Most Popular
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Russia sent more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to N. Korea in March: White House
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Seoul to more than double military drones by 2026 to counter NK threats
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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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Seoul alerts overseas missions to NK terror threats
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Over 60% of S. Koreans support W100m childbirth incentive: survey
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‘Inside Out 2’ adds four new emotions, explores teenage life
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Questions raised over fair promotion of RM, NewJeans
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[Graphic News] Number of coffee franchises in S. Korea rises 13%
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Probe launched to find whether Chun hid funds in insurance plans
Tax officials and prosecutors have launched an investigation into suspicions that assets of former President Chun Doo-hwan might be concealed in diverse insurance products under the names of his family members, relatives and close aides, industry sources said Thursday.The probe is part of intensifying efforts by the government to find concealed assets of the former president who was ordered by a court in 1997 to return to the state coffers the 220 billion won ($196.8 million) he was found to hav
July 18, 2013
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Defense Ministry disbands entertainment squad
The Defense Ministry said Thursday it would abolish its controversial promotion squad of celebrity conscripts following a series of cases of indiscipline that have undermined troop morale and public trust.The squad has been under criticism since a TV program showed several stars-turned-soldiers drinking, leaving their designated accommodation without notice, and visiting an adult massage parlor after performing in a provincial concert last month.The incident reignited controversy over slack disc
July 18, 2013
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Seoul seen moving to delay wartime control transfer
Seoul recently asked Washington to discuss the timing of the transfer of wartime operational control with North Korea’s escalated nuclear threats as a “crucial condition,” the Defense Ministry said Wednesday.“Consultations are underway between the allies after we proposed as a crucial condition that we check the preparations for the OPCON transfer with North Korea’s nuclear issue that worsened earlier this year,” the ministry said in a press release.The release came after a news report said that
July 17, 2013
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Korea pushes to double development aid for Laos
South Korea is pushing to more than double next year’s budget for aid projects in Laos as part of efforts to boost bilateral cooperation in dealing with North Korean defectors, government sources here said Monday.Seoul’s foreign ministry has asked the finance ministry to earmark 4.84 billion won ($4.3 million) in official development assistance to the Southeast Asian country, more than twice the 2.04 billion won set aside for this year. The budget aims to launch diverse projects, including educa
July 15, 2013
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Army to deploy advanced system for communications
The state arms procurer said Monday it will deploy a new tactical communications system for Army units to improve their effective interchange between battalions. The digital data transmission SPIDER system is over 40 times faster than the analog voice communications system, which has been currently operated by Army battalions, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said.The state procurement agency last year selected WooriByul, a local communications manufacturer, for the upgrade project
July 15, 2013
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On-base gambling rises 15-fold in 2 years
The number of soldiers and officers who gamble online in the barracks has soared more than 15 times over the past two years, prompting the military to come up with a set of measures to tackle the problem, military officials said Sunday.A total of some 230 enlisted troops and low-rank officers have been detected for having logged onto online gambling sites on base this year, up sharply from 18 last year and 15 in 2011, according to the officials.Given the uptrend, the figure is expected to rise f
July 14, 2013
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S. Korea, U.S. to hold cyber security talks
South Korea and the United States will hold a meeting in Washington, D.C. this week to strengthen cooperation on cyber security and other online policy issues that are expected to include how to cope with cyber terrorism by North Korea.The meeting, set for Monday, will be the second of its kind after the first session last year. Choi Sung-joo, the ambassador for international security, will represent South Korea at the talks and his U.S. counterpart will be Christopher Painter, the coordinator f
July 14, 2013
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[Newsmaker] Governor refuses to budge on closed hospital
Lawmakers are set to file a complaint with the prosecution against South Gyeongsang Province Governor Hong Joon-pyo after he refused to attend a parliamentary hearing on his closure of a provincial public hospital. The Assembly’s special committee on the inquiry into the current status of public medical institutions, which is looking into the shutdown of Jinju Medical Center, will determine whether to take legal action against the political bigwig on Friday.After Hong refused to stand before the
July 11, 2013
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Court upholds sentence of man in ‘body-less murder’
The nation’s top court on Friday upheld the heavy prison term for a middle-aged defendant in a rare murder case in which the victim’s body remained unfound. The 42-year-old man, surnamed Park, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for burying his 37-year-old business partner alive during a quarrel over money. The victim was last seen sometime in 2008. The absence of the corpse was a big challenge for prosecutors.Charges were filed against Park based on testimony from witnesses and circumstantial e
July 11, 2013
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Police step up probe over sex bribery case
Police said Thursday that they will launch a full-fledged investigation into allegations that a detained local construction contractor hired women to provide sexual favors to a number of high-profile figures in return for business benefits.On Wednesday night, the 52-year-old construction contractor, surnamed Yoon, was put under detention immediately after a Seoul court approved the prosecution’s request for an arrest warrant for the businessman who has been at the center of a massive sex scandal
July 11, 2013
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Japan’s vice foreign minister visits Seoul
Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki arrived in Seoul on Thursday for a two-day visit to hold talks with his South Korean counterpart, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said.The top bureaucrat at the ministry met Seoul’s First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun to discuss issues of mutual interest.“Saiki came here to exchange greetings with Kim upon his taking the position late last month,” a Seoul ministry official said.Their meeting came amid soured Seoul-Tokyo relations after Japanese politic
July 11, 2013
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Remains of soldier killed in Korean War repatriated to family
After 60 years, a South Korean soldier who was killed during the Korean War was repatriated to his relative Thursday for reburial, a military excavation team said.The Ministry of National Defense’s Agency for Killed in Action Recovery and Identification in May found remains of Jung Cheol-ho near a former battle site in Cherwon, just south of the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas. The Army staff sergeant who belonged to the 8th Infantry Division fought in the battle in early July 1
July 11, 2013
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Head of N.K. Red Cross replaced amid dialogue with South
North Korea has recently replaced the head of the Red Cross in the country, a major channel of exchange with South Korea, the international Red Cross group’s member list showed Thursday.Kang Su-rin has recently supplanted Jang Jae-on as the chairman of the central committee of the Red Cross Society of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, according to the member list of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The country did not make public the personnel change
July 11, 2013
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Ryoo sets terms of Mount Geumgang tours
Making headway at the ongoing talks to normalize the inter-Korean industrial park in Gaeseong can help resolve the long-drawn standoff surrounding suspended tours to Mount Geumgang, the South Korea unification minister said Thursday.Speaking at a North Korea policy forum gathering in Seoul, Ryoo Kihl-jae said that Seoul wants to first concentrate on dealing with the impasse over the Gaeseong industrial complex, but hinted a satisfactory conclusion can lead to the resumption of the tours to the e
July 11, 2013
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Trust crucial to peace: top Swedish neutral observer
This is the fourth in a series of articles to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. ― Ed.Building inter-Korean trust through dialogue is integral on the road toward reunification and enduring peace on the peninsula, said the chief of the Swedish delegation at the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission.In an interview earlier this week, Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad stressed Pyongyang should rethink its nuclear program and stick to the armistic
July 11, 2013
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Charity vaccinates 430,000 N.K. children against deadly disease
The German branch of the international Catholic relief group Caritas vaccinated 430,000 North Korean children against Japanese encephalitis earlier this month, the group said Thursday.The North Korean children vaccinated in the first round of anti-Japanese encephalitis vaccination programs on July 2 are those living in South Hwanghae Province, just north of the inter-Korean border, an official at Caritas Germany told Yonhap News Agency. The group plans to vaccinate a total of 3.2 million North K
July 11, 2013
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S. Korea to re-examine fighter jet project
South Korea will stop the current bidding for fighter jets and revise the project as high price tags have made the chance of selecting a satisfactory contractor slim, a senior official said Thursday. The move comes after the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) carried out 55 separate biddings with three defense groups to buy 60 advanced jets with an 8.3 trillion won ($7.2 billion) budget, but the procedure was put on hold last week due to their expensive price tags. Boeing's F-15 S
July 11, 2013
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Ministry seeks bigger defense budget
The Defense Ministry said Wednesday it requested the government to increase its budget by 6.9 percent to 36.8 trillion won ($32.2 billion) next year to enhance combat capabilities and improve solders’ welfare. The proposal includes a 15-percent salary hike for enlisted troops and outlays for a series of procurement projects for weapons systems, such as mid-range air-to-surface guided bombs, surveillance aircraft, satellites and high-tech destroyers. The plan was submitted to the Ministry of Stra
July 10, 2013
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Ex-prosecutor gets 7-year prison term for bribery
A Seoul court sentenced a former high-ranking prosecutor to seven years behind bars on Tuesday for receiving large sums of bribes in exchange for favors.Kim Kwang-joon was found guilty of receiving some 380 million won ($333,000) worth of bribes from several suspects he was investigating, including Cho Hee-pal, the mastermind behind the country’s biggest-ever pyramid scheme.The Seoul Central District Court also ordered the 52-year-old former prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office to pa
July 9, 2013
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Navy chief visits China to boost military ties
The South Korean Navy’s chief of staff on Tuesday visited China to promote bilateral military ties and discuss ways to prevent maritime clashes in the Yellow Sea during peak fishing seasons, the Navy said. On the first day of his four-day trip, Adm. Choi Yun-hee met Wu Shengli, commander in chief of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, in Shanghai to explore measures to curb naval clashes near the western sea border between Chinese fishermen and South Korean Coast Guards. The two discussed ways to
July 9, 2013