The number of business group affiliates subject to restrictions on mutual investments and loan guarantees rose in May from a month earlier, the antitrust watchdog said Friday.The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said the number of firms on its watch list stood at 1,707 as of this month, up 11 from 1,696 on April 1. The firms belong to the country's 61 largest business groups.A total of 14 companies were added, with three being removed as they were merged with other affiliates or sold off.Seven busine

The volume of South Korea's energy imports inched up on-year in the first quarter of 2015, but its value dropped sharply due mainly to weak international crude oil prices, customs data showed Friday.According to the data by the Korea Customs Service (KCS), South Korea imported 78.24 million tons of energy products, including crude oil, coal and natural gas, during the January-March period, up 1.4 percent from a year earlier.The value of the imports, however, plunged 39.9 percent on-year to US$24

Kolon Industries Inc., South Korea's top textile and chemical material maker, said Friday it has terminated a six-year legal battle with U.S. chemicals juggernaut DuPont Co. over an alleged trade secret theft.In February 2009, DuPont filed a lawsuit against Kolon, alleging its South Korean rival stole trade secrets involving aramid, a type of fiber used in making tires and bullet-proof vests, by hiring one of the U.S. company's retired engineers. Denying the charges, Kolon began an antitrust sui

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se expressed regret Friday that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe failed to acknowledge Japan's wartime wrongdoing in his congressional speech earlier this week.Abe, in his speech before a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, acknowledged the suffering his country brought to other Asian nations during World War II but offered no apology for its wartime crimes.South Korea and other members of the international community had demanded an apology, especially o

South Korea's consumer prices grew at less than 1 percent for the fifth month in a row in April, a government report showed Friday, fueling worries of deflation.The country's consumer price index inched up just 0.4 percent last month from a year earlier, well below the government's 2 percent growth target for 2015, the report by Statistics Korea showed. Last month's number is unchanged from the 0.4 percent growth tallied for March, which was the lowest increase since July 1999, when consumer pri

Global shipments of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels reached an all-time high in March, data showed Friday, apparently led by South Korean tech players' efforts to expand sales of high-end Ultra HD (UHD) displays.The combined shipments of LCD panels by global tech firms reached 23.9 million units in March, up 11 percent from a year earlier and a record monthly high, according to the data compiled by industry tracker IHS Inc. It also marked a 20 percent increase from February.By size, sales of

North Korea test-fired four short-range missiles into the West Sea on Friday in an apparent saber-rattling against the ongoing Seoul-Washington military exercise, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.The North Korean military "launched four short-range projectiles presumed to have a range of some 140 kilometers into the West Sea in succession between 4:15 p.m. and 5 p.m. today from Dongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province," the JCS said in a brief statement.Friday's launch came after the b

Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. House minority leader, called on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Thursday to apologize for the sexual slavery of Korean and other Asian women during World War II."We have been clear about what we'd like to hear about comfort women," Pelosi told reporters when asked about her view on Abe's planned congressional speech in Washington later this month. "I hope that a statement will be made to free (Japanese) people from this burden of the issue of comfort women."She made th

PARIS (AFP) -- At least 11 people were killed when gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs and a rocket-launcher opened fire in the offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday.President Francois Hollande, who immediately headed to the scene of the shooting in Paris, described it as a "terrorist attack." Hollande said 11 people were killed and another four were in critical condition after the attack, branding it an "act of exceptional barbarism" and calling an emergency cabinet meeting.H

Unionized workers at Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world's largest shipbuilder, voted against a tentative wage agreement on Wednesday due to a complaint about the pay award agreed upon by the union and management, the company's union said. The union and management reached a tentative agreement on the pay raise on Dec. 31, which includes a basic pay increase of 37,000 won (US$33.56) per month and a special bonus of 2 million won. They also agreed to count regular bonuses, equal to 700 percent

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. said Thursday it has reached a tentative agreement on wages with its unionized workers, putting an end to the partial strikes that have taken place since last November. Under the agreement, the shipbuilding conglomerate agreed to increase basic pay by 37,000 won (US$33.94) per month, a 2 percent hike, and give workers company stocks equivalent to 150 percent of the base monthly salary together with another 2 million won as a bonus.The company also agreed to include i

SEOUL (AP) -- A South Korean activist says he will launch balloons carrying DVDs of Sony's ``The Interview'' toward North Korea to try to break down a personality cult built around dictator Kim Jong Un. The comedy depicting an assassination attempt on Kim is at the center of tension between North Korea and the U.S., with Washington blaming Pyongyang for crippling hacking attacks on Sony Entertainment. Pyongyang denies that and has vowed to retaliate.  Activist Park Sang-hak said Wednesday he wil

A family member of the former Korean Air Lines Co. executive at the center of the "nut rage" scandal came under fire on Wednesday after prosecutors revealed a text message in which she promised to "take revenge" on behalf of her sister. Cho Hyun-min promised her sister Hyun-ah she would "take revenge no matter what" via a text message on Dec. 17 in apparent outrage over the ongoing probe into a row involving nuts that delayed the departure of a flight. The 31-year-old Cho, who currently holds an

South Korea said Wednesday it will provide North Korea with US$620,000 in aid through the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).In 2006, the unification ministry, which is in charge of Seoul's ties with Pyongyang, signed a deal with the Bangkok-based agency to cooperate in a "technology assistance" project worth a total of $4.17 million.The UNESCAP has been working to help North Korean officials learn skills in technology-related sectors such as the environment,

President Park Geun-hye pledged Wednesday to lay the groundwork for potential unification in the new year amid continuing tensions on the Korean Peninsula."I will open the path toward unification by laying substantial and specific groundwork for unification ... by ending a seven-decades-long division," Park said in a New Year's video message uploaded on YouTube and posted on her Facebook page.The Korean Peninsula was divided into the capitalistic South and communist North after its liberation fr