Israel's opposition Labour party announced on Friday that its members have elected a new leader -- former government minister Isaac Herzog -- seen as more open to joining the right-leaning ruling coalition.Herzog defeated incumbent Shelly Yachimovich with 58.5 percent of the vote in Thursday's election among the party's some 55,000 members, official results showed.Herzog's victory could affect the make-up of rightwing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition, with the new Labour lead

Nov. 22, 2013

MANILA (AP) -- The death toll from one of the strongest typhoons on record has risen above 5,000 and is likely to climb further, although recovery efforts are beginning to take hold, Philippine officials said Friday.Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said 4,919 people were killed on Leyte, Samar and nearby islands in the Eastern Visayas region. Civil defense chief Eduardo del Rosario said 290 others died in other parts of the central and southern Philippines.The regions were battered two weeks ago by

Nov. 22, 2013

Official records have confirmed that Japanese military police massacred Koreans during Tokyo's colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula following a powerful earthquake in Japan in 1923, a South Korean lawmaker claimed Friday.The claim by Rep. Yoo Ki-hong of the main opposition Democratic Party comes three days after the National Archives of Korea unveiled decades-old records of Koreans who were killed during the March 1919 independence movement and following the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake.Histor

Nov. 22, 2013

South Korea's trade commission said Friday that it has decided to launch an investigation into an alleged dumping of Japanese polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film.The decision follows a formal complaint from three South Korean manufacturers, according to the Korea Trade Commission."The commission decided to launch an antidumping investigation after a review of materials submitted by the petitioners yielded a conclusion that their complaint was reasonable," the commission said in a press release

Nov. 22, 2013

The Pentagon dismissed a press report Thursday directly linking Japan's envisioned exercise of its right to collective self-defense with possible emergencies on the Korean Peninsula.In a front-page story, the Chosun Ilbo, a major South Korean daily, quoted a Pentagon official as saying the U.S. includes the peninsula in the scope of Japan's right to collective self-defense.The article "mischaracterized U.S. policy with respect to Northeast Asia," Lt. Col. Jeff Pool, a Pentagon spokesman, told Yo

Nov. 22, 2013

Japan has made clear its intention to not exercise its right to so-called collective self-defense on the Korea Peninsula without consent from Seoul, the foreign ministry here said Thursday."A ranking security official from the Japanese government has informed us of (Japan's) position that Japanese military forces cannot be deployed to the Korean Peninsula by invoking the collective self-defense rule," South Korea's foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young said in a briefing.Japan's position is i

Nov. 21, 2013

Japan’s exercising of its right to collective self-defense would help boost the U.S. deterrence against threats such as North Korea’s nuclear program and contribute to regional stability, a ranking U.S. official said Wednesday. The Shinzo Abe administration is seeking to reinterpret the country’s pacifist constitution to expand its Self Defense Forces operations as part of apparent efforts to normalize the state.But the move has fueled concerns in Seoul and Beijing, where resentment still runs d

Nov. 20, 2013

A high-ranking diplomat from Seoul will soon travel to Iran to gain the release of a South Korean national in prison on espionage charges, a government source here said Sunday.“Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Kyung-soo will visit Iran at the end of this month,” the source said on the condition of anonymity.“He’s expected to put in efforts to free the South Korean there, which is one of the outstanding bilateral issues between the countries.”This will be the first visit to Iran by a South Korean depu

Nov. 17, 2013

The South Korean government said Saturday that it has located the whereabouts of the remaining three missing South Koreans in the typhoon-devastated Philippines, confirming the survival of all 56 Koreans there.“We’ve confirmed the survival of all South Koreans who reside in the city of Tacloban and the neighboring areas,” said an official at Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, citing the area hardest hit by Typhoon Haiyan.“The government will continue to provide necessary support to them,” he added. At le

Nov. 17, 2013

The Canadian Embassy and the Korea Polar Research Institute hosted a symposium on economic opportunities in an ever-melting Arctic amid the opening of the region as a transportation corridor due to global warming.The Canada-Korea Arctic Policy Symposium was hosted at the embassy’s chancery on Thursday, as part of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Canada and South Korea. “It will provide an opportunity to deepen mutual understanding and str

Nov. 17, 2013

The Irish Embassy announced the opening of submissions for this year’s Irish-Korean Essay Competition 2013 for university students. The deadline is Nov. 29.The essay contest is the result of a cooperative partnership between the embassy and the Irish Association of Korea. The topic this year is “Ireland and Korea: A Shared History of Storytelling.”The embassy extends a financial grant to the IKA annually to support the competition. The competition aims to raise awareness about the links between

Nov. 17, 2013

The Malaysian Embassy and its trade arm, the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation, have recruited 22 South Korean buyers, the highest number to date, to participate in the 7th International Trade Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur from Nov. 24-28 South Korean buyers will also meet one-on-one with specially paired Malaysian producers and sellers in MATRADE’s Incoming Buying Mission program.South Korean participation in the MATRADE’s IBM program has slowly expanded in the past five years. When th

Nov. 17, 2013

U.S. officials tend to avoid making public comments on history and territorial disputes between South Korea and Japan -- two of Washington's key regional allies.But Secretary of State John Kerry appears to be breaking the taboo.Speaking to a group of Japanese and U.S. business leaders this week, he said Japan has "some unfinished business" regarding South Korea."We're all very cognizant of still some unfinished business with respect to the Republic of Korea and the need to move to the future and

Nov. 16, 2013

A government panel said Friday it has found evidence that indicates an uprising of some 700 Koreans at a Japanese military base in the 1940s in protest against their forced labor. The Commission on Verification and Support for the Victims of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Colonialism in Korea, affiliated with the Prime Minister’s Office, said the discovery was based on records of the prison life of Kim Sun-keun, who led the uprising, and testimonies of his family. In August 1943, a 23-year-o

Nov. 15, 2013

The ruling and opposition parties spewed stringent criticism Friday after a news report emerged that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called Korea “stupid.” The Shukan Bunshun, a Japanese major weekly, on Thursday cited unnamed sources close to Abe as saying that the nationalist premier told them China is a country that is silly but diplomacy is possible with, whereas Korea is a “simple and stupid” one. A Seoul official told The Korea Herald that the report “can’t be true” and the Foreign Mini

Nov. 15, 2013