The customs agency said Monday that it has confiscated a total of 127 kilograms of gold being smuggled into the country so far this year.The amount is much higher than 13 kilograms of confiscated gold last year, according to data provided by the Korea Customs Service. It is valued at 6.8 billion won ($6.3 million). The increase is attributable to the agency’s recently stepped-up crackdown efforts. In May, the KCS launched teams exclusively tasked with investigating gold smuggling attempts. “We h

Samsung Electronics, the world's leading chipmaker, will be strengthening a part of its operations in China by injecting an additional $500 million into its envisioned plant under construction in the city of Xian.The move came after the company started work on a semiconductor plant in the central Chinese city in September 2012 as a part of its move to diversify production lines and meet growing demand for NAND flash memory chips.The construction project was aimed to be completed by next year, pr

Mobile service provider KT said Thursday that it was named one of the world’s most sustainable telecommunications companies for three consecutive years in a review by Dow Jones Sustainability Indices.S&P Dow Jones Indices, one of the world’s largest providers of financial market indices, and RobecoSAM, an investment company focusing on sustainable investment, announce the review every year that evaluates 2,500 global firms on their financial and non-financial performance including supply chain m

South Korea’s exports of information technology products rose from a year earlier in August, continuing their on-year growth for the 12th consecutive month, the government said Monday.Outbound shipments of IT products reached $14.5 billion last month, up 11.4 percent from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.The country‘s trade surplus in the IT sector widened to $8.13 billion, the second highest in the country’s history, as its imports only ga

South Korea's three mobile carriers -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp., and LG Uplus Corp. -- said Tuesday they will begin taking preorders this week for Samsung Electronics Co.'s latest Galaxy Note 3, which is expected to hit the local market later this month.South Korean customers can preorder the smartphone on the operators' websites starting Wednesday. Preorders for the newest Galaxy line-up can also be made at the mobile carriers' local retail stores, they said.Samsung, the world's largest smartph

Financial companies in South Korea will step up their identification process for online users in a broad move to prevent cyber fraud, which is becoming a rampant problem here, the financial regulator said Monday. All financial companies, including banks, insurers, brokerage firms and savings banks, must have their online users identify themselves through either a text message or an automated response system, starting from Sept. 26, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). An online

LG Electronics Inc., the world's No.3 smartphone maker, said Monday that it plans to roll out the LG G Pad 8.3 tablet, the latest addition to its G Series lineup of premium mobile devices, in some 30 countries by the end of the year.LG Electronics last week unveiled the G Pad 8.3, which has the Full HD display. The tablet runs on Snapdragon 600 Processor with 1.7GHz Quad-Core CPU, which helps enhance the viewing experience with powerful performance, the company said in its release.One of its key

SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, on Sunday said it had resumed partial operations at its Wuxi plant in China that was hit by a fire last week. The blaze caused the chipmaker to suspend its operations at the plant. No casualties were reported but the company said it was investigating the exact cause. One of the production lines that had been left untouched by the fire began operations as of Saturday after completing safety inspections, SK Hynix said.The company added it was

SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory-chipmaker, on Thursday said it expects little to no disruption to its chip supply after a fire that occurred in its Wuxi plant in China, as the equipment was not damaged. “There is no material damage to the (semiconductor) fabrication equipment in the clean room, which is why we expect to resume operations in the near future so that production and supply volume will not be affected,” SK Hynix said in a statement. The company was still investigating the

After months of anticipation, snowballing speculation and countless leaked photos online, Samsung Electronics Co. on Wednesday introduced the Galaxy Gear, a wrist-worn device that allows users to check messages and make phone calls without whipping out their smartphones.The new “smart watch,” in spite its futuristic appeal, brought mixed responses, with many not wholeheartedly impressed with the latest device from the South Korean tech giant.Among the biggest issue was that it had no phone funct