South Korea's tax authorities have imposed 1.307 trillion won ($1.15 billion) in taxes on offshore tax evaders last year, an opposition lawmaker said Sunday.The National Tax Service has collected only 1.067 trillion won in taxes as some people filed complaints with the country's Tax Tribunal against its decisions to slap taxes on offshore tax evaders, said Park Myung-jae, a lawmaker of the Liberty Korea Party, citing data provided by the tax agency. Offshore tax evasions have been on the ri

South Korea's unemployment rate has risen steadily in the past few years, while jobless numbers among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development members as a whole have fallen, official data showed Sunday. Data by Statistics Korea and the OECD showed that Asia's fourth-largest economy has entered a recovery stage, albeit a weak one, but growth has not led to more positions being created. This is in contrast to most other OECD member states that reported improvements in the job market

South Korea's top trade negotiator left for the United States on Sunday ahead of the second round of talks on possible amendments to their free trade pact, an official said.Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong is set to meet with US politicians and business executives in an apparent move to assess the US atmosphere ahead of the special session meeting of a joint committee scheduled for Oct. 4 in Washington.Kim is scheduled to attend a roundtable to be hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce on Monday. The

The market value of South Korean biopharmaceutical maker Samsung BioLogics Co. surged during this year's stock rally and is forecast to further rise down the road thanks to its solid biosimilar business, market analysts said Sunday.Samsung BioLogics, a biopharmaceutical unit of South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group that was listed in November last year, bypassed all local pharmaceutical companies in terms of market value.The market capitalization of Samsung BioLogics came to 21 trillion w

South Korean households' debt service burden reached an all-time high in the first quarter of the year with the pace of its growth ranking first worldwide, an international report said Sunday.According to the report by the Bank for International Settlements, the debt service ratio of the local household sector came to 12.5 percent in the January-March period.It was up 0.7 percentage point from a year earlier and marked the highest level since the first quarter of 1999, when BIS started to compil

South Korea's hypermarket chain E-Mart has reached a deal to sell off five of its six remaining stores in China effectively ending its 20-year presence in the market, industry sources said Sunday.Sources in the retail investment banking sector said E-Mart inked an agreement with Thailand's CP Group to hand over the stores in Shanghai pending approval from Chinese regulators. They said that the company is in the process of selling off its one outlet in Xishan by the end of the year. Exact details

Citibank Korea, the local branch of New York-based Citigroup, on Friday recommended current CEO Park Jin-hei as the sole candidate for the next term, officials said.Park is to assume his second term in office once his candidacy is confirmed at meetings of the board of directors and stockholders, both slated for next Wednesday. The top official joined Citibank Korea in 1984, after graduating from Seoul National University and working at the Korea Development Institute.Since taking office as CEO i

Kospi, Kosdaq fall slightly, Samsung, SK hynix shares remain unfazed over tension

Samsung Pay is the most favored mobile payment system in South Korea, a survey showed Friday.The mobile payment service run by Samsung Electronics Co. received the highest 3.78 points on the 1 to 5 scale, according to the survey of 1,200 people by the Korea Consumer Agency. Naver Pay of South Korea's top Internet portal operator and Kakao Pay of South Korea's dominant messaging app KakaoTalk came in second with 3.76 points each. NHN Entertainment Corp.'s Payco platform ranked fourth at 3.70.User

South Korea's trade minister issued a call Friday for a united front from leading Asian and European economies against protectionist trends and for the promotion of open trade and investment to benefit all sides.Paik Un-gyu, the minister of trade, industry and energy, made the request at the Asia-Europe Meeting, which is being attended by 250 trade ministers and senior officials from 51 nations to discuss trade and industrial issues. "Today, the global economy faces new challenges. Protecti

Debt incurred by self-employed businesses in South Korea has reached 521 trillion won ($459 billion) and countermeasures are in the works, a senior official said Friday.Speaking at a financial forum, Kim Yong-beom, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), said some 6 percent of the loans have been extended to poor-credit borrowers, putting them at high risk of default.Kim based his remarks on data provided by local credit appraiser Nice Information. The total includes both corpo

The top trade negotiators of South Korea and the United States held their first face-to-face meeting in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the future of the countries' free trade agreement (FTA), both sides said.The talks between South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer came as Washington seeks to amend the five-year-old deal known as KORUS. "They discussed ways to move forward," a USTR spokesperson told Yonhap, noting the talks foll

The central bank said Thursday that the US Federal Reserve’s belt-tightening gesture should have a limited impact on Korea’s economy.“I do not think that the Fed’s decision will have a big impact on domestic financial markets,” Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol told reporters on the way to his office.The US central bank on Wednesday announced it will shrink its portfolio of bonds by $10 billion a month starting in October and gradually increase the amount over the next

Seeking to expand the investment opportunities of South Korean companies in the profitable Southeast Asian infrastructure market, the Export-Import Bank of Korea has hosted a forum to encourage business in Indonesia, according to officials Thursday.The Indonesia Infrastructure Investment Forum was held Wednesday at Millennium Seoul Hilton jointly by Eximbank and Indonesia’s Ministry of National Development Planning, upon the sponsorship of Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance. At

Smaller South Korean firms lagged far behind their larger counterparts in debt service capability, the country's central bank said Thursday, in the latest sign of a deepening polarization of corporate performance.The interest coverage ratio of all South Korean firms stood at 9 in the first half of this year, up from 6.8 from a year earlier, the Bank of Korea said in a report, citing data compiled by credit appraiser NICE Information Service.The ratio -- a firm's operating profit divided by its i