North Korean leader Kim Jong-il conducted the largest number of public activities last year since he inherited the communist country from his father in 1994, according to figures aggregated by the South Korean government.The 68-year-old appeared in North Korea’s official media a total of 161 times, the Unification Ministry said Tuesday in a release that suggested Kim was trying to tamp down outsid

Taekwang Group chairman Lee Ho-jin appeared before prosecutors Tuesday to face questioning over his alleged slush fund and stock price manipulation.Prosecutors have been investigating the 49-year-old on his suspected involvement in creating tens of billions of won in a secret fund to lobby influential figures to get business favors and manipulating stock prices to evade inheritance taxes in transf

NEW YORK (AP) ― What do you call it when you have 120,000 people and an elephant in the room?The International Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off this week in Las Vegas.The elephant is Apple Inc. It won’t be at the show this year, but its tablet computer, the iPad, is the most important new product for an industry that needs to once again excite consumers. Sales of the iPad have been stron

National Pension Service, Korea’s biggest investor, may set up a private equity fund with the nation’s business groups, including Samsung Group and Hyundai Motor Group, to invest in overseas resource development. SK Group, GS Group and KT Corp. may also join the plan, Kim Seok-joo, a spokesman for the pension fund, said by phone Tuesday. The timing and size of the fund have yet to be decided, he s

Korea will seek to secure more rights to rare earth element deposits in the new year to counter moves by China to reduce its export quota for the vital resource, the government said Tuesday.The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said action must be taken to deal with potential shortfalls in supply that could have a serious industrial impact.Rare earth elements, deposits of which are centered in only a

Five-year plan seeks to meet increased demand for international flightsThe government is to invest 2.1 trillion won ($1.8 billion) to upgrade airport facilities over the next five years, the Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs said Tuesday. The plan includes further expanding Incheon International Airport to help cope with rising flight demand and consolidate its status as a Nort

The yuan’s appreciation may slow this year after the currency strengthened beyond 6.6 per dollar for the first time in 17 years, as China seeks to stem inflows that may fuel inflation, the most-accurate forecasters for 2010 said.The yuan will advance 4.6 percent to 6.3 per dollar, after climbing 3.6 percent in just over six months, said Yen Ping Ho, the head of Asian foreign-exchange strategy for

Few by now remember what the Sept. 19, 2005 and Feb. 13, 2007 agreements were in the six-party talks, while there are signs that the multilateral process will be resumed more than two years after it went into recess. To help readers’ memories, North Korea agreed, in the earlier accord, to abandon all nuclear weapons and nuclear programs and return to the NPT, while other parties vowed to provide e

Kim Young-ran, chairwoman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, cautioned everyone of the nation to guard against “the virus of corruption.” Upon her inauguration this week, the former Supreme Court justice observed that corruption was still a chronic malady in our society, although it seems fairly weakened.The new head of the corruption watchdog will now see for herself how the viru

We can’t peer into President Obama’s soul, but his statement last week that he is “struggling” with whether to endorse same-sex marriage is open to an unedifying interpretation. Given the president’s support of gay rights in other contexts, his opposition to marriage equality raises the question of whether the struggle Obama referred to is between politics and principle. If so, we hope principle w