South Korean stocks are expected to move upward next week, trying to make up for the sharp losses seen in the last seven days, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) tumbled 3.2 percent from a week earlier to finish at 1,812.89 this week, as investors opted to sell off shares on disappointing U.S. employment data and a hike in borrowing costs for Spanish deb

TOKYO -- The powerful uncle of North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un has advised Kim's half-brother Kim Jong-nam not to criticize the country, a news report said Saturday.Jang Song-thaek told Kim Jong-nam to refrain from making comments critical of the power succession to foreign media, Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, citing an unidentified source on

North Korea has launched an air route from China to the scenic Mount Geumgang on its east coast, Pyongyang’s official media said Friday.A group of Chinese tourists led by the manager of the Yanbian Chunwoo International Travel Agency flew into Pyongyang Thursday from the northeastern Chinese city of Yanji, according to the Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party. Chinese media said the air route to Mount Geumgang will operate from Yanji every Monday and Friday, carryin

Foreign ministers of 27 Asia Pacific countries on Friday backed U.N. sanctions on North Korea and called it to refrain from any further provocations. The top diplomats wrapped up the annual ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Regional Forum, the region’s largest security conference, in Phnom Penh.“(The ministers) urged concerned parties not to take any further provocations and to comply with their respective obligations under the relevant U.N. Security Council Resolutions and their co

North Korea has launched an air route from China to the scenic Mount Kumgang on its east coast, Pyongyang's official media said Friday.A group of Chinese tourists led by the manager of the Yanbian Chunwoo International Travel Agency flew into Pyongyang Thursday from the northeastern Chinese city of Yanji, according to the Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the North's ruling Workers' Party. Chinese

Top diplomats of the two Koreas have pointedly shunned each other at annual security talks here, dashing hopes of a possible encounter and underscoring frozen inter-Korean relations. The ASEAN Regional Forum has served as an important venue for discussions on North Korea. This week's forum marked the first time South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and his North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui-ch

North Korea insisted Thursday it needs atomic weaponry to deter a U.S. nuclear threat, and vowed never to give up its right to launch rockets as part of what it called a peaceful space program.Washington's aim is to "eliminate the political ideology and system our people have opted for", Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun told a regional Asian gathering in Cambodia, according to a summary given to repor

South Korean firms at a joint industrial estate in North Korea have paid about $160,000 in tax to the North as their businesses thrive despite political tensions, an official said Wednesday. The Gaeseong Industrial Complex in the namesake city just north of the tightly guarded border opened in 2004 as a symbol of cross-border reconciliation. It has continued to attract workers despite high political and military tensions in recent years, and is a source of legitimate hard currency for the cash-s

A South Korean company in the inter-Korean industrial zone in North Korea paid about $7,000 in corporate income tax to the North last year, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday.It was the first time a South Korean company has paid a tax to North Korea since 2004 when the two Koreas opened the complex in the North's border city of Kaesong to boost cross-border economic cooperation.South Korean c

The North Korean economy is believed to have marginally grown last year after contracting for two straight years on increased agricultural production, South Korea's central bank said Sunday.The Bank of Korea (BOK) estimated that the communist country's economy grew 0.8 percent on-year in 2011, compared with a 0.5 percent contraction a year earlier. The 2011 data contrasted with a 3.6 percent expan

A South Korean worker was banned from working in an inter-Korean industrial zone in North Korea's border city of Kaesong for two weeks in May for a minor offense, the Unification Ministry said Thursday.It was the first time a South Korean has been denied access to the complex under a demerit point system designed to strengthen law and order among the hundreds of South Koreans in the complex.The co