A joint oil exploration project involving South Korea’s state-run oil company in Iraq has made another significant oil discovery in the Middle Eastern country, the state-run Korea National Oil Corp. said on Sunday. The discovery was made at the Hawler minefield in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region. The Banan drill hole is the fourth exploration hole in the Hawler minefield, and it has successfully produced 4,320 barrels of light crude oil per day in a drill stem test that began in January, the comp

More South Korean companies should follow the lead of Samsung Electronics and Lotte Group by hiring and promoting more women, said Minister for Gender Equality and Family Cho Yoon-sun. Samsung Chairman Lee Kun Hee cited the importance of hiring more women as early as 1993, and since then his company, with a market capitalization of $177.6 billion, has steadily increased the number of female employees, Cho said in an interview with Bloomberg News last week in New York.Lotte Group, which owns depa

Foreign currency deposits in banks here rose to a record high in February on increased export earnings, the central bank said Friday.Outstanding foreign currency-denominated deposits held by residents reached $52.68 billion as of end-February, up $3.42 billion from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea.Residents include local citizens and foreigners staying here for more than six months as well as foreign companies. The data excludes inter-bank foreign currency deposits. The dollar-

Hanjin Shipping, the shipping arm of Hanjin Group, said Friday it has signed a deal worth 120 billion won ($112.8 million) with the country‘s third-largest refiner S-Oil to transport crude oil.Hanjin Shipping will annually bring in 1.92 million tons of crude between 2014 and the first half of 2019 to Onsan, a port 410 kilometers southeast of Seoul, from Ras Tanura in eastern Saudi Arabia, the company said.The cash-strapped shipping company plans to close two loss-making container shipping lines,

Samsung Electronics defeated Apple’s bid for a court order barring U.S. sales of some Samsung smartphones that were found to infringe Apple patents in a ruling that may affect a trial over current products.U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, for a second time rejected Apple’s request to ban more than 20 Samsung smartphones, no longer on the market, that were at issue in the companies first U.S. patent trial in 2012.The decision may give Samsung leverage as the world’s top two s

South Korean tech behemoth Samsung Electronics on Thursday launched its latest tablet PC at home that beefed up portability by further reducing its weight.The 8.4-inch Galaxy Tab Pro is powered by Google’s Android Kitkat 4.4 a 4,800 mAh battery, and is 7.2 mm thin. The device was first featured at the U.S. Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Weighing only 331 grams, the device is an improvement from the 8-inch Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet released last year, which weighed 340 grams. Sam

The local economy remains on a “moderate” recovery path as domestic demand picks up and overall financial market conditions become stable, a state-run think tank said Thursday. “The Korean economy is seen to continue at a moderate recovery pace, mainly on domestic demand,” the Korea Development Institute said in a monthly economic assessment report. The report is based on the latest indicators for exports, consumption, investment, production and job creation. The KDI said that consumption-relate

Samsung Display outperformed global rivals in small- and medium-sized panels to retain its top spot for the fourth consecutive year in 2013, data showed Thursday.The affiliate of Samsung Group is estimated to have sold $11.1 billion worth of 9-inch and smaller display panels around the globe, the data compiled by DisplaySearch showed.Samsung has been in the top spot since the fourth quarter of 2009 when it outpaced Japan’s Sharp Corp. for the first time. The Korean firm’s market share came to 26

South Korea’s leading companies plan to invest 132.9 trillion ($124 billion) won in research and development and facility upgrades in 2014, a poll showed Thursday.The total represents a 6.1 percent increase from 125.3 trillion won in 2013, said the Federation of Korean Industries, an association for big businesses. The survey was conducted on the 600 largest companies in terms of sales as of late 2012, with 450 companies responding. The FKI said that of those that replied, 225 said they planned

Imported car sales in South Korea jumped 31.2 percent in February compared with the same period last year, a report by a local trade association said Thursday.A total of 13,852 new foreign-made cars were sold last month, compared with 10,556 units a year earlier, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association said. The on-year gain comes after annual foreign car sales hit a record high of 156,497 units in 2013. The latest tally, however, showed that compared with January this year w

South Korea’s National Pension Service said it will vote against the reappointment of Mando Corp. chief executive officer, saying he damaged shareholder interests when approving the bailout of an affiliate.NPS, the second-biggest shareholder in Mando, will vote against CEO Shin Sa-Hyeon reappointment tomorrow, the world’s third-largest pension fund said in an e-mailed statement. Shares of Mando, which makes auto parts, tumbled to a record low in April last year after it bought a stake in constru