Investigators looking into allegations of bribery in the Grand National Party’s leadership election in 2008 are honing in on bank records of Rep. Park Hee-tae’s campaign aides. According to reports, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office investigating the case has begun tracking bank accounts of those who worked for Park during the campaign, including that of a man identified by the surn...

Nearly seven out of 10 North Koreans are satisfied with their lives in South Korea, a government survey showed Friday, following Seoul’s efforts to better accommodate the growing number of North Korean refugees. The survey found 69.3 percent of 7,560 adult North Korean defectors in South Korea are either “very” satisfied or “somewhat” satisfied. An additional 25.7 percent rated their satisfactio...

A Seoul court on Friday upheld a lower court ruling that cleared the country’s first-ever female prime minister of bribe-taking charges, the latest of a series of court decisions expected to help her clear barriers to her political aspirations. The Seoul High Court declared Han Myeong-sook, who worked as prime minister between 2006 and 2007 under the late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun, not guil...

The national election watchdog decided on Friday to allow candidates to use Twitter and other social networking sites for their election campaigns all year round. Under the current South Korean law, candidates are banned from distributing promotional publications and other materials for 180 days prior to voting. The national election watchdog has classified Twitter postings related to elections ...

North Korea test-fired three short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea earlier this week, apparently as part of efforts to improve its missile technology, a Japanese newspaper said Friday. North Korea launched what appeared to be KN-02 ground-to-ground missiles on Wednesday morning, according to multiple Japanese government sources quoted by the Sankei Shimbun. The communist country also...

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― North Korea was placed at the bottom of a landmark ranking Wednesday on the security of nuclear materials. The report was released by a group of experts here working to curb the threat of nuclear terrorism and accidents. The unprecedented Nuclear Materials Security Index, compiled by the Nuclear Threat Initiative in Washington, examined the status of nuclear materials...

South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold high-level tripartite talks in Washington next week for consultations on North Korea following the death of Kim Jong-il, a senior official said Thursday. The trilateral talks, set for Tuesday, will be led by Lim Sung-nam, South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy, his Japanese counterpart Shinsuke Sugiyama and Kurt Campbell, Washington’s top diplomat on...

SEATTLE (Yonhap News) ― Ahn Cheol-soo, a South Korean entrepreneur who is a potential presidential candidate, said Wednesday that he will soon launch a charity organization to keep good on his pledge to donate hundreds of million dollars. “It seems like (the plan) is being outlined. The timing (of a related announcement) will be as early as at the end of this month or next month,” he told report...

Decision prompts backlash from women’s groups, opposition parties Maternity leave should not be counted as part of a woman’s working period, the Ministry of Government Legislation said Thursday, sparking a backlash from women’s groups. Critics claim that the interpretation is against the law, calling for equal treatment and opportunities for all working women regardless of pregnancy. The dispu...