The amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) freshly pledged to South Korea jumped almost 50 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter with the amount of actual investment arriving here more than doubling, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Thursday. In the three months ended March 31, US$5.06 billion in new FDI was pledged to the country, up 49.1 percent from the same period last year, according to the ministry