South Korea: South Korea Department Store Sales Rise In November

Asian Markets Retreat After Oil Prices Fall Again

2016/01/26 Asian stock markets retreated on Tuesday, snapping a two-day winning streak, following the weak cues overnight from Wall Street and the pullback in oil prices. Investors as well treaded cautiously ahead of monetary policy statements by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan later in the week. The Japanese market is notably lower, with the negative lead from Wall Street and the fall in oil prices denting risk appetite. Additionally, a stronger yen hurt exporters' stocks. In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is declining 319.08 points or 1.86 % to 16,791.83, off a low of 16,683.64 in early trades.

Locations of China, Japan and South Korea.

2016/01/03 Six decades since the end of World War II and despite several changes in world politics and as well in the Northeast Asia, the issue of “comfort women” continued to haunt Japan’s relations with its neighbour, South Korea. The Korean people are unable to forget the atrocities committed by the Japanese military during the long colonial policy from 1910-1945 over all Korean peninsula. The issue is too emotive in South Korea. In particular, what hurts the Korean people most is that a lot of Korean women, a euphemistic expression for sex slaves called as “comfort women” or “ianfu” as the Japanese called them, were forced to work as prostitutes by Japan’s Imperial armed forces during World War II. Japan refused to pay individual compensation for the wrongs committed. This unresolved issue, an unfortunate wartime aberration, was finally buried to the dustbin of history, at the same time as the foreign ministers of both Japan and South Korea announced an agreement on 28 December 2015 during Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to Seoul.1 To further assuage the feeling and applying balm of sort, Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Shinzo telephoned President Park Geun-hye and offered Japan’s “faithful apology and remorse from the bottom of his heart” over the issue. With this, a new era seemed to have dawned in relations between the two nations. Though Japanese leaders had offered apology in the completed, the South Koreans always felt the lack of sincerity, as perceptions are hard to change. This time Abe offered apology to the former “comfort women” and committed his government to finance a 1 billion yen (US$ 8.3 million) aid fund for the aging survivors to be set up by South Korea. Kishida and his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se resolved that both the governments will confirm that “the comfort women issue will be settled in a final and irreversible manner” so long as Japan faithfully follows through on its promises.

Global growth will be disappointing in 2016: IMF's Lagarde

2016/01/02 World economic increase will be disappointing next year and the outlook for the medium-term has as well deteriorated, the chief of the International Monetary Fund said in a guest article for German newspaper Handelsblatt published on Wednesday. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the prospect of rising interest rates in the United States and an economic slowdown in China were contributing to uncertainty and a higher risk of economic vulnerability worldwide. Added to that, increase in world trade has slowed considerably and a decline in raw material prices is posing problems for economies based on these, while the financial sector in a lot of nations still has weaknesses and financial risks are rising in emerging markets, she said.

South Korea Money Supply Growth Eases In October

2015/12/10 South Korea's money supply increase slowed in October next accelerating in the previous month, preliminary figures from the Bank of Korea showed Wednesday. M2, a broad measure of money supply, rose 8.8 % year-on-year in October, slower than the 9.4 % climb in September. On a monthly basis, M2 money supply edged up 0.1 % in October, following a 0.7 % increase in the preceding month.