A partisan clash is expected over the ratification of the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement in which more than 200 mistranslations were found recently. The parliamentary foreign affairs committee Wednesday opened a two-day session, during which the ruling and opposition parties were sharply divided on whether to ratify the agreement. The ruling Grand National Party is determined to ratify the agree...

South and North Korea Tuesday reached an agreement to make an on-site survey of Mt. Baekdu in mid-June after holding expert-led talks on the risk of a potential volcanic eruption at the mountain in May in Pyongyang or a convenient location, officials said. Earlier in the day, experts from South and North Korea held the second round of volcano talks in Gaesong, the North's industrial city near th...

Listed firms of certain size obligated to hire legal professionals Listed companies of a certain size will be required by law from next year to hire lawyers or law professors to monitor potential legal problems in addition to the counsels they already have to deal with legal disputes post factum. The Cabinet approved a revised commercial bill that includes the article on legal compliance in a w...

A South Korean citizen has been confirmed dead in the powerful earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan’s northeastern coastal region last Friday, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. It is the first confirmed South Korean fatality. The 40-year-old construction worker, only identified by his surname Lee, fell to the ground last Friday at a site in the Japanese prefecture of Ibaraki where a thermal...

Han Seung-soo criticizes those who link Ban to Korea’s presidential election in 2012 U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon should be “freed from domestic politics,” former Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said, referring to recent opinion polls that included Ban as one of the country’s presidential hopefuls. “It is our duty to free Secretary General Ban from domestic politics so he can serve the world...

Ruling and opposition lawmakers raised a total of 47.7 billion won ($44 million) in political donations last year with the ruling party drawing more funds than the competition, the election watchdog said Monday. While the total amount increased by 16 percent from 41.1 billion won in 2009, it came short of the 63.4 billion won collected in 2008 when a nationwide general election was held, accordi...

Opposition parties have finally reached an agreement to run a single candidate for the upcoming by-election in the hometown of the late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun, forewarning a showdown with the ruling party there. “We have resolved to select a single candidate to represent the opposition parties by Tuesday, when the official candidate registration begins,” an official of a civic group advo...

South Korea's prime minister said it is worthwhile to study the idea of deploying military troops on Dokdo to strengthen sovereign control of the nation's easternmost islets in the face of Japan's repeated territorial claims. South Korea has kept a small police detachment on Dokdo in the East Sea since 1954. "In reality, it's appropriate to station police, but we should consider the idea of dep...

The by-election race in the Bundang constituency has come down to a battle between the former and incumbent leaders of the ruling and main opposition parties, as two other candidates have stepped out of the way. Park Gye-dong, former lawmaker of the ruling Grand National Party, held a press conference Thursday to announce his withdrawal from the by-election contest. “I shall accept the party’s ...