Obama should visit S. Korea in April: experts

President Barack Obama needs to include South Korea on his itinerary for an Asia tour in April, a group of Korea experts here said Friday.

In an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, Richard Armitage, Victor Cha and Michael Green said Obama is expected visit Japan, the Philippines and Malaysia. The White House announced the president will travel to Asia in April but has not made public specific stops yet.

All three nations deserve Obama's attention but "a trip without South Korea would send the wrong signal" to the international community, they said.

They pointed out the world is watching the president's words and deeds to see if the U.S. really has staying power in Asia.

"Visiting key treaty allies Tokyo and Manila, while skipping another key ally, South Korea, on Obama's first trip to Asia of his second term would be an embarrassment for South Korean President Park Geun-hye, particularly given how prickly relations are between Tokyo and Seoul," they said.

The trio stressed the importance of maintaining close ties with the allies, especially amid the possibility of North Korea taking provocative acts.

South Korea and the U.S. also have some urgent bilateral issues to address, such as renewing a civilian nuclear accord and finalizing consultations over the transfer of wartime troop control.

On the trade front, South Korea has expressed interest in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks.

The experts with experience in working at a U.S. administration suggested Obama take the initiative, rather than "lead from behind," in dealing with those issues.

If the administration's "heralded rebalance to Asia is to have meaning, Obama must be at the front on diplomacy, trade and security," they said.

Armitage, president of Armitage International, served as deputy secretary of state from 2001 to 2005.

Cha, Korea chairman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), was director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council (NSC) staff for three years from 2004.

Green, senior vice president for Asia and Japan chairman at CSIS, worked as senior director for Asian affairs on the NSC staff from 2001 to 2006.

Samsung’s smartphone sales fall in Q4

Samsung Electronics Co.’s smartphone shipments are estimated to have declined in the fourth quarter as competition intensified with its U.S. rival Apple Inc., market research data showed Tuesday.

The world’s top smartphone maker sold 86 million smartphones around the globe in the October-December period, down from the 88 million units in the previous quarter, according to figures from Strategy Analytics.

Samsung’s market share, which achieved a record high of 35.2 percent in the third quarter, fell below the psychologically significant level of 30 percent to 29.6 percent, it added. 

Market watchers said the weak results came as Apple’s iPhone 5s expanded its sales in China and Japan, raising its global market share to 17.6 percent from the 13.4 percent posted in the July-September period.

Apple’s quarterly sales of smartphones surpassed the 50-million mark for the first time to reach 51 million units, it added. (Yonhap)

In 2013, Samsung sold a record high of 319 million smartphones around the globe, with its market share reaching 32.3 percent, up 1.9 percentage points from the 30.4 percent posted a year earlier. (Yonhap)

S. Korea's oil consumption falls for first time in 5 years: data

South Korea's oil consumption fell for the first time in five years in 2013 as the country used more electricity and city gas to meet its heating and miscellaneous energy needs, data showed Thursday.

According to numbers provided by the Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC), petroleum product consumption reached around 826.84 million barrels last year, a 0.1 percent dip from the tally taken for 2012.

The KNOC said the last time oil product consumption contracted was in 2008 as the global financial crisis fueled economic uncertainties and caused people and industries to cut back on spending.

The state-run corporation said sales of kerosene fell 14.5 percent on-year, with bunker-C and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) figures dropping 16.1 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.

It said sales of bunker-C oil, used as fuel by large commercial vessels, was hard hit, due to overall sluggishness in the shipping industry. More demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and a greater number of factories and homes using city gas have hurt sales overall.

On the other hand, it said sales of gasoline, diesel fuel used for cars, and naphtha used by the petrochemical sector did grow last year compared to the year before.

"If naphtha is excluded, on the other hand, oil product consumption in 2013 dropped 0.6 percent from the previous year to little over 440.20 million barrels," KNOC said.

It said non-naphtha consumption numbers have been falling for three years straight, as other energy sources become more prominent.

A KNOC source said that since 1997, when the country was rocked by the Asian financial crisis, oil consumption has only grown very slowly. He added that while petroleum met 60.4 percent of the country's energy needs in 1997, it recently stood at just 38.1 percent, with the slack being taken up by electricity and natural gas.

South Korea generates a considerable portion of its electricity using nuclear power, and is one of the largest importers of natural gas in the world. (Yonhap)

S. Korea's exports, imports inch down in Jan.

South Korea's exports slipped slightly from a year earlier last month, but its trade surplus grew as imports dropped at a faster rate, the government said Saturday.

The country's outbound shipments edged down 0.2 percent on-year to US$45.58 billion in January, with imports dropping 0.9 percent to $44.85 billion, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The country posted a trade surplus of $735 million last month, keeping its trade account in the black for 24 straight months. The figure compares with a surplus of $476 million posted in the same month last year.

The ministry attributed the drop in overall exports to fewer number of working days due to the three-day Lunar New Year holiday beginning Thursday. The daily average outbound shipments increased 8.9 percent on-year to $2.07 billion from $1.9 billion in January 2013.

"The daily average in January is also higher than the average for the whole of 2013, which came in at $2.05 billion," it said in a press release.

Shipments to European Union countries jumped 24.7 percent on-year in January, partly reflecting Europe's economic recovery, the ministry said.

Exports to the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also surged 9.9 percent on-year, while those to China, the world's largest importer of South Korean products, inched up 0.8 percent.

Shipments to Latin American countries plunged 13.9 percent on-year, an apparent result of the weak Japanese currency eating into the price competitiveness of South Korean products in some of the overseas markets, the ministry noted.

By product, shipments of semiconductors jumped 15.1 percent on-year, with those of mobile phones also surging 15.1 percent.

Shipments of steel products gained 9.6 percent on-year while exports of petroleum products slipped 5.6 percent.