Facebook said Monday it has launched a K-pop music page to help fans of Korean pop music around the world to engage with their favorite K-pop stars more actively. The page, provided jointly by Facebook and Korea’s largest entertainment agency SM Entertainment, will be updated with the latest K-pop news and content in both Korean and English.On Monday morning at 11 a.m., Seoul time, the K-pop page had photos and information from the SM Town Concert in Los Angeles. The page is seen at www.facebook

South Korea will share advanced aviation-related policy knowhow with developing countries as part of its contribution to promoting safety and efficiency in global civilian flight services, the government said Monday.To that end, the government kicked off a six-day policy program that runs through Saturday and aims to pass on Seoul’s experiences in flight planning policies, airport construction and management to civil aviation representatives from 15 countries, the Ministry of Land, Transport and

The growth of electricity consumption by South Korea’s industrial sector slowed in April from a year earlier due mainly to less working days and weaker exports, the government said Monday.Sales of industrial electricity moved up just 1.7 percent on-year to 21.22 billion kilowatt-hours in the cited month, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The gain marks a slowdown from a 9.1 percent increase a year earlier, although total output rose from 20.86 billion kilowatt-hours.Power output, h

South Korean exports of manufactured products to the European Union surged 16.1 percent on-year in the second half of 2011 thanks to lowered tariffs under a bilateral trade pact, government data showed Monday.The free trade agreement, which went into effect in July last year, calls for Seoul and Brussels to eliminate or phase out tariffs on 96 percent of EU goods and 99 percent of South Korean goods within three years after the accord takes effect. According to the finance ministry data, exports

Korea, celebrating the 20th anniversary of its official ties with China, needs to be cautious about its growing export dependency on the world’s second-largest economy, a report warned Sunday.According to the report by the Korea International Trade Association, Korea’s exports to China saw a more than 50-fold growth from $2.65 billion in 1992 to $134.19 billion last year.The portion of exports to China also soared from 3.5 percent to 24.2 percent during the same period. Over the past two decades

Global display market shrinks in first quarterSamsung Electronics has become the biggest seller of mobile phones, smartphones and LTE phones in the world, according to reports.In the global smartphone market, Samsung continued to show its prowess, edging out Nokia for the first time in the first quarter of this year, Strategy Analytics, a market research firm said.Samsung sold a total of 92.5 million mobile phones, accounting for 25 percent globally, surpassing the 22.4 market share of Nokia, wh

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s top trade official strongly indicated last week that talks on expanding American beef imports are unlikely for the time being due to the latest case of mad cow disease here.Trade Minister Bark Tae-ho stressed that public confidence in U.S. beef in South Korea is the most important factor.“Consumption of U.S. beef dramatically dropped in South Korea as this (mad cow) case dealt a complete blow to public trust,” he said in a meeting with South Korean corres

South Korean stocks are expected to undergo further adjustments this week, weighed down by mounting eurozone uncertainties and their impact on the global economy, local analysts said.The country’s key stock index, the KOSPI, closed at 1,782.46 on Friday, a drop of 7.03 percent or 134.67 points from a week earlier, mainly due to fears that Greece may exit the eurozone and concerns that the continent’s fiscal woes have started to spill over into the banking sector. The plunge is significant becaus

Korea Development Bank plans to tap the Japanese bond market following Thursday’s record Samurai offering by its peer state-owned lender Export-Import Bank of Korea, said a person familiar with the matter.KDB, whose parent is the nation’s largest state-owned banking group, is planning a sale of yen-denominated bonds as soon as early June, the person said, asking not to be identified as details are private. Banks have been asked to submit proposals to arrange the offering and KDB is expected to c

A leading South Korean business organization said Sunday it has requested the government soften taxation rules for dividends companies receive from their domestic and overseas subsidiaries.“Taxes on dividend income are tantamount to double taxation because they are levied after subsidiaries pay corporate taxes,” the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry said. “All dividends received from subsidiaries should be exempt from taxation.”Currently, South Korean companies have 30-50 percent of their d

The state-run Korea Development Institute lowered its forecast of South Korea’s economic growth for this year to 3.6 percent on Sunday, citing global economic uncertainties.The latest projection is down from the 3.8 percent made by the KDI in November and lower than the government’s estimate of 3.7 percent. The think tank also predicted the country’s economic growth to rise to 4.1 percent next year.“The South Korean economy has been stuck in a slowdown since the second half of last year due to w