PAJU, South Korea -- After returning to the national football team for the first in nearly three years, South Korean striker Lee Dong-gook said Monday the players need to sacrifice themselves for the team in the World Cup qualifying campaign. Lee, 38, will become the second-oldest player to appear in an international match for South Korea if he takes the field either against Iran on Aug. 31 or U...

YEONCHEON, South Korea -- North Korea released water from a border dam without giving prior notice to South Korea on Monday, causing the water levels of a cross-border river downstream to rise dangerously, officials said. The North opened the floodgates of Hwanggang Dam on the western inter-Korean border, sending water into the Imjin River flowing to the South and causing water levels under the ...

Unionized workers at Kia Motors Corp. will stage a partial strike to demand higher wages, the carmaker's union said Monday. The walkout planned for Tuesday comes as Kia's management and its 28,240-strong union failed to narrow a gap over wages and other benefits in this year's collective bargaining negotiations. "After weeks of talks with the management, Kia workers have decided to carry out th...

Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday that it will roll out its new pen-equipped laptop the Notebook 9 Pen that will include Intel's latest eighth generation processor in South Korea next month. Bringing its S Pen technology to the company's notebook lineup, the new model will offer an up to 40-percent speed boost over the previous seventh generation chips, the company said. (Yonhap) The new chi...

PAJU, South Korea -- South Korea football coach Shin Tae-yong said Monday the national team's primary focus will be on organizing defense in practices ahead of two crucial World Cup qualifiers. Shin's side began training with 16 players at the National Football Center in Paju, north of Seoul, for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Iran on Aug. 31 and Uzbekistan on Sept. 5. For this early...

The Mexican Embassy in Seoul said Monday its diplomat accused of sexual assault will cooperate with the police investigation. The military attache allegedly sexually harassed a female employee at the embassy on three occasions between June last year and January. Jongno Police Station (Yonhap) He had defied two previous police orders to show up for questioning and returned to his country. The ...

PAJU, South Korea -- South Korean footballer Kwon Kyung-won said Monday he is ready to build up a solid national team career after joining the senior squad for the first time. Kwon is one of 26 players selected for South Korea's upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Iran and Uzbekistan. South Korea will host Iran on Aug. 31 and take on Uzbekistan five days later in Tashkent for the final Asian q...

The prospects of two Constitutional Court nominees remained uncertain Monday as opposition parties ramped up their offensive over the duo's alleged ideological bias. Major parties agreed to hold a parliamentary confirmation hearing for justice nominee Lee You-jung next Monday and decided tentatively to set up a vote on Constitutional Court President-designate Kim Yi-su four days later. But oppo...

South Korea plans to extend $300,000 in humanitarian assistance to Sierra Leone where massive mudslides killed hundreds of people, the foreign ministry said Monday. Downpours and following mudslides resulted in the deaths of some 350 people in the capital of Freetown a week earlier. Some 600 people remain missing, while 2,000 others have been left homeless, according to the Ministry of Foreign A...

The South Korean economy will face some downside risks going forward due to possible labor strikes at local carmakers and a cooldown in the local property market, a vice finance minister said Monday. "The economy is on an upside cycle for the most part. But the upturn is largely driven by robust overseas sales of semiconductors and brisk facility investment," Vice Finance Minister Ko Hyoung-kwon...

South Korean stocks closed lower Monday as foreigners and institutions scaled back on their stockholding on profit taking. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 3.37 points, or 0.14 percent, to close at 2,355.00. Trade volume was moderate at 204.5 million shares worth 3.753 trillion won ($3.3 billion), with decliners outnumbering advancer...

South Korea will raise the monthly basic pension to 250,000 won ($219) in 2018 and to 300,000 won in 2021 in a bid to help buttress elderly people's income, the health ministry said Monday. Under the basic pension system introduced in July 2014, the government pays 200,000 won a month to every senior citizen belonging to the bottom 70 percent of the country's income bracket. The inflation-adjust...

FC Barcelona's South Korean prospect Lee Seung-woo is nearing a move to Italy, a source close to the player said Monday. The source said FC Barcelona are in talks with Italian club Hellas Verona FC over Lee's transfer and added the move could be finalized sometime this week. Lee has been training with Barca's "B" team, the Spanish giants' reserve squad, but he wasn't expected to receive much pl...

President Moon Jae-in on Monday nominated an incumbent head of a district court as the new chief justice of the Supreme Court. Kim Meong-su, the head of the Chuncheon District Court in Gangwon Province, was designated the top court's new chief justice, according to the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae. This photo provided by Cheong Wa Dae shows Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee Kim Meong-su....

China strongly warned North Korea against additional provocations during a foreign ministerial meeting held in the Philippines earlier this month and immediately informed South Korea of the result of the talks, the foreign ministry here said Monday. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-ho in Manila on Aug. 6 on the sidelines of a string of meetings hoste...