South Korea's agriculture ministry said Wednesday it has launched its Chinese website (chinese.mafra.go.kr) in the latest move to provide better information on the country's agricultural products.The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it plans to boost exchanges and cooperation with China in the agricultural sector. The ministry also said it will publicize South Korea's rural areas to attract Chinese tourists by collaborating with Weibo, China's version of Twitter.The move came

The government plans to allow wider access to an Internet site for information on state research and development projects next year in an effort to promote collaborative study and innovation, the science ministry said Wednesday.Starting Jan. 1, the public will be allowed to download information on state R&D projects from the National Science & Technology Information Service, which is reserved for universities, state-funded think tanks and business members.Currently, the general public is permitt

South Korea is studying a plan to unveil a list of North Korean violators of human rights as a new law aimed at improving the North's rights situation is set to take effect next month, a government source said Wednesday.Seoul is carefully reviewing whether to make public its own list of North Korean perpetrators following Washington's latest move to impose sanctions on the North's human rights offenders and agencies, the source said.Last month, Washington blacklisted North Korean leader Kim Jong

The operating profit of automakers and their vendors in South Korea came in at a disappointing level last year with each firm making only about $0.05 for every $1 in sales, industry data showed Wednesday.According to the data compiled by a local research institute, combined sales of 1,079 South Korean auto companies, including auto parts makers, came to about 234.8 trillion won ($213.96 billion) in 2015.Their combined operating profit came to some 12.18 trillion won, less than 5.2 percent of the

Carbonated drinks have enjoyed rising popularity in South Korea over the past three years as younger customers are drinking more soda with fast food and Westernized meals, industry data showed Wednesday. The carbonated drink market was estimated at 936.2 billion won ($856.1 million) in 2015, up from 848.6 billion won in 2013 and 884.1 billion won in 2014, the beverage industry data showed.  The market expanded 4.2 percent in 2014, and 5.9 percent in 2015, and rose 5.6 percent in the first five m

South Korean chip giant Samsung Electronics Co. garnered an all-time high presence in the global mobile DRAM market in the second quarter, data showed Wednesday, apparently helped by increased orders from smartphone makers, in particular, Chinese players.According to the data compiled by industry tracker DRAMeXchange, Samsung Electronics took up 61.5 percent of the mobile DRAM market in the April-June period, up 1.1 percentage points from the previous quarter.Samsung sold $2.42 billion worth of

South Korea's trade minister on Wednesday called on the local automobile industry to make a big investment in renewable energy-powered vehicles, such as hydrogen and electric cars, as a way to seek a new growth engine for Asia's fourth-largest economy, the trade ministry here said."The paradigm of the global car industry is changing rapidly as China has emerged as a leading country in the electric car sector," Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan said in a breakfast meeting in Seoul with the heads of f

South Korean stocks opened lower Wednesday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 0.38 points, or 0.02 percent, to 2,047.38 in the first 15 minutes of trading.The decline followed overnight losses on Wall Street.The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.45 percent, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index decling 0.66 percent.Large-cap stocks were mixed across the board. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics Co. lost 0.32 percent.Top automa

South Korean credit card companies saw their first-half earnings inch down from a year earlier due mainly to a cut in their fee rates imposed on member stores, the financial watchdog said Wednesday.The combined net income of eight stand-alone card firms stood at 1.05 trillion won ($960 million) in the January-June period, down 0.88 percent from a year earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.The slight drop was attributed to the fee-rate cut conducted in late January. The card iss

A group of South Korean scientists has developed a new treatment system for breast cancer by enhancing the effectiveness of hormonal treatment, the science ministry said Tuesday.The team led by Park In-cheol discovered that administering dichloroacetate with the hormonal drug tamoxifen increases cell deaths in breast cancer by more than two times, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said."Dichloroacetate is originally a drug used to lower lactate density but we have discovered that