South Korea's defense ministry on Tuesday said it will hold a regional security forum next month, with focus placed on North Korea's provocations and feasible countermeasures that can be taken.In the fifth Seoul Defense Dialogue to be held from Sept. 7-9, participants from the Asia-Pacific region will exchange their views on the North's evolving nuclear and missile threats, and joint efforts among regional countries to counter such security challenges, the Ministry of National Defense said in a

The third wife of the embattled Lotte Group founder owns real estate worth tens of millions of dollars, data showed Tuesday, a revelation that comes as she faces a prosecution probe over suspected tax evasion.Prosecutors are widening their probe into the country's fifth-largest conglomerate on suspicions of embezzlement, tax evasion and the creation of slush funds through dubious deals among affiliates and companies with links to the family of 93-year-old founder Shin Kyuk-ho.According to data b

South Korea's ratio of short-term foreign debt to foreign reserves rose in the second quarter on increased borrowings by local banks, data showed Tuesday.The country's short-term external debt, with a maturity of one year or less, totaled $106.8 billion as of the end of June, up $2.7 billion from three months earlier, according to the data by the Bank of Korea.The end-June figure accounted for 27.3 percent of the country's total external debt, up 0.5 percentage point from the previous quarter, t

South Korea's major department stores and discount chains saw their sales rise sharply in July from a year earlier on improved consumer sentiment and an increase in holidays, government data showed Tuesday.The combined sales of three department stores -- Hyundai, Lotte and Shinsegae -- advanced 7 percent on-year last month, while those of major discount retailers -- E-Mart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus -- gained 2.1 percent during the same period last year, according to the data compiled by the Minis

South Korea's major department stores and discount chains saw their sales rise sharply in July from a year earlier on improved consumer sentiment and an increase in holidays, government data showed Tuesday.The combined sales of three department stores -- Hyundai, Lotte and Shinsegae -- advanced 7 percent on-year last month, while those of major discount retailers -- E-Mart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus -- gained 2.1 percent during the same period last year, according to the data compiled by the Minis

South Korean chip equipment manufacturers are likely to see their earnings rise in the second half of the year amid market speculation that Samsung Electronics Co. may plan to heavily invest in production lines for 3-D NAND flash memory chips. Samsung, the world's largest maker of memory chips, has not revealed how much it will spend on boosting the production capacity of 3-D NAND chips, which are widely used for smartphones and other smart devices. But market watchers have speculated that Samsu

The ruling Saenuri Party on Tuesday adopted an official stance to support the planned deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system to South Korea, saying it is the "least" Seoul can do to counter Pyongyang's evolving nuclear and missile threats.The party lawmakers' unanimous backing for the plan to station a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery on the peninsula by end-2017 came as opposition politicians are largely opposed to the plan.(Yonhap)"Adopting the official stance despite political di

A South Korean think tank on freshwater organisms and biodiversity conservation agreed on Tuesday with India's Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development to make preparations toward initialing joint research on the exploration and use of bioresources, the think tank said.The state-run Nakdonggang National Institute of Biological Resources and the Indian research center signed a business pact on the agreement in Imphal, a city in India's northeast province of Manipur.The IBSD, based in

The head of South Korea's central bank said Tuesday that there is a heightened possibility that the US Federal Reserve could raise its interest rates.Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol made the comment in a meeting with leading economists and scholars on the current economic conditions, citing recent remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.Last week, Yellen said the Federal Open Market Committee continues to anticipate that gradual increases in the federal funds rate will be appropriate over t