President Park Geun-hye’s trip to the U.S. last week seems to have attained some of its goals, including awakening Americans and the international community to the urgent need to tackle North Korea and assuring them South Korea is not seeking close relations with China at the expense of its ties with the U.S. [번역] 지난 주 박근혜 대통령의 방미는 북한에 대한 대처가 시급함을 미국과 국제사회에 일깨우고 한국이 미국과의 관계를 희생하며 중국과의 관계 강화를 모색...

President Park Geun-hye, now on a four-day trip to the U.S., will soon hold a summit with President Barack Obama in Washington, which will be the fourth of its kind since she took office in early 2013. [번역] 나흘 간의 방미 길에 오른 박근혜 대통령이 워싱턴에서 버락 오바마 미국 대통령과 곧 정상회담을 연다. 2013년 초에 취임한 후 네 번째 한미 정상회담이다. [/번역] As is usual with a summit between the countries, the meeting will have bearings not only on th...

An opinion poll showed that more than 8 in 10 Americans believed relations with South Korea were important, with support for the use of U.S. armed forces to defend the ally standing at a record high. The survey released by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on Tuesday questioned 2,034 people aged 18 or older from May 25-June 17. [번역] 한 여론조사에서는 한국을 방어하기 위해 미군을 투입하는 것에 대한 지지가 사상 최고 수준인 상황에서 미국...

In announcing the reintroduction of state-written history textbooks starting in 2017 state-authored history books were imposed in 1974 during the time of President Park Chung-hee, father of President Park Geun-hye, and state-reviewed textbooks were revived in 2011 -- the Education Ministry said that the move was necessary as the current textbooks contain numerous factual errors and offer mostly l...

Korea’s top economic policymakers are slowly awakening to the need for massive corporate restructuring, but they still seem to lack the determination required to face the tough challenge. The prolonged stagnation of both the world economy and the Korean economy has seriously eroded corporate profitability, leaving the balance sheets of many domestic companies in tatters. [번역] 한국 최고 경제 정책입안자들이 대...

An intense ideology-packed war looms large between the ruling and opposition parties, with the confrontation certain to worsen the already deep left-right schism in Korean society. [번역] 이미 한국 사회에서 뿌리깊은 좌우 대립이 악화될 것이 확실한 가운데 치열한 이념 전쟁이 불가피해 보인다. [/번역] The first front of the war is evolving over the government’s plan to supply state-authored Korean history textbooks to middle and high school st...

In March, the life of Adam Crapser, a Korean adoptee who was facing deportation after his adoptive parents never filed for his American citizenship, made headlines worldwide. As the 40-year-old automatically lost his South Korean citizenship when he left the country at the age of four to be adopted, Crapser has always been effectively stateless. [번역] 지난 3월, 양부모가 미국 시민권을 신청하지 않아 추방 위기에 몰린 한국인 입양...

North Korea put up its largest ever military parade on Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party. The country’s young leader Kim Jong-un boasted in a rare live speech that he was ready to fight any kind of war the U.S. might launch. [번역] 토요일 북한이 노동당 창건 70주년을 기념하는 사상 최대 규모의 열병식을 열었다. 북한의 젊은 지도자 김정은은 보기 드문 육성 연설에서 미국이 원하는 어떤 형태의 전쟁도 다 상대해줄 수 있다고 자랑했다. [/번역] Yet, noticea...

The agreement between 12 countries to create the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- the world’s biggest-ever regional trading bloc -- and Korea’s exclusion from it poses a lot of challenges to the country. [번역] 세계 최대의 지역 무역권인 TPP를 만드는 12개국의 협정과 한국의 TPP 제외는 한국에 많은 과제를 안기고 있다. [/번역] First of all, the completion of the negotiations to form the mega trade bloc, which accounts for 40 percent of the worl...

Exports of information and communications technology products by South Korean companies totaled $71 billion during the January-May period, according to the Institute for Information and Communications Technology Promotion, a state-run organization. [번역] 정부 산하 정보통신기술진흥원에 따르면, 한국기업의 정보통신기술(ICT) 제품 수출이 1분기에 총 710억 달러에 이르렀다. [/번역] The figure is the third largest in the world after China and the U...

The U.S. air strike on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Oct. 3 that left 22 civilians dead -- 12 Medecins Sans Frontieres staff and 10 patients, including three children -- should be fully investigated, preferably by an independent party. [번역] 국경없는의사회(MSF) 의료진, 어린이 3명을 포함한 환자 10명 등 12명, 22명의 민간인을 사망케 한 10월 3일 미국의 아프가니스탄 쿤두즈 병원 공습은 가급적 독립 기구에서 충분히 조사해야 한다. [/번역] According to the MSF, also...

Saturday’s incident in Busan involving a gun theft from an indoor shooting range has raised alarms concerning gun safety in a country where guns are strictly controlled. [번역] 토요일 부산 실내사격장에서 발생한 총기 탈취사건은 총기가 엄격히 규제되는 한국의 총기 안전과 관련해 경종을 울렸다. [/번역] A 29-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of stabbing the owner of an indoor shooting range and fleeing with a 0.45 caliber handgun and 19 bullets....

A former South Korean intelligence chief sparked controversy last week with remarks that the leaders of the two Koreas operated a hotline for years until 2008. [번역] 지난 주 전직 국정원장이 남북 정상이 2008년까지 수년 간 핫라인을 운용했다는 발언으로 논란을 일으켰다. [/번역] Kim Man-bok, who served as director of the National Intelligence Service under the late President Roh Moo-hyun, said the hotline was set up during the administratio...

The South Korean government has begun the process of verifying news reports that a South Korean teenager thought to have joined an Islamic militant group early this year was killed in a U.S.-led air strike in northern Syria, officials said Thursday. “We are now trying to verify the facts with regard to the reports on his fate,” said a Seoul official on condition of anonymity. [번역] 한국 정부가 올해 초, ...

More than 8,700 soldiers from 120 countries will take part in the 6th World Military Games to begin a 10-day run Friday in Mungyeong and nearby cities in North Gyeongsang Province. [번역] 120개국 8700여명의 군인이 경북 문경 및 인근 도시에서 금요일부터 열흘 간의 장정을 시작하는 제6회 세계군인체육대회에 참가한다. [/번역] It is the first time that the quadrennial international military sports event has been held in South Korea. Not surprisingly, No...