Most Popular
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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S. Korea discussed possible participation in AUKUS Pillar 2 with Australia: defense minister
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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Seoul Metro to seek legal action against malicious complaints
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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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Illit, mired in controversy, remains on Billboard charts for 5th week
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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[KH Explains] Will alternative trading platform shake up Korean stock market?
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[Weekender] History contradicts Japan’s claim
Everything about the Dokdo islets is common knowledge among older Koreans: their history, marine life, climate, rainfall and even exact latitude and longitude coordinates, all of which are mentioned in the lyrics of a popular 30-year-old song titled “Dokdo is Our Territory.” Not simply some remote outcroppings in far-away waters, the islets are a source of pride and patriotism entrenched in Koreans’ collective consciousness, stemming from centuries of battles with Japan. Early documents indicat
Jan. 17, 2014
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[Weekender] Dokdo’s promising resources, ecology
With its unique location and natural history, Dokdo boasts ample fishing grounds, untapped resources and a potential for environmental, geological and cultural research.Dokdo is the product of underwater volcanic eruptions in the East Sea about 4.6 million-2.5 million years ago. It is therefore much older than Ulleungdo (formed about 2.5 million-10,000 years ago) and Jeju Island (formed about 1.2 million-10,000 years ago). Originally, Dokdo’s main East and West islets were not divided like they
Jan. 17, 2014
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[Weekender] ‘Logic, knowledge key to resolution’
Yuji Hosaka, born in Japan, harbored good feelings toward Korea from childhood when he was charmed by its singers, sports stars and the friends of his father, who ran a plastic lens factory in Tokyo. The fond curiosity developed into academic enthusiasm during his college years after he was struck by the 1895 assassination by the Japanese Empress Myeongseong, the wife of the Joseon era’s last king, Gojong.What Hosaka found disturbing was not only the incident itself, but the fact that he never l
Jan. 17, 2014
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Seoul rejects North Korea’s peace offer
South Korea on Friday brushed off the North’s offer of reconciliation through the cessation of slander and military drills with the U.S., calling for action toward denuclearization to prove its sincerity. Pyongyang’s powerful National Defense Commission made the “crucial proposals” late Thursday, which also included taking a “mutual practical measure to prevent a nuclear holocaust.” Such steps would help resolve inter-Korean issues such as reunions of separated families, it said. Seoul’s Unifica
Jan. 17, 2014
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Indian PM says delayed Korean steel plant to open soon
NEW DELHI (AFP) -- Indian premier Manmohan Singh Thursday said a mega steel plant being built by South Korean multinational Posco would become operational in the coming weeks, allaying fears of further delays in the project.Singh gave his assurances on the $12-billion plant, India's biggest foreign investment project, to visiting South Korean President Park Geun-hye during their meeting in New Delhi."I conveyed to President Park our hope that this project will confirm that economic growth and en
Jan. 16, 2014
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Korea, India agree to upgrade trade pact, diplomatic relations
The leaders of South Korea and India agreed to upgrade their economic, diplomatic and security cooperation on Thursday, paving the way for a strategic partnership between the two countries in the future.After their summit in New Delhi, President Park Geun-hye and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that the two countries would elevate the level of the comprehensive economic partnership agreement, or CEPA, and strengthen diplomatic, defense and cultural cooperation for coprosperity.Park is cu
Jan. 16, 2014
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3 lawmakers lose seats as court confirms prison terms
The nation’s top court on Thursday confirmed prison terms and penalties for three sitting lawmakers for illegal electioneering ahead of the 2012 general elections, stripping them of their parliamentary seats.Lee Jae-young of the ruling Saenuri Party was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years, for embezzling money from a company he runs and using it to give money to party officials, in violation of the Public Official Election Act.In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court sentence
Jan. 16, 2014
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President seeks nuclear tie-up on India trip
President Park Geun-hye began her first day in India on Wednesday with the aim of bolstering bilateral cooperation on the economy, science and regional security.Park’s four-day state visit to India is a part of a weeklong overseas trip. The president will also make another state visit to Switzerland on Saturday, where she will participate in the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.Park spent her first day in India by meeting Korean residents in New Delhi.She will hold a summit wi
Jan. 15, 2014
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Lawmakers to invite ex-Japanese P.M. for lecture
South Korean lawmakers are seeking to invite a former Japanese prime minister known for his apology to victims of Japan’s past aggressions to speak about ways to move the two countries’ relations forward, a parliamentary official said Wednesday.Tomiichi Murayama, the then Japanese prime minister, issued a statement in 1995 acknowledging and apologizing for the suffering his country inflicted on neighboring Asian nations, including Korea, through its aggressions in the early 20th century.Amid sig
Jan. 15, 2014
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S. Korean lawmakers seek to invite ex-Japanese PM for lecture
South Korean lawmakers are seeking to invite a former Japanese prime minister known for his apology to victims of Japan's past aggressions to speak about ways to move the two countries' relations forward, a parliamentary official said Wednesday.Tomiichi Murayama, the then Japanese prime minister, issued a statement in 1995 acknowledging and apologizing for the suffering his country inflicted on neighboring Asian nations, including Korea, through its aggressions in the early 20th century.Amid sig
Jan. 15, 2014
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Park urges Japan to honor past apologies
President Park Geun-hye urged Japanese leaders to make clear they honor the country’s past apologies for its colonial rule of Korea and not to engage in any acts that put their intentions into question.Park made the remarks during an interview Monday with CNN, saying the past apologies, known as the “Kono statement” and the “Murayama statement” named after former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono and former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, have been the basis of relations between the two sides
Jan. 14, 2014
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Virginia’s legislative committee OKs bill on East Sea name
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) ― A U.S. state legislative committee on Monday passed a bill on naming the waters between Korea and Japan despite Tokyo’s lobbying against it.The bill is one of three pending in the Virginia state legislature calling for local public schools to identify the waters as the East Sea as well as the Sea of Japan.The Education and Health Committee of the Virginia State Senate unanimously approved the bill by voice vote. It was submitted by Dave Marsden, a Democratic senator in Virg
Jan. 14, 2014
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Virginia's legislative committee OKs bill on East Sea name
A U.S. state legislative committee on Monday passed a bill on naming the waters between Korea and Japan despite Tokyo's lobbying against it. The bill is one of three pending in the Virginia state legislature calling for local public schools to identifying the waters as the East Sea as well as the Sea of Japan. The Education and Health Committee of the Virginia State Senate unanimously approved the bill by voice vote. It was submitted by Dave Marsden, a Democratic senator in Virginia. Last
Jan. 14, 2014
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China blasts Japan's reported plan to bolster territorial claims
China on Monday slammed a reported plan by Japan to revise guidelines for school textbooks to bolster its territorial claims to a set of islands in the East China Sea at the center of a bitter dispute with Beijing.China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the remarks in response to Japanese media reports that Tokyo was considering revising the guidelines to describe the islands, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, as Japan's "indigenous territory."The reported move by Jap
Jan. 13, 2014
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Pentagon guarded about Korea's return of Japanese ammo in S. Sudan
Pentagon officials often say defense cooperation between South Korea and Japan shouldn't be affected by often prickly political and diplomatic ties between the two neighboring nations.But they were guarded, if not speechless, when South Korean peacekeeping troops in South Sudan returned 10,000 rounds of rifle ammunition to Japan last week."We don't have anything on that issue," Maj. Robert Firman, a Pentagon spokesman handling Africa affairs, said.Asked again via email, he replied, "Still nothin
Jan. 13, 2014
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Orbital's cargo ship makes rendez-vous with space station: NASA
WASHINGTON, (AFP) -- Orbital Sciences Corporation's unmanned Cygnus cargo ship on Sunday made rendez-vous with the International Space Station on the company's first regular supply mission to the research outpost.The event took place at 1108 GMT just northeast of Madagascar over the Indian Ocean, according to the US space agency NASA's television network.Once Cygnus approached the orbiting lab, the space station's robotic arm reached out and grabbed the incoming cargo carrier.US astronaut Mike H
Jan. 12, 2014
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Hasina sworn in for 3rd time as Bangladesh PM
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- Sheikh Hasina has been sworn in for her second straight term as Bangladesh's prime minister and third overall, following one of the most violent elections in the country's history.Hasina took the oath of office Sunday, a week after her Awami League party won an election marred by street fighting, low turnout and an opposition boycott that made the results a foregone conclusion.President Abdul Hamid also swore in 29 Cabinet ministers and 19 deputies.The election was one
Jan. 12, 2014
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Gay 'prisoner of conscience' dies in Cameroon
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) -- A lawyer says a gay man in Cameroon who was jailed for sending a text message to another man saying "I'm very much in love with you," and who Amnesty Interational later declared a prisoner of conscience, has died.Lawyer Alice Nkom said Roger Jean-Claude Mbede, 34, died on Friday after his family removed him from the hospital where he had been seeking treatment for a hernia.Mbede was arrested in March 2011 and charged with violating a Cameroonian law that imposes up to f
Jan. 12, 2014
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Japan to enhance Dokdo claim in school textbooks
Japan may revise guidelines for middle and high school textbooks to describe the South Korean islets of Dokdo as the country’s “indigenous territory,” Japanese media reported Saturday.Tokyo’s education ministry is reportedly considering the revision of the Course of Study ― a guideline for creating textbooks used in middle and high schools ― to reflect the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s viewpoint and stance on territorial issues. It is not mandatory for textbook authors to follow the manual,
Jan. 12, 2014
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Park to make state visits to India, Switzerland
South Korean President Park Geun-hye will make state visits to India and Switzerland next week before attending an annual meeting of global business leaders and politicians at the Swiss ski resort of Davos, the presidential office announced Thursday.The Jan. 15-18 trip to India is aimed mainly at enhancing economic cooperation with Asia’s third-largest economy with a massive market of 1.2 billion people. Economic issues are expected to top the agenda for Park’s summit with Prime Minister Manmoha
Jan. 9, 2014