Seoul  - Leading shareholders of money-losing Hynix Semiconductor Inc on Friday denied market rumours of a Hynix capital reduction.

Instead, they revealed a possible attempt to raise capital for the world's second-largest manufacturer of computer memory chips after Samsung Electronics Co.

Creditors said that despite the revenue loss, Hynix stands on a risk-free capital base that may invite a capital raise.

"We've never discussed capital reduction," the shareholders' committee said in a statement.

Hynix has been talking with its five top shareholders, who own 36 per cent of its shares, among them the Korea Exchange Bank and the Korea Development Bank.

Seoul - The captain of the oil tanker involved in a collision with a barge off South Korea's coast in late 2007 has been sentenced to a year and a half in jail, the daily The Korea Times reported Wednesday.

The report said the first officer of the Hong Kong-registered tanker Hebei Spirit received an 8-month jail term, with a state court in Taejon finding both having been negligent in carrying out their duties.

The sentencing came in an appeals case after the two men had initially been acquitted last June.

The captain, and Indian national, and the first officer were also each fined 20 million won (14,000 dollars). The owners of the tanker and of the barge were also each fined 30 million won.

Seoul - Shares continued to surge Wednesday on the Seoul stock exchange led by gains in the bank and car sector. South Korea's currency jumped against the dollar.

Seoul  - Shares ra

Seoul  - South Korea on Sunday expressed pessimism ahead of the next round of international talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

Speaking before his flight to Beijing where the six-party talks are begin at a nearly five-month pause, South Korean envoy Kim Sook said he was "not at all optimistic" concerning the prospects for success of the negotiations, but one would have to wait and see.

The goal of the talks to start Monday is to be a "protocol" in which the inspection of North Korean nuclear activities are to be recorded in writing, Kim was quoted by the KBS broadcaster as saying.

Seoul - North Korea made plain Saturday it will not recognise Japan as a participant in the next round of international talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.

"We will neither treat Japan as a party to the talks nor deal with it even if it impudently appears in the conference room," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the official KCNA news agency.

The spokesman accused Japan of failing to fulfill its obligations within the six-party talks which also include The United States, South Korea, Russia and China.