ID :
101919
Sat, 01/23/2010 - 07:58
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/101919
The shortlink copeid
Yonhap News Summary
Yonhap News Summary
The following is the second summary of major stories moved by Yonhap News Agency
on Friday.
-----------------
(2nd LD) Seoul hopes for resumption of six-party talks next month: FM
SEOUL -- South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan expressed hope Friday that
the stalled six-way talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program would be
resumed next month.
Yu said the nuclear negotiations are "expected to resume shortly before or after
Lunar New Year's Day." The Lunar New Year holidays fall on Feb. 13-15. He added
that the countries involved in the talks are discussing the matter.
-----------------
(LEAD) Seoul shares end 2.19 pct lower on U.S. falls
SEOUL -- South Korean stocks closed 2.19 percent lower Friday on strong foreign
and institutional selling sparked by overnight falls on Wall Street, analysts
said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) plunged 37.66 points to
1,684.35. Volume was heavy at 605.1 million shares worth 6.51 trillion won
(US$5.65 billion), with losers overwhelming gainers 639 to 184.
-----------------
N. Korea ranks last in U.S. economic freedom index
SEOUL -- North Korea ranked as the world's worst country in terms of economic
freedom for the 16th straight year in an annual survey conducted by the Wall
Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, according to their websites Friday.
The communist state scored just one point out of a possible 100 in the 2010 Index
of Economic Freedom, taking the bottom spot among 179 countries surveyed, they
said.
-----------------
(LEAD) Court OKs pricing of Novartis' anti-leukemia drug
SEOUL -- A Seoul court on Friday said the price of Gleevec, an anti-leukemia drug
developed by Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis, is not "unreasonable," ruling in
favor of the drugmaker in a years-long battle with the local government over the
cost of the medicine.
Last September, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs notified
Novartis of its decision to reduce the price of Gleevec to 19,818 won (US$17.3)
per capsule from 23,045 won, the initial price agreed to by the government and
Novartis under a deal reached in January 2003. The move came one year after a
group of civic activists and patients appealed to the ministry, complaining that
leukemia patients were forced to pay up to 2 million won per month for the
medicine.
-----------------
Exporters' risk oversight is to blame for KIKO losses: U.S. professor
SEOUL -- A U.S. management professor defended Friday the sales of loss-incurring
currency option contracts by two local banks, saying their corporate buyers are
to blame for ignoring the possibility of the won's sharp fall.
"Companies have seen the dollar go up in the past. Why would have they ignored
that (the dollar could rise again)?," Stephen Ross, a business school professor
at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S. told reporters.
-----------------
Deceased N. Korean sailors honored for saving leaders' portraits
SEOUL -- North Korea has poured honors on sailors who drowned to death while
saving the portraits of the country's leaders when their cargo ship sank off the
coast of China in November, the communist state's official media reported Friday.
Five died and 15 were rescued when the ship, the Jisong 5, sank in strong winds
on Nov. 17 while heading toward the northeastern Chinese port city of Dalian.
(END)
The following is the second summary of major stories moved by Yonhap News Agency
on Friday.
-----------------
(2nd LD) Seoul hopes for resumption of six-party talks next month: FM
SEOUL -- South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan expressed hope Friday that
the stalled six-way talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program would be
resumed next month.
Yu said the nuclear negotiations are "expected to resume shortly before or after
Lunar New Year's Day." The Lunar New Year holidays fall on Feb. 13-15. He added
that the countries involved in the talks are discussing the matter.
-----------------
(LEAD) Seoul shares end 2.19 pct lower on U.S. falls
SEOUL -- South Korean stocks closed 2.19 percent lower Friday on strong foreign
and institutional selling sparked by overnight falls on Wall Street, analysts
said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) plunged 37.66 points to
1,684.35. Volume was heavy at 605.1 million shares worth 6.51 trillion won
(US$5.65 billion), with losers overwhelming gainers 639 to 184.
-----------------
N. Korea ranks last in U.S. economic freedom index
SEOUL -- North Korea ranked as the world's worst country in terms of economic
freedom for the 16th straight year in an annual survey conducted by the Wall
Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, according to their websites Friday.
The communist state scored just one point out of a possible 100 in the 2010 Index
of Economic Freedom, taking the bottom spot among 179 countries surveyed, they
said.
-----------------
(LEAD) Court OKs pricing of Novartis' anti-leukemia drug
SEOUL -- A Seoul court on Friday said the price of Gleevec, an anti-leukemia drug
developed by Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis, is not "unreasonable," ruling in
favor of the drugmaker in a years-long battle with the local government over the
cost of the medicine.
Last September, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs notified
Novartis of its decision to reduce the price of Gleevec to 19,818 won (US$17.3)
per capsule from 23,045 won, the initial price agreed to by the government and
Novartis under a deal reached in January 2003. The move came one year after a
group of civic activists and patients appealed to the ministry, complaining that
leukemia patients were forced to pay up to 2 million won per month for the
medicine.
-----------------
Exporters' risk oversight is to blame for KIKO losses: U.S. professor
SEOUL -- A U.S. management professor defended Friday the sales of loss-incurring
currency option contracts by two local banks, saying their corporate buyers are
to blame for ignoring the possibility of the won's sharp fall.
"Companies have seen the dollar go up in the past. Why would have they ignored
that (the dollar could rise again)?," Stephen Ross, a business school professor
at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S. told reporters.
-----------------
Deceased N. Korean sailors honored for saving leaders' portraits
SEOUL -- North Korea has poured honors on sailors who drowned to death while
saving the portraits of the country's leaders when their cargo ship sank off the
coast of China in November, the communist state's official media reported Friday.
Five died and 15 were rescued when the ship, the Jisong 5, sank in strong winds
on Nov. 17 while heading toward the northeastern Chinese port city of Dalian.
(END)
