South Korean stocks closed slightly lower Wednesday on profit-taking after the key index hit a record-high in the previous session. The Korean won gained against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index moved down 4.23 points, or 0.18 percent, to close at 2,391.77. Trade volume was low at 266 million shares worth 5.3 trillion won ($4.62 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 541 to 267.Seoul shares closed lower as investors took a breather after the market rose to a re

A Russian man who fled to his home country in 2015 after killing a South Korean woman near Seoul has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Russian court, the Ministry of Justice said Wednesday.The unidentified Russian national, 37, was referred to trial after being arrested in June 2016 by Russian police at the request of South Korean police and Interpol, said the ministry.The man was convicted of strangling a 30-year-old South Korean woman to death inside an apartment elevator in Bucheon on

A ranking official from the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday hinted at giving up efforts to win the parliament's support for an extra budget bill, a move apparently aimed at keeping the president's two controversial nominees for new ministers.President Moon Jae-in has repeatedly urged the opposition-led parliament to approve the government-proposed bill on the 11.2 trillion won ($9.77 billion) supplementary budget.He, however, has also noted the importance of timing. (Yonhap)"Shoul

South Korea's mobile stock trading has witnessed sharp gains in the past few years as the country emerged as having one of the highest smartphone penetration numbers in the world, industry data showed Wednesday.South Korea's smartphone penetration rate stands at 85 percent, compared with the global average of 51 percent.The proportion of mobile stock trading in the secondary KOSDAQ market surged to 34.49 percent during the first six months this year from 3.12 percent in 2010, according to the fi

SK hynix Inc., South Korea's No. 2 tech giant, on Wednesday remained silent over reports that Japan-based Toshiba Corp. is contacting US and Taiwanese firms as potential buyers of its memory division.Japanese media earlier reported Toshiba is holding talks with US Western Digital and Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision amid the delayed negotiation with its preferred-bidder consortium that includes SK hynix.Last month, a global consortium that included South Korea's SK hynix Inc. was tapped as the pre

The money supply in South Korea jumped 6.1 percent in May from a year earlier, the central bank said Wednesday.The nation's M2 totaled 2,454.3 trillion won ($2.13 trillion) in May, compared with 2,312.8 trillion won a year earlier, the Bank of Korea said in a statement.The money supply gained 0.3 percent on-month, the statement said. The growth rate of the money supply has been on the decline since October 2015 as companies decreased domestic credit.M2 is a measure of the money supply counting t

Volatility in South Korea's currency markets eased in June from a month earlier as global financial markets were relatively stabilized, the central bank said Wednesday.The session-over-session changes in the dollar-won exchange rates averaged 0.28 percent in June, compared with 0.41 percent a month earlier, the Bank of Korea said in a statement. "The won has fallen against the dollar since June due to caution on shifts in monetary policies in major countries and geopolitical risks over Nort

The Seoul city government on Wednesday unveiled a plan for an extra budget worth 2.31 trillion won ($2.01 billion) mainly aimed at creating jobs, in step with President Moon Jae-in's push for easing the protracted unemployment. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said it submitted a bill for the supplementary budget to the city parliament, which is the largest amount in eight years and accounts for about 6 percent of the city's total budget for this year.  The proposal comes in line with the centr

South Korea's unification minister on Wednesday met with a group of company officials who ran factories at a now-shuttered industrial complex in North Korea as they called for more compensation for their losses over the closure.Cho Myoung-gyon held a meeting with 14 officials from local firms that invested in the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea's border city of the same name, according to Seoul's unification ministry."Since I became the minister, what struck me first was the joint indu

President Moon Jae-in met with key political and government leaders Wednesday to explain the outcome of his recent trip to Germany, his office Cheong Wa Dae said, a move also aimed at overcoming the political dispute he now faces here.The meeting, held over lunch at the presidential office, involved the so-called five key figures next in command that include Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun and Acting Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Kim Yi-su, who is

South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed Wednesday to continue joint efforts to put "maximum pressure" on North Korea in order to bring it to the negotiating table.The three countries strongly condemned the North's launch last week of a ballistic missile with intercontinental range during a video conference of their defense officials, according to the South's Ministry of National Defense.It was meant to share information on the latest provocation and discuss countermeasures.They pointed o

North Korea's granary zones, including Hwanghae provinces, are suffering great damage due to a drought that began in April, a US broadcaster reported Wednesday. According to data from a joint investigation team, comprising officials from UN agencies operating in the communist country, about 16 percent of all farmland in South Hwanghae Province was heavily affected by drought, with 40 percent of the farmland in the Kangryong and Jangyon counties dried up, Voice of America said. North Korean soldi

South Korean stocks opened nearly flat Wednesday as investors sought profit-taking after the market closed at a record-high level in the previous session.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 2.25 points, or 0.09 percent, to 2,398.25 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Carmakers gained ground, with industry leader Hyundai Motor increasing 1.69 percent and its sister Kia Motors rising 2.04 percent. Top auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis added 1.64 percent.Market behemoth Samsung Elect

WASHINGTON -- The US continues to look into a so-called secondary boycott of North Korea to starve the communist nation of resources to develop its nuclear and missile programs, the State Department said Tuesday.North Korea is under a wide range of sanctions for its missile and nuclear tests, and is expected to face stronger punishment for its intercontinental ballistic missile launch last week."We are willing to look at third-party sanctions and look at other nations and sanction them if they a

The Senate-proposed US defense budget bill for next year calls for further strengthening the alliance with South Korea, including through the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system, congressional records showed Tuesday.The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, which was introduced by Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Monday, has a section devoted to the "importance of alliance" between the US and the South. (Yonhap)In the section, th

WASHINGTON -- The United States on Tuesday announced a successful test of its missile defense system in the wake of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile launch last week.The Missile Defense Agency said it conducted a test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system earlier in the day by air-launching a ballistic missile target over the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. The test came a week after North Korea carried out its first test of an ICBM believed to be capable of hitting th

South Korea's new government will seek both growth and fairer wealth distribution under the main theme of "good growth," a presidential official said Tuesday, hinting it will also break from the country's longstanding preoccupation with numerical targets."The new government will pursue good growth," the official told reporters, declining to be named. "This means we will no longer follow the pattern of putting forward growth targets and pushing for growth-centric policies

South Korea's new chief ICT policymaker said Tuesday that he will push forward tough reforms as the country must deal with various challenges under the fourth industrial revolution."The Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning should be reborn so that the ministry that can prepare for the future amid the changes," You Young-min said during his inauguration ceremony.The government has been engaged in various projects to cope with the latest revolution that is characterized by a fusion of cut

South Korea will continue to work to expose the grim history of Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women to the international community as a lesson learned from history, the foreign ministry here said Tuesday."Our government's coherent stance is that we will continue efforts to make the comfort women issue a lesson from history and give the next generations the truth (about the issue)," Cho June-hyuck, spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a press briefing. The remarks

POHANG -- A ceremony to break ground on a UN global education center, initiated by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, was held at Handong Global University in the country's southeastern port city of Pohang on Tuesday, with Ban attending. UNAI Korea is building the Ban Ki-moon Global Education Institute to help realize the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and nurture related global experts. The UNAI is short for the UN Academic Impact, an initiative launched by then-UN chief Ban in Novemb