Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan defended against an attack on him Friday, saying he would not have requested an audit into a stock manipulation scandal involving members of his ministry had he tried to cover it up. Independent lawmaker Jeong Tae-keun attacked the minister and the ministry’s vice ministers for allegedly hiding and delaying the truth behind the scandal related to a diamond mining p...

South Korea and the U.S. will kick off their two major annual joint military drills later next month, officials of the allies announced Friday. They said the Key Resolve exercise will start on Feb. 27 and go on until March 9. Separately, the Foal Eagle exercise will be held from March 1 to April 30. The Key Resolve will involve about 200,000 South Korean troops, plus 2,100 U.S. troops. About 80...

The government will expand financial support for small- and medium-sized enterprises that find it difficult to hire highly educated foreign workers due to budget constraints. The Prime Minister’s Office said Thursday that it finalized this year’s policies regarding foreigners in a meeting with the related committee of 14 ministers and seven civilians. The office said the government will raise t...

Sledding and ice fishing on the Han River may become history as the river running through Seoul is less likely to freeze during winter due to climate change. The river froze over for as long as 80 days in the 1900s, but due to climate change the period was shortened to an average of 14.5 days in the 2000s, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday in a report on the Han River history. This ...

The ruling party resolved Friday to impose sanctions on conglomerates to alleviate the polarization of wealth and promote public welfare in a bid to appeal to voters ahead of the general elections. The conservative Grand National Party, which has often been accused of favoring the rich, made a turn from its conventional business-friendly stance, but drew a line with the left-wing’s progressive p...

A South Korean charity group on Friday delivered the first flour aid to North Korea since the death of the North’s former leader Kim Jong-il. The Seoul-based Korea Peace Foundation delivered 180 tons of flour, with eight foundation representatives traveling to the North’s border city of Gaeseong. Two of the eight representatives will stay until Saturday to ensure the aid package reaches its tar...

SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) -- A senior police officer has been disciplined after answering President Lee Myung-bak's holiday text message with a warning that he will "pass judgment" on the government's law revision seen as restricting investigative rights of the police. On Saturday, Lee sent a thank-you text message to all police officers prior to the Lunar New Year holiday saying, "I am always tha...

SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) -- Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan defended against an attack on him Friday, saying he would not have requested an audit into a stock manipulation scandal involving members of his ministry had he tried to cover it up. Independent lawmaker Jeong Tae-keun attacked the minister and the ministry's vice ministers for allegedly hiding and delaying the truth behind the scandal re...

Korea could launch a satellite to orbit the moon in collaboration with the U.S.’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A Korean daily reported Thursday that the Korea Aerospace Research Institute and NASA are discussing a collaborative lunar exploration project. According to the report, KARI and NASA held two rounds of talks with government officials in attendance last year, and plan ...

Branksome Hall Asia, the first overseas campus of a premier all-girls independent school in North America, will hold an admissions information session at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 8, in the Orchid Room at Grand Intercontinental Seoul Parnas Hotel. According to the school’s PR representative KPR on Thursday, Branksome Hall Asia, which opens in Jeju Global Education city in October, is accepting b...

Hundreds of college students were found to have been admitted illicitly by abusing a special admission system for rural students and overseas Koreans. The Board of Audit and Inspection released the results of a probe into college admission on Wednesday, and said that it found 865 students illicitly enrolled in colleges nationwide under a program for rural students and overseas Koreans. “We disc...

The state watchdog on Thursday reportedly demanded the Foreign Ministry slap a “heavy penalty” on Kim Eun-seok, the ministry’s ambassador for energy and resources, who is suspected of involvement in pumping up the stock prices of CNK International in 2010. The Board of Audit and Inspection’s council of commissioners held a meeting earlier in the morning and decided to demand punishments for eigh...