The free trade deal between Seoul and Washington has contributed to increasing job opportunities in the United States by enhancing bilateral trade and investment, South Korea's vice finance minister said Tuesday."South Korea and the U.S have expanded economic cooperation that mutually benefited each other, and the Korea-US free trade agreement is an example," Vice Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok said in a Seoul seminar co-hosted by the Korea Economic Institute of America, a Washington-based nonpr

President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday appointed an attorney as prosecutors are preparing to directly question the embattled head of state this week over her alleged link to a corruption and influence peddling scandal involving her close confidante.Park tapped Yoo Yeong-ha, a former member of the standing committee of the National Human Rights Commission as her legal representative, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said.Prosecutors have told the presidential office that it hopes to question Par

A stem cell line developed by South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk will be formally registered, local health authorities said Tuesday, a move expected to restart stem cell research here that has been in a deep freeze.The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said it has concluded that the human embryonic stem cell line, called NT-1, was developed by a process of parthenogenesis, also known as the "virgin birth." This is when an egg develops on its own without fertilization.The f

South Korea logged a trade surplus for 57 straight months in October as imports fell at a faster pace than exports, customs data showed Tuesday.The country's trade surplus came to $6.97 billion last month, up 5.7 percent from $6.59 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service.For the January-October period, the surplus edged up 2.2 percent on-year to $74.7 billion from $73.1 billion.The on-year gain in trade surplus was led by a steep decline in imports th

Google Inc.'s products were found to have the highest number of Internet security vulnerabilities, accounting for 22 percent of risks found in the third quarter, a report out Tuesday said.According to the Korea Internet & Security Agency, 155 of 694 reported common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE) were discovered in Google devices. Adobe came next at 107 (15 percent), followed by Oracle's 71 (10 percent), Microsoft's 65 (10 percent) and Apple's 54 (8 percent).The report was drawn among high-s

A British investment fund has submitted a letter of intent to a local court to buy cash-strapped STX Shipbuilding Co. and its French unit up for sale, industry sources said Tuesday.The investment fund has offered to buy STX Shipbuilding and a 66.7 percent stake in its French unit, a deal valued at 1 trillion won ($852 million) in total, while French shipyard DCNS and two other foreign shipyards submitted initial bids for STX Shipbuilding only, which could fetch 100 billion won, the sources said.

The South Korean government on Monday ratcheted up pressure on unionized workers at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) to support a creditor-led restructuring drive."(You) need to face reality," Yim Jong-yong, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said at a meeting on the nation's corporate restructuring campaign. Yim, named the new finance minister, stressed that both the management and labor of the troubled shipbuilder should make "thorough self-rescue efforts" under

North Korean authorities are collecting foil from residents to use them to make camouflage nets for anti-aircraft batteries, a US broadcaster, monitored in Seoul, reported Monday. "The North Korean authorities are urging residents to offer foil as a material to support the army, while insisting that (American) satellites cannot take pictures of their anti-aircraft batteries if they are covered with camouflage nets made of foil,"the Radio Free Asia said, citing a source in the North's North Hamky