Some South Korean military units are operating newly developed small tactical vehicles, modeled after the Humvee, in a field operation test, the nation's arms procurement agency said Wednesday.Five types of indigenous multipurpose wheeled vehicles have been delivered to such forward-deployed units as the Army's 12th Division and the Marine Corps' 2nd Division since January for a four-month test run before mass production, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration. The South Kor

South Korean chipmaker SK hynix Inc., as well as US-based Micron Technology, Inc. and Western Digital are expected to lock horns to take over the memory arm of Japan-based Toshiba Corp., industry tracker said Wednesday.During a forum here, Walter Coon, director for NAND flash technology research at the industry tracker IHS, said while one of the three bidders are widely expected to be the potential winner of Toshiba, none of them currently hold a strong advantage. (Yonhap)The remark came as Tosh

South Korean medical services have advanced into 20 countries as of 2016, government data showed Wednesday, as local medical technology is widely expanding its contributions and presence in the global market. (123RF)According to the data by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, local medical services were found in 20 countries, including China and the United States, as of the end of last year, up from 17 tallied a year earlier.The ministry attributed the increase to the huge popularity of not only

Kim Soo-hyun, star of hit South Korean drama "My Love From The Star," will appear in a music video for singer IU's new album, according the stars' agencies Wednesday. (Yonhap)According to IU's agency Fave Entertainment, Kim has finished filming for the video to a song on IU's upcoming fourth album. The track, whose name wasn't revealed, was written by singer-songwriter Sam Kim, according to the company."We're producing several videos for the fourth album," a Fave Entertainment representative sai

South Korea's online sales continued growing to reach nearly 20 percent of the country's total retail purchases in February, government data showed Wednesday.Total online transactions reached 5.86 trillion won ($5.2 billion) in February, up 22.9 percent from 4.77 trillion won tallied a year earlier, according to data by Statistics Korea.(Yonhap)It accounted for a record 19.4 percent of the total retail sales tallied at 30.1 trillion won in the same month. The comparable figure was 7.8 percent in

The Environment Ministry said Wednesday that it will expand a project to prevent wild boars inhabiting Mount Bukhan in Seoul and neighboring Gyeonggi Province from entering downtown areas, as the animals have increasingly posed challenges to residents there.The project, which started last year in cooperation with the regional governments of Seoul and Gyeonggi and the Korea National Park Service, calls for capturing wild boars and setting traps or other facilities on their major trails to make it

The South Korean men's national football team will hire a technical advisor and a fitness coach to support its beleaguered boss Uli Stielike, an official with the Korea Football Association said Wednesday. The KFA technical committee, led by Lee Yong-soo, plans to add two members to Stielike's backroom staff to help the national team qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, according to the official, who asked not to be named. South Korea are looking for a ninth consecutive World Cup appea

South Korean stocks traded lower late Wednesday morning as foreigners continued to offload stocks.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 0.79 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,160.31 as of 11:15 a.m.The broad index bucked overnight gains on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.19 percent, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index climbing 0.07 percent.Bae Sung-young, a market analyst at KB Securities Co., said foreigners continued to sell South Korean stocks and there

South Korea's economic growth for the first quarter of this year is expected to be faster than the fourth quarter of last year, fueled by robust exports, according to estimates by foreign investment banks Wednesday. Although the nation's industrial output fell in February, foreign banks, including Barclays, HSBC and Citibank, expected production to bounce back, helped by strong exports on improved global demand.  (Yonhap)The estimates, compiled by the Korea Center for International Finance, came

South Korea's exports of seafood rose 10.9 percent in the first three months of the year on steady overseas demand, government data showed Wednesday.Outbound shipments of South Korean seafood reached $482 million in the January-March period, up from $434.7 million tallied a year ago, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. (Yonhap)It marked the fifth straight quarter of on-year gain.Japan was the biggest buyer of South Korean products, importing $156.5 million wor

A group of government and military officials from Lebanon are set to arrive in South Korea on Wednesday for an eight-day visit aimed at better understanding the country, the South's military said.The trip is part of a program that is aimed at promoting South Korea's image to people in Lebanon where the country has stationed the Dongmyeong military unit since 2007 as part of UN peacekeeping troops. A group of Lebanese people who will visit South Korea in a program aimed at promoting Korea's image

South Korea condemned North Korea for its continued missile provocations on Wednesday, warning it would lead to toughened sanctions and eventually accelerate the "self-destruction" of the regime.The North fired off a ballistic missile earlier in the day into the East Sea from a site in the vicinity of Sinpo, South Hamgyong Province. This marked its fourth missile test using ballistic technology this year. South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck (Yonhap)"Our government strongly con

South Korea's first Internet-only bank, K-Bank, aims to report its first annual profit in 2020, the bank's chief executive has said, as it seeks to make inroads into the credit card business. Shim Sung-hoon, CEO of K-Bank, said the bank is targeting to attract 400,000 active customers by the end of this year with deposits worth 500 billion won ($445 million).Shim Sung-hoon, CEO of K-Bank, speaks during the launch ceremony of the bank on April 3, 2017 (Yonhap)"Given the current situation on inter

Hyundai Motor Co. has launched the Grandeur Hybrid that will add green credentials to its lineup as the South Korean carmaker competes with its Japanese rivals in major markets.The Grandeur Hybrid is the carmaker's latest gasoline-hybrid model based on the all-new Grandeur large-size sedan. The previous hybrids were based on the Avante compact, the Sonata midsize sedan and an earlier version of the Grandeur sedan. There is also the Ioniq hybrid developed from the bottom up as a eco-friendly vehi

Women working at South Korea's top 10 conglomerates are getting paid about 62 percent of what men are getting in yearly salary, even less than half at some companies, according to a corporate tracker Wednesday.An analysis by Chaebul.com, which follows details of the leading business groups, showed that women's average yearly pay at the top 10 listed conglomerates and their affiliates was 54 million won ($48,261), 61.8 percent of the amount for their male counterparts, who receive an average of 8

Nearly half of South Korea's companies were exempted from corporate tax in 2015, government data showed Wednesday, as many experienced a deficit due to the prolonged economic slump.About 47.1 percent, or 280,000, out of the total 590,000 registered corporations were exempt from corporate taxes in 2015, according to the statistics provided by the National Tax Service. (Yonhap)The comparable figures were 46.2 percent in 2011, 46.5 percent in 2012, 47.1 percent in 2013 and 47.3 percent in 2014."The

South Korea's major shipyards saw their ratings cut for their falling new orders and worsening financial status, industry sources said Wednesday.According to the sources, KIS Ratings lowered its rating on Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. to "A-" from "A," citing a protracted industrywide slump, severe competition, falling new orders and lower shipbuilding prices. (Yonhap)Late last month, Korea Ratings also trimmed its rating on Hyundai Heavy to "A" from "A-," the lowest in 15 years. Its rating on Sa

South Korea will likely see the number of inbound tourists rise more than 3 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the culture ministry said Wednesday, despite growing woes over faltering Chinese inflow amid a diplomatic row with Beijing over a US anti-missile system. The tentative number of foreign tourists to the country stood at 3.72 million in the January-March period, up 3.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.  The tourism fest o

Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday its new flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone's organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display has been rated "best" in the business by a US display evaluator.The South Korean tech giant said the OLED display equipped in the new flagship received the "Excellent A+" grade from DisplayMate.Samsung Electronics Co. displays the Galaxy S8 at Milan Design Week 2017 held in Italy in this photo released by the company on April 5, 2017. (Yonhap)"The Galaxy S8 is the first in a

A bipartisan group of US senators on Tuesday urged President Donald Trump to use his upcoming summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping to bring an end to "unwarranted and unfair" retaliatory measures Beijing has taken against South Korea for hosting the US THAAD missile defense system.A total of 26 senators, led by Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), made the appeal in a joint letter to Trump just two days before he is set to host China's Xi for high-stakes talks expected to cover al