North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is on a tour to observe military excercises. (Yonhap News)North Korea's military appears to have lowered its alert level for the tense Yellow Sea border with South Korea, a government source here said Friday, after weeks of tension triggered by the North's bombardment of a southern island."The North Korean military recently lifted its order of special alertness for

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest maker of memory chips and liquid-crystal display (LCD) panels, estimated Friday that its operating profit for the October-December period fell below market estimates, as prices of its mainstay memory chips and LCD panels plunged on sluggish demand.    Samsung put its fourth-quarter operating profit at 3 trillion won ($2.67 billion), down 12.8 percent fr

Electronics firm to look overseas to help raise competenceLAS VEGAS ― Samsung Electronics expects up to $200 billion in sales by 2015, noting that it has recorded about 150 trillion won ($132 billion) this year.Samsung Electronics is scheduled to reveal its fourth quarter earnings on Friday in Korea. “I believe we were not wrong to believe that we can hit the $400 billion sales mark by 2020,” said

Google’s high-flying Street View service is in violation of Internet privacy laws here, police said Thursday. According to the Cyber Terror Response Center, the National Police Agency’s Internet crime unit, the conglomerate’s Street View mapping service had gathered sensitive private information from unencrypted wireless networks during the filming process.“We succeeded in breaking the encryption

PyeongChang has completed its candidature file for its bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.Cho Yang-ho, CEO of PyeongChang’s 2018 bid committee, joined by Korean Olympic Committee president Park Yong-sung and Lee Kwang-jae, Governor of Gangwon Province, signed Thursday the finalized proposal in a special ceremony held in central Seoul. The International Olympic Committee set the deadline for the

 The 42-million yuan jackpot winner dressed in a disguise poses for a photo while holding his check, in Dongguan, Dec 31, 2010. [Photo/Guangzhou Daily]China’s latest multi-millionaire lottery winner collected his prize wearing a disguise and said he would not immediately tell his family about his new fortune.The man, about 40 years old, received his 42.25-million yuan ($6.4 million) lottery prize

Chung Mong-joon failed to retain his FIFA vice president title after losing to Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan in a vote held at the Asian Football Confederation’s meeting Thursday in Doha.Prince Ali garnered 25 votes while Chung received 20 votes from the 45-member AFC executive committee to oust the honorary president of the Korea Football Association from the FIFA seat that he has kept for

For a New Year gift, 25-year-old Nam So-hyun picked out a pullover with a line of reindeer patterns for her sister and a pair of leggings that give out a similar Nordic vibe for herself in Myeong-dong last weekend. “These warm patterns brighten up winter clothes which are usually dull and somber. They put me in a fairy tale-like mood,” said Nam. “Nordic knitwear,” which is best known for its repet

The Korea Teachers and Education Workers’ Union is expected to make a major turn from its hawkish attitude as its new leader declared an end to the “honeymoon period” with liberal educational superintendents. The declaration by Jang Suk-woong is likely to forge a reconciliatory atmosphere between the progressive KTU and the conservative government of President Lee Myung-bak. The teachers’ group ha

Officials told to secure enough vaccines to prevent future outbreakPresident Lee Myung-bak on Thursday instructed his government to come up with fundamental solutions to prevent another outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease next year in addition to ongoing quarantine efforts. “With an increasing number of travelers moving in and out of the country, we need to do more than just quarantine work,” Lee s