Korean banks’ loan delinquency rate fell to its lowest level in two years in December, thanks to a massive settlement of sour loans last month, the country’s financial watchdog said Thursday.The overall delinquency rate of bank loans to companies and households reached 0.89 percent as of the end of December, down 0.54 percentage point from the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. The rate is measured based on loans that are overdue for more than one day.The December fi

NEXON, the country’s top game company, said Thursday it will merge with its affiliate NEXON Mobile in a bid to strengthen its mobile platform.The two firms signed an agreement for the merger on Thursday and it is expected to be completed by April, according to NEXON officials.NEXON Mobile, established in September 2001, is known for launching several popular games such as MapleStory and KartRider Rush.“The measure was put in place to focus on the growth of the mobile business with NEXON’s intell

Korea’s business sentiment for February edged up slightly but remained in negative territory due to the deepening European debt woes and concerns over the sluggish domestic economy, a poll showed Thursday.The monthly business survey index for the upcoming month came in at 91, up 2.7 points from the 88.3 forecast for January, according to the survey by the Federation of Korean Industries, the lobbying group for the country’s large businesses.The latest number stood below the break-even 100 mark f

NEW YORK (AP) ― Apple briefly surpassed Exxon as the most valuable U.S. company after an excellent quarter, though the oil company has regained the lead at the market’s close. Apple’s stock rose as much as 8 percent, while Exxon’s fell as much as 2 percent during trading Wednesday. Exxon Mobil Corp.’s stock closed up 4 cents at $87.22 for a market capitalization of $418 billion. Apple’s increased 6 percent to $446.66 for a market cap of about $415 billion. Apple said Tuesday that net income in i

Lawmakers to take up bill banning oil exports to European countries in retaliation for embargoTEHRAN (AP) ― Iran’s parliament will begin debating a draft bill requiring the government to immediately halt oil exports to Europe, a prominent lawmaker said Wednesday, as Tehran weighs its options following the European Union’s decision to stop importing oil from the country. The EU embargo, announced on Monday, was the latest attempt to try to pressure Iran over a nuclear program the United States an

With the Lunar New Year holiday over, the ruling and opposition parties will have to speed up the arduous process of selecting parliamentary candidates soon. At the same time, they have to hasten the task of crafting campaign promises. They cannot afford to spend too long on these electoral preparations, with only two-and-a-half months until the April general elections.Parties’ nomination principles are already laid out. Among them are what percentage of incumbent lawmakers will be denied nomina

The job market is gloomy, as the number of jobs to be created this year is projected to fall 30 percent. The administration says 280,000 jobs will be created in 2012, down 120,000 from last year.These worsening prospects are behind the administration’s push for job sharing. One idea in this regard is to reinterpret a labor law enforcement decree to make it unlawful to exclude hours worked on holidays and weekends from a 12-hour limit to a legally permissible extension to a 40-hour workweek.An em

It’s hard to read Thomas Frank’s new book, “Pity the Billionaire,” without being astonished at what utter nincompoops Democrats are.This surely was not Frank’s primary intent. The book is subtitled, “The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right,” so it’s pretty clear where Frank coming from. But the obvious subtext is how, in a two-party system, Democrats allowed Republicans to pull off the greatest cross-dressing scam since RuPaul became America’s Drag Queen.Frank is a journali