About 50 investment authorities and high-level officials from 32 developing nations attended a forum in Seoul on Wednesday to explain their development plans and meet with Korean officials and businessmen. The Korean government spelled out its policy for industrial and resource cooperation as well as official development assistance plans for developing countries at the Global Industry Cooperation Forum hosted by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.About 30 foreign diplomats in Seoul and

The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission on Wednesday said the chief of the Gori-1 nuclear power plant had decided not to report a power outage at the unit on Feb. 9 to higher authorities.The panel last week launched a probe into the temporary power failure at the Gori-1 unit in Busan and why it was only reported to the head of the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. more than a month later.“The chief of the Gori-1 unit entered the main control room during the power loss and decided not to repor

Korea National Oil Corp., South Korea’s state energy developer, said it will join an Apollo Global Management LLC-led group that agreed to buy El Paso Corp.’s oil and gas exploration business for $7.15 billion.The group, which includes Riverstone Holdings LLC and Access Industries Inc., will probably make the acquisition in the first half, the Anyang, South Korea-based company, known as KNOC, said on Tuesday in an e-mailed statement, without giving a value or details of its proposed holding.“The

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain’s biggest state-owned lender, will wind down some operations in South Korea, Indonesia and Singapore, retreating from an earlier plan to sell them.The U.K. lender is to close the cash equities, equity capital markets and corporate finance units in Korea, as well as the cash equities operations in Indonesia and Singapore, Yuk Min-hui, a spokeswoman for RBS in Hong Kong, said in an e- mailed response to queries. About 70 people will be affected, she said.R

Korean stocks finished 0.73 percent lower Wednesday as worries about China’s growth prospects and North Korea dampened investor appetite for risks, analysts said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark KOSPI declined 14.92 points to 2,027.23. Trading volume was moderate at511 million shares worth 5.1 trillion won ($4.53 billion) with losers leading gainers 542 to 273. “The local bourse underperformed against other stock markets in Asia,” said Lee Young-won, an analyst at H

Growth in South Korea’s labor productivity accelerated in the fourth quarter of 2011 from three months earlier, helped by solid export gains, a government report showed Wednesday.According to the report by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the labor productivity index for all industries in the three month period increased 3.3 percent on-year to 112.6, up from 109.0 tallied a year earlier.The on-year growth rate of labor productivity sank to 1.1 percent in the third quarter of last year after re

Financial regulator under fire for approving only KB Kookmin, Hana-SKThe Financial Services Commission is being seen as inconsistent in its policy to approve businesses of new credit card firms.After KB Financial Group launched a stand-alone credit card firm, named KB Kookmin Card, in March 2011, other financial groups and banks have been striving to follow suit.Among them are Woori Financial, Nonghyup Financial, Korea Development Bank and Standard Chartered Bank Korea.In January, FSC chairman K