South Korea has one of the world'

North Korea has asked the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to help contain the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the communist country, a news report said Wednesday.North Korean officials met with their counterparts from the U.N. agency in Italy on Monday to discuss the issue, a day after Pyongyang made the request to the Rome-based U.N. body, the Washington-based Radio Free Asia said.The U.N. agency plans to quickly send a team of its officials to North Korea to assess the situation,

South Korean consumer sentiment inched down in February from the previous month as economic uncertainty lingers despite improvement in economic activity, the central bank said Wednesday.The consumer sentiment index came in at 108 for February, down from a 35-month high of 109 recorded for January, according to the Bank of Korea. The index is a gauge of consumers' overall economic outlook, living conditions and future spending.A reading above 100 means that optimists outnumber pessimists. The sur

Asiana Airlines, a South Korean flagship carrier, was fined $500,000 Tuesday for what the U.S. aviation authorities described as negligence in assisting families of passengers aboard its jet that crash-landed in San Francisco last year.The Department of Transportation said Asiana "violated federal law last July by failing to adhere to the assurances in its family assistance plan" following the accident in which three passengers were killed.The federal law, set up in 1997, requires all foreign ai

The head of South Korea's bourse operator said Wednesday it would be best not to tax derivatives trading, but if it's unavoidable, he would recommend levying capital gains tax rather than transaction tax and wait until the local stock market recovers.The government is considering levying taxes on financial products including derivatives and bring them out of what it calls "taxation dead zone." The finance ministry is in talks with related agencies over which of the two types of taxes to levy."Gi

활발한 화산활동이 지구온난화를 늦춘다고 UPI등 외신이 최근 네이처 지오사이언스 지를 인용해 보도했다. 네이처 지오사이언스 지에 실린 과학 논문에 따르면, 유난히 기온이 높았던 1998년 이후, 지구 온난화는 지난 15년간 기상학자들의 예측보다 느리게 진행됐다. 이 연구에 따르면 2000년부터 현재까지 전세계적으로 일어난 화산 분화는 최소 17건으로, 에리트리아의 나브로 화산, 미국 알래스카 주의 카사토치 화산, 인도네시아의 메라피 화산 등에서 발발했다.해당 연구 논문에 따르면, 이같은 화산 분화는 대기중의 유황 함량을 증가시켜 태양열의 전도율을 난주는 등, 총체적으로 지구온난화가 완만해진 원인의 약 15 퍼센트 정도를 차지한다.(khnews@heraldcorp.com)<관련 영문 기사>Volcano eruptions help slow global warmingAn uptick in volcanic activity around the world has helped the slowdo

A Taiwanese financial company submitted a bid for Tongyang Securities Inc., a brokerage arm of the embattled Tong Yang Group put up for sale following the group's liquidity crunch, industry sources said Tuesday.According to the sources, Tong Yang closed bidding for its brokerage unit earlier in the day. Taiwan-based Yuanta Securities was the sole bidder.Whether Yuanta will be picked as the preferred bidder would be decided later in the day or by Wednesday, they said.The stake up for sale is some

South Korea's national debt, including that of public companies, reached 1,218 trillion won ($1,135 billion) in 2012, or roughly 95 percent of the country's GDP, the country's largest federation of business groups said Tuesday.The findings released by Korea Economic Research Institute, the research arm of the Federation of Korean Industries, showed that the total debt size is 2.7 times larger than the government debt that stood at 443.1 trillion won for the one-year period.The figures also showe

South Korean athletes returned home Tuesday after two weeks of thrilling competition at the winter games in the Russian city of Sochi.South Korea had its largest-ever Winter Olympics delegation, with 71 athletes competing in every sport except hockey.It ended in 13th place, with three gold medals -- one by speed skater Lee Sang-hwa and two by short tracker Park Seung-hi – along with three silver and two bronze medals, coming up just short of its stated goal of winning four gold for a top-10 fini

The newly elected president of South Korea's second-largest TV network MBC took office on Tuesday, vowing to rebuild the company's status as one of the nation's most popular TV channels by providing differentiated programming.Ahn Kwang-han, who led MBC's cable TV unit, MBC Plus Media, was officially elected MBC's president in a shareholders' meeting on Friday. MBC's largest shareholder, the Foundation for Broadcast Culture, has a 70 percent stake in the broadcaster."We'll focus on making high-qu

The main opposition Democratic Party blasted President Park Geun-hye's economic reform plan Tuesday, saying it fails to address the public's real concerns.Park unveiled the so-called "three-year economic innovation plan" in a nationally televised address marking the first anniversary of her inauguration, vowing to lift the country's potential growth rate to 4 percent, achieve 70 percent employment and lay the foundation for a per capita income of $40,000.The three core strategies behind these go

스페인 경찰청이 그간 선정성 논란을 빚어온 응급처치 교육용 영상에 대해 사죄하고 방영 중지를 선언했다고 UPI 등 외신이 보도했다.문제가 된 두 영상 중 하나인 또다른 영상인 "슈퍼 섹시 앱도미널 쓰러스트"는 하임리히 요법(질식한 환자를 위한 구급법)에 대한 교육 비디오로, 두 금발 미녀 모델이 속옷 차림으로 등장한다. "슈퍼 섹시 심폐소생술 (Super sexy CPR)"이란 제목의 또다른 교육용 영상은 타이트한 브리프만 걸친 흑인 근육질 남성이, 레이스 란제리만 착용한 금발 백인 여성에게 심폐소생술을 시전하는 모습을 담았다. 특히 남성 모델이 여성 모델을 뒤에서 끌어안고 밀착하는 부분은 경찰 응급 교육의 본질을 상실했다는 여론의 뭇매를 맞았다.현지 언론의 최근 보도에 따르면, 포르노를 연상시키는 이 교육용 영상들은 시청을 끝낸 경찰 수강생들 중 일부가 영상의 적절성을 문제삼으면서 구설수에 올랐다. 논란 초기에는 "수강생들에게는 영상에 벗은 여성이 등장한다고 사전 공지했다"고 발뺌

South Korea's household credit rose to a fresh high in the fourth quarter, with its growth accelerating from three months earlier on a sharp rise in mortgage lending, the central bank said Tuesday.Household credit totaled 1,021 trillion won ($954 billion) as of end-December, up 27.7 trillion won from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea.Household credit refers to credit purchases and loans for households that have been extended by financial institutions, including commercial lend

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday she will make a "preparatory committee for unification" with North Korea to map out a blueprint for how best to become one nation with the communist neighbor.The move underscores Park's commitment to inter-Korean unification. In recent months, she has talked about unification many times, saying repeatedly that it will be an economic "bonanza" for South Korea as well as a blessing for neighboring countries too.It also came as relations between the

President Park Geun-hye announced a package of ambitious measures Tuesday to boost South Korea's economy and fix various problems hampering its growth, vowing to raise the country's potential growth rate to 4 percent by 2017.In a nationally televised address, Park also pledged to make South Korea's per capita national income rise from around $30,000 to $40,000, while raising the employment rate to 70 percent through a "three-year economic innovation plan" announced Tuesday."There will be no futu

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest carmaker, on Tuesday unveiled its Intrado fuel cell concept vehicle that showcases the brand's new design language and technology that may find its way into production vehicles down the line.The official presentation is to take place at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show to kick off on March 4. Hyundai said the car has been created by its technical and design office at Russelsheim, Germany, in cooperation with Namyang R&D Center.The name Intrado is borrowed f

K-pop group Girls' Generation swept local music charts with its new song "Mr. Mr." Tuesday, a day after it was uploaded on online music services at home and abroad.The group's fourth mini-album of the same title was uploaded on iTunes and local music services such as Melon and Naver Music at 5 p.m. on Monday. It has six songs of different genres of pop music, including the title track "Mr. Mr" by famous American music production duo The Underdogs.As of Tuesday morning, the track sat atop real-ti

South Korea's e-commerce sales grew to an all-time high last year, but the growth rate slowed from a year earlier, a government report showed Tuesday.Online sales totaled about 1,204.1 trillion won ($1.12 trillion) in 2013, up 5 percent from the 1,146.8 trillion won tallied in the previous year, according to the report by Statistics Korea.The amount is the largest ever since related data started to be compiled in 2001, but the growth rate slowed from the previous year's 14.7 percent gain.The rep