While the spotlight maybe on the new gadgets being launched at Mobile World Congress by some of the world’s biggest tech companies, spare a thought for little old Pantech, South Korea’s ailing smartphone maker, The Wall Street Journal Korea Real Time blog reported. After trying for years to eke out profits and carve a niche for itself in the smartphone industry, Pantech is now seeking help to restructure its debt.

Ssangyong Engineering & Construction (E&C) has filed for court protection as its creditors refused to finance the cash-strapped builder, the Seoul-based company said Monday, The Korea Times reported. Ssangyong E&C said it held a board meeting Monday afternoon to ask the Seoul Central District Court to lead a debt-rescheduling program after one of its major creditors, the Military Mutual Aid Association, raised an objection to additional financial support to it.

Kookmin Bank, South Korea’s largest lender by assets, said it will close 55 branches in January as the country’s lenders struggle with the lowest lending margins in four years, Bloomberg reported. The closures will cut costs and help the Seoul-based bank, a unit of KB Financial Group Inc., better serve Korean customers who are using Internet banking more frequently, Kookmin Bank said in an e-mailed statement today. The lender has 1,205 branches across South Korea, company data show. Kookmin Bank is joining Standard Chartered Plc and Citigroup Inc.

South Korea’s three biggest shipping companies face a cash crunch as 3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) of bonds are due for repayment in the next two years amid mounting losses from a global slump in rates to carry cargo, Bloomberg reported. Hanjin Shipping Co., Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. and STX Pan Ocean Co. are all forecast to post losses in 2013 for a third consecutive year, further denting the combined 1.5 trillion won of cash and near cash items they had as of the end of June. The companies need to repay 1.4 trillion won of bonds next year and 1.6 trillion won the year after.

More than 100 smaller firms in South Korea could face debt restructuring this year on consecutive defaults by some large enterprises, the highest tally since the 2008 global financial turmoil, sources from creditor banks said Monday, the Yonhap News Agency reported. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and creditor banks are in the final stage of drawing up a list of corporate debtors from 1,100 small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which owe banks loans worth no more than 50 billion won (US$46.7 million), the FSS and bank officials with knowledge in the matter said.

Three affiliates of embattled Tong Yang Group on Monday filed for court receivership as a last resort to avert bankruptcy after they failed to secure funds to keep afloat, the group said. South Korea's 38th-largest conglomerate said its three units -- Tongyang Inc., Tong Yang Leisure Co. and Tongyang International Inc. -- requested a court's order earlier in the day for a corporate revival process, Global Post reported on a Yonhap News Agency story.

When Choi Jong Hyun found his 50 million won ($46,415) annual salary wasn’t enough to cover the 8 percent jump in rent for his Seoul apartment, he decided to cut back on stock investments rather than take on debt. “I would rather cash out the stocks I now hold and not pay additional interest,” Choi, 32, who works in the financial industry and has about 50 million won of investments, said by phone on Sept. 24. Investors like Choi are exiting South Korea’s stock market as rental costs climb to the highest level since at least 1986 and household debt rises to a record.

STX Pan Ocean, the dry bulk carrier unit of Korea's STX Group, is likely to file for court receivership, following a couple of failed attempts by its parent to sell a stake. Receivership is similar to U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy, where the court takes a leading role in restructuring the company. A judge at the Seoul Central District Court told The Wall Street Journal that once a company files for receivership, the court freezes the firm's assets, including its debt. It typically takes four months for a court to set up a restructuring plan, he said.

Five years after the global financial crisis, South Korean construction workers are feeling the pinch more than ever as they shoulder a mountain of debt from a real estate bust that has cast a long shadow on the country's growth prospects, Reuters reported. Facing the spectre of bankruptcy, some construction firms persuaded their staff to take up loans to mop up unsold apartments. "There was pressure. There's nowhere else in the world where there's a parallel to these practices," said a construction worker, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

South Korea unveiled a Won17.3tn ($15.4bn) supplementary budget on Tuesday to support the stalling economy, as domestic consumption remains sluggish while exports slow because of the weaker yen and cooling global demand, the Financial Times reported. The supplementary budget was larger than expected, mainly because it contained plans to raise debt to make up for anticipated tax revenue losses resulting from the slowing economy, and delays to the attempted sale of state holdings in two banks.