The prosecution on Sunday said it is tracking 59 accounts thought to have been used for bonds with warrant trading of CNK International, a mineral mining company accused of stock rigging and insider trading. The investigators are now looking into whether the bonds were used by company chief Oh Deok-hyun as a tool to lobby politicians and businessmen. According to Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office, 30-50 people are suspected of holding such bond accounts, suggesting that a large group of people h

More than a third of all children of North Korean defectors here were born in another country. The Korean Educational Development Institute, a Seoul-based think tank, said in a report released Sunday that children born in China or other countries during their parents’ defection into South Korea require educational approaches different to other young North Korean refugees.The study found that 36 percent of 1,681 student defectors in primary and secondary school were born outside of North Korea.Ot

Knowledge Economy Minister Hong Suk-woo will speak about the Korean economy at a luncheon meeting organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea on Jan. 31.After his speech, Hong will field questions from participants in the event that will take place at the Grand Hyatt hotel from noon to 2 p.m.The networking event, which is also open to the press, is 72,000 won for members and 92,000 won for nonmembers at the door. A 10,000 won discount applies to guests who register before noon on Jan.

Criticism is escalating over censorship of online social networking sites in Korea after Twitter’s announcement that it will enable certain countries to withhold content if it goes against their law.“Twitter has changed my life over the past year and it was an extraordinary tool that I wanted to thank,” said a Twitter user named Kim Yeo-jin on Sunday. “It’s just sad news for me to hear that Twitter has decided to censor tweets upon specific requests from a country and as a result, I’ve decided t

Korean stocks are expected to lose momentum next week, weighed down by the pessimistic U.S. economic index and credit downgrades of eurozone countries, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark KOSPI inched up 0.8 percent to close at 1,964.83 on Friday on strong foreign buying buoyed by positive corporate earnings and the U.S. Fed’s low-rate pledge. The key index has spiked nearly 100 points over the previous two weeks.World’s largest memory chip maker Samsung Electronics posted 13.7 trillion won ($1

Hyundai Mobis Co., Korea’s largest auto parts maker, said Friday that its net earnings rose 11.5 percent in 2011 from a year earlier on brisk sales of auto parts amid record sales by local automakers.Net profits came to 3 trillion won ($2.7 billion) last year from 2.7 trillion won in 2010, the company said in a regulatory filing. Sales also rose 18.7 percent on-year to 26.3 trillion won from a year ago, and operating profit gained 6.7 percent to total 2.7 trillion won, the company said.In the me

Korea plans to set up a second line of defense for its foreign currency liquidity by prompting local state-run lenders to further secure such liquidity to brace for the eurozone debt crisis, an official said Sunday.The move came as the deepening eurozone debt crisis may squeeze local banks’ foreign currency liquidity situations.“Since late last year, the country’s four state-run lenders have scurried to secure FX liquidity,” said an official at the Financial Services Commission. The four banks m