The US Federal Reserve's latest decision to start to taper its bond purchases is expected to have limited impacts on the South Korean financial markets as the move was widely anticipated, a senior government official said Thursday. First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon said the government plans to take measures to stabilize the market, if needed, as market volatility could increase if global inflation fears persist longer than expected. At the latest policy meeting, the Federal Reserve on W

South Korean stocks opened steeply higher Thursday, following the US Federal Reserve's decision to start to taper its bond purchases. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 29.91 points, or 1.01 percent, to 3,005.62 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite added 1.04 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.29 percent as the Federal Reserve said it will start to taper its massive asset purchases later this month amid the

Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea's top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, said Thursday its third-quarter net profit jumped nearly six times from a year earlier on the back of robust growth of its content businesses amid the pandemic. Net profit reached 866.3 billion won ($733.1 million) in the July-September period on a consolidated basis, compared with a profit of 143.7 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. The operating income for the cited period came to 168

Hybe Co.on Thursday announced that it will sell stocks to raise 700 billion won. The proceeds from the stock offering will be used primarily to finance stock acquisition. According to a regulatory filing, the company will issue some 2.3 million common shares at a price of 304,008 won per share. The stocks will be sold to the investors that the firm designated. (Yonhap)

Marvel Studios' latest blockbuster "Eternals" has topped the South Korean box office on its opening day, data showed Thursday. The film posted 296,000 attendees on Wednesday, accounting for 88.9 percent of the day's total ticket sales, according to the data from the Korean Film Council. It marked the second-highest first-day record this year to date, following 400,000 visitors set by "F9," the latest chapter in the "Fast and Furious" series, in May. The new film

The remains of three British troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War will be buried at the UN Memorial Cemetery in South Korea's southeastern port city of Busan later this month, the veterans affairs ministry said Thursday. The defense ministry's excavation agency discovered the remains at two former battle sites in Paju, 30 kilometers northwest of Seoul, between 2016-2017, and identified them as those of the fallen British troops through a joint examination with US experts. The troops are

Mercedes-Benz Korea and two other foreign automobile companies will voluntarily recall more than 32,000 vehicles to fix faulty components, the transport ministry said Thursday. This is the latest in a series of recalls by carmakers in South Korea and vehicle importers due to problems with vehicle components. The two other companies are Yamaha Sports Korea, which imports Yamaha two-wheelers, and Kiheung International that imports Royal Enfield Himalayan two wheelers, the Ministry of Land, Infr

Say what you like about Congress‘ squabbling and eternally disarrayed Democrats; they’ve showed in the last few weeks that they deserve to be recognized as the party of ideas. And not just a few ideas; many, many ideas -- maybe too many for one piece of legislation: universal prekindergarten, federally subsidized child care, clean-energy tax credits, even a Civilian Climate Corps, paid for by a newly invented surtax on millionaires. It‘s a good thing they had so many ideas av

Since gaining independence after World War II, the nation has had 12 presidents. The world admires the postwar history of South Korea as a rare success story, but the fates of our former presidents only remind us what a rugged path we have had to arrive here now. We hate to recount that the first president, Syngman Rhee, died during exile in Hawaii and Park Chung-hee, who took power in a military coup, was assassinated by his close aide. Among their successors, two were jailed for treason, two