South Korea Financial News

United States and North Korea, the United Nations ambassadors of both countries engaged in a heated debate at the Security Council on Monday. As reported by Reuters, the contentious discussion focused on North Korea's recent launch of its first spy satellite and the escalating tensions in the region. After an absence of nearly six years, North Korea resumed sending its envoy to UN Security Council meetings concerning its nuclear and ballistic missile programs in July.

North Korea’s state-backed hacking group ‘Kimsuky,’ is supposedly behind a cryptocurrency heist, where hackers disguised as South Korean government agencies.

North Korea warned on Monday it would continue to exercise its sovereign rights, including through satellite launches, while its troops were reported to be restoring some demolished guard posts on the border with South Korea. North Korea's foreign ministry said the launch of a reconnaissance satellite last week was prompted by the need to monitor the United States and its allies, state media KCNA reported. «It is a legal and just way to exercise its right to defend itself and thoroughly respond to and precisely monitor the serious military action by the U.S. and its followers,» the KCNA report said. Nuclear-armed North Korea launched the satellite on Tuesday, saying it successfully entered orbit and was transmitting photographs, but South Korean defence officials and analysts said its capabilities have not been independently verified. The launch prompted South Korea to suspend a key clause in a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement and resume aerial surveillance near the border. North Korea in turn declared it was no longer bound by the agreement and would deploy weapons on the border with the South. Citing South Korean military officials, Yonhap news reported that North Korean soldiers had been observed bringing back heavy weapons into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) border and setting up guard posts that the two countries demolished in the wake of the de-escalation agreement.

Vietnam's parliament is set to approve on Wednesday a top-up tax for multinationals, which will raise the effective rate of the corporate levy to 15% from January in line with a global agreement. Vietnam had initially planned to combine the approval of the tax with measures to partly compensate large foreign investors affected by the higher levy, including South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and U.S.

The three month pilot, set for the fourth quarter of 2024, is being run by the Bank of Korea, Financial Services Commission, and Financial Supervisory Service.Participants will be able to make purchasers with deposit tokens issued by commercial banks in the form of CBDC, says the Korea Times.

By Jamie McGeever

South Korea's prominent metaverse platform, ZEP, has announced a strategic partnership with the global Layer 1 blockchain platform, NEAR Protocol. This collaboration, revealed on November 13, 2023, aims to facilitate user onboarding and enhance the development of ZEP's Web3 capabilities, marking a pivotal step in the evolution of both entities.

By Hyonhee Shin

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected photos taken by the country’s new spy satellite of “major target regions”, including the South Korean capital of Seoul and cities that host U.S. military bases, state media said on Saturday. Nuclear-armed North Korea launched the satellite on Tuesday, but South Korean defence officials and analysts said its capabilities have not been independently verified. Kim examined photos of Seoul and other cities of Mokpo, Kunsan, Pyeongtaek and Osan, where U.S. and South Korean military bases are located. The photos were taken as the satellite passed over the peninsula on Friday morning, state news agency KCNA said.

Kim Jong Un inspected photos taken by the country's new spy satellite of «major target regions», including the South Korean capital of Seoul and cities that host U.S. military bases, state media reported on Saturday. Nuclear-armed North Korea launched the satellite on Tuesday, but South Korean defence officials and analysts said its capabilities have not been independently verified. Kim examined the photos, as well as imagery taken of some areas within North Korea, during a visit to the control centre of the National Aerospace Technology Administration (NATA) in Pyongyang on Friday, state news agency KCNA said. The photos were taken as the satellite passed over the peninsula on Friday morning, KCNA said, and included images of Seoul, and Mokpo, Kunsan, Pyeongtaek and Osan, where U.S.

The saga of Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon continues to unfold, with a court in Montenegro approving his extradition to either South Korea or the United States.

A court in Montenegro’s capital, Podgorica, has approved the extradition of Do Kwon, the founder of Terra, to either South Korea or the United States. 

The Bank of Korea (BOK) has announced that 100,000 South Korean citizens will start making “real-world” CBDC transactions next year.

Investing.com-- Asian currencies kept to a tight range on Friday, while the dollar moved little as a U.S. market holiday made for scant trading, although focus now turned to key business activity readings due later in the day. 

Nifty just above 19,800 and the Sensex at 66,017.81. Diverse trends emerged across Asian markets as oil prices fell. Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged by 0.97% to 33,775.20, and the TOPIX rose by 0.74% to 2,395.90 after a national holiday.

Sensex eased 5.43 points, or 0.01%, to close at 66,017.81, while the Nifty 50 fell 9.85 points, or 0.05%, to settle at 19,802.00. “While the secondary market saw a range bound move, the heightened action was seen in the primary market. Overall market is likely to trade sideways in the near term with stock specific action in the broader space," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

King Charles III honored the K-pop band Blackpink

Shares are mixed in Europe and Asia after a modest advance on Wall Street that kept the market on track for a fourth straight weekly gain

Shares are mostly lower in Asia after a modest advance on Wall Street that kept the market on track for a fourth straight weekly gain

Paper imports into India surged by 43 per cent in volume terms in the first half of 2023-24, fueled by a more than two-fold jump in imports from ASEAN countries, according to official data. The Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS) data showed that imports of paper and paperboard jumped to 959,000 tonnes in April-September 2023-24 from 672,000 tonnes in the first half of FY2022-23.

European Union, and the US-led Indo Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). Inclusion of these issues in trade pacts could have negative impacts, they said, adding that the recent US presidential memorandum of Joe Biden on worker rights indicates a deepening focus on labour standards in trade deals. Negotiations are on fast track with a comprehensive trade agreement with the UK, which seeks to promote trade in goods, services and two-way investments.