South Korea's first-tier firms by market value saw their profitability improve last year on the back of their cost-cutting efforts and increased sales, industry data showed Monday.According to the data compiled by industry tracker CEO Score, 75 out of the country's top 100 market cap firms reported a 12.4 percent rise in their operating income at a combined 111.1 trillion won ($96.2 billion) last year, with their combined sales also rising 1.7 percent to 1,344 trillion won. (Yonhap)Of the survey

LG Electronics Inc. maintained its rank of third in the North American smartphone market in the fourth quarter of last year, data showed Monday, mainly on the back of strong sales of its flagship model V20.The South Korean tech company sold about 74 million smartphones during the October-December period, compared to 66 million units during the same quarter a year earlier, the data compiled by industry tracker Strategy Analytics showed. The figure translates into a market share of 14.2 percent. L

Although CEOs of big name conglomerates are expected to pass a regulator's test on their suitability as the main shareholders of nonbanking financial companies this year, there is less certainty they will pass it two years later when the unfolding corruption scandal will have taken its toll in courtrooms, officials said Monday.For the first time, the Financial Supervisory Service will be screening the biggest stakeholders of some 240 nonbanking financial firms on whether they are suited for thei

South Chungcheong Gov. An Hee-jung and Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn narrowed their gaps with liberal front-runner Moon Jae-in in a poll of potential presidential candidates released on Monday.Moon, former head of the main opposition Democratic Party, remained well ahead of the competition with 32.9 percent, up 1.7 percentage points from a week earlier, the survey conducted by Realmeter showed.Moon Jae-in, former head of the Democratic Party (Yonhap)Gov. An, also from the mai

Ban Ki-moon will receive the 2017 Individual Building Bridges Award from Pacific Century Institute on Feb. 23, according to PCI News.  Ban served from 2007 to 2016 as the UN secretary-general. He was responsible for several major reforms on peacekeeping, UN employment practices and climate change. The UN faced serious challenges in promoting international gender equality, along with inadequate funding during Ban’s two terms. Under Ban’s initiative in July 2010, the UN General Assembly created UN

Sales of imported beef are rising steeply in South Korea as the country has been struggling with foot-and-mouth disease and avian influenza, industry data showed Sunday.According to the data by leading retail chain E-Mart, imported beef sales rose 12 percent during the Feb. 5-9 period from a week ago, while those of Korean beef tumbled 19.6 percent. (Yonhap)The decline came as the fifth foot-and-mouth disease outbreak was confirmed earlier in the day following the first infection on Feb. 5. Near

South Korea's mechanized troops staged a large-scale river crossing drill to highlight their ability to strike the North even under adverse weather conditions, the Army said Sunday.Units of the 11th mechanized division conducted a frozen fording exercise near Hongcheon, 102 kilometers east of Seoul, on Thursday, it said. In this photo provided by South Korea's military, K-200 armored personnel carriers cross a river near Hongcheon. (Yonhap)"The maneuver was carried out by the troops to check the

The US Strategic Command confirmed North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch, saying the projectile is believed to be either a medium- or intermediate-range missile."US Strategic Command systems detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean missile launch at 4:55 p.m. CST. The launch of a medium- or intermediate-range ballistic missile occurred near the northwestern city of Kusong," the command said.The missile was tracked over North Korea and into the East Sea, it said. "The North

President Park Geun-hye and her attorneys are expected to focus on their legal argument and highlight new "information" to get the Constitutional Court to reject the impeachment motion, political observers in Seoul said Sunday.The chief executive, who was impeached by parliament on Dec. 9 in relation to corruption charges, has been suspended from exercising her powers for 66 days. This exceeds the 63 days that late President Roh Moo-hyun was suspended from office after he was impeached in early

US President Donald Trump said Friday the United States stands behind Japan "100 percent" in a previously unscheduled joint news conference he held with Japan's prime minister after North Korea conducted a surprise ballistic missile launch.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe opened the brief news conference at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, denouncing the North's missile launch as "absolutely intolerable" and urging the communist nation to comply with all UN Security Council resolutions."D

South Korea on Sunday strongly condemned North Korea's ballistic missile launch, calling it an "explicit and clear" violation of UN Security Council resolutions banning tests that can contribute to the advancement of nuclear weapons delivery capability.Pyongyang fired off a ballistic missile at around 7:55 a.m. toward the East Sea from Banghyon air base in its western province of North Pyongan, the first missile provocation since Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th US president on Jan. 20. Cho

A fifth foot-and-mouth disease case was confirmed at a cow farm in South Korea, the agriculture ministry in Sejong said Sunday, raising concerns over a nationwide spread of the animal epidemic.Some 70 cows in Boeun of North Chungcheong Province, some 180 kilometers southeast of Seoul, tested positive for the contagious virus, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. (Yonhap)Only a week has passed since the first outbreak was confirmed at a dairy farm in the same county S

Most North Koreans are unaware that the head of the country's spy agency has been sacked, a US-based media outlet said Sunday.Citing Japan's media outlet Asia Press that claimed to have contacted four North Koreans to check if Kim Won-hong's fall from grace has reached ordinary people, Radio Free Asia said most in the reclusive country were oblivious of what took place.RFA said that Jiro Ishimaru, who heads the Osaka office of Asia Press, pointed out none of the North's state-run media actually

The unemployment rate for young people in South Korea rose sharply last year to surpass that of the United States for the first time in 16 years, data showed Sunday.The jobless rate for those aged between 15 and 24 reached 10.7 percent in 2016, up from the previous year's 10.5 percent, according to the data by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.It marked the highest number reached since 2000, when Asia's fourth-largest economy reported an unemployment rate of 10.8 percent

North Korea has recently removed rocket launchers from the shuttered Kaesong complex, fueling speculation about its motives, local sources said Sunday.South Korea's military said that Pyongyang relocated more than 30 forward deployed multiple launch rocket systems from the industrial park, located just north of the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas. The relocation took place late last year after being deployed soon after the North declared the area was a military control zone. Seo

South Koreans took to the streets Saturday calling for impeached President Park Geun-hye's resignation and demanding an extension of special prosecutors' probe into a presidential scandal.To counter the anti-Park rally, the president's supporters, marked by their waving of the Korean flag, held their own protest, demanding that Park's impeachment be nullified.Braving cold weather, hundreds of thousands of protesters held their 15th weekly candlelight vigil in central Seoul, calling for the Const

North Korea on Sunday fired a ballistic missile into the East Sea in show of force against the Donald Trump government's hard-line stance toward the communist state, the South Korean military said. It is the first test-firing of a North Korean missile since Trump became US president on Jan. 20, and the country's first major provocation in 2017."The missile launch is a clear violation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions. It is aimed at drawing attention from the international commu

A South Korean missionary has been arrested in the Chinese border city of Yanji, a foreign ministry official here said Saturday, adding the ministry is moving to provide legal and diplomatic support to the South Korean.The Korean man, identified only by his surname Kim, was detained Thursday in Yanji, Jilin Province, and was ordered to five days of detention on charges of violating immigration laws, according to the ministry. "We have filed a request with the Chinese police for a consular meetin

The independent counsel investigating the corruption scandal involving impeached President Park Geun-hye said Friday it will file a suit to stop presidential aides from blocking the search and seizure of the presidential office.“We are set to file for a cancellation and suspension of the presidential office’s disapproval of the search and seizure with the Seoul Administrative Court,” Lee Kyu-chul, the counsel team’s spokesperson, said at a press briefing. Independent counsel team`s spokesman Lee

 South Korea's finance minister on Friday called for intensive structural reform to regain the growth momentum of Asia's fourth-largest economy."In order to make a breakthrough for the economy, we have to change the fundamentals of our economy through strong structural reform," Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho said in a keynote speech at a Seoul symposium. "We cannot avoid the demand for restructuring. We have to push for it as its achievement leads to the next government and generation." South Korea'