Samsung Electronics said Friday that it will take legal action against KT Corp. as its smart TV users are unable to access the Internet via their TV sets from that day. KT, the nation’s largest fixed-line operator, has started limiting the Internet access of Samsung-made smart TVs from 9 a.m. Friday in protest against the company’s refusal to pay for network use. Of some 1 million smart TVs sold here, about 340,000 units are Samsung TV sets. The owners who subscribe to KT’s Internet network cann

Korea and Japan had a similar chance of declaring a national credit default as of the end of last month, a report showed Friday, after a recent surge in Japan’s economic woes.The likelihood of the two countries plunging into sovereign default became almost the same after Japan logged its first trade deficit in 31 years and may be subject to a downgrade in its credit rating. According to a report released by the Korea Center for International Finance, Japan’s credit default swap premium stood at

Korea’s national tax revenue grew more than 8 percent on-year in 2011 as a better-than-expected economic recovery led to expanded collections of income and corporate taxes, the Finance Ministry said Friday.The country’s national tax revenue came to 192.4 trillion won ($171.8 billion) last year, up 8.3 percent from 177.7 trillion won in the previous year, the ministry said in a press release. It is slightly lower than the 192.8 trillion won projected in September.Income tax jumped 12.9 percent on

Foreign investors have scooped up more than a net 10 trillion won ($8.93 billion) worth of Korean equities this year, with their holdings of local stocks and bonds accounting for over one third of the country’s market capitalization, data showed Friday. The combined value of stocks and bonds listed on the main bourse and owned by foreigners reached a net 10.8 trillion won as of Feb. 9, according to the data by the Korea Exchange. As of Jan. 25, foreign investors accounted for 33.3 percent of the

ROCHESTER, New York (AP) ― Picture it: Except for a few disposable point-and-shoots, Kodak is exiting the camera business. Eastman Kodak Co. said Thursday that it will stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames in a move that marks the end of an era for the beleaguered 132-year-old company. Founded by George Eastman in 1880, Kodak was known all over the world for iconic cameras such as the Brownie and the Instamatic. For the last few decades, however, the Roches

The news that the mainstream Palestinian group Fatah has agreed to form a unity government with the militantly Islamist Hamas may move some to dismay. Although there are ample reasons for that reaction, this development may also present an opportunity. Over the past year, the world has changed not just around Israel, but also around the Gaza Strip and West Bank, the two Palestinian territories ruled, respectively, by Hamas and Fatah. That is especially true for Hamas. The Arab Spring has driven

It is not a bad idea for the Japanese and U.S. governments to prevent the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station and the transfer of marines stationed in Okinawa Prefecture to Guam from both collapsing.The two governments have agreed in principle to revise the 2006 realignment project for U.S. forces in Japan.The plan for the relocation of marines to Guam will be scaled back from 8,000 marines to 4,700. The Futenma base relocation will be separated from the marines’ Guam reloca

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- U.S. trade authorities on Friday announced a full-fledged investigation into allegations that major South Korean firms Samsung and LG have violated anti-dumping rules here."The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has made affirmative determinations in its preliminary phase anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations concerning certain large residential washers from Korea and Mexico," the agency said in a press release.The move came after Whirlpool Corp.,

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama, under fierce election-year fire, on Friday abruptly abandoned his stand that religious organizations must pay for birth control for workers, scrambling to end a furor raging from the Catholic Church to Congress to his re-election foes. He demanded that insurance companies step in to provide the coverage instead.Obama's compromise means ultimately that women would still get birth control without having to pay for it, no matter where they work. The presid