South Korea on Thursday extended an offer to hold working-level talks with North Korea over a joint industrial complex that has been idle since early this month amid heightened inter-Korean tensions."We make an official offer to North Korea to hold a working-level meeting to discuss ways of normalizing the suspended Gaeseong Industrial Complex and providing humanitarian aid to South Korean workers there," the Ministry of Unification said in a statement.Seoul will have no choice but to take serio

South Korean stocks opened higher on Thursday, on the back of gains in techs and retailers, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 3.77 points, or 0.19 percent, to 1,939.08 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Tech shares gathered ground, with top chipmaker SK hynix rising 2.23 percent and a local handset maker LG Electronics adding 1.33 percent. Top flat panel manufacturer LG Display gained 0.5 percent.Retailers also traded higher, with discount store chain E

South Korean rapper Psy's "Gentleman" galloped to fifth place on the Billboard's main chart this week thanks to increased downloads and sales, its official magazine said Wednesday."K-Pop star PSY blasts into the Hot 100's top 10 with 'Gentleman,' which wins top Streaming and Digital Gainer honors following its first full week of availability," it said. "Gentleman" ranked 12th last week."Gentleman" bounded into the top 10 "fueled primarily by a 60% gain in streaming, as it tallies a second week a

The South Korean economy grew at its fastest quarterly pace in two years in the first quarter as exports gained ground weathering the yen's weakness to the local currency, the central bank said Thursday.Korea's gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of economic performance, grew 0.9 percent in the first quarter from three months earlier, quickening from 0.3 percent on-quarter growth in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to an advance estimate by the Bank of Korea (BOK).The first-q

A UNESCO-affiliated international water research institute is to open new headquarters in Korea next year.The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Wednesday that the operational committee of UNESCO resolved earlier in the day to establish the International Hydrological Program research center in Korea.The institute, to be located within the K-Water research complex in Daejeon, will be the fifth IHP center to open in Asia, following those in China, Malaysia, Japan and Indonesia.The

A meister high school specializing in overseas engineering and construction education will open in 2015, officials said Wednesday.The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is to sign a memorandum of understanding on Thursday with the International Contractors’ Association of Korea and the Seoul Urban Science Technical High School, officials said Wednesday.The students will be provided with technical education, as well as language courses, and upon graduation will be given the opportunit

The government announced on Wednesday a set of measures to buffer losses to small and medium enterprises incurred from operation suspension in the inter-Korean industrial complex in Gaeseong.The Ministry of Unification said that state agencies will further provide liquidity, credit guarantees and tax breaks for SMEs whose Gaeseong plant operations had been ceased for more than two weeks amid escalating tensions with North Korea.It is considering further extending loans to those companies from it

The trouble surrounding Jinju Medical Center entered a new phase as the South Gyeongsang Provincial Government and the medical trade union agreed to postpone its closure and resume talks over its operation.Governor Hong Joon-pyo, who pushed shutting down the hospital because of its financial hardships, said on Tuesday evening that he will defer his plan for one month and reopen talks with the labor union. The governor’s offer was made after two union members tied themselves to a steel tower on t

A Seoul court on Wednesday imposed a 10 million won ($8,870) fine on a Shinsegae Group executive for not attending parliamentary audits over the company‘s alleged infringement on the business rights of small retailers. Chung Yu-kyuang, the 41-year-old vice president of the country’s second-largest retail conglomerate, was found guilty of not responding to the government‘s call three times to appear at the hearings and audits of the National Assembly between October and November of last year, cit

North Korea probably posses the ability to mount nuclear warheads on missiles that can hit all of South Korea, a local military analyst said Wednesday.Ham Hyung-pil, a senior researcher at state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), said at a academic gathering hosted by the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies in Seoul, that Pyongyang may have developed the knowhow to place a nuclear weapon on its Rodong missiles.The Rodong, already operational with the communist country‘s roc

대기업 재벌 총수 일가에 이익이 몰리는 일감 몰아주기 등을 근절하는 규제가 신설된다. 현행 법규상 규제로 제한할 수 없는 총수일가 개인에 대한 지원 및 광고,물류 등에 대한 자회사 일감 몰아주기 등을 제한할 수 있는 별도규정을 만든다. 다만 총수 지분이 30% 이상인 경우 총수가 관여한 것으로 추정해 형사처벌 하는 이른바 ‘30%’ 룰은 과잉 규제 논란에 따라 관련 규정을 삭제하기로 했다. 거래 부당성도 공정위가 입증하겠다는 뜻을 재차 강조했다.공정거래위원회는 24일 청와대 업무보고에서 “경제민주화와 창조 경제의 구현을 적극 뒷받침하겠다”며 이같이 밝히고 ▷대기업집단의 폐해 시정 ▷경제적 약자의 능력발휘를 위한 경쟁기반 확대 ▷담합 관행 척결 ▷소비자가 주인이 되는 시장환경 조성을 중점 과제로 추진하겠다고 강조했다.공정위는 총수일가 개인의 사익편취 규제를 위해 현행 부당내부거래 금지 규정을 강화하기로 했다. 현행법은 총수일가 개인에 대한 지원에 대한 규제가 불가능하다. 또 정상가격을