Cash cards that use magnetic strips for transactions will be partially banned at automated teller machines starting Feb. 1.Under regulatory countermeasures to minimize financial scams including forgery of credit cards or cash cards, the Financial Supervisory Service has advised consumers to replace their magnetic cards with “integrated circuit” cards over the past year.“As an initial step, cash transactions with magnetic-strip cards will not be available at about 50 percent of ATMs at financial

Korea is expected to bear a critically heavy financial burden in caring for elderly people in the coming decades, compared with major developed countries.According to forecasts and data from the U.N. and Statistics Korea, three Koreans, engaging in “core” GDP production activities, financially support a senior person older than 64 years on average as of 2013.“The population engaging in core economic activities refers to individuals aged between 25 and 49,” a Statistics Korea official said. “Thos

The sluggish real estate market in Seoul will bounce back this year after bottoming out in the coming months, BoA-Merrill Lynch predicted Tuesday.“Thanks to the recent reduction of housing supply and the growing feasibility of the government-led regulation easing on property transactions, there is a high possibility that the Seoul region real estate market will be vitalized in 2013,” the Korea Center for International Finance said, citing a report from BoA-Merrill Lynch.However, the research cen

The Financial Supervisory Service conducted a two-month investigation into Lotte Card, as the company ranked bottom in consumer protection among five major credit card issuers.“(For an intensive probe), we dispatched inspectors to the headquarters of Lotte Card between September and October (in 2012),” an FSS official told The Korea Herald on Tuesday.In addition to the on-site investigation, the FSS summoned Lotte Card’s executives to be held accountable for the poor grade and called on them to

North Korea is loosening some restrictions on foreign cellphones by allowing visitors to bring their own phones into the country. However, security regulations still prohibit mobile phone calls between foreigners and locals.For years, North Korea required visitors to relinquish foreign cellphones at the border until their departure, leaving many tourists without an easy way to communicate with the outside world.The ritual of handing over phones was part of an exhaustive security check that most

China's top diplomat said Monday that his country does not support North Korea's nuclear weapons programs or its recent rocket launch, hoping that tension on the Korean Peninsula would be resolved as soon as possible by resuming six-party denulcearization talks.Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi made the remarks when he met in Beijing with a four-member delegation sent by South Korea President-elect Park Geun-hye, according to the delegation.The South Korean team, led by former Rep. Kim Moo-su

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has prepared a second inaugural speech that broadly lays out his vision for the country's future, setting the stage for looming debates over taxes, guns, immigration and other issues while leaving the details for another day.Monday's speech, to be given right after Obama takes an oath to “faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States” outside the Capitol, includes no new policy, aides say. Instead, the president plans to use the mom

DIABALY, Mali (AP) -- About 200 French infantrymen supported by six combat helicopters and reconnaissance planes advanced Monday on the town of Diabaly, seized one week ago by Islamic extremists including fighters under the command of the mastermind of Algeria's recent terror attack.Diabaly, a small bucolic town in central Mali, has been the scene of the first major battle in the war to retake northern Mali from bearded fighters who have occupied the region for nine months."The operation in Diab

The yen strengthened from its weakest level against the dollar since June 2010 as Bank of Japan officials started a two-day policy meeting. Japan’s currency has declined 5.9 percent versus the greenback in the past month on speculation the BOJ, under pressure from the government of new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will boost stimulus to lift the economy out of recession. Technical indicators signaled the yen’s drop may have been overdone and data showed traders became the least bearish on the curr

Woori Financial Group senior executive director Jeong Hyun-jin has been appointed CEO of Woori Card, with the new firm to be launched in March, group officials said Sunday.Jeong will lead the credit card firm, which is scheduled to be spun off from the financial group’s bank unit as an independent subsidiary.Born in Uiseong, North Gyeongsang Province, in 1952, he has worked mainly for Woori Bank and Hanil Bank, a former entity of the commercial lender, for 30 years.Though Woori Card (formerly Wo

The Korean won strengthening against major currencies is estimated to undermine exports from the information technology and automobile industries, a private research institute said Sunday.In particular, the Japanese yen’s weaker position against the won was identified as a serious threat to the price competitiveness of Korea’s IT and car producers by Hyundai Economic Research Institute.While the two sectors are the nation’s top growth engines, HERI estimated that Korea sees a drop in product exp

The presidential transition committee is likely to exclude civil servants, service personnel and teachers from a new pension plan pledged by President-elect Park Geun-hye during her campaign, a committee official said Thursday.The so-called "basic pension" scheme would double the monthly allowance for senior citizens aged 65 or older to 200,000 won ($189)."The basic pension scheme aims to support elderly citizens who are excluded from welfare benefits, so it makes sense to exclude those who are

South Korea rose one notch to 34th place in the FIFA rankings for January, the world's football governing body said Thursday.The rankings, published on FIFA's Web site, showed South Korea with a total of 687 points this month, up one point from December.The increase was calculated from an adjustment in the weighted average of the country's points in the past four years.South Korea was the second-highest ranking Asian nation after Japan, which ranked 21st.(Yonhap News) 

Tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War will be posthumously awarded commemorative medals as South Korea marks 60 years since the end of the conflict, organizers said Thursday.The first recipients of the medals, made of rusty barbed wire from the tense inter-Korean border, will be the families of 36,000 American soldiers killed in the 1950-53 war, they said.The Korean war, which started with an invasion by North Korea on June 25, 1950, ended in an armistice three years later.