Under President Park Geun-hye’s commitment to improving the livelihood of ordinary citizens, the state financial regulator will launch a task force to crack down on irregular practices haunting financial consumers.The task force, dubbed the Financial Consumer Protection Planning Team, is scheduled make its debut in the coming weeks, the Financial Services Commission said Wednesday.“Over the next 12 months, the planning team will carry out special duties involving looking into the overall irregul

Facebook and Samsung Electronics are reportedly in official talks on strengthening their cooperation in mobile content to explore new mutual marketing opportunities, according to local news reports Wednesday. The discussions were a part of follow up talks initiated by Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg who was recently in Korea. Among the ideas she is said to have exchanged with Samsung officials were ways to get more people to use Facebook on Samsung's smartphones, such as by pr

Controversy is rising over a plan to set up a nuclear control organization after President Park Geun-hye instructed the Cabinet to come up with measures to boost authority over the local nuclear industry.“The Industry Ministry, which is the key department in charge of nuclear issues, currently has little regulatory authority over the related public organizations,” the president said in the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.She thus demanded that the Nuclear Safety & Security Commission, the Ministry of

Credit card firms are facing pressure to scrap the ongoing negotiations over card transaction fees due to resistance from large retailers.The Financial Supervisory Service noted Wednesday that major credit card issuers including Shinhan, Samsung, KB Kookmin, Hyundai and Lotte are far from settling the seven-month-long service fee levels for the conglomerate sector.In December 2012, the FSS instructed the card industry to ease the burden on small and medium-sized enterprises by cutting their tran

South Korea’s surplus in trade of cultural products and services widened in the first five months of this year on the popularity of its pop culture in overseas countries, data showed Wednesday.The account tracking exports and imports of cultural products and contents logged a surplus of $52 million in the first five months of this year, compared with a surplus of $43.5 million the previous year, according to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea.In the January-May period, South Korea earned inc

CJ Olive Young, South Korea’s biggest drugstore chain operator, said Wednesday that it has opened its first Chinese store in Shanghai as part of efforts to expand its presence in the global market. CJ Olive Young is an arm of CJ Group, South Korea’s food and entertainment conglomerate that operates 301 stores in the country and opened its first store in 1999. The drugstore chain operator plans to launch its second and third Chinese store in Shanghai in the second half of the year. CJ Olive Young

LG Electronics Co., a South Korean home appliance maker, said Wednesday that it has completed the construction of a research and development center to focus on the development of automotive parts.The R&D center will house 800 engineers to develop vehicle parts such as motors, inverters and converters for electric vehicles, it said.Last month, LG Electronics, also the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, said it will establish a new business division called the Vehicle Components Business Divi

SEJONG (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s exports of information-technology products surged to a record high in the six months that ended on June 30 on growing shipments of mobile communication devices and semiconductors, the government said Tuesday.In the January-June period, the country’s IT exports reached $81.24 billion, up 10.9 percent from the same period in 2012, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.The country’s trade surplus in the IT sector also surged to a record high of

Now that the fiercely competitive high-end smartphone market is well saturated, Samsung Electronics is pushing into the mid-range mobile phone market with plans to roll out stripped-down smartphone models.According to the IT Testing and Certification Laboratory, the state-run testing and certification agency for electronic devices, Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Mini (SHV-370D) has acquired certification for it to be sold unlocked, meaning that the phone will not be tied to a certain mobile network so that

South Korean stocks closed 0.34 percent lower Wednesday as market uncertainties grew before the release of the minutes of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) June meeting, analysts said. The local currency gained against the U.S. dollar.  The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 6.19 points to finish at 1,824.16. Trading volume was low at 264.3 million shares worth 3.2 trillion won (US$2.8 billion) with losers outpacing gainers 521 to 276.  "Global investors are t

South Korean stocks traded slightly lower late Wednesday morning, dented by losses in telecom companies and foodmakers, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) slid 1.53 points, or 0.08 percent to 1,828.82 as of 11:20 a.m.Leading confectionery maker Orion fell more than 2 percent, with No. 2 mobile carrier KT Corp. dropping 1.4 percent. Top-cap Samsung Electronics continued to move in positive terrain, rising 0.7 percent. The local currency was changing hands at 1,

Shipments of high-end smartphones are likely to suffer a slowdown in the coming years, denting the world's two biggest smartphone makers -- Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc., a report showed on Wednesday.According to the report by Hi Investment & Securities, shipments of high-end smartphones are expected to reach 380 million this year, growing 12 percent from a year earlier.But this year's growth marked a sharp slowdown from last year's 26-percent on-year expansion, the 59-percent rise in 2

South Korean stocks opened almost unchanged Wednesday as investors took to the sidelines ahead of the release of Chinese export data scheduled later in the day, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 0.28 points, or 0.02 percent to 1,830.63 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Large-cap exporters led the climb, with Samsung Electronics gaining 0.5 percent and Hyundai Motor rising nearly 1 percent. Blue-chip state-run electricity provider Korea Electric Power

Chrysler Korea, the local importer and distributor of U.S. automaker Chrysler Group LLC., is voluntarily recalling Jeep Compass vehicles for problems with the vehicle's seat belts and airbags, Seoul's transportation ministry said Wednesday.According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the car's seat belt pretensioner may not work properly in the case the vehicle is overturned.Also, the vehicle's side airbags may not deploy properly under the same condition, it added.The recall