President-elect Park Geun-hye said Wednesday that her government would seek to reform business laws and regulations for small- and medium-sized enterprises as a means to sustain growth that can be shared with and felt by everyone.“The incoming government believes in the importance of promoting (the so-called) ‘warm growth’ that can reach all parts of the society,” said Park in a meeting with SME businesspeople and members of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.She added that her administr

The Financial Supervisory Service and the Bank of Korea have not been included on the transition team’s list of government agencies that are due to brief President-elect Park Geun-hye on social and economic administrative issues between Jan. 11 and 17.Officials on Park’s team said that it omitted them as they are “not official state ministries.” The Financial Services Commission, the financial policymaking body, however, is scheduled to report to the transition team on Jan 15. FSS is the regulat

As President-elect Park Geun-hye vowed to be the president for the low and middle-income groups, one of the key economic policies her administration plans to implement involves consumer protection and micro credit financing.In her broader economic democratization agenda that aims for equality of opportunity irrespective of economic status, Park sets out to create a control tower, or an executive branch of sorts, to focus on supporting and protecting the middle class.Various policy suggestions ma

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance is reportedly pushing for a revised income taxation law that allows the government to collect taxes from religious groups.It plans to reintroduce the ordinance this month that has been controversial since 2006 when the National Tax Service suggested the religious tax to the Finance Ministry.Clergy and monks had been granted tax exemptions, and the ministry had been seriously contemplating whether to introduce the tax system faced with opposition and resistanc

Foreign shareholdings in Korean stocks and bonds have hit a record-high due to monetary easing overseas that led to the inflow of funds investing in higher yielding and riskier assetsEquity and debt investments by foreign investors reached 502.6 trillion won in total as of the end of 2012, mainly driven by funds from Europe and the U.S. where central banks had been printing and pumping money to stimulate their economies, according to Financial Supervisory Service data. It showed that the U.S. wa

Following is the 11th in a series of articles on President-elect Park Geun-hye’s key policies ― Ed. Korea has entered a period of low growth. A slew of analysts say it is heading in a direction similar to Japan’s “Lost Decade.”With 1 percent growth coupled with the global economy facing further slowdown in 2013, the outlook for Korean exports, the country’s main source of growth, is not looking rosy.President-elect Park Geun-hye, who has an engineering background, sees a need to overcome future

The Korean won has been gaining against the U.S. dollar since the second half of last year, raising concerns among policymakers about whether the exchange rate will break the psychological threshold of 1,000 won per dollar.Korea has maintained its policy, even through currency intervention, for a weak won as a means to support exports, the country’s main growth driver, as a strong won makes Korean products more expensive overseas.Should the won show signs of gaining further, the government is mo

Zodiac Maritime Agencies, a global ship owner and manager, could be interested in acquiring STX Pan Ocean, Korea’s leading operator of bulk carriers, industry sources said.The London-based ship management company, owned by the Ofer family, is believed to have emerged as "one of the potential overseas candidates" to purchase a controlling 36.8 percent stake in the Korean shipping company, the sources claimed.The 36.8 percent is held by STX, the parent holding company, STX Offshore & Shipbuilding,

Annual income growth for households headed by those in their 20s and 30s has been waning as the economic slowdown casts a shadow over young adult employment.According to Korea’s statistics bureau and financial data, the average annual salary increase for young employees decreased to 2.67 percent in the third quarter of 2012, from 5.31 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011.Meanwhile, households headed by those in their 40s and 50s, Korea’s main workforce, saw their annual income increase about 6

Korea’s three largest telecom operators ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus ― could possibly to be hit with more disciplinary measures as the country’s financial regulator plans to launch an investigation into alleged malpractice concerning credit card transaction fees.The Financial Supervisory Service is expected to begin an investigation into the so-called “big three” telecom companies this week as they may have unfairly demanded that card issuers lower transactions fees below the standard market ra

South Korea and its U.S. ally have almost reached an agreement on further exchanges in nuclear power technology, bringing them a step closer toward revising the bilateral nuclear accord that is set to expire in 2014.The technology sharing also involves joint research on pyroprocessing, a method of reprocessing spent fuel from nuclear reactors.Both sides have concluded talks and are going through an internal process for documentation, a process that will take about a month, a South Korean governm

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Thursday that the number of Korean students studying science and engineering abroad continues to increase, but has been offset by a high inflow of foreign students.Citing data by Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute, the ministry said that the number of undergraduate Korean students who went overseas to study science and engineering doubled to 24,674 in 2011 from 2003.However, the inflow of foreign undergraduates into Korean unive

The Tungurahua volcano in central Ecuador keeps spewing gas, ash and red-hot rock, forcing hundreds to evacuate from their homes.The country’s Geophysical Institute says incandescent rock shot from the crater of the 5,023-meter high mountain fell about half (a kilometer) down its flanks. Explosions early Wednesday rattled windows 14 kilometers away, while rain-borne ash has been falling to the southwest of the crater.Regional emergency director Lourdes Mayorga says that about 100 families are st

Patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes often gradually show symptoms of depression as their illness progresses.The link between diabetes and depression had long been suggested, but not proven, by scientists as far back as the 1680s when renowned English doctor Thomas Willis first stated the hypothesis.A team of Korean and American scientists, led by Dr. Lyoo In-kyoon of Ewha Brain Institute and Division of Life and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Ewha Womans University, corroborated this thr

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said on Friday that the country and its U.S. ally have been sharing intelligence and tracking down potential North Korean facilities used to develop highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.“South Korea and the U.S. have been identifying HEU facilities in North Korea by analyzing intelligence images,” said a South Korean army intelligence official. He added, “We are currently tracking down those facilities and activities relating to HEU,” as the alli

The Ministry of National Defense said Thursday that problems would occur should the new government of president-elect Park Geun-hye seek to reduce the country’s mandatory military service period.“Problems would arise following the reduction of the service period from 21 months to 18 months as it could further make the military fall short of resources,” spokesperson Kim Min-seok told the press.He added that the ministry would need to discuss this matter with Park’s transition team, and hopes to r

South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration said Monday that it has decided to use Germany-made key engine and transmission parts, or the so-called power packs, over Korean parts for the military’s first 100 K2 tanks.DAPA will import the first two sets of power packs from Germany-based MTU to install in the tanks for trials next year, and bring in more in phases with the aim of deploying the tanks by March of 2014.This decision was made in a meeting presided over by the National Def

To millions of people, the Christmas tree is a cheerful sight. To scientists who decipher the DNA codes of plants and animals, it’s a monster.We’re talking about the conifer, the umbrella term for cone-bearing trees like the spruce, fir, pine, cypress and cedar. Apart from their Yuletide popularity, they play big roles in the lumber industry and in healthy forest ecosystems.Scientists would love to identify the billions of building blocks that make up the DNA of a conifer. That’s called sequenci

Korean scientists have discovered the role of a hormone that could help develop medicines to treat and cure diabetes and obesity-associated diseases.Dr. Lee Myung-sik of Samsung Medical Center, who is also a professor at Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, led a study into “mitokine” signals, which are sent by cells having trouble with their metabolism. They identified that the signal involved a hormone, encoded as the fibroblast growth factor 21, or FGF21. The hormone is induced by mito

North Korea fired off a long-range rocket on Wednesday, a Seoul military official said, despite international pressure over the plan seen as a test for ballistic missile technology.The move comes just two days after Pyongyang announced on Monday that it was extending the 13-day launch window by one week until Dec. 29 to fix a "technical deficiency" in the rocket's first-stage control engine module.In a surprise move, the North fired off the long-range rocket from the Donchang-ri launch site at 9