The Korean government is set to face an uphill battle in keeping the Korean won from appreciating at a rapid clip as the U.S. debt crisis is sending ripples throughout financial markets across the world.“The local currency could gain to the 1,000 won level against the greenback by the end of the year,” said Huh In, an international finance analyst at the state-run Korea Institute for International

South Korean and Chinese naval forces are close to agreeing on holding joint search and rescue exercises, a high-level government source said on Sunday. “China expressed the wish to hold joint SAR (search and rescue) exercises last Saturday during the inaugural South Korea-China strategic defense dialogue,” said the official. The talks were led by Air Force Gen. Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of the ge

Japanese lawmakers are expected to go ahead with their planned trip to an island near South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo on Monday, upping tensions as the Seoul government plans to ban them from entry. Despite South Korea’s official announcement that it will bar the Tokyo politicians from entering its land, three lawmakers of Japan’s opposition Liberal Democratic Party said they would go ah

Maritime police have yet to find a crashed Asiana Airlines cargo plane and its pilot and co-pilot, police officials said Sunday. Mobilizing 10 army and police vessels, three aircraft and underwater sonar, police and the navy have for three days searched the waters off Jeju, where the Boeing-747 aircraft, operated by Asiana Airlines Co., went down early Thursday. “We found nothing special yet, exce

A grenade presumed to be from the Korean War was found on a university campus in Seoul, police officials said Sunday. The explosive was found Friday afternoon in one of the flowerbeds at Ewha Womans University, in Sinchon, central Seoul, by a member of the cleaning staff. It did not have a safety pin in it.Police, who arrived on the scene with a bomb squad, determined that it had been deactivated.

Seoul’s southern ward of Seocho, hit hard by heavy rains last week, may be declared a special disaster area, the home administration ministry said Sunday. If the cost of flood and landslide damage exceeds 9.5 billion won ($9 million) in Seocho, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security will approve the designation.The Seocho Ward Office puts the estimated damage at more than 100 million w

Public participation in the upcoming expo in Yeosu is picking up steam as more than 45,000 have applied to volunteer, its steering committee said Sunday.The committee said it had accepted applications between April 1 and July 10 for volunteer work at the event, which will kick off May 12 in Korea’s southern port. Only 13,000 will be selected in April after document examinations, interviews and onl

With the presidential election slated for December 2012, the Korean administration is likely to focus on firmer fiscal policy and welfare promotions rather than growth-oriented measures in a bid to appease the low-to-mid-income group, Morgan Stanley said. In a new research report titled “2012 Election Year: Market Implications,” Morgan Stanley forecast that the Korean government will not go for an

FSS predicts about 200 officials to gather in Seoul in late SeptemberKorea’s financial authorities are making their dispositions as the chair of one of the world’s three major regulatory meetings, slated for Sept. 29-Oct. 1 in Seoul. This is the first time that the nation will host the annual conference of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, which will mark the 18th gathering s