South Korea is in a debate about developing its own nuclear weapons, despite the United States' assurances to extend its "nuclear umbrella" to protect the Asian ally, a congressional report said Tuesday.The Congressional Research Service also said in the report on U.S.-South Korea relations that such a move by the South could result in a series of negative consequences, including economic sanctions on Seoul and a nuclear arms race in the region."In the wake of North Korea's recent nuclear weapon

North Korea's cyber capabilities pose serious challenges to the United States, the U.S.cyber commander said Tuesday, emphasizing the communist nation has steadily been bolstering its capabilities and has been "quite active" in the cyber domain.Adm. Michael S. Rogers made the assessment in a statement submitted for a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, saying the North is one of the countries that his command is watching "most closely," along with Russia, China and Iran."Iran and North Korea

South Korea and the United States are working together to determine the extent to which North Korea uses its workers abroad to raise money for its weapons of mass destruction programs, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues said Tuesday.North Korea's exports of workers has emerged as a new area the international community needs to address to tackle both the North's human rights abuses and its defiant pursuit of missile and nuclear weapons capabilities.Speaking in an intervie

North Korea's continuing attempts to jam South Korea' Global Positioning System may be aimed at disrupting the navigation systems of aircraft, government officials said as the communist country continued to send jamming signals on Tuesday.In a provocative operation that started in late March, North Korea has been sending GPS-jamming signals across the border. The signals began last Thursday and continued on and off into Tuesday, according to military and information and communication technology 

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has an ace up her sleeve that can potentially win over the hearts of foreign leaders and their people: her flair for languages.On Monday, she displayed her Spanish skill when she held a luncheon meeting with her Mexican counterpart, Enrique Pena Nieto, after their summit at the presidential palace in Mexico City.She expressed hope that the two countries can become true partners through frequent people exchanges.Park cited Mexican Nobel laureate Octavio Paz's

Two of the three surface-to-air missiles North Korea fired off last week disappeared from the South Korean radar, the military said Tuesday, indicating that they may have malfunctioned.The Joint Chiefs of Staff initially said Pyongyang fired one surface-to-air missile toward the East Sea on Friday but confirmed later that two more missiles were launched at that time.But shortly after the launch, two of the missiles disappeared from the military's surveillance radar that was tracking the missiles

그동안 지급결제에만 주력하던 핀테크 시장이 금융소프트웨어나 데이터 분석 등으로 확대되고 있다는 분석이 나왔다.현대경제연구원이 5일 발표한 '핀테크(fintech)의 부상과 금융업의 변화' 보고서에 따르면 핀테크 기업에 대한 글로벌 투자 규모는 2008년 9억3천만 달러에서 2013년 29억7천만 달러로 늘어났다. 연평균 26.1%씩 고속 성장을 하고 있다.기업 가치가 10억 달러 이상인 금융 스타트업 업체 수도 2014년 1월 2개에서 2016년 2월 16개로 크게 늘었다.핀테크가 성장하면서 지급결제에 한정돼 있던 핀테크 영역도 다양해지고 있다.2008년에는 지급결제 부문에 대한 투자 비중이 70%로 가장 높았지만 2013년에는 28%로 줄었다.반면 금융 소프트웨어 부문에 대한 투자 비중은 2008년 10%에서 2013년 29%로 증가했다. 금융데이터 분석 부문의 비중도 같은 기간 16%에서 29%로 늘었다. 플랫폼 부문에 대한 투자 비중은 5%에서 14%로 빠르게 증가했다.보고서는