The Bank of Korea held the benchmark rates steady for the sixth straight month Thursday, citing the deepening eurozone debt crisis abroad and slowing exports at home. The monetary policy committee led by Gov. Kim Choong-soo unanimously agreed to freeze the rate at 3.25 percent, a move aimed at helping Asia’s fourth-largest economy fight the external risks that threaten its export-oriented growth. “Downside risks to growth are high, due mostly to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and to the pos

KT Corp., the country’s largest fixed-line service operator, said it opened its global data center with Japan’s Softbank in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province on Thursday.The global data center, which opened its doors months after local mobile carrier KT and Softbank announced a joint venture in May, was built on 5,450 square meters of land able to take in 7,000 kilowatts of electricity.The center, which also offers office space for Japanese firms to directly get involved in server management and

This is the first of a series of interviews with first-term lawmakers. ― Ed.The 18th National Assembly has been dominated by senior lawmakers, but rookies nevertheless managed to bring in some positive and significant changes, said a first-term lawmaker of the ruling Grand National Party said.Rep. Kim Se-yeon, a Busan-based entrepreneur-turned-lawmaker and youngest member in the current parliament, is known for his active role in Minbon 21, an in-party group of progressive novice lawmakers.He cu

Korea needs to act now, if it wants to achieve its carbon emissions reduction target and seize opportunities in the green energy sector, a climate guru said Thursday. Environmentalist Tim Flannery said Korea’s target of a 30 percent cut in greenhouse emissions by 2020 from business as usual projections is of a similar scale to his native Australia. Canberra’s goal is to keep carbon dioxide output below 5 percent of the 2000 level by 2020, which translates into a reduction of 30 percent from the

Davies discusses joint stance on North Korea nuclear negotiationsThe U.S. special envoy to North Korea said in Seoul Thursday that an inter-Korean dialogue was “essential” for the U.S. to move forward in the resumption of the six-party talks.Glyn Davies, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, met with South Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator Lim Sung-nam and other government officials to have consultations on the future course of action, amid efforts to resume the stalled six-part