in a survey conducted by yonhap news, in association with 12 polling agencies... park shows as high as 18- point-8 percentage points lead over the gnp's front-runner. taking a look in detail,... interviews conducted for three days from this past tuesday with 700 respondents on landline telephones indicate that... park received nearly 43 percent support,... overtaking na with seven percentage points. interviews conducted during the same period with 500 respondents on mobile phones reveal that park is ahead of na with almost 19 percentage points,... where nearly 50 percent of those interviewed said they would support park. and three other surveys using on-line and ivr polling with a total of 25-hundred respondents... all reveal that the lawyer turned civic activist is in the lead. however, analysts say because people responding to these kinds of surveys tend to be young,... there is still a lot of room for change depending on how many of these respondents will actually make it to the polling stations on the election day. laah hyun-kyung, moammar gadhafi's former pri

in an interview with yonhap news agency on tuesday... ahead of his official visit to korea this week, santos expressed hope that the two countries could conclude negotiations on an fta by year's end. since the two countries began talks in 2009, they have made progress, but differences remain over certain issues, including how much to open their markets agricultural and electronics products. two-way trade between korea and colombia nearly doubled in 2010 from 2009 to more than 1-point-8 billion us dollars while korean exports to the latin american country hit close to 1-point-4- billion that year. mr. santos arrives in seoul on wednesday for a three-day visit, which will include summit talks with korean president lee myung-bak. us software giant microsoft is currently reviewing plans to build a cutting-edge data center in korea. the ceo of microsoft korea, kim james woo, revealed the plans on thursday to the chairman of the korea communications commission, choi see -joong,... during choi's visit to microsoft research silicon valley division. kim said korea rose as one of the most likel

lee, who served as the country's legislation minister for more than two years, told yonhap news friday that... like the opposition camp, the ruling bloc should also agree on its most powerful candidate in order to win next month's election. however, he made it clear that he will only run as a pan-ruling camp candidate and not as a gnp nominee. the ruling party is said to be planning to hold an election early next month... where it will choose its pan-ruling camp nominee between gnp's front-runner and an outside-of-party candidate. analysts say the gnp will likely present na kyung-won as its front-runner as she came second after former seoul mayor oh se-hoon in last year's intraparty mayoral nominee election. meanwhile, the most likely potential candidate of the pan- opposition camp, park won-soon, has said that he has no intention of joining the main opposition democratic party at the moment... but added that if all goes well in next month's by- election, he will be more than glad to work with the dp in next year's general and presidential elections. the dp will hold an intra-party ele

in an interview with yonhap news before the end of her ambassadorship next month, stephens referred tohat us president barack obama calls the "seriousness of purpose," ahead of an anticipated high-level meeting between the us and north korea. expressing her support for inter-korean dialogue such as the recent denuclearization talks in beijing, stephens said improved relations with south korea and a pledge to abide by the 2005 joint six-party statement would also help the multilateral negotiations bear fruit. she also said that restarting the delivery of food aid to the north would be examined soley as a humanitarian issue, separate from political developments. on the korea-us free trade agreement, the ambassador said the two sides' legislatures should promptly ratify the pact as further delay will only lead to lost opportunities. she also expressed optimism that the us congress will approve the deal when the time is right, as washington has set january 1st, 2012 as the date to put the trade agreement into effect. stephens, who finishes her three-year term in seoul after korean presiden

in an interview with seoul's yonhap news on tuesday,... the head of the north korean company, park chol- su,... conveyed his wish to hold discussions with the south korean firm... on resolving the assets issue... regarding the cross-border mt. geumgang tourism project. he said that it is up to hyundai asan... whether it continues to operate, lease, or sell its assets at the resort. hyundai asan, however, stated that it had not received any official proposal from the daepung group. once considered a symbol of inter-korean reconciliation,... hyundai asan has invested some 200- million us dollars on the joint inter-korean project since 1998... when the north launched the tourism program for south korean tourists. however, the south suspended package tours... following the shooting death of a south korean female tourist... by a north korean soldier in 2008. pyeongyang has protested in frustration over seoul's unwillingness to resume the tours... as it had not obliged to its demand for a formal apology and increased security measures for tourists. the north recently expelled the last remaini

research conducted by yonhap news agency on local banks and financial firms on wednesday shows... 07that the price of gold in korea has soared over 1-hundred-37 percent over the past three years to around 2-hundred-54-thousand won... roughly 2- hundred-32 us dollars... per 3-point-7 -5 grams as of this month. this made the precious metal by far the best option for investors, followed by stocks and bonds which rose 32-point-1 and 20-point-1 percent respectively over the cited period. the research suggests that investment in real estate was the worst option,... as housing prices rose less than ten percent over the same period. the latest gold rush has been reflected in an over 130 percent increase in profits for shinhan bank's gold banking division. gold banking allows a customer to make their savings in gold by converting the amount of money they put into their account to the precious metal according to the day's international gold prices. the number of gold banking accounts at shinhan has more than doubled over the last three years to around 104-thousand. however, some analysts have expr