A new high-quality counterfeit $100 bill has been found in South Korea, bank officials said Tuesday, prompting suggestions the sanctions-hit North might have resumed forging "supernotes".A team of forgery specialists at KEB Hana Bank have confirmed that a $100 note found at a Seoul branch in November was a fake which was almost impossible to distinguish from real banknotes, they said."It was the first of a new kind of supernote ever found in the world," Yi Ho-Joong, head of t

South Korea's communication watchdog on Tuesday slapped fines on an operator of a cryptocurrency exchange in the country for allegedly leaking the private data of its users in its first punitive action against an administrator of such exchanges.The Korea Communications Commission decided to impose fines totaling 60 million won ($54,970) on BTC Korea.Com, an operator of Bithumb, the largest bitcoin and ethereum digital currency exchange in South Korea, for its alleged negligence in the protection

Both South Korea’s export price index and import price index saw downturns for the first time in five months as of November, mainly due to the strength of the won against the greenback. The import price edged down 0.4 percent to 82.87 in November, while the export price sank 1.8 percent to 85.68, according to data by the Bank of Korea released on Tuesday. The drops came in spite of oil price hike in November, overshadowed by strengthening local currency, according to BOK. On the contract c

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Unpaid tax by Korean tax defaulters amounted to 11.3 trillion won ($10.4 billion) in 2017, the National Tax Service revealed on Monday. The tax agency annually discloses names of those whose unpaid tax money exceeds 300 million won. This year, there were about 4,700 more names on the list compared to 2016 because the standard for disclosure was lowered to 200 million won.Some 21,000 entities failed or delayed to pay their taxes amounting over 200 million won in 2017 without giving specific reaso

The issuance and redemption of equity-linked securities soared in the third quarter on the back of bullish stock markets at home and abroad, the financial regulator said Tuesday.The issuance of ELS products stood at 18.1 trillion won ($16.6 billion) in the July-September period, up 15.3 percent from the previous quarter and 64.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service.ELS refers to hybrid debt securities whose returns are determined by the perfor

Information technology solutions firm Cafe24 gained Monday preliminary approval for an initial public offering on the nation‘s second-tier Kosdaq market operated by the Korea Exchange, marking the first company to be listed through the operator’s “Tesla Policy” introduced in December 2016.Cafe24, a Korean company that offers IT solutions for sellers looking to create online retailers, is expected to earn some 40 billion won ($36.6 million) through the entry into Kosdaq sl

South Korean stocks rose Monday as institutions scooped up local stocks, offsetting net selling by foreigners and individuals. The Korean won rose against the US dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 7.49 points, or 0.30 percent, to close at 2,471.49. Trade volume was moderate at 237.57 million shares worth 4.536 trillion won ($4.15 billion). Institutional investors bought stocks worth 240 billion won, while foreigners and individuals sold a combined 266 billion won worth o

President Moon Jae-in called for swift measures Monday to reduce working hours and eradicate job-related corruption at public firms."Revising the Labor Standards Act to cut working hours is a task we can no longer afford to delay," the president said while meeting with his top presidential aides in a weekly meeting at his office Cheong Wa Dae."As both ruling and opposition parties share the common objective of (improving) the economy and people's livelihoods, I ask them to make re

Confusion over plans to reduce work hours is deepening, adding to the aggravating conditions faced by local businesses.Ranking members from ruling and opposition parties at a parliamentary committee last month agreed on a draft revision to the labor law to reduce the maximum workweek from 68 hours to 52 hours in three stages depending on company size. But the revised law would leave additional pay for holiday work unchanged at 50 percent of the wages for weekday work.The parliamentary passage of

South Korea was not an exception from a bitcoin price spike Monday, as the US began trading a derivative related to the de facto key cryptocurrency on the Chicago Board Options Exchange on Sunday.  As of 1 p.m. Monday, bitcoin in South Korea traded at 19.5 million won ($17,900), up 35.8 percent compared to a day prior, according to data from local coin tracker Coinass. The coin price remained about 10 percent higher than the world average, the data also showed. The surge does not necessaril

South Korean smart card maker Kona I and French smart card component maker Linxens have signed a strategic cooperation to expand business for payment and security starting next year, Kona I said Monday. The two companies are reviewing various projects, ranging from telecommunication, e-government, access control, financial services to internet of things, among others, according to Kona I. The two have already been working together, for example, with Linxens providing components such as RFID Ante

The top financial regulator said Monday it will order banks and other financial institutions to improve their risk management for household debt by restricting high-risk debt and improving emergency backstops. Choi Jong-ku, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, told a meeting of journalists that the FSC could amend the calculation system of a loan-to-deposit ratio to help financial institutions better manage risks of household debt. Among the possible measures is to draw a line between

Seoul residents inherited over 23 trillion won ($20.9 billion) over the last five years, which is 45 percent of the total inheritance that occurred across South Korea in the cited period, data released by the National Tax Service showed Sunday.In particular, the inheritance scale was big in Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa -- the three major affluent districts located in southern Seoul -- where a combined 10 trillion won was marked in inheritance. This accounted for 43 percent of the capital city&rsqu

Trade officials of South Korea and Britain will meet this week to discuss ways to forge a new trade deal after London exits from the European Union, Seoul's trade ministry said Monday.South Korea signed a free trade agreement with the EU in 2011, but it will have to strike a fresh deal with Britain once it formally leaves the 28-nation bloc in March 2019.South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Britain's Department of International Trade formed a trade working group in December a