Seoul - North and South Korea have agreed to launch a new round of military issues talks after a previous round broke up without result, Seoul said Saturday.

The Defence Ministry said the new round would take place on Monday at a border point on the western coastline, near the South Korean city of Paju.

Pyongyang had proposed new talks on Friday, after the previous round had broken up without result some three weeks ago.

The talks are aimed at improving lines of communication between the armed forces of the two Korean states.

Seoul - Hanwha Group was chosen by South Korea's state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) as the preferred bidder for a controlling stake in Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, the KDB announced on Friday.

"Hanwha was found to best fit our criteria of selection, including bid price, management ability and fund-raising plan," Chung In-Sung, deputy governor of the KDB, said at a press conference.

Hanwha, a conglomerate with roots in explosive maker Hanwha Corp, won out rival bidder Hyundai Heavy in the bid for a 50.5 per cent stake of the world's third-largest shipbuilder.

Seoul - South Korea's benchmark Kospi index on Friday lost 10.57 per cent, dropping below the 1,000-point level, the lowest since May 2005, as foreign investors continued to sell stocks.

The Kospi fell 110.96 points, or 10.57 per cent to close at 938.75.

Kospi heavyweight Samsung Electronics Co dropped 5.2 per cent after quarterly profit reports were down to the lowest in three years.

On the currency markets, the won fell to 1,422 against the dollar, down from Thursday's close of 1.408, the lowest finish since June 17,
1998.

Amman- Jordan and South Korea on Thursday initialed an agreement on nuclear cooperation for peaceful purposes.

The accord was signed by the Chairman of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) Khalid Touqan and the South Korean ambassador in Amman Bongkil Shin.

Touqan said that the deal would be officially signed in Seoul in December.

The agreement provides for cooperation between the two countries in several areas such as technical assistance, site selection, design, construction and nuclear safety, he added.

Seoul- South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co on Thursday reported a 38-per-cent drop in third-quarter profits because of falling sales and strikes that caused drops in its production.

Net income fell to 264.8 billon won (187 million dollars) from 425.5 billion won in the same quarter in 2007.

Sales shrank 14.5 per cent to 6.1 trillion won.

Despite the decrease, the earnings were higher than analysts had expected, and Hyundai also held to its sales projection for the year of 33 trillion won.

Seoul - Shares continued their freefall Thursda