Hyundai Motor Co. on Friday held its fourth biennial competition for autonomous cars at a local speed circuit, a move aimed at enhancing its brand image and promoting technology growth.  In the past two decades, the carmaker provided advice and information on self-driving cars to university students so they can apply this know-how and come up with their own autonomous vehicles.  (Yonhap)It is part of Hyundai's broad effort to become a leading player in the cutting-edge vehicle sector going forwa

A committee investigating the body of the salvaged Sewol ferry said Friday that it has successfully restored media files and other data from at least two mobile phones found inside the wrecked ship.The Sewol Ferry Investigation Committee convened a sub-committee meeting on the remains and belongings in the port of Mokpo, 410 km south of Seoul, and discussed how to handle photo, video, voice and text message files restored from two smartphones recovered from the wreck, officials said. A mobile ph

South Korea's terms of trade deteriorated slightly in April from a year earlier as a rise in export prices was offset by a hike in import prices, central bank data showed Friday.The terms of trade index for products came to 101.38 last month, down 1.1 percent from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea . The index measures the amount of imports a country can purchase for each unit of exports, showing how the country's exports are doing in comparison to others.Last m

President Moon Jae-in on Friday asked the incumbent Cabinet members to help run his new administration at least until he finds their replacements.The president's request to the ministers appointed by his ousted predecessor Park Geun-hye came at a lunch at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae. (Yonhap)"The president wished to encourage the ministers and also listen to any advice they had to offer," a Cheong Wa Dae official said on the condition of anonymity.Friday's lunch involved all 16 governm

North Korea was found to have used South Korean vehicles left in the closed inter-Korean industrial park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong without permission, a US broadcaster reported Friday. Radio Free Asia made the report, citing a photo taken on Dec. 9 by DigitalGlobe, an American commercial space imagery vendor, and recently made public on Google Earth.  Vehicles pass through an inter-Korean immigration office in Paju, north of Seoul, on Feb. 11, 2016, returning from the North's Ka

South Korean stocks traded 0.42 percent higher late Friday morning, led by gains in logistics and tech firms, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 9.73 points, or 0.42 percent, to 2,352.66 as of 11:20 a.m.CJ Logistics climbed 1.3 percent, and market bellwether Samsung Electronics gained 0.6 percent. In contrast, autos trended lower. Top automaker Hyundai Motor was down 0.6 percent, with its smaller affiliate Kia Motors falling 0.4 percent. The local currency was ch

Nearly 90 percent of all South Koreans believe their new president will do a good job running the country, a survey showed Friday.In the survey conducted by Gallup Korea, 88 percent of all respondents said they expect President Moon Jae-in to do well in performing his duties. (Yonhap)The reading, a de facto approval rating, marked a slight increase from 87 percent a week earlier.The survey was conducted on 1,003 adults throughout the country. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent

Ecuador President Lenin Moreno has invited President Moon Jae-in to visit his country as he called for an increase in bilateral economic cooperation, Moon's special envoy to Ecuador said Friday.Rep. Park Young-sun of the ruling Democratic Party met with Moreno earlier as a presidential envoy and posted the result of the meeting in her Facebook feed. (Yonhap)"(I) conveyed Moon's handwritten letter to President Moreno in a meeting held after his first (public) event following the inauguration," Pa

The head of the presidential policy advisory panel called Friday for more competition in the South Korean economy to create more jobs, citing developments taking place among budget carriers.South Korea's airline indtry had long been monopolized by the country's two major full-service carriers, Korean Air Lines Co. and Asiana Airlines Inc. Kim Jin-pyo, chairman of the State Affairs Policy Planning Committee (Yonhap)Still, several low-cost carriers entered the market in recent years, heating up co

South Korea's exports of rechargeable batteries reached a fresh record high in 2016 on rising global demand for smart devices and electric vehicles, ctoms data showed Friday.Outbound shipments of accumulators, such as lithium-ion batteries amounted to a record $4.4 billion in 2016, up 11.6 percent from $3.94 billion a year earlier, according to the data by the Korea Ctoms Service. (Yonhap)For the first three months of the year, secondary battery exports continued to post solid gains, soaring 22.

South Korea's unification ministry on Friday approved a plan by a nongovernmental organization for contact with North Korea in a sign of Seoul's move to gradually resume inter-Korean exchanges.The government gave the green light to the request by the Korean Sharing Movement to contact with North Koreans to discuss ways to resume the supply of assistance and cooperative projects, according to government officials. (Yonhap)It marks the first such approval since the administration of liberal Presid

North Korea's grain imports from China showed a more than fivefold surge last month from a year ago, a US broadcaster said Friday. The North brought in 4,100 tons of grain from China in April, 5.4 times higher than 754 tons a year earlier, said Voice of America, citing Kwon Tae-jin, head of South Korean agricultural think tank GS&J Institute's North Korea and East Asia division.  (Yonhap)Of the imports, rice took up the biggest share of 1,542 tons, trailed by corn with 1,506 tons, wheat flour wi

Starting a new business in South Korea requires an average 200 million won ($178,491) in starting money, and it takes about four years to break even, a stage that more than 60 percent of the startups don't reach because they are forced to close before then, a report said Friday.The Small and Medium Business Ombudsman analyzed 35,000 newly started businesses in May last year, including 415 that were studied in detail. Results showed that 1.5 people prepared for 16.6 months for the opening with 11

South Korean stocks opened with a marginal gain on Friday, taking a breather from the previous session's rally that hit an all-time high, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index was up 0.91 point, or 0.04 percent to trade at 2,343.84 in the first 15 minutes of trading.The main index closed at a record high on Thursday, fueled by the rate freeze of the central bank, which hinted at an upward adjustment of its growth outlook from the current forecast of 2.6 percent, citing r

Hyundai Construction Equipment Co., an affiliate of major shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., has seen a sharp rise in the sales of its excavators in China this year, backed by a recovery in the construction sector, industry sources said Friday.According to the sources, the company sold some 1,600 excavators in the first four months of the year, nearing last year's sales of 1,900 units in total.Demand for construction equipment has been on the rise in China on increased budget spending in

The ruling and opposition parties were set to try and issue a joint report Friday on the outcome of their joint confirmation hearing for Prime Minister-nominee Lee Nak-yon, amid opposition criticism of Lee over ethical issues.A failure to issue a joint report may spell trouble for the ruling Democratic Party and its new liberal President Moon Jae-in, who needs a majority of votes at the 299-seat National Assembly for the appointment of Lee as his new and first prime minister since coming into of

Money floating around the South Korean stock market has grown steadily this year as investors park funds in short-term equity-related vehicles amid financial uncertainty and a recent market rally, data showed Friday.The amount of money sitting idle around the local equity market came to 298 trillion won ($266 billion) as of Thursday, up 12.4 percent from the end of 2016, according to the data by the Korea Financial Investment Association. The figure includes 23.6 trillion won in investor deposit

South Korea's overall consumer sentiment hit the highest level in more than three years helped by a rise in exports and expectations of the new government's economic policies, central bank data showed Friday.The composite consumer sentiment index for May came to 108.0, up from 101.2, a month earlier, according to data from the Bank of Korea. The May figure marked the highest since April 2014 when the index stood at 108.4. A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists.A BOK official sa

The government plans to raise 500 billion won ($447.5 million) in funds to help entrepreneurs at venture startups restart business when they fail, officials said Thursday. In South Korea, a failure in a venture startup often leads to ruin, prompting young entrepreneurs to shun risk-taking, which has been cited for hindering the nation's goal to replicate Silicon Valley's success. The Financial Services Commission, the nation's top financial regulator, and the Small and Medium Business Administra

More than 500 ICT firms from both home and abroad showcased their latest innovative technology and industry-leading products at South Korea's largest consumer electronics and technology trade fair on Thursday.The World IT Show, the 10th of its kind, kicked off at the Convention and Exhibition Center in southern Seoul on Wednesday for a four-day run. The event is hosted by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. (Yonhap)The participating firms include Samsung Electronics Co., the world'