WASHINGTON (AP) ― A Senate committee is looking to block the reorganization of U.S. forces in east Asia, which it sees as too costly and impractical, the panel’s chairman said Friday.Legislation backed by the Senate Armed Services Committee would prohibit funding to relocate the U.S. Marine base in the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. It also would suspend plans to relocate thousands of famili

The government issued an alert against the rapidly spreading hand-foot-and-mouth disease on Saturday, asking nurseries, kindergartens and medical facilities to take extra care to prevent the infection of children. According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the HFMD diagnosis rate marked 21.1 per every 1,000 outpatients last week, marking a sharp increase from 9.8 per 1,000

Korea’s public debt jumped by more than 50 trillion won ($46 billion) in the first quarter of this year as governments and public corporations increased borrowing to meet their financial needs, data showed Sunday.According to the data by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Bank of Korea, debts owed by the central government, provincial administrations, state-invested companies and social

Cnet.com, a major U.S. technology review site, selected Samsung Electronics Co.’s plasma display panel (PDP) TVs as the best TV of the year, industry sources said Sunday.Cnet said the D8000 series, which consists of a string of Samsung’s PDP TV models, outperformed rivals’ products released in the U.S. market this year, according to a Samsung official.Judges of the U.S. review site evaluated desig

South Korea will help small business owners and improve welfare for low-income earners to boost domestic demand, said Vice Finance Minister Yim Jong -yong.Ordinary people have real sentiment over the economy lags economic indices, Yim told reporters in Gwacheon. To narrow the gap, the government will prepare policies to support small- to medium-sized businesses and the service and tourism industri

Hyundai Motor Co. said Sunday it found 97 of its unionized workers in Ulsan and Asan factories logging on to Internet gambling games during work hours.The country’s No. 1 carmaker said 62 employees at its Ulsan plant and 35 employees at its Asan plant were involved in cyber gambling, betting as much as 100 million won ($92,000) in some cases, according to company officials.The online gambling was

4G mobile phones to be released as early as Sept.The fourth generation telecommunications technology Long Term Evolution is expected to debut next month as two of the country’s mobile carriers are getting ready to launch the service in many cities across the nation.SK Telecom, the country’s top mobile carrier, has announced it will commercialize the technology in Seoul next month by establishing 6

KDB Financial Group Inc. denied a news report that the state-owned company plans to acquire banking businesses of Korea Post.KDB officials said Saturday that the company has not reviewed such plan. The report came after the government went against a move by KDB to take over the public-funded Woori Financial Group. KDB has sought to become a “mega” bank in Korea to expand its business overseas.(shi

The Korean stock market is expected to face volatility this week as eurozone countries are still mired in a deadlock over solutions to the worsening Greek debt crisis, analysts said.The country’s key stock index, the KOSPI, shed 0.72 percent, or 14.74 points, to close at 2,031.93 on Friday. Losses in tech and large cap shares led the market declines.Last week, the local share market suffered a sev

Korean imports of U.S. pork and beef rose at a far faster pace than those of other overseas meat products this year following the outbreak of a contagious animal disease here, government data showed Sunday.Imports of U.S. pork spiked about 2.5-fold from a year ago to 82,569 tons in the January-May period, with overall pork imports rising 121 percent to 179,985 tons, according to the data by a gove

Local bank’s exposure to debt-burdened Greece tops $500 billion but it poses limited impact on the local financial market even in the case of a default, financial authorities said Sunday. The Financial Supervisory Service said the bonds issued by Greek shipping companies were not so large here as of the end of March. The agency did not disclose a bank-by-bank breakdown of the figure but emphasized