The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) announced on March 24 that it will purchase 40 F-35As on a foreign military sales (FMS) basis for the Fighter eXperimental program. The DAPA finalized the decision on that day at the 77th Defense Acquisition Committee meeting presided over by the

The Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) has taken the first step to connect Busan, Pyeongyang, Beijing, Moscow, Berlin, and London in a cross continental railway.KORAIL announced on March 23 that it joined the Organization for Cooperation of Railway (OSJD) as an affiliate member on the 21st (local t

Korea will share the “KIST Model” with Vietnam, which serves as a foothold for technology industrialization of the country. The “V-KIST” blueprints were unveiled on March 20 in Hanoi, Vietnam by Moon Kil-ju, ex-president of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and experts on Vietnam

Lockheed Martin predicted that the unit price of the F-35A fighter jet would drop to approximately 90 billion won (US$83.5 million) by 2019. The model is the sole candidate for the Republic of Korea Air Force’s Fighter eXperimental (FX) project.The price is equivalent to about 50 percent of what was

The Korean government is going to pursue a mid-to-long term plan to become one of the top 7 countries in the medical device sector by 2020. The government announced a plan to foster the medical device industry in a ministerial meeting for economic issues on March 19, with the participation of releva

It is increasingly expected that Korea, Japan, and the United States will have a summit meeting in The Hague between March 24 and 25, during the concurrent Nuclear Security Summit. The Korean Presidential Office held a National Security Council (NSC) meeting on March 19, presided over by the head of

Amid worries over additional damage resulting from the leakage of the personal information of credit card holders and mobile subscribers, the number of cases where voice phishing calls originating from other countries are blocked reportedly reached 215,000 during Jan and Feb. The figure for smishing

International education agency IDP Education and the Times Higher Education (THE) held a press conference in Seoul on March 17 and announced their annual college rankings for the period of 2013 to 2014. Seoul National University ranked 44th, while the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technolo

The Korean government announced that there will be no summit talks between Japan and itself unless the latter shows a significant change in stance. The announcement was made in response to the Sankei Shimbun’s March 12 report that the Japanese government is planning on a summit meeting among the Uni

Hong Soon-jik, a North Korea researcher at Hyundai Economic Research Institute, has predicted that the unification of the Korean Peninsula would bring about Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of US$28,000 in 2020, US$43,000 in 2030, US$66,000 in 2040, and US$86,000 in 2050. The 2050 estimate is

Korea’s regional municipalities shall be the main agent for drawing up and driving their own regional development plans.President Park Geun-hye said on March 12 at an investment promotion and regional development meeting, “The first thing we have to keep in mind when drawing up regional development

South Korea has finished its 12th free trade agreement (FTA) by concluding a deal with Canada, leading Korea’s free economic territory up to 61 percent from 58 percent, while marking Canada’s first free trade pact with an Asian nation.The deal is particularly meaningful in that South Korea has a com

SEOUL, March 10 (Yonhap) – President Park Geun-hye on Monday denounced unnecessary regulations on business activity as Korea’s “archenemy” and a “lump of cancer” killing the country, underscoring her commitment to eliminate all such regulations to revitalize the economy.The remark was the latest in

It has been found that the five-year return on assets of the National Pension System (NPS) is the second-highest among the public pension funds of OECD member countries. NPS Junior Research Analyst Roh Sang-yoon said on March 9 that the NPS recorded an annual average return of 5.9 percent between 20

SEJONG, March 10 (Yonhap) – The local branch of an American university opened in one of South Korea’s Free Economic Zones (FEZ) Monday, offering management and economics classes.George Mason University is the second foreign university to open a local branch at the Songdo Global University Campus at

SEOUL, March 9 (Yonhap) – The government will spend 4.9 trillion won (US$4.6 billion) this year on the national information technology strategy that aims to enhance South Korea’s overall competitiveness and fuel economic growth, the Science Ministry said Sunday.Of the total, 3.94 trillion won (US$3.

It is expected that the free trade deal between Korea and Canada will be concluded next week after a long delay. At present, the Canadian government is collecting opinions on the major issues of the FTA from local entrepreneurs, which means that the conclusion of the agreement is around the corner.

SEJONG, March 7 (Yonhap) – The latest round of negotiations for a trilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with China and Japan ended without a major breakthrough, officials said Friday, with the talks mostly limited to setting the boundaries of their discussions.“At this round of talks, the countries

SEJONG/SEOUL, March 5 (Yonhap) – South Korea will develop its small and medium-sized firms through deregulation and conclude new free trade agreements (FTAs) in its efforts to expand its overall trade volume, the country’s trade minister said Wednesday.Yoon Sang-jick, the minister of trade, industry

GENEVA, March 5 (Yonhap) – South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se slammed Japan Wednesday for denying its wartime atrocities of sexually enslaving Korean women, calling on it to strive for a swift resolution on the issue.Yun’s tougher message to Japan came amid Tokyo’s continued rightward moves