The communications watchdog on Thursday imposed a business suspension on the country's No. 2 mobile carrier and fined it and two other rivals for providing excessive subsidies to lure customers.KT Corp. will be banned from attracting new customers for seven days, as it is judged to have led an overheated competition in the local telecom market, and was fined 20.2 billion won (US$17.84 million), the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said.The watchdog also slapped fines of 36.4 billion won and

South Korean stocks got off to a weak start Thursday, led by a selling binge by foreign investors in large-cap shares, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 10.39 points, or 0.55 percent, to 1,877.10 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Foreigners sold more than 44.2 billion won (US$39.4 million) worth of local equities as of 9:15 a.m. Blue-chip stocks lost ground, with Samsung Electronics shedding 0.8 percent and steelmaker POSCO losing nearly 1 percent. Maj

Asiana Airlines Inc. said Wednesday it has withdrawn its plan to file a defamation suit against a U.S. television station for damaging the carrier's reputation over the deadly crash of its plane in San Francisco. "We decided not to proceed with the suit to concentrate all our efforts on dealing with the aftermath of the accident," the South Korea's second-largest flag carrier said in a statement.The airline also cited an apology by the San Francisco Bay Area station KTVU Channel 2 for its abrupt

South Korea’s financial regulators will have reinforced authority in investigating fraudulent stock trading, becoming closer to the surveillance systems used in the United States and Britain.The Financial Services Commission of Korea is poised to set up the “investigation division,” which will be in charge of fast-track scrutiny of alleged stock manipulation, said regulatory officials on Wednesday.“The authority comes from a close benchmarking of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and t

Upgrading infrastructure and introduction of casinos seen as key to developing industry

A well-known economics professor advised Samsung Group on Wednesday to open communication with those who are critical of the nation’s top conglomerate. Participating at a regular weekly meeting of the top executives of Samsung at its headquarters in Gangnam, Kim Sang-jo, a professor at Hansung University in Seoul, gave a one-hour lecture titled “Economic Democratization and Samsung,” with the subtitle “Samsung and Society.” “Vice chairman and heir apparent of the conglomerate Lee Jay-yong has to

The daily volatility of the South Korean currency rose to the highest level in 16 months in the second quarter on fear that the U.S. may taper its monetary easing, the central bank said Wednesday. The average daily volatility of the local currency reached 6.6 won in the April-June period, wider than 5.4 won in the previous quarter, according to the Bank of Korea. The second-quarter data marked the highest volatility since 9.3 won in the fourth quarter of 2011, it added. The on-day currency volat

Hyundai Oilbank, the nation’s fourth-largest refinery, signed a memorandum of understanding with Lotte Chemical for a $1 billion joint project on Wednesday. The two companies’ deal is to build a plant to produce mixed xylene, widely used for making plastics and synthetic fibers, as well as light straight-run naphtha, which is used to make petrochemical products. The plant is scheduled to be fully functional by the second half of 2016. Both companies expect to save about 2 trillion won on imports

Asiana Airlines said Wednesday that it has decided to withdraw its earlier plan to sue a U.S. television station for insulting the pilots of its jetliner that crash-landed at San Francisco Airport on July 6.“We made the decision in consideration of what KTVU announced as an official apology and we have to put all our efforts into containing the fallout of the accident,” the air carrier said in a statement.On Monday, Asiana said it would file a defamation lawsuit against KTVU news Channel 2 in Oa