FM to attend annual ASEAN-hosted meetings in Jakarta next week
SEOUL -- South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin plans to attend next week's annual gatherings led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta, Indonesia, officials said Friday.
Park is scheduled to join the South Korea-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting and the ASEAN plus three meeting, also involving China and Japan, next Thursday, according to his ministry. The following day, he will take part in the East Asia Summit (EAS) meeting and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
(3rd LD) Samsung Electronics Q2 profit down nearly 96 pct on-year to hit 14-year low
SEOUL -- Samsung Electronics Co. on Friday said its second-quarter operating profit likely plunged about 96 percent from a year earlier, as a chip oversupply and slow demand persisted.
The world's largest memory chip and smartphone maker estimated its April-June profit at 600 billion won (US$461.2 million), significantly down from the 14.1 trillion won it reported a year ago.
S. Korea's industry chief, U.S.' TerraPower CEO discuss small nuclear reactors
SEOUL -- South Korea's industry chief met with the head of U.S. nuclear energy company TerraPower on Friday and discussed ways of cooperation on the development of advanced small modular reactors (SMRs), the industry ministry said.
During the meeting in Seoul, TerraPower CEO Chris Levesque introduced his firm's technologies to develop a next-generation SMR and related plans, and Minister Lee Chang-yang stressed the Seoul government's commitment to supporting cooperation between South Korean and American companies on the field, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
S. Korea, UAE to expedite investment projects in energy, advanced industries
SEOUL -- South Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) vowed Friday to make joint efforts to push for their agreed-upon joint projects and investment plans in energy, the arms industry and the overall economic and trade fields without a hitch, Seoul's industry ministry said.
The consensus was reached during a meeting between South Korea's Industry Minister Lee Chang-yang and the UAE's economic minister, Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, in Seoul, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
DP escalates offensive against Japan's water release
SEOUL -- The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) on Friday raised intensive questions about the credibility of a recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Japan's radioactive water release, as the IAEA chief is set to begin his three-day visit to South Korea later that day.
Ranking DP officials poured out harsh criticism against the IAEA report during the party's supreme council meeting held after almost all of its lawmakers staged an overnight sit-in at the National Assembly to protest Japan's plan to discharge radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean.
S. Korea to seek more foreign workers amid population crisis
SEOUL -- South Korea will explore ways to accept more foreign workers to address its low birth rates and workforce shortages, the finance ministry said Friday.
"We need to work together to reach a social consensus that accepting foreign workers and rolling out immigration policies are vital for the sustainable growth of the economy," First Vice Finance Minister Bang Ki-sun said during a meeting on foreign labor policies.
Source: Yonhap News Agency