South Korea is witnessing a clear increase in trade volume with the European Union after a free trade agreement between them took effect on July 1.The Korea Customs Service said Sunday that the exports and imports with the EU amounted to $1.48 billion and $1.65 between July 1-13, an increase of 19 percent and 16 percent, respectively. The customs agency said that the newly signed FTA may have driv

The National Tax Service said Thursday that it would launch a large-scale investigation into offshore bank accounts with lump-sum deposits this year. “The agency’s crackdown on tax evasion using tax havens abroad has seen some achievements in the first half of the year,” said an NTS official. “In the second half, we will step up efforts to probe further into people who have deposited more than 1 b

The nation’s antitrust watchdog and eBay Inc. signed Thursday an agreement for fair trade in the growing online ecommerce market ― the first of its kind here. The U.S.-based company, which owns Gmarket and Auction, the nation’s No. 1 and No. 2 online marketplaces, will adopt a “Consumer Complaints Management System” to better protect consumer rights, the Fair Trade Commission said.The agreement ca

Choi Hung-jib, 60, was named the new CEO of Kangwon Land, a resort and casino in Gangwon Province, on Tuesday. The move makes the former vice governor of Gangwon the seventh president of the nation’s only casino for locals, established in 2008 in Jeongseon, 214 kilometers east of Seoul. Choi Hung-jib“The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics will be an opportunity for Kangwon Land to leap to a global b

Online users, mostly so-called “power-bloggers” who post product reviews in return for benefit will be obligated to disclose their contract details starting July 14, the state-run antitrust regulator said Wednesday. In short, the users must reveal that their reviews were a part of a business deal with specific companies. If they fail to disclose such facts, the firms they signed on to issue the re

U.S. company says Korea is at the forefront of technologies and inventionsKimberly-Clark Corporation said Wednesday that it will establish its first overseas global innovation center in Korea as early as January.The U.S. households and personal care products manufacturer has already been operating its only Innovation Center Asia in Giheung, Gyeonggi Province, since 2007. While the current center w

CEO says ‘Intelligent companies’ will pay attention to logistics industryJohn Pattullo, CEO of CEVA Logistics, described his company a “truly international combination.”“Our head office is registered in the U.K., while the company is owned by an American private equity. And the name is Italian,” the Scotsman told The Korea Herald.CEVA Logistics was established in August 2007, from the merger of TN

Businesses are enjoying increased demand for rainy-season items such as rubber boots, umbrellas and dehumidifiers, since the nation entered the seasonal rainy spell last month. Over the past month, E-Mart, South Korea’s largest retailer, saw a surge in sales of umbrellas and rubber boots of 125 percent and 107 percent, respectively.  Customers pick out dehumidifying agents and deodorants at a supe

The number of divorced householders exceeded the 1 million mark last year, with seven out of 100 living alone after the dissolution of marriage, a government data showed Monday. The state-run Statistics Korea said Monday that the number of divorced householders was 1.26 million as of November, a 40.2 percent increase from five years. The figure has more than doubled over the past 10 years and incr

The government has taken the first steps of creating an exclusive agency to take oversee the nation’s policies on immigration and multiculturalism, officials said Sunday. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance gave public notice of a bid to analyze foreign immigration agencies and study measures to attract a talented workforce from abroad. The ministry plans to streamline immigration policy over the

  Woongjin Coway Co., already the industry leader in water and air purifiers, is enjoying a second bloom. The Seoul-based company logged sales of 1.51 trillion won ($1.43 billion) and 228.8 billion won of operating profits last year, marking the 12th consecutive year of record-high sales.“In May, we reached record-high sales in just a month. We are entering our second heyday,” Woongjin Coway CEO H

Korean antitrust regulator advises firms to be prudentKorean companies in the United States have paid about 1.7 trillion won ($1.6 billion) in fines for price-fixing and four out of the top 10 highest-paying companies were from Korea, a ranking official of the state-run antitrust regulator said Wednesday.The Fair Trade Commission on Wednesday explained the business environment of the U.S. on collu

BC Card Co., a local payment services provider, is stepping up its offensive against Visa, condemning the global credit card giant for pressing unfair business activities onto its Korean partners.On Monday, BC Card filed a report with the Fair Trade Commission over the U.S.-based company’s overseas fee system. “Visa is conducting illegal activities against the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Ac

Korea’s trade volume with free trade pact signatories almost doubled last year but the trade balance showed mixed reactions by regions, a report showed Monday. According to the Korea Customs Service, the nation achieved $136.8 billion last year in the total trade volume with Chile, ASEAN, Singapore and the European Free Trade Association ― a 1.73-fold increase from $79 billion from the year before

Medication passes safety, quality testsKorea will approve the world’s first stem-cell medication as early as this month, the Korea Food and Drug Administration said Friday. The state-run drug regulator said Friday that Hearticellgram-AMI, a stem-cell medication for treating heart attack victims, passed all the required safety and quality tests early this week. It will be the world’s first therapeu

Refuse to reinvestigate illegal deposit withdrawal, say found nothing to look intoThe prosecution seemed to refuse Friday to reinvestigate suspected illegal deposit withdrawals from a corruption-ridden savings bank despite demands from the ruling Grand National Party. “If we have dug up a mine and found nothing, we have to move to another mine. That’s the position of the prosecutor-general and the

The government and the Grand National Party announced Thursday a new college tuition plan, which aims to cut fees by 30 percent by 2014.A total of 6.8 trillion won ($6.3 billion) from the national budget and 1.5 trillion won from school scholarship programs will be set aside for tuition cuts in the coming years, said GNP floor leader Hwang Woo-yea. In order to reduce tuition fees by 15 percent nex

The fourth Seoul International Student Forum will kick off on Friday, with 84 members from 32 different countries attending, the Seoul Global Center, a city-run support center for foreign residents, said Wednesday. The program, launched in 2008, is aimed at reflecting the ideas and proposals of international students studying in Seoul to better serve foreign residents and visitors here. After hold

Some 30,000 Koreans believed to have been drafted for construction work in SakhalinThe Korean government will launch its first official investigation into the deaths of Koreans forced to labor under the Japanese colonial rule in Sakhalin, an island in Russia’s Far East, a Seoul fact-finding panel said Wednesday. The investigation will be carried out in July and August at a public graveyard in Yuzh

Seoul City has started showing Korean movies with foreign language subtitles, including Japanese for the first time, officials said Tuesday. In cooperation with CGV Theater, one of the country’s largest cinema chains, the city has offered the foreign language service at five theaters since 2009.This month the Japanese language subtitle service began first at a CGV branch in Myeong-dong, a popular