North Korea and China recently forged a deal to develop two North Korean border towns into an industrial belt and introduce, in part, free market practices, a North Korean government document showed.According to the document obtained by the Yonhap news agency, Pyongyang and Beijing agreed to foster the development of the North’s towns of Rason and Hwanggumpyong into an industrial belt.Rason, in th

Ministry says North distorting South’s ‘real intentions’North Korea said Wednesday South Korea proposed to hold three meetings between their leaders and pleaded for any gesture to appease South Koreans still angry over last year’s attacks via an unofficial communication channel.Pyongyang’s powerful National Defense Commission said senior officials from Seoul including President Lee Myung-bak’s sec

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s recent visit to China indicated that the two countries’ communist alliance remains intact, but that it may be shifting toward a relationship based more on strategic and economic interests.The varying tones of state-run media reports from Pyongyang and Beijing on Kim’s summit meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao last week suggested that the two allies may not b

Junior pro-Lee Myung-bak lawmakers of the ruling Grand National Party submitted on Wednesday a bill to appoint an independent counsel to investigate Busan Mutual Savings Bank’s irregularities, party officials said.Other savings banks, which were declared near bankrupt and suspended earlier this year along with the Busan bank, are also to be dealt with by the independent counsel, according to the b

The Korean government should focus on reinforcing its social and legal influence over Dokdo, lawmakers and experts said in a parliamentary forum.A seminar was held at the National Assembly on Wednesday by the parliamentary Dokdo Guardians, a group of lawmakers that was launched last month.The discussion was attended by Reps. Suh Sang-kee, Won Hye-young and Park Sun-young and a number of local expe

BUSAN (Yonhap News) ― Two of the four Somali pirates convicted last week of maritime robbery and hijacking a South Korean-owned freighter have lodged an appeal against the court decision, their attorneys said Wednesday.The Busan District Court on Friday sentenced Mahomed Arai, 21, to life in prison for shooting Seok Hae-kyun, the captain of the ship, the Samho Jewelry, and seven other charges, inc

Hyundai Heavy Industries announced Wednesday that it received orders for two drill ships from the U.S. oil well driller Rowan Companies Inc.The latest contract, worth $1.12 billion, pushes up the number of orders for drill ships Hyundai Heavy has won so far this year to nine.The combined value of the contracts the company has won so far is $5 billion, the company said.The orders also include optio

Samsung Electronics’ handset division was ranked No. 23 this year among world’s telecom brands in a report released by London-based brand evaluation consultancy Brand Finance on Wednesday.In a report that announced the top 500 telecom brands around the world, SK Telecom, the country’s leading mobile carrier, was placed in 49th place, followed by KT Corp. at 55th.LG Uplus entered the top 100 in 89t

SK Group announced Wednesday that it will increase the fund established to support small and medium-sized enterprises by 80 billion won ($74 million) to 230 billion won.The additional funds were raised by SK Telecom, SK Global Chemical Co. and a financial institution. The SK Group subsidiaries put together 32 billion won, the conglomerate said. The fund was established in 2009 with 120 billion won

Hyundai Motor said that it would develop a mid-sized sedan aimed at mostly Chinese customers by 2013.The project to launch a China-oriented sedan came as the automaker anticipates that the sales of middle-class sedans will surge in coming years in the Asian superpower, a Hyundai spokesman said Wednesday.“The China-oriented sedan will not be a remodeled car,” he said. “A new model which would under