Measured by the life of a country, Kazakhstan is “young” and, compared to Korea’s diplomatic relations with other nations, Korea-Kazakhstan ties ― at just 20 years ― are nearly as young. But the new Kazakh envoy to Korea is an old Korea hand. He has carried on an abiding relationship with this East Asian nation since the mid-1990s, beginning shortly after Kazakhstan declared its independence in the wake of a collapsing Soviet Union.This is his second envoy posting to Korea, his first being from

Among the nation’s 10 conglomerates, Hyundai Heavy Industries marked the highest credit rating, according to recent research. CEO Score, a CEO and company appraising website, said on Wednesday that Hyundai Heavy Industries issued a total of 1.2 trillion won ($1.06 billion) worth of corporate bonds between July last year and Aug. 24 this year, at an average annual interest rate of 3.51 percent. The interest rate was the lowest among the ten conglomerates researched, which signifies that the compa

Korea’s power giant to hold support rally for nuclear power plant deal with the Middle Eastern countryThe nation’s state-run energy supplier Korea Electric Power Corp. will hold a resolution rally at its Seoul headquarters Friday, vowing for the safety, quality and integrity of its ongoing nuclear power plant deal with the United Arab Emirates.About 500 executives and staff from KEPCO, Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Co., Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co., Samsung C&T Corp. and o

All Koreans must have felt heartbroken at the pictures of the bodies of eight Korean engineers being recovered with those of six other people from the site of a helicopter crash in the mountains in southern Peru on Sunday.They were flying back to a Peruvian town after aerial surveillance of a possible site for a hydroelectric project when their helicopter apparently crashed at about 4,950 meters above sea level due to bad weather conditions Wednesday.Most of the eight Koreans aboard the ill-fate

KNOC pushing to build another  oil storage  facility in UlsanThe Korea National Oil Corporation’s ambitious scheme to develop Yeosu, South Jeolla Province into an oil hub of Northeast Asia comparable to Europe’s ARA (Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp) and Singapore’s Jurong Island has finally begun to proceed smoothly.An oil tank terminal with a capacity to store 8.2 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products is under construction in Yeosu. Oil Hub Korea Yeosu, a subsidiary of the KNOC,

When Choi Kyu-hong imagines the possibilities his work might give him in the future, he is thinking of a huge skyscraper filled with plants that grow grain, vegetables, crops, maybe even cows and pigs raised on a few floors in between the plants. Choi is an agricultural scientist, working for South Korea’s Rural Development Administration in a three-story vertical farm in Suwon, approximately 46 kilometers south of Seoul.The future of farming is still murky, but what Choi is working on could be

Food manufacturers will need to be creative in adapting flavors to local tastes and aesthetics to popularize more Korean cuisine on the international stage, the head of a state-run agriculture trade agency said. “How we export Korean food now won’t take our food to the American dining table. Food exporters need to brand each dish with a standardized name, twist flavors to fit local taste, and give it a unique brand,” CEO Kim Jae-soo of the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. said in a recent

Companies show upward, converging trend in customer satisfaction thanks to intense competitionYeungjin College came first in an annual survey on consumer satisfaction conducted by the Korea Productivity Center on 274 companies and institutions last year.Some 73,055 consumers were polled on the companies and schools across the country.The two-year technical college in Daegu scored 88 points in the National Customer Satisfaction Index survey jointly carried out by the KPC and the University of Mic

“Olje Classics,” a book series consisting of four local and Western classics. (Olje)‘Olje Classics’ sold out one day after hitting bookstore shelvesA book series consisting of four local and Western classics, published at a low-price to provide the texts to the less fortunate, sold out just one day after hitting the shelves last week.Provided by non-profit corporation Olje, the four-volume series in Korean titled “Olje Classics” includes Plato’s “The Republic,” Aristotle’s “Politics,” “Analects

The Korean government on Monday awarded 31 people, including four foreigners, for their special contributions in helping Korea boost exports, days after the country logged more than $1 trillion in annual trade for the first time.On top of the list of awardees was Scotsman William John Duncan, a shipbuilding engineer who provided technical assistance to Hyundai Heavy Industries in the 1970s.The late Duncan was awarded the Gold Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit for his contributions to the K

By Shin Hyon-heeKorea’s government and companies will open a grain trading company in Chicago next month, speeding up efforts to ensure stable supply and cope with price swings, a source close to the matter told The Korea Herald.The state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp. (aT) said in January it and large local firms will launch the joint corporation this year to establish a national grain proc