National Intelligence Service chief Won Sei-hoon traveled to Washington last week to meet with his U.S. counterparts, a government source here confirmed Thursday, raising questions over what was on his agenda. Won met with CIA director Leon Panetta to exchange information on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s health condition, the power transfer to his son Jong-un and the country’s food shortage ...

Korean Marines helped establish a multi-purpose classroom at a school in Thailand as part of a international humanitarian exercise taking place in the Southeast Asian country, the Marine Corps said Thursday. Some 50 Korean, U.S. and Thai troops engaged in the construction of the classroom at the Baan Pong Wua School in Chantaburi Province from Feb. 5-15. On Tuesday, the troops held a ceremony m...

Park Geun-hye, former chairwoman of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), said Wednesday that President Lee Myung-bak will have to assume full responsibility for his possible attempt to review his election pledge to build an "international science-business belt" in the central Chungcheong province. Park, a leading presidential hopeful who has frequently clashed with Lee over key state policies,...

A Hollywood-style movie studio will be built in Seoul to promote Korea’s burgeoning filmmaking industry and to attract foreign travelers, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Wednesday. As part of the “Digital Media City” project in Sangam-dong, western Seoul, the new movie complex will accommodate facilities for special effects, large-scale sets, a theme park and other tourist attractions. S...

A North Korean man crossed the inter-Korean border and defected to South Korea on Tuesday, officials said Wednesday. The 21-year-old defector, identified only by his surname Kim, immediately expressed his wish to defect to the South after he crossed the Military Demarcation Line in the Demilitarized Zone and was spotted at around 5 p.m. by South Korean troops standing guard around the frontline ...

South Korea is to enact laws to discourage its people from engaging in illegal activities overseas, a move seen by Christian groups here as an attempt to curb missionary work. The South Korean government has been trying to deal with the growing dangers of Christians working as missionaries in Islamic nations, especially after a young missionary was kidnapped and killed by insurgents in Iraq in 2...

South Korea and the U.S. will hold a second round of talks over how to revise their decades-old nuclear cooperation pact, sources said Tuesday. Forged in 1974, the current Seoul-Washington peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement, which bans South Korea from reprocessing spent fuel from civilian nuclear plants, will expire in 2014. Robert Einhorn, the U.S. State Department’s special adviser for n...

Seoul denies exercises are based on plan to deal with N.K. contingencies South Korea and the U.S. will begin an 11-day joint military exercise from Feb. 28 to prepare against additional localized provocations by North Korea and other possible emergencies on the peninsula, officials said Tuesday. Along with the Key Resolve command post exercise, the two militaries will also stage the Foal Eagle ...

A South Korean fishing vessel released by Somali pirates arrived in Kenya on Tuesday, its crew walking on land for the first time since being kidnapped four months ago, according to news reports. Seoul’s Keummi 305 arrived at Kenya’s Port Mombasa about a week after it was freed on Feb. 9 under the escort of a Finnish warship belonging to a fleet of the European Union. All 43 crew members of the...

President Lee Myung-bak is rolling up his sleeves to support the country’s third attempt at hosting the Winter Olympics in the popular winter sports resort city of PyeongChang in Gangwon Province. Lee flew to the city Tuesday to host a reception for the 14-member delegation of the International Olympic Committee, which arrived here Monday to carry out an onsite inspection until Feb. 20. The pre...