South Korea's business community welcomed a landmark deal Tuesday on defusing inter-Korean tensions, pledging to rev up efforts to expand economic ties with North Korea.After days of intensive high-level talks, the Koreas agreed to ease tensions sparked by Pyongyang's landmine attack that injured two South Korean soldiers early this month. Calling the agreement a great relief, the Federation of Korean Industries, the lobby for South Korea's family-run conglomerates, said it will push ahead with

South Korea's top financial regulator pledged Tuesday to take pre-emptive measures to cushion the fallout from a global stock rout and ease investor jitters.Nagging concerns over China's economic slowdown have rattled the global financial market in recent days, sending local stocks and the South Korean won plunging as foreigners dumped share holdings.The benchmark KOSPI tumbled to a two-year low on a China stock rout on Monday, with the Chinese bourse nosediving more than 8 percent."Recent exter

South Korea and Ecuador were set to declare the start of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement Tuesday, with the first round of talks expected before the end of the year.The declaration was to be made at a meeting between the countries' trade ministers in Seoul, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy."Ecuador is expected to become a gateway for our companies to the large Central and South American markets as the country has an FTA with a regional economic bloc of Sou

The head of South Korea's largest business lobby on Sunday called for further cooperation with China via the upcoming implementation of the two nations' bilateral free trade pact, as well as through their alliance in a China-led regional bank. "The South Korea-China free trade agreement will help extend our ties into a new source of growth and step up our level of economic cooperation," Huh Chang-soo, head of the Federation of Korean Industries, said during a meeting of business officials from t

The South Korean stock market's volatility soared to a yearly high on Friday as investors fret over the ripple effect of military tension with North Korea following an exchange of artillery fire across the western border.   The volatility index for the KOSPI 200, a basket of 200 blue-chip shares listed on the main Seoul bourse, jumped 23.3 percent to close at 18.49 on Friday, marking the highest level since Oct. 17, 2014, data by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency, show

As the South Korean currency weakened at a faster pace and emerging economies are rattled by global financial uncertainties, foreigner investors are pulling out their money en masse from the local equity market, data showed Friday.  Snapping their five-month buying streak in June, foreigners dumped a net 2.65 trillion won ($2.24 billion) in the June-July period, according to data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service.  In July alone, offshore investors unloaded a net 2.26 trillion won wo

Heightened inter-Korean tension has dealt a fresh blow to the South Korean stock market already stung by concerns over a U.S. interest rate hike and China's currency move, but its impact is likely to be short-lived, analysts said Friday.  Straining frayed bilateral ties further, North Korea fired artillery shells over the western part of the heavily armed border on Thursday, prompting the South to fire back dozens of rounds.  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ratcheted up his offensive by ordering

The local currency further weakened late Friday morning from the earlier session, jolted by heightening tension on the peninsula following the exchange of cross-border artillery fire between the two Koreas, analysts said.   The Korean won was changing hands at 1,192.70 won against the U.S. dollar as of 11:20 a.m., down 7.4 won from Thursday's close.  The won declined to the 1,190.00-won mark again, nine days after it dipped to that level following the consecutive yuan devaluations by China's cen

South Korea's monthly household spending edged up in the second quarter from a year ago, weighed down by the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a government report showed Friday.  The average household spent just over 3.28 million won ($2,750) per month in the April-June period, up 1 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to the report by Statistics Korea.  The average consumption propensity, or the ratio of total consumption spending to disposable income, stood at 71.

Government officials and the business community on Thursday urged an early resumption of three-way talks on labor market reform that are currently facing a boycott by the labor sector.   The trilateral talks between the government, business and labor organizations have been stalled since April 8 when representatives from the Federation of Korean Trade Unions walked out of negotiations in opposition to proposed changes to regulations concerning layoffs.FKTU leaders were expected to declare their

The chief of South Korea's central bank on Thursday reiterated the importance of structural reform in spurring growth, acknowledging the bank's monetary policy has a limited impact on Seoul's policy initiative to restructure the labor and financial market."Since the effects of accommodative monetary policy in boosting demand cannot last for a long time, structural reforms to enhance productivity in the financial and labor sectors are essential for sustainable growth," Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-y

Doosan Group, a major South Korean conglomerate, said Thursday it will implement the so-called wage peak system in all its units starting next year, becoming the first local business group to do so.The new wage system calls for employees to accept a reduced salary in exchange for working until the retirement age set by the company. The government is pushing public and private companies to adopt the system in an effort to help alleviate high youth unemployment.According to group officials, a majo

South Korean overseas tourists surged nearly 20 percent on-year in the first seven months of 2015 on favorable exchange rates and cheaper airfare, with the number of inbound tourists falling due to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak, official data showed Thursday.According to the data provided by the Tourism Knowledge and Information System, outbound travelers totaled 10.82 million in the January-July period, up 19.4 percent from the same period a year earlier.The sharp increase surpa

President Park Geun-hye's administration has made meaningful headway in revitalizing the economy in the face of challenges over the past two and a half years, although tough challenges lie ahead, local observers say.Days before Park's halfway point in her five-year term in office on Aug. 25, economists pointed out that while lofty goals set at the outset have yet to be fully met, the administration has been consistent in its push for reforms, with some gains having already been made in the realm