Most Popular
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Torrential rainfall forces 1,500 to evacuate, causes widespread damage to homes, roads
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[KH Explains] Can smart chargers ease tensions over EV fires?
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1 in 5 households to have breadwinner over 80 in 30 years
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[Online Predators] Online reviews of sex tourism in Southeast Asia proliferate
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Assembly to review disputed appointment of national soccer team coach
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New Fifty Fifty off to strong start
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Arrival of fall calls for more outdoor festivals
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Evicted guest burns down inn; 3 killed
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[Herald Interview] US election may unleash growth for Korea: Laffer
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Yoon's Prague visit sets stage for W24tr nuclear power plant deal
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Seoul, Moscow fail to reach 4th deal on fishing quota
MOSCOW (Yonhap) -- South Korea and Russia have failed to reach an agreement to determine the quota for Korean fishing boats operating in Russian waters, a source familiar with the matter said Saturday.After the fourth round of bilateral negotiations held between Tuesday and Thursday in Moscow came to an end, the two sides agreed to resume the discussion on May 13 in the same city."During the talks, both sides narrowed significantly their differences on the quota for Korean fishing boats, but Rus
April 27, 2013
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China cancels top finance meet amid tensions: Japan
Japan's finance ministry said Friday that China has cancelled a top annual finance meeting with Japan and South Korea, as diplomatic tensions between Tokyo and Beijing soar.An official with the ministry told AFP that "China has informed us that the meeting won't be held" on the sidelines of an Asian Development Bank meeting in Delhi next month.Finance ministers and central bankers from the three countries have been meeting once a year in the lead up to separate talks with their Association of So
April 26, 2013
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Park urges N.K. to learn from Kazakhstan’s denuclearization
President Park Geun-hye said Friday North Korea should follow in Kazakhstan’s footsteps, give up its nuclear programs and rebuild its broken economy for the sake of better lives of its people.Park made the remark during a meeting with a group of foreign ambassadors after Kazakhstan’s envoy explained how the Central Asian nation gave up a large stockpile of nuclear-capable missiles and pushed its economy forward, the presidential office said in a statement. Park said, “(She) hopes North Korea wil
April 26, 2013
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P.M. vows thorough probe into river project
Prime Minister Chung Hong-won vowed Friday to conduct a thorough investigation into the previous government’s highly controversial project to refurbish the country’s four major rivers.The administration of then President Lee Myung-bak carried out the project in an attempt to prevent floods and promote tourism along the rivers, but environmental activists and the opposition party have long accused it of causing irreversible environmental damage.There are also allegations that several local constr
April 26, 2013
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‘Japan impedes Seoul’s efforts to mend ties’
Recent remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that appeared to revisit Tokyo’s wartime history have thrown “cold water” on efforts by South Korea to improve bilateral ties, Seoul’s top diplomat said Friday. The relations between Seoul and Tokyo have come under fresh strain since late last week when Japanese ministers paid homage to a controversial war shrine that glorifies Japan’s military past and Abe raised doubts over whether Tokyo’s World War II occupation of nations, including Korea,
April 26, 2013
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Seoul proposes Gaeseong talks
South Korea on Thursday proposed formal talks with North Korea to normalize the Gaeseong industrial park with a warning that it would take “grave action” unless the North accepted its offer by Friday morning. North Korea suspended the joint industrial park north of the border amid heightening military tension in early April, “We cannot let the Gaeseong industrial complex be in the current situation for the long haul,” Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk told a news conference. “Accordin
April 25, 2013
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China sounds positive note on 3-way talks with Korea, U.S.
China has been “positively” considering holding a trilateral, but informal, dialogue with South Korea and the United States for effective policy consultations on North Korea, a Seoul official said Thursday. The idea of holding a so-called 1.5-track security dialogue, in which government officials and academics from South Korea, the U.S. and China participate in their individual capacity, has been floated by South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se with the aim of stepping up their joint policy
April 25, 2013
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Seoul gets tough on Japan’s stance on past wrongdoings
The Korean government on Thursday called in the Japanese ambassador to protest Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s remarks glorifying the country’s imperial past and denying wartime violence. Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun expressed to Koro Bessho “deep regrets about the Japanese government, and of politicians’ distorted historical understanding and retrospective remarks. “We do not understand why the Japanese society, while it so greatly cherishes honesty and trust internally, shuts its eyes and p
April 25, 2013
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S. Korea voices 'strong regrets' over Abe's remarks, shrine visits
Diplomatic tensions between South Korea and Japan escalated Wednesday when Seoul summoned Tokyo's ambassador and expressed "strong regrets" over nationalistic remarks made by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and visits to a controversial war shrine. South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun summoned Japanese Ambassador Koro Bessho and urged Japan to "correct its distorted understanding of history and anachronistic remarks." The fragile ties between South Korea and Japan came under
April 25, 2013
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[Graphic News] Gay marriage around the globe
France became the 14th country in the world to legislate for gay marriage on Tuesday, following months of bitter debate over the socially divisive issue.Europe remains the stronghold of same-sex unions, with Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands all having relevant laws on the books. In North America, Canada and nine U.S. states recognize gay marriage. Argentina and Uruguay and parts of Brazil and Mexico fly the flag for same-sex unions in Central and Sou
April 24, 2013
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[Newsmaker] Comeback kid rattles Korea-Japan ties again
When Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party swept an election last December, an alarm bell rang in Seoul about its chief Shinzo Abe’s perceived desire to veer the depression-riddled country toward the right and revive revisionism. The concerns seem to be turning into reality as the prime minister’s far-right clan relays worship at a controversial war shrine and remarks denying the country’s imperialist past. At a parliamentary session Tuesday, Abe said the definition of invasion varies wildly by count
April 24, 2013
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Seoul, Washington fail to revise nuclear energy pact
South Korea and the U.S. have agreed to extend their bilateral atomic energy accord by two years after Seoul failed to secure Washington’s consent to develop independent nuclear fuel production capability, officials said Wednesday.The two countries have been in talks since October 2010 to amend the so-called 123 agreement which was signed in 1965, last revised in 1974 and due to expire next March. Despite progress in such issues as a joint research project for a new technology called pyroprocess
April 24, 2013
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Japan’s rightward shift dampens prospects of regional cooperation
Japan’s rightward political shift is exacerbating historical enmities harbored against it by South Korea and China, further dampening the prospects of regional security and economic cooperation.This week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a series of nationalist remarks that apparently denied his country’s colonial invasion of the Korean Peninsula and repeated a claim to Dokdo.On the back of more than 70 percent public support buoyed by his economic stimulus policy, the security hawk told
April 24, 2013
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Top diplomats of Korea, China to set up hotline
BEIJING (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s Foreign Minister Yoon Byung-se said Wednesday he and his Chinese counterpart have agreed to open a 24-hour hotline for prompt policy consultations on North Korea.“With regard to North Korea’s several acts of raising tensions, the two sides agreed to closely work together to convince the North not to carry out additional provocations, while easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula,” Yun told reporters after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during
April 24, 2013
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[Newsmaker] Yasukuni: Perennial thorn in Korea-Japan ties
At the very heart of bustling Tokyo, a surreally serene, spacious shrine greets hundreds of thousands of worshippers every year seeking to pay tribute to their ancestors and lost loved ones. Albeit being one of the city’s most exquisite landmarks, the temple has for decades been a source of diplomatic feuds between Japan and its neighbors such as Korea and China.Yasukuni Shrine honors nearly 2.5 million Japanese war dead including top World War II criminals and is frequented by right-wing nation
April 23, 2013
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S. Korea raps Japanese leaders for shrine visits
South Korea scolded Japanese ministers and lawmakers Tuesday for paying homage at a controversial war shrine in Tokyo, saying such visits are evidence that Tokyo has never really repented for its wartime atrocities.Seoul's foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young made the remarks a day after Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se canceled this week's planned visit to Japan in a diplomatic reprisal for visits by Japanese ministers to the Yasukuni shrine. Ignoring anger voiced by South Korea and China, nea
April 23, 2013
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Japan's security chief shelves Seoul trip over shrine visit
Japan's security chief canceled a visit to Seoul, a day before he paid tribute to a controversial war shrine that glorifies Tokyo's wartime atrocities, a diplomatic source in Seoul said Tuesday. Keiji Furuya, the chairman of the National Public Safety Commission and chief secretary of the Parliamentarian League on the North Korean abduction issue, had planned to make a two-day visit to South Korea from next Sunday and meet with Seoul's intelligence chief and home affairs minister. Furuya is one
April 23, 2013
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Japan’s lawmakers visit war shrine despite protests from Seoul
Japanese lawmakers visited controversial war shrine en masse Tuesday morning despite pouring criticism from South Korea and China.According to Kyoto News Agency, 168 members of the Japanese parliament visited the Yasukuni Shrine that venerates top World War criminals.Japan’s top officials, including Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso and National Public Safety Commission chairman Keiji Furuya paid visits to the shrine on Sunday. The visit triggered angry response from So
April 23, 2013
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Sea disputes, N.K. in spotlight at ASEAN summit
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (AP) -- Worried that long-seething rifts could escalate over the South China Sea, Southeast Asian leaders are expected this week to press China to agree to start negotiations on a new pact aimed at thwarting a major clash in one of the world's busiest waterways.Concern over North Korea's latest threats is also expected to gain attention over economic issues in the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, being held Wednesday and Thursday
April 22, 2013
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Foreign minister cancels Japan trip over shrine visit
Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se on Monday canceled his planned trip to Tokyo in protest against a visit by Japanese Cabinet ministers to a controversial war shrine venerating top World War II criminals. Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, National Public Safety Commission chairman Keiji Furuya and other ranking officials paid tribute to the Yasukuni Shrine on Sunday, while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent flowers. The South Korean Foreign Ministry expressed “deep concern and
April 22, 2013