The Korea Herald

Korea’s 1st ASEAN envoy, 2 other diplomats named

Foreign affairsSept 21, 2012

South Korea appointed a former senior official of the National Intelligence Service as its new ambassador to Thailand in a regular personnel reshuffle that affected two other ambassadorial posts, officials said Friday. Jeon Jae-man, a seasoned diplomat who recently served as first deputy director of the NIS, was named ambassador to Thailand and Lee Yun-young, a senior trade official, was appoint...
S. Korean Navy fires warning shots against N. Korean fishing boats

North KoreaSept 21, 2012

South Korea's Navy fired warning shots against North Korean boats operating south of the western sea border, military officials said, after raising the alert status in response to a number of ships violating the demarcation line over the past week. The North Korean boats retreated to north of the border upon the warning shots, officials said. The latest move comes as a growing number of North K...
S. Korean Navy fires warning shots against N. Korean fishing boats

DefenseSept 21, 2012

South Korea's Navy fired warning shots against North Korean boats operating south of the western sea border, military officials said, after raising the alert status in response to a number of ships violating the demarcation line over the past week. The North Korean boats retreated to north of the border upon the warning shots, officials said. The latest move comes as a growing number of North K...
‘Three-parent baby’ fertility technique mulled in Britain

ScienceSept 21, 2012

LONDON(AFP) - A fertility technique that uses DNA from three parents to create an embryo could become legal in Britain after a public consultation on its ethical implications was launched on Monday. The results of the consultation will help inform a decision by the government on whether to legalise the technique as early as next year -- potentially making Britain the first country in the world t...
Lee endorses special investigation into retirement home scandal

PoliticsSept 21, 2012

President Lee Myung-bak on Friday endorsed a parliamentary motion authorizing an independent investigation into suspicions surrounding his retirement home project, despite complaints it is unfair for the opposition party to select candidates to lead the probe. The decision, made at an extraordinary Cabinet meeting, appears to reflect concerns about political repercussions a veto could cause, inc...
Prosecution quickening probe into political funding scandal

Social affairsSept 20, 2012

Prosecutors are stepping up their investigations into corruption scandals involving politicians from both the ruling and opposition parties. Political parties are keen to the development of the inquiries which coincide with the launch of a three-way race for the December presidential election and are expected to affect voter sentiment considerably. Prosecution investigators on Thursday raided t...
Ahn names chief campaigner as rating edges up

PoliticsSept 20, 2012

Pays respects to late conservative presidents skipped by Moon Independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo launched his campaign Thursday with a visit to Seoul National Cemetery, as his campaign team began to take shape, including a key opposition figure as its chief. Accompanied by aides, Ahn paid his respect to former presidents Syngman Rhee, Park Chung-hee and Kim Dae-jung, POSCO founder...
Mathematician’s solution a conundrum in itself

ScienceSept 20, 2012

Since claiming to solve a 27-year-old mathematical conundrum, Kyoto University professor Shinichi Mochizuki has let his papers do the talking. The four papers he uploaded to the Internet on Aug. 29 amount to what he says is a 500-page proof of the “abc conjecture,” which describes a relationship between whole numbers. However, in the several weeks since the upload, he has declined to talk public...
Labor group elects new leader

Social affairsSept 20, 2012

Moon Jin-guk, chief of the national taxi drivers’ union, was elected president of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions on Thursday. He replaces Lee Yonh-deuk who resigned last month over an internal feud regarding the labor umbrella group’s relations with political parties. Moon will serve until January 2014 when the term of the former chairman ends. Moon’s running mate Han Kwang-ho, FKTU exe...
Tortured activist defers taking his case with China to U.N.

North KoreaSept 20, 2012

A South Korean rights activist who claims he was tortured while in the custody of Chinese security agents early this year has put off a plan to take his case to the United Nations, a coalition of civic groups representing the activist said Thursday. Activist Kim Young-hwan was released in July after 114 days in detention in China. Since his release, Kim has claimed in Seoul he was tortured by Ch...
Korea, Uzbekistan agree to spur large-scale joint projects

PoliticsSept 20, 2012

South Korea and Uzbekistan on Thursday agreed to boost their joint construction and development projects in the Central Asian country and enhance cooperation in the legal, tourism and financial sectors, Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday. Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov reached the agreement during their summit talks in Seoul. Karimov came here on Wednesday for a...
Japan’s emperor hopes to visit Korea, willing to apologize: report

Social affairsSept 20, 2012

TOKYO (Yonhap News) ― Japanese Emperor Akihito has expressed his wish to visit South Korea and said he could apologize for Japan’s colonial rule if needed, a Japanese weekly reported, amid heightened diplomatic tension between the two nations. During a Sept. 4 issue briefing with Koji Tsuruoka, the deputy vice-minister for foreign policy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Akihito said he and Em...
Park campaign in disarray as successive scandals hit her party

PoliticsSept 20, 2012

Saenuri candidate hit by funding probes into aides, controversy over her historical views The Saenuri Party’s presidential nominee Park Geun-hye is facing the biggest crisis of her campaign over her views on history and a series of corruption scandals involving her associates. With 90 days to go before the election, Park’s approval ratings in hypothetical two-way matchups put her behind rivals ...
Park says open to meeting rivals

PoliticsSept 20, 2012

The ruling Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate Rep. Park Geun-hye said Thursday she was open to a meeting with her opposition rivals to discuss ways to ensure a clean, policy-based campaign. Independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo on Wednesday proposed the three-way talks with Park and the main opposition Democratic United Party’s Moon Jae-in. “It will be possible to meet whenever there is an op...
Long-tailed gorals, hoofed rock climbers

Social affairsSept 20, 2012

Before industrialization, Korea’s steep, rugged mountains were a perfect home for long-tailed gorals, a species of wild goat dwelling at high elevations from Russia all the way down to the Himalayas. These small, antelope-like ungulates were often spotted resting on rocky cliffs in mountains throughout the country, where their predators, including humans, couldn’t dare to climb. But as Korea de...