Most Popular
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Medical profs at top hospitals suspend surgeries, clinics
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Samsung chip business back on track, logs W1.9tr operating profit in Q1
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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Shinsegae faces showdown with investors over SSG.com's delayed IPO
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Hopes rise for possible Gaza truce deal
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S. Korea discussed possible participation in AUKUS Pillar 2 with Australia: defense minister
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Ex-pro baseball player who killed debtor appeals sentence
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S. Korea to issue travel ban on Haiti amid intensifying gang violence
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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Korean professor elected to U.N. law commission
Park Ki-gab, a law professor at Korea University, has been elected as one of the 34 members of the International Law Commission of the United Nations in the ILC’s 2011 election.Park will serve as an ILC member for five years beginning Jan. 1. Candidates from 50 countries ran for 34 commission member places. Asia Pacific states fielded 13 candidates for eight seats allocated to the region. Park garnered votes from 135 out of 193 member countries.Park is the second Korean member of the ILC, follow
Social AffairsNov. 18, 2011
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Minor progressive parties agree to create new party
Three minor opposition parties will form a new progressive party as part of efforts to boost their chances in next year’s parliamentary elections, their leaders said, while the main opposition party is working hard to form a broad alliance with other liberal forces and civic groups.Leaders of three minor parties -- the Democratic Labor Party, the People’s Participatory Party and a party made up of defectors from the Progressive New Party -- announced that they will hold a convention to set the n
PoliticsNov. 18, 2011
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N.K. defectors plan mass rally on Kim Jong-il’s birthday
Defectors from North Korea plan to designate North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s birthday “world North Korean defectors’ day,” and hold a rally on the day, a high profile defector said Friday.According to An Chan-il, the chief of World Institute of North Korea Studies and the first defector to obtain a doctorate degree in politics in South Korea, groups representing defectors will celebrate Feb. 16 in honor of those who escaped the regime.An also said that the representatives plan to bring togethe
North KoreaNov. 18, 2011
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Korea to set up ASEAN diplomatic mission
Korea will establish a mission dedicated to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Jakarta in the first half of next year, President Lee Myung-bak said Thursday.“In order to strengthen economic cooperation with the increasingly important ASEAN, I will dispatch an ambassador to Jakarta who will deal exclusively with ASEAN affairs,” Lee was quoted by news reports as saying at the 2011 ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Bali, Indonesia. “I hope that the new ASEAN mission will contribute
PoliticsNov. 18, 2011
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Sex crimes by minors increase
Reported sex crimes among school students in Seoul surged from nine in 2009 to 23 in 2011, leading to calls to strengthen sex education.According to data released by city councilor Yoon Myung-hwa, of the 53 cases from 2009-2011, 36 were committed by middle school students, the number increasing from two to 18 over the period. The latest case involved a second grade middle school student who stripped his classmate’s pants, took photos of his genitals and made jokes, according to Yoon. Another cas
Social AffairsNov. 18, 2011
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GNP moving for FTA vote next Thursday
Speaker hints at invoking authority to put the Korea-U.S. FTA ratification bill to voteThe Grand National Party was Friday moving to bring the U.S. Free Trade Agreement ratification motion to a floor vote, raising the likelihood of violence with the opposition which has vowed to block the bill by any means.“When the time comes, the party shall bring the bill to the plenary session,” said Rep. Hwang Young-cheul, the party’s floor spokesperson, in a radio interview. “We expect parliamentary speake
PoliticsNov. 18, 2011
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Missing U.S. military rifle found near base of Lee's plane
A missing U.S. military rifle was found Thursday near a local air base, where President Lee Myung-bak departed aboard a presidential jet on the same day for Indonesia to attend a regional summit, an official said Friday.The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) official said a civilian found the M4 rifle on Thur
Social AffairsNov. 18, 2011
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No need for revising SOFA with S. Korea: Lippert
The United States is not considering a revision of the legal guidelines on the status of its 28,000 troops in South Korea, the nominee to become a top U.S.defense official said Thursday, despite a renewed call for it in South Korea.Mark W. Lippert, nominee for assistant secretary of defense fo Asian
DefenseNov. 18, 2011
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S. Korea, Indonesia to deepen defense industry cooperation
BALI, Indonesia -- South Korea and Indonesia agreed Thursday to strengthen defense industry cooperation and work closely together to carry out Indonesia's major economic development blueprint, South Korea's presidential office said. President Lee Myung-bak met with Indonesian President S
PoliticsNov. 17, 2011
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Distinguished figures busted in crackdown on prostitution ring
SEOUL, Nov. 17 (Yonhap) -- Police said Thursday that they have arrested a broker who allegedly used the Internet to arrange perverted sex and booked 70 others, including distinguished figures like doctors and professors, for being involved in the illegal prostitution ring.The 41-year-old man, surnam
Social AffairsNov. 17, 2011
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Justice Ministry seeks to remove statute of limitations for murders
SEOUL, Nov. 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is seeking to abolish the time limit for prosecuting murderers as part of efforts to better prevent life-threatening crimes, the Justice Ministry said on Thursday.The ministry is pushing to revise related laws to lift the 25-year statute of limitations on all k
Social AffairsNov. 17, 2011
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Court rules in favor of gov't in suit filed by N.K. sanction victim
SEOUL, Nov. 17 (Yonhap) -- A Seoul court on Thursday ruled in favor of the government in a case that underscored the economic hardship risked by South Korean companies that have business ties with North Korea.NFN, a small local company that had produced clothing made by North Korean workers in Pyongyang since 2007, filed a suit demanding compensation of about 2.1 billion won (US$1.8 million) from the government for the economic damage the company suffered following the South's sanctions on the N
Social AffairsNov. 17, 2011
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Student attacks on teachers increase
Views differ over ordinance against corporal punishmentA third grade student at a middle school in Daegu hit his vice principal in the head and stomach several times on Nov. 1 because he confiscated his cigarette.On the same day, the father of a sixth grade elementary school student in Gwangju threw a chair at his daughter’s homeroom teacher after he was dissatisfied with the way the teacher disciplined his child.The two cases are the latest incidents in which students or parents have attacked t
Social AffairsNov. 17, 2011
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New conservative party in the making
Park Se-il moves to form a center-right political party ahead of next year’s electionsAmid moves to create alternative political parties ahead of general elections next year, a former right-wing lawmaker seeks to form a new party embracing both conservatives and moderate liberals.Park Se-il, president of the Hansun Foundation, who has spoken for right wing conservatives and often raised issues about North Korean human rights, drew attention last week by saying that he was preparing to create a n
PoliticsNov. 17, 2011
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IFC Seoul opens its doors after 9-year wait
The International Finance Center Seoul opened its doors Thursday after a nine-year wait.Construction of all three towers, which began in 2006 after three years of development, is expected to be finished by the end of 2012.According to Seoul Metropolitan Government, 16 global financial institutions have concluded contracts and begun moving into One IFC.Those attending the opening ceremony included AIG Global Real Estate Managing Director John Whitaker and AIG Korean Real Estate Development Presid
Social AffairsNov. 17, 2011
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Minister says Seoul not seeking N.K.’s collapse
South Korea is not seeking North Korea’s collapse, a top Seoul official in charge of relations with Pyongyang said Thursday, in an apparent move aimed at dispelling North Korea’s distrust toward South Korea.North Korea has repeatedly accused South Korea of plotting to absorb its impoverished northern neighbor as a way to achieve unification of the Korean Peninsula.“Unification through absorption leads to war,” the Disarmament and Peace Institute of North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statem
North KoreaNov. 17, 2011
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S. Korea, U.S., Japan to hold talks on N. Korea in Bali
Senior diplomats from South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold trilateral talks in Indnesia on Thursday to coordinate their joint strategy on the North Korean nuclear standoff, a Seoul official said. The trilateral meeting, to be held later in the day ahead of the 18-nation East Asia Summit in Bali, will be led by Lim Sung-nam, Seoul’s chief envoy to the stalled six-nation talks on ending the North’s nuclear weapons programs, his Japanese counterpart Shinsuke Sugiyama and Kurt Campbell
North KoreaNov. 17, 2011
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Korean envoy to rev up public diplomacy in U.S.
WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The South Korean ambassador to the U.S., Han Duck-soo, plans to visit four U.S. states later this month as part of efforts to reach out to ordinary people under an annual “Ambassadors’ Dialogue on Korea” program, the Korea Economic Institute said Wednesday.Han will be accompanied by former U.S. ambassador to Seoul Kathleen Stephens and Jack Pritchard, president of the KEI, on the five-day tour of Missouri, Utah, Nevada and Arizona to start on Nov. 29, according to the
Foreign AffairsNov. 17, 2011
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UNESCO Creative Cities Network adopts Seoul declaration
An international conference of cities with strong cultural assets and diversity adopted a declaration on Thursday in Seoul, calling for regular meetings and a common vision of “sustainable development based on creativity.”The UNESCO Creative Cities Network Conference, hosted by the Seoul city government Nov. 16 and 17, highlighted worldwide cooperation for sustainable urban development and creative ideas to realize it. In the Seoul Declaration, mayors of 41 cities around the world agreed to hold
Social AffairsNov. 17, 2011
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Less than stellar year for charity bazaar
Less than stellar year for charity bazaarBy Yoav CerralboThis year’s SIWA and Diplomatic Community Bazaar received mixed reactions from participants.For some embassies, it was a good year selling most or all of their products with the profits going to charities in Korea.For others, it was a year that did not bear much fruit despite the amount of labor they put into making it a success.Dressed in traditional dress, the women of the Nordic Club sold out of all their homemade bread, chocolates, Chr
Foreign AffairsNov. 17, 2011