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Volkswagen owners to demand refund of their cars

TransportJun 8, 2016

Thousands of Volkswagen owners plan to ask South Korea's environment ministry to order the local unit of the German carmaker to refund the cost of their cars, a lawyer said Wednesday.Jason Ha, who represents about 4,400 Volkswagen owners at Barun Law, said he will formally file the petition with the ministry as early as Thursday.He said the government can order carmakers to refund the cost of cars under the law.On Tuesday, the environment ministry rejected Volkswagen's plan to recall vehicles th
Park conducts reshuffle of presidential secretariat

PoliticsJun 8, 2016

President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday conducted a small-scale reshuffle of her senior secretaries and vice-ministerial officials amid calls for a personnel shift in the wake of the ruling Saenuri Party's defeat in April's parliamentary polls.Park appointed former Saenuri Party lawmaker Kim Jae-won as her new senior secretary for political affairs while naming Hyun Dai-won, a professor at the communication department of Sogang University, as her senior secretary for future strategy.She also tapped
Gov't report cites continuing sluggishness in export, production

Jun 8, 2016

The South Korean economy has remained in the doldrums due to weak exports and production stemming from waning global demand, despite a slight recovery in domestic consumption, a government report showed Wednesday."Amid a delayed recovery of the world economy, faltering exports and production have dragged down the South Korean economy," the finance ministry said in its monthly economy assessment report called "Green Book.""But domestic demand, including private consumption, has been in a favorabl
Ex-chairwoman of Hanjin Shipping summoned over illegal stock trading

IndustryJun 8, 2016

A former head of Hanjin Shipping Co. was summoned by prosecutors Wednesday over suspicions she illegally sold company stock after obtaining insider information to avoid losses.Choi Eun-young appeared before the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office as a suspect on charges of violating the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act. Choi Eun-young (Yonhap)"I will fully cooperate with the investigation," she told reporters before entering the office. The 54-year-old and her two da
Defender not available for Olympic football

Olympic GamesJun 8, 2016

Veteran defender Hong Jeong-ho will not be made available by his German club for South Korea at this year's Summer Olympics, an official from the national football federation said Wednesday.The official said that FC Augsburg recently sent a letter to the Korea Football Association that they will not release Hong, 26, for the Rio de Janeiro Games in August. South Korea have been paired with Germany, Fiji and Mexico in Group C at the quadrennial event."In late May, Augsburg sent a letter that they
Lawmakers' military exemption rate hovers below nat'l average

Social affairsJun 8, 2016

The percentage of lawmakers in the new National Assembly who were exempted from serving in the military has fallen below the national average, data showed Wednesday, a development that reflects growing demand that elected officials fulfill their obligations before asking for votes.Of the 249 male lawmakers in the 20th National Assembly who were elected in the April 13 polls, 208 had fulfilled their military duties, with the exemption rate standing at 16.5 percent, the Military Manpower Administr
Samsung's smartphone market share edges up in Q1: report

TechnologyJun 8, 2016

The global smartphone market share of South Korea's top smartphone maker Samsung Electronics Co. edged up in the first quarter of this year, a report showed Wednesday.Samsung took up 24.1 percent of the world's smartphone market in the January-March period in terms of revenue, a slight increase from 21.9 percent posted in Q4 of 2015, according to the latest research by industry tracker Strategy Analytics. LG Electronics Inc. saw its shares go down 0.6 percentage points to reach 2.7 percent, stan
Daewoo Shipbuilding raided over alleged accounting fraud

IndustryJun 8, 2016

Prosecutors raided Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME), one of the country's top three shipbuilders, on Wednesday over alleged accounting fraud and poor management amid an industrywide slump.The Supreme Prosecutors' Office said it dispatched some 150 investigators to raid the company's headquarters in central Seoul and its Okpo Shipyard on Geoje Island off the southern coast.State-run Korea Development Bank, the largest shareholder of the shipyard, as well as Deloitte Anjin LLC w
Mirae Asset to acquire Hawaii hotel

IndustryJun 8, 2016

Mirae Asset Financial Group, South Korea's asset managing giant, will acquire a hotel in Hawaii for US$780 million in a business diversification strategy, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co., a major unit of the country's biggest asset management company by funds under its management, has recently signed to take over a whole 100 percent stake in the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa from the U.S.-based private equity fund Blackstone Group,
State energy firms lose big on debt, price falls in 2015

IndustryJun 8, 2016

State-run energy-related companies suffered huge losses in 2015 as they were hammered by crippling debt and sinking commodity prices, government data showed Wednesday.The three public energy firms -- Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-Water), Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) and Korea Resources Corp. (KORES) -- chalked up combined losses of more than 12 trillion won ($10.4 billion) last year, according to the data by the finance ministry and the All Public Information In-One government web site
N. Korean fishing vessel sent back after crossing inter-Korean border

North KoreaJun 8, 2016

A North Korean fishing vessel was sent back home after it accidentally crossed the inter-Korean sea border early Wednesday, South Korea's military said.The vessel was reported by a South Korean fishing boat around 3:40 a.m. some 21 kilometers south of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border, in the East Sea, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff."A Navy ship was dispatched to the scene to search the boat, and found it had a problem with its navigation and (the crew) had no intenti
N. Korea has begun nuclear reprocessing for plutonium production: report

North KoreaJun 8, 2016

North Korea has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel to produce plutonium that can be used for nuclear weapons, a senior U.S. State Department official was quoted as saying Tuesday."They take the spent fuel from the 5 megawatt reactor at Yongbyon and let it cool and then take it to the reprocessing facility, and that's where they've obtained the plutonium for their previous nuclear tests. So they are repeating that process," Reuters quoted the unidentified official as saying. "That's what they'
U.S. missile defense system aimed only at N. Korea, Iran, not China, Russia: White House

DefenseJun 8, 2016

The U.S. missile defense system is designed to counter "limited attacks from Iran and North Korea" and are not aimed at the strategic deterrence forces of Russia and China, the White House said Tuesday.The White House Office of Management and Budget made the point in a policy statement, expressing opposition to a proposal to remove the word "limited" from a section of the National Missile Defense Act of 1999 that says the U.S. policy is to deploy "an effective National Missile Defense system cap
STX Shipbuilding put under court receivership

IndustryJun 7, 2016

A local court on Tuesday approved a filing by financially shaky STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. to be put under a court-led restructuring scheme, paving the way for the shipyard to avert liquidation.Last month, STX Shipbuilding, once the country's No. 4 shipbuilder, filed for receivership to stay afloat as its creditors decided to end a similar rehabilitation program for the shipbuilder.The shipbuilder has been under the control of its creditors since April 2013 amid a protracted slump in the sh
N. Korea vows to develop more nuclear weapons

North KoreaJun 7, 2016

North Korea pledged Tuesday to develop more nuclear weapons as its existing arsenal has helped raise the country's strategic leverage in dealing with external relations, the North's state media said.North Korea plans to actively pursue diplomatic policy commensurate with its enhanced global status which has been earned thanks to its nuclear weapons program, according to Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper.The country has conducted four nuclear tests since 2006 with outside observers believ