Police said Monday they have been cracking down on the spread of fake news involving such sensitive issues as the presidential impeachment, North Korea's military action and US President Donald Trump's alleged bias against Korean liberals. The National Police Agency began last month to monitor fraudulent news on the Internet and carried out an investigation into 40 cases. It requested the country's communications watchdog delete or block 19 of them and continued to look into five others.The fake

South Korea's major oil refiners plan to sharply jack up dividend payments to shareholders on the back of their stellar performances last year, industry sources said Tuesday.According to the sources, SK Innovation Co., the country's top refiner, said earlier it plans to pay a record 596 billion won ($520 million) in dividends for its 2016 fiscal year that ended Dec. 31.S-Oil Corp., the No. 3 refiner, is also set to deliver a total of 664 billion won in dividends, beating market estimates. But it

South Korea's three major shipbuilders plan to hire only a handful of workers in the first half of this year amid a prolonged slump and the ongoing industrywide restructuring drive, sources said Tuesday.Of the three -- Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. -- only Hyundai Heavy Industries is expected to recruit a small number of essential workers in the first half.The figure is likely to be similar to the company's intake of n

South Korea's export prices fell 1.6 percent in February from a month earlier due mainly to the strengthening won, central bank data showed Tuesday.The dollar fell 3.4 percent to 1,144.92 won in February compared to a month earlier, the Bank of Korea said in a statement.For exporters, the won's gain means decreased income as dollar-denominated earnings from their overseas businesses fall in value when repatriated into the local currency.Import prices also declined 2.2 percent last month from the

The local branches of foreign banks in South Korea suffered a sharp drop in their net profits last year on decreased interest income, the financial watchdog said Tuesday.They posted 764.9 billion won ($668 million) in combined net profits during the year, down 31.8 percent from 2015, according to the Financial Supervisory Service, which cited preliminary data.In particular, the net interest income of the 37 foreign bank branches plunged 26.2 percent on-year to 1.1 trillion won."It means unfavora

Two South Korean football clubs will aim to collect their first win at the 2017 Asian Football Confederation Champions League this week.FC Seoul and Suwon Samsung Bluewings will resume their AFC Champions League group stage action, hoping to end their winless drought. Seoul are the defending champions of the top flight K League Classic, while Suwon are the reigning Korea Football Association Cup winners. (Yonhap)They are two of the four South Korean clubs at this year's ACL, along with Jeju Unit

The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae will establish a temporary website this week after its previous site dedicated to ousted President Park Geun-hye was shut down, a senior official said Monday.The move came after Cheong Wa Dae took flak for continuing to run the outdated website that referred to Park as the sitting president and displayed her photos and video clips despite the Constitutional Court's decision last week to dismiss her over a massive corruption scandal.  The website of Cheong Wa

A fire broke out on Monday on a hill near the birthplace of late former President Park Chung-hee, the father of ousted President Park Geun-hye, firefighters said.The fire, which started at around 4:20 p.m. some 50 meters from where the late Park was born, was put out in 15 minutes, they said.Park's house is located in Gumi, some 261 kilometers southeast of Seoul.the memorial hall for late former President Park Chung-hee destroyed in a fire in his birthplace in Gumi, some 261 kilometers southeast

South Korean construction companies' domestic orders increased 26.4 percent in January from a year earlier, aided by a boom in the local housing market, industry data showed on Monday.According to the data compiled by the Construction Association of Korea, they racked up a combined 10 trillion won ($872 million) in January. (Yonhap)Of the orders tallied, builders bagged 6.95 trillion won in the private sector and 3.02 trillion won from the public side in the first month of this year, which marks

The government is close to fixing the date of the presidential election to May 9, a senior official said Monday, in the wake of the ouster of President Park Geun-hye.Park was removed from office Friday after a court ruled to uphold her impeachment over a corruption scandal.By law, South Korea is required to hold a presidential election within 60 days. Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn delivers a national address at the government complex in Seoul on March 10, 2017, after the Cons

After making national history at virtually every stop this season, South Korean teenage figure skater Cha Jun-hwan will look to make even more in his season finale this week.Cha, 15, will take the ice at the International Skating Union World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Taipei City, Chinese Taipei. The men's short program is scheduled for Wednesday, followed by free skate on Thursday. In this file photo taken on Jan. 8, 2017, South Korean figure skater Cha Jun-hwan performs his free sk

Prosecutors on Monday raided some offices of the country's food and entertainment conglomerate CJ after one of its former employees was found to have been involved in producing compromising video clips of Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Kun-hee's private life.In July 2016, Newstapa, an online news outlet run by the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism, unveiled the videos and reported that the business tycoon paid money to suspected sex workers five times between December 2011 and June

The popularity of individual savings accounts has apparently withered here on lower-than-expected rates of return, a year after the much-hyped debut of the investment vehicle, data showed Monday.The number of ISAs in South Korea peaked at 2.4 million in November last year and declined to 2.39 million in the following month and 2.36 million in January of this year, according to the Financial Services Commission. An ad for an individual savings account in a file photo (Yonhap)It also decreased by

South Korean stocks rose to the highest level in almost two years on Monday on increased risky appetites following eased political chaos in Asia's fourth-largest economy and sound economic data in the US The Korean won sharply rose against the US dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index advanced 20.24 points, or 0.97 percent, to close at 2,117.59. Trade volume was moderate at 378 million shares worth 4.57 trillion won ($3.99 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 458 to 366.  M

A South Korean man was recently arrested for violating immigration law by inviting about 170 Chinese to the country under the guise of medical tours in return for money, an official at the Seoul Immigration Office said Monday.The man, only identified as "A," is suspected of getting 169 Chinese people into the country between April 2014-2015 under the pretense of medical tours to help them stay in the country illegally, the official said.The fake Chinese patients testified that they had paid him