A group of Korean iPhone users on Thursday filed a class action lawsuit against U.S. telecom giant Apple Inc. and its Korean unit over the firm's allegedly illegal collection of users' location data.It will be the first such case in the country."We learned that our whereabouts over the past six months were entirely revealed. It's a privacy violation," said legal representatives of 29 plaintiffs in

Korea's industrial output grew for the 21st straight month in March, indicating that the nation's economy continued to expand, a government report showed Friday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, production in the mining and manufacturing industries rose 8.7 percent last month from a year earlier. Output has increased every month since July 2009. The expansion was fueled mainly by increa

Financial regulators on Thursday issued sanctions against a local asset management firm and a brokerage house for incurring huge losses after conducting allegedly reckless investments in stocks last November.The Financial Supervisory Service held a committee meeting where they fined-tuned the level of penalties against Wise Asset and Hana Daetoo Securities for their alleged negligence in internal

The Korea Communications Commission said Thursday that it plans on sending a questionnaire to Google Inc. involving the collection of location information of its smartphone users here.The event takes place a few days after the state media and telecommunications regulator launched an investigation against Apple Inc. on Monday over collection of information of its smartphone users.In a questionnaire

The dollar slid to 1,071.2 won on Thursday, posting its lowest level in 32 months against the Korean currency.The Korean currency’s value rose by 8.3 won from a day earlier, bringing it to its highest point since Aug. 22, 2008, when it stood at 1,062.5 won per dollar.Economists attributed the won’s rise in value to U.S. policymakers’ stance which hinted at easing ― or a wait-and-see approach towar

Hyundai Motor Co.’s quarterly sales increased 21.4 percent from a year ago, while that of its affiliate Hyundai Steel rose to record levels.In a regulatory filing, Hyundai Motor revealed that its first quarter sales increased 21.4 percent compared to the same period last year to come in at 18.23 trillion won, while operating profits soared 45.6 percent over the same period to come in at more than

Two top mobile carriers SK Telecom and KT Corp. said they will release Apple’s iPad 2 in the local market Friday, according to companies’ officials Thursday.KT, which was the first telecom to service Apple’s iPhone in November 2009, said it will release two different models ― one that operates only on the Wi-Fi network and another which runs on Wi-Fi and 3G networks ― beginning at 10 a.m. at its o

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee on Thursday supported a presidential aide’s call for public funds to more actively exercise their rights as shareholders.The business tycoon said he was not only unperturbed by the remarks, but he “welcomes the idea of having shareholders publicly exercise their rights.”Lee was remarking on a speech given Tuesday by Kwak Seung-jun, head of the presidential

Budget spending focused on investment in new growth enginesThe Ministry of Strategy and Finance on Thursday unveiled its policy to improve the nation’s fiscal soundness next year by slashing unnecessary expenditure.The government is aiming to minimize the 2012 fiscal deficit by curbing the growth of total expenditure, ministry officials said citing its report to the Cabinet meeting held earlier in

Hynix Semiconductor Inc., the world’s second-largest computer memory chipmaker, announced Thursday it posted 2.79 trillion won in sales and 323 billion won in operating profit for the first quarter, slightly up from the previous quarter largely due to an increase in shipping.The figures indicate that the total sales and operating profit rose 1.5 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively, in the first

Hyundai Motor Co. finalized the deal with China’s Sichuan Nanjun Automobile Co. to establish a commercial vehicle plant in China on Thursday.The two companies had signed a memorandum of understanding on setting up a joint venture in October.Sichuan Nanjun Automobile Co. is China’s 11th-largest producer of commercial vehicles. The company operates two plants with a combined annual production capaci

Red Rover Co., a local 3-D services provider, said Thursday that it has posted record earnings of 2.4 billion won ($2.2 million) in the first quarter, up 298 percent from the same period last year.The firm’s sales reached 9.2 billion won, up 203 percent from the January-March period last year, though it was little lower than that of the year’s fourth quarter, it said. “The record performance was p