POSCO said Friday it will pay 4 billion won in rewards to the bereaved family of the steelmaker’s founder Park Tae-joon, who passed away in December.POSCO’s board of directors agreed on the amount based on company standards for severance pay for longtime employees, the steelmaker said.“Honorary chairman Park devoted himself entirely to POSCO and the nation, and built the Pohang and Gwangyang steel mills with a distinguished leadership. We decided to offer special rewards in consideration of the

Samsung Electronics said Friday that it plans to establish a research center for subparts in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, by December next year.The new research center will bring together about 15 of its subpart research labs ― including semiconductor, memory and LSI research centers ― which are each located in different areas.The comprehensive complex, which broke ground earlier in November last year, is expected to be built on 50,000 square meters of lot area and 330,000 square meters of gross

Korean consumers’ inflation expectations eased slightly in February from the previous month, the Bank of Korea said Friday.South Korean consumers expect inflation in Asia’s fourth-largest economy to reach a yearly average of 4 percent over the next 12 months, according to a survey by the BOK. In January, the median expectation for the inflation rate stood at 4.1 percent.The February reading was slightly lower than the previous month’s data, but inflation expectations failed to fall below the 4 p

The income disparity between the rich and the poor in Korea widened last year as the proportion of the middle class shrank, data showed Friday. According to the report by Statistics Korea, Gini’s coefficient, the indicator showing the income gap between the wealthy and the poor, stood at 0.311 in 2011, up from 0.310 a year earlier, suggesting the equality level for income distribution worsened. Another indicator ― the market income ratio that compares the upper 20 percent and the lower 20 percen

The Seoul government said Friday it will step up investor relations and focus on attracting projects with major employment plans this year, targeting $13 billion in foreign investment.Foreign direct investment in Korea reached $13.67 billion last year.“The Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, which goes into effect on March 15, will be a good opportunity to not only raise the competitiveness of our exports to the U.S., but also to make Korea a more attractive place for foreign investment,” Knowledge

Solid fundamentals, foreign investors’ bond purchases boost value of the local currencyThe Korean won stays strong amid a flurry of reports that its value might go up further on the strength of foreign investors opting for Korean bonds. The local currency strengthened 2.5 percent as of Feb. 24 from of January against the U.S. dollar, outpacing the euro (0.9 percent) and the Japanese yen (1.8 percent), according to the Bank of Korea. HSBC said in a recent report that the Korean won is likely to f

More than eight in every 10 adults in Korea own at least one credit card, a poll showed Friday, indicating plastic money has become the main means of settlement in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.According to the survey of 2,000 people aged 20-70 by the Korea Consumer Agency, 1,647 respondents, or 82.4 percent said they have at least one credit card.Of the tallied holders, 24 percent answered they have only one credit card, with the percentage for those with two and three standing at 30.7 percent

Conference to discuss security of nuclear materials, reduction of HEU useKorea will host its biggest-ever international conference on nuclear power March 23-24 in conjunction with the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit to be held three days later.More than 200 chief executives of nuclear power companies and representatives of related international organizations are expected to attend the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Industry Summit to discuss the role of the nuclear industry in enhancing nuclear security and s

By Kim Yon-seKB Financial Group has been expanding its social contribution activities such as educational programs for students and donations to the needy.In particular, the group’s social foundation is diversifying educational and scholarship programs.Last year, the group set up the KB Financial Public Foundation, specialized in education and research, to support economic and financial research projects.The foundation controls 20 billion won ($17.5 million) of funds donated by KB and its subsid

Samsung Electronics said Thursday that it sold up to 20 million units of its flagship smartphone Galaxy S2 since releasing it in the global market last April.Together with its previous model Galaxy S, the world’s IT behemoth said it sold more than 40 million units of its Galaxy smartphone series ahead of its launch of the next Galaxy S this year. Equipped with the 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display and a dual core processor, the light-weight Galaxy S2 features a slim design, improved from its pr