The government will release almost 3.5 million barrels from its oil reserves in an effort to control international and domestic oil prices, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy announced Friday.According to the ministry, the government will release 3.467 million barrels in compliance with the International Energy Agency’s Initial Contingency Response Plan.Korea’s oil reserves, held by the government

The Korea Communications Commission turned down Friday KT Corp.’s proposal to end services for feature phone users by the end of this month.The state telecom regulator said it would defer giving the green light to KT’s scheme which would force what KCC cited as its remaining 810,000 2G mobile phone users to adopt 3G smartphones by the first half of this year.“Let’s put it off the discussion agenda

Subsidiary firms of Korea’s mobile carriers are expected to meet resistance in joining the market for mobile virtual network operators as the state watchdog appears wary of letting them do so.In its general meeting on Friday, the Korea Communications Commission agreed to recommend that SK telink, a subsidiary of market leader SK Telecom, hold back from entering the MVNO market.SK telink, a firm in

Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan said Friday that the private sector needs to take a bigger role in the economy, vowing to create a business-friendly environment. In his first meeting with heads of the nation’s five major business lobby groups, Bahk attributed the economy’s fast recovery from the financial crisis to “jobs created, overseas investments made and taxes paid” by the private sector busine

 

The past five years must have been good times for Korea’s chaebol groups. During this period, the nation’s 30 largest business groups saw their number of affiliates more than double. According to data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service, the figure surged from 500 in January 2006 to 1,087 in April this year. This means the conglomerates added a new member to their fleet of subsidiaries e

Controversy is raging over the government’s plan to make general household medicines available at supermarkets and convenience stores. The Health and Welfare Ministry recently announced a list of 44 over-the-counter pharmaceutical products that would be sold at retail outlets starting August. If the plan goes as scheduled, it will be the first time in Korea that OTC products are sold at places oth

Suddenly finance god John Paulson isn’t looking so omniscient. The New York-based hedge-fund manager was the star of the 2008 subprime crisis, capitalizing on Wall Street’s misrepresentations to the tune of $15 billion betting against U.S. mortgages. Now, fraudsters may have taken him in. That is, if a June 2 report by Muddy Waters LLC is correct and Sino-Forest Corp. lied about its finances. I do

Whether 2 million bacteria in 1 milliliter of fresh milk qualifies for the label “the globally worst,” as some have called it, is probably debatable. But we do know that the new national dairy safety standards are substantially lower than before. The previous bottom-line for protein content in every 100 grams of fresh milk was 2.95 grams. Now it is 2.8 grams. The number of bacteria permitted in ea

China’s surprisingly aggressive assertion of “indisputable sovereignty” over the South China Sea has startled governments around the region, and puts the emerging superpower on a collision course with its partners in the region as well as the interests of the other, long-established superpower, the United States.Misconceptions about the issue clutter the public discourse in the Philippines, howeve

The South China Sea’s benign environment of the past has effectively been destroyed. In the past few months, it is clear that the tension has increased manyfold. If the temperature continues to rise, it could reach boiling point. It is possible that there will be armed conflict in the area as never before seen. After all, the territorial claimants have acted in such ways that other claimants can n