Most Popular
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Seoul to more than double military drones by 2026 to counter NK threats
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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 alerts overseas missions to NK terror threats
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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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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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Korea to redefine women’s rights law
South Korea’s Women’s Development Act, implemented in 1995 to protect women’s rights and combat discrimination against women, will be renamed the Gender Equality Act on July 1 to expand the scope of protection against discrimination of both genders, officials said Tuesday. “We have realized it is important to promote gender equality, the needs of both men and women, rather than focusing on women only,” said Lee Ki-soon, director general of the women’s policy bureau at the Ministry of Gender Equa
Social AffairsJune 23, 2015
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Korea remains cautious over Japan summit
Cheong Wa Dae remained cautious over rising speculation that the leaders of South Korea and Japan would meet for a summit in the foreseeable future following their emphasis on cooperation a day earlier while marking the 50th anniversary of normalization of ties.“The relations between Korea and Japan have taken a step forward on the occasion of yesterday’s events … but this does not mean that the every pending issue is resolved. … Improving the relationship cannot happen overnight,” a Cheong Wa D
Foreign AffairsJune 23, 2015
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‘Comfort women’ stick to suit against Japan
A surviving group of South Koreans enslaved by Japan during World War II said Tuesday they will file a lawsuit against the Tokyo government unless it issues a formal apology and provides legal compensation. The “comfort women” said they plan to file a lawsuit claiming $20 million to the San Francisco court against Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Emperor Akihito, Japanese media who called them “prostitutes” and Japanese companies accused of war crimes.“The Japanese government continues to reduce
Foreign AffairsJune 23, 2015
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Pregnant MERS patient recovers, safely gives birth
A South Korean woman who was infected with Middle East respiratory syndrome while pregnant safely gave birth to a son Tuesday through a cesarean section, the nation’s health authorities said Tuesday. Both the mother, who was told of her full recovery from MERS on Tuesday, and her baby are doing well, they added. The 39-year-old is the world’s first MERS patient to have given birth to a healthy child, while also having recovered from the virus at the same time. The woman became Korea’s 109th MERS
Social AffairsJune 23, 2015
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N. Korea sentences two Koreans to life imprisonment
North Korea has sentenced two South Korean nationals to life imprisonment on charges of espionage, its state media reported Tuesday, coinciding with the day the U.N. opened a field office in Seoul to monitor and study the repressive state’s human rights situation. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said that the North’s Supreme Court meted out life sentences to Kim Kuk-gi and Choi Chun-gil, who it said were arrested after spying on the regime “under the direction of the U.S. and Sou
North KoreaJune 23, 2015
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N. Korea sentences 2 S. Korean detainees to life terms
North Korea Tuesday sentenced two South Koreans detained there to hard labor for life for spying for the South's intelligence agency, the North's media said, in a move seen as dampening the strained inter-Korean ties.North Korea's Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported that it handed down life sentences to Kim Kuk-gi and Choe Chun-gil on charges of espionage for the South's state spy agency."The North's supreme court held a court session for the two South Koreans who were arrested for susp
North KoreaJune 23, 2015
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Record amount of drugs seized at Incheon airport
A record amount of drugs, reaching over 3,600 kilograms, was confiscated at Incheon International Airport within the first half of this year, authorities said Monday.Incheon Airport Customs said that 146 cases of drug smuggling through the airport between Jan. 1 and June 22 were caught, with the total amount reaching 3,666 kilograms, worth some 25.6 billion won ($23.2 million). This is the largest sum to be impounded since the airport opened in 2001, they said.By type, 3.6 tons of khat, containi
Social AffairsJune 23, 2015
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U.S. nuke submarine visits S. Korea
The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine USS Michigan made a port call Tuesday in South Korea's southeastern port city of Busan to conduct diverse missions and showcase its latest capabilities, the group in charge of its operation said.The 18,000-ton submarine, one of the world's largest, arrived at a Busan base with some 165 crew members to "conduct a multitude of missions and showcase the latest capabilities of the submarine fleet," the U.S. Navy's Submarine Group Seven said in a release.The submari
DefenseJune 23, 2015
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CTBT advocates to send clear message against N.K. nuclear tests
High-profile advocates of an international nuclear-test-ban treaty will visit South Korea this week to send a clear message against North Korea's nuclear tests, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.The Group of Eminent Persons for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty will hold their third meeting in Seoul on Thursday and seek international support against North Korea's nuclear weapons program, ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il said in a press briefing.The meeting will be attended by Hans Blix, f
North KoreaJune 23, 2015
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[NEWS ANALYSIS] U.N. human rights office ups pressure on Pyongyang
The U.N. opened a field office in Seoul on Tuesday to systematically monitor and record North Korea’s human rights situation, in a culmination of the international efforts to shed light on the North’s deep-seated inhumane practices and stop them.U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, Seoul’s Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo and other high-profile officials and politicians joined the opening event at the Seoul Global Center building in cent
North KoreaJune 23, 2015
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27 firms bid for recovery of sunken S. Korean ferry
More than 20 companies, including six foreign firms, have submitted bids for a multi-million dollar project to salvage a sunken South Korean ferry, the government said Tuesday.A total of 27 firms in seven consortia have submitted bids to salvage the ferry Sewol that sank off the southwest coast in April last year, claiming more than 300 lives, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. The government began receiving bids one month ago on May 23. Out of the seven consortia, five were led
Social AffairsJune 23, 2015
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Seoul, Hyundai begin Gangnam land talks
Seoul City and Hyundai Motor Group kicked off discussions Tuesday over the use of land in Gangnam bought from Korea Electronic Power Corp., as controversy persisted over the scope of its development. (Seoul Metropolitan Government)In September last year, the conglomerate purchased the 79,345-square-meter plot of land in southern Seoul for 10.55 trillion won ($9.5 billion), which was nearly triple its appraised value. It proposed to invest about 5 trillion won in constructing its new headquarter
Social AffairsJune 23, 2015
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U.S. strategic commander vows strong deterrence against N. Korea
The U.S. strategic commander reaffirmed his commitment Tuesday to strong deterrence against potential threats by North Korea.Adm. Cecil Haney, who leads the U.S. Strategic Command, made the remarks while in Seoul for a four-day trip starting Sunday at a time when tensions remain heightened on the Korean Peninsula over North Korea's continued provocative actions.Haney's trip here is part of his visit to the Asia-Pacific region, which also includes stops in Hawaii, Japan and Alaska.The visit to So
DefenseJune 23, 2015
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PM Hwang calls for conditions for Park-Abe summit
Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn called for the creation of conditions for a summit between President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.South Korea and Japan are close economic partners, though they have long been in conflict over territory and other historical disputes stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.One key unresolved issue is hundreds of thousands of Korean women who were forced to provide sex to Japan's World War II soldiers.Park has shunned
PoliticsJune 23, 2015
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Korean wartime sex slaves to take Japan to U.S. court
A dozen Korean victims of Japan's wartime sex slavery said Tuesday they will bring Japan to a U.S. court for financial compensation for the atrocities done to them. The 12, including Yoo Hee-nam and Kang Il-chul, will lodge a civil suit at a California district court on July 1, Ahn Shin-kwon, director of the House of Sharing, told reporters at a news conference, quoting the victims.They will seek $2 million each for the wartime atrocities committed by Japan and its companies "and their continued
Foreign AffairsJune 23, 2015
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Former NPAD chief accused of bribery
A former president’s brother and the ex-chairman of the main opposition party allegedly accepted bribes worth millions of won from a deceased businessman, prosecutors said Tuesday, adding another twist to a politicized graft scandal involving senior members of the ruling bloc.Prosecutors reportedly suspect that the late President Roh Moo-hyun’s brother Geon-pyeong and Rep. Kim Han-gil had accepted illegal funds from the late Sung Woan-jong. Kim was the first head of the newly minted New Politics
PoliticsJune 23, 2015
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S. Korea regrets N. Korea's move to skip Universiade
The Unification Ministry voiced regret Tuesday over North Korea's boycott of the upcoming Summer Universiade on South Korean soil due to political reasons.The North has notified the South that it has withdrawn its earlier plan to send 75 athletes and 33 officials to the sports competition in the southern city of Gwangju in July in protest against the scheduled opening in Seoul of a U.N. field-office on North Korea's human rights conditions.The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights was set to o
North KoreaJune 23, 2015
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Three convicted of online video chat scam
A Seoul court convicted three people Tuesday of extorting money from online video chat users by threatening to distribute their sexually explicit acts.Judge Kang Sung-hoon of the Seoul Central District Court sentenced the ringleader, surnamed Choi, to two years in prison, and the other two to one year and eight months behind bars each.The scam ring, which is based in China, hires mostly North Korean female defectors or ethnic Korean residents in China who can speak Korean fluently, according to
Social AffairsJune 23, 2015
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Japanese experts see need for more efforts to solve sex slave issue
Japanese experts Tuesday hailed joint celebrations by leaders from South Korea and Japan for the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties but stressed the need for further efforts to resolve the thorny issue of Tokyo's wartime sex slavery.President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday attended each other's embassy events in their capitals to celebrate half a century of relations, raising hopes that the long-strained relations between the two may improve in the landmark year.
Foreign AffairsJune 23, 2015
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Any solution to sex slave issue should satisfy victims: FM Yun
The dispute between South Korea and Japan over Tokyo's sexual enslavement of Korean women for Japan's World War II soldiers should be resolved in a way that satisfies the victims, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said.Yun was in Tokyo for two days until Monday to mark the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations. During the visit, he held talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and attended an anniversary reception hosted by the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo.His visit was the f
Foreign AffairsJune 23, 2015