Samsung Electronics says to restart Galaxy Note 7 sales in South Korea on Sept. 28

SAMSUNG-ELEC-SMARTPHONES

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS> said on Friday it will resume selling new Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to customers in South Korea starting on Sept. 28, as the firm seeks to limit the fallout from a costly recall of the high-end device.

A Samsung spokeswoman told Reuters the schedule for restarting sales for the device elsewhere, including the United States, will depend on the circumstances for the individual markets. The firm has said it expects new sales to resume in Australia sometime in early October.

The world's top smartphone maker announced on Sept. 2 a recall of the Note 7 from 10 countries, including South Korea and the United States, due to faulty batteries that made some of the phones catch fire. The firm halted sales in the affected markets indefinitely until it could replace enough of the faulty devices with replacement phones with safe batteries.

(Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)