PRESS DIGEST - South Korean newspapers - July 2
SEOUL, July 2 (Reuters) - The following is a summary of major South Korean newspapers on Wednesday, prepared by Reuters in Seoul. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not guarantee their accuracy.
CHOSUN ILBO
Consumer prices inflation hit a nearly 10-year high of 5.5 percent in June from a year earlier, the Korea National Statistical Office announced.
American beef has gone back on sale in South Korea four days after the quarantine resumed, the representative of beef importers said.
MAEIL BUSINESS NEWSPAPER
Prices in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will rise from July 2, according to the country's two importers SK Gas (018670.KS) and E1 (017940.KS). In the meantime, power monopoly Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO> (015760.KS) has requested the government for a rise by more than 10 percent in electricity charges in the second half of the year, according to the Finance Ministry.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit South Korea on Thursday for the first time since his inauguration.
Six-party talks are projected to reopen on June 10 in Beijing, according to a source from South Korean government.
U.S-based real estate investment firm Starwood Capital Group is poised to embark on South Korean property market, forming a tie-up with a local bank Busan Mutual Savings Bank, the bank said.
DONG-A ILBO
Hyundai Motor Co 005380.KS and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp <000270.KS ranked fifth in the global car market by sales volume of 2007, a step up from a year ago, a U.S. automobile magazine Automotive News reported.
JOONGANG ILBO
Kookmin Bank 060000.KS, the country's No.1 retail lender, will actively seek M&A business in the expected wave of M&A deals in domestic market along with the government's plan to privatise state-run financial firms, its CEO Kang Chung-won said.
