A high-ranking executive from Samsung Electronics Co. on Friday said the company is facing various hurdles in rolling out business strategies amid the absence of the firm's de facto head Lee Jae-yong."It is true there are various troubles related to rolling out investment for the future, or seeking restructuring of businesses (amid Lee's absence)," said Yoon Boo-keun, who heads Samsung's home appliances arm, during meeting with reporters in Berlin at the Internationale Funkausstellung event.Last

The head of Samsung Electronics Co.'s mobile business said Friday the price of the newly introduced Galaxy Note 8 phablet is likely to hover above 1 million won ($887).During a meeting with reporters in Berlin, Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung Electronics' mobile business, said it will be "extremely difficult" to keep the price lower than 1 million won in South Korea, expressing an apology over his earlier statement.The price tag on the 64-GB Galaxy Note 7 was $850 in the United States and 988

South Korean stocks traded slightly lower Friday morning as foreign investors continued to unload local shares.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 3.33 points, or 0.14 percent, to 2,359.86 as of 11:15 a.m.Bourse heavyweights traded mixed, with market kingpin Samsung Electronics up 0.39 percent. SK hynix, a major chipmaker, fell 0.44 percent, and POSCO, the No. 1 steelmaker, declined 0.58 percent.Naver, the country's top Internet portal operator, lost 0.26 percent, while Hyu

South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed Friday to bolster their defense cooperation to better respond to North Korea's threats following Pyongyang's recent firing of a missile over Japan.In a three-way video conference, working-level defense officials concurred that North Korea's missile launch is an "unprecedented, grave" threat to regional peace and stability, according to Seoul's defense ministry.The talks involved Brig. Gen. Park Chul-kyun, deputy director general for international p

South Korean President Moon Jae-in is set to visit Russia next week for a bilateral summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and other heads of state, as well as a regional forum aimed at boosting economic cooperation in Northeast Asia that includes Russia's Far East, an official from Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Friday.The president will depart Wednesday for Vladivostok, where he will attend the Eastern Economic Forum, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Park Soo-hy

South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Friday dismissed the possibility of deploying US nuclear weapons to South Korea to deter North Korea's armed provocations."We have never thought we should redeploy US nuclear assets," a ranking Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters on condition of anonymity."The government respects the global non-proliferation regime, and continues to align all its policy within that framework," the official added. South Korea`s Defense Minister Song Young-moo(f

South Korea has asked China to remove economic sanctions imposed on South Korea due to the diplomatic row over the deployment of a US missile defense system here, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Friday.China has been retaliating economically against South Korea since early this year over the stationing of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.South Korea says the missile defense system is not aimed at China but is to combat North Korea's missile and nuclear threats.

South Korea's top financial regulator on Friday urged credit card firms to cut marketing spending and provide safer and more convenient payment services. Choi Jong-ku, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, made the remark at a meeting with top executives of credit card companies as the industry has been under pressure over competition with online payment services and a cut in credit card processing fees for small merchants. Choi said credit card firms "need to revamp their high-cos

The newly elected head of the minor opposition People's Party slammed the government of President Moon Jae-in for "begging" for dialogue with North Korea, saying now is not the time for talks, but to work closely with the United States to push for stronger sanctions.In an interview with Yonhap News Agency, Ahn Cheol-soo also expressed clear opposition to the idea of redeploying tactical US nuclear weapons back to South Korea, saying the move would amount to acknowledging the North's nuclear prog

LG Electronics Inc. on Friday said it promoted its latest achievements in the field of artificial intelligence technology at this year's Berlin consumer electronics trade show, introducing its vision to home appliances and smartphones.The South Korean tech giant said at Internationale Funkausstellung that it plans to apply the AI technology to more products and services, and expand its partnerships with Amazon.com and Google Inc. to expand the ecosystem.In detail, LG Electronics demonstrated how

North Korea on Thursday condemned the United States for sending its strategic bombers and stealth jets to Korea in response to its latest launch of a missile which flew over Japan, calling the move a "rash" act.Four F-35B stealth jets and two B-1B strategic bombers from the US trained with South Korea's F-15K fighter jets over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday, the final day of the 11-day Seoul-Washington joint military drills."The wild military acts of the enemies are nothing but the rash act of

For the first time in his 36-year football career, Iran's national team boss Carlos Queiroz has done something that he wouldn't normally do: ask for a player's jersey.Queiroz, who has been leading Iran since 2011, said Thursday that he got a jersey of Tottenham Hotspur's South Korean attacker Son Heung-min after his side collected a scoreless draw at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul. Son played full time and produced a couple of dangerous moments, though he failed to score a goal."For the first

The delinquency rate of South Korean banks' won-denominated loans edged up in July, due to a slight rise in people who could not pay off their debts, government data showed Friday. The rate for bank loans more than 30 days overdue stood at 0.48 percent at the end of July, up 0.05 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service.Compared to a year ago, however, the rate was down 0.3 percentage point, it said.  "In July, newly delinquent l

South Korea's consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in more than five years in August due mainly to a sharp increase in food prices, government data showed Friday.The country's consumer price index advanced 2.6 percent last month from a year earlier, up from the previous month's 2.2 percent rise, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.The August inflation marked the highest gain since April 2012, when it also hit 2.6 percent.From a month earlier, the index went up 0.6 percent in A

South Korea's economy grew at a slower pace in the second quarter from three months earlier on decreased manufacturing and construction, central bank data showed Friday.The country's gross domestic product expanded 0.6 percent in the April-June period from the previous quarter, decelerating from a 1.1 percent on-quarter expansion three months earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.From a year earlier, the local economy grew 2.7 percent in the second quarter, compared with