A team of U.S. officials arrived in North Korea on Tuesday, the communist state's official media said, a trip intended for consultation on "humanitarian issues" between the two longtime foes. The delegation, led by Robert King, special American ambassador on North Korean human rights, had departed from Beijing hours earlier to arrive in North Korea where it seeks to clarify doubts about Pyongyan...

...meter radius of schools. Smokers caught in places other than the squares will also be fined 100,000 won. Seoul promulgated a decree on March 1 to designate central Seoul squares as non-smoking areas. “We ask for the public’s cooperation, as the smoking ban in designated public places is for the happiness and health of Seoul citizens,” said a city official. By Robert Lee ( robert@heraldm.com )

...welfare for the working class took control of the ruling conservative bloc. On one side, the party’s two new chiefs ― floor leader Rep. Hwang Woo-yea and top policymaker Rep. Lee Ju-young ― are champ...said in a meeting of the party leaders earlier in the day. The party leaders oppose the government’s plan to offer tax cuts to the wealthy, while they are only lukewarm toward the bill to ratify a fr...

Ex-soldier claims indiscriminate dumping at U.S. base Another former U.S. soldier claimed seven years ago that his unit in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, dumped “every imaginable chemical” there in the 1960s, a U.S.-based Korean journalist said Monday. The comment further escalated public anxiety over toxic chemical contamination by U.S. troops here, who are alleged to have buried a considerable a...

A U.S. fact-finding team will be departing for North Korea on Tuesday with some of its members staying over a week for detailed inspection of the food conditions there, officials here said, confirmin...s. According to the U.N., more than 6 million North Koreans, about a quarter of the communist state’s population, need urgent aid of some 475,000 tons of food. By Shin Hae-in ( hayney@heraldm.com )

...ved in Seoul on Monday for a five-day trip that includes a visit to the headquarters of South Korea’s largest Buddhist sect, the Jogye Order, and a meeting with the representatives of seven religions ...s, Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release. Lee, a Protestant, expressed his respect for the Vatican’s efforts to promote dialogue between religions by offering congratulatory messages on Buddha’s birt...

Kim’s trip indicates urgency in securing economic assistance from China North Korean leader Kim Jong-il arrived in the eastern city of Nanjing and looked around industrial facilities there, the Sout...ing purposes,” a Chinese leader told the South Korean president during their meeting in Japan. Kim’s trip to China, the third in just over a year, appears to indicate the communist state’s growing ur...

...awmakers and civic groups are calling for the revision of the Status of Forces Agreement with the U.S. to toughen regulations after possible environmental contamination here. They argue that with the...opposition Democratic Party stressed the need for the revision. “Under the SOFA, the South Korea-U.S. joint investigation cannot help but be led by the U.S. side,” he said. The Seoul government, how...

SK Group, the country’s third-largest conglomerate, said Tuesday it will invest 500 million won ($457,200) in a fund to support social enterprises as part of its corporate responsibility activities. ... fund, SK said. “SK will spare no support and interest for the successful operation of the country’s first fund to prop up social enterprises,” said Nam Sang-kon, head of the group’s corporate contri...