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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[Herald Review] 'Culinary Class Wars': fresh, creative survival show minus the drama
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Irish envoy calls for N.K. food aid
‘We are all essentially responsible for helping them out. That’s what good humanitarian assistance is all about.’A vexing dilemma of international engagement with North Korea is whether humanitarian aid to ordinary people there helps prop up the regime that abuses its own people.It’s a moral Catch-22 that confounds easy answers where an obvious good ― feeding starving children ― might support an obvious evil by propping up a ruthlessly oppressive regime.“People do say that, but if you tie yourse
Oct. 7, 2012
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Lawmaker accuses diplomats’ sons of draft dodging
An opposition lawmaker has lashed out at some senior diplomats for allowing their sons to dodge military service.Citing a report submitted to the foreign affairs, trade and unification committee of the National Assembly, lawmaker Yoo In-tae from the Democratic United Party said that sons of several diplomats have been found to either indefinitely or completely put off their national duty by living overseas for a long period of time, or by giving up their Korean citizenship.He noted, for example,
Oct. 4, 2012
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Seoul snubs Japan’s legal move on Dokdo
South Korea on Thursday shrugged off news reports that Japan plans to initiate international litigation over Dokdo this month. Nihon Keizai Shimbun of Japan reported that Tokyo is likely to unilaterally bring the case to the International Court of Justice in October as Seoul rejected its proposal for a joint filing. “I’d like to emphasize again that Japan must not damage Korea-Japan relations and public sentiment by repeating its unjust claim to Dokdo but should make efforts for the development
Oct. 4, 2012
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Report: Japan may take dispute to ICJ
Aerial view of Dokdo islets (The Korea Herald)Japan may unilaterally take its island territorial dispute with South Korea to the International Court of Justice, Japanese government sources told Kyodo News.The dispute concerns the Korean-controlled islands that lie between the two countries, which Japan also claims. South Korea refers to them as Dokdo, while Japan calls them Takeshima.The Japanese
Oct. 4, 2012
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China drones over leodo ‘only for surveillance’
Korea and China avoided brewing tension over the latter’s planned drone dispatch to inspect areas including leodo after Beijing notified Seoul that the action is intended not to boost its jurisdiction claim, but only for surveillance purposes.This comes after Korea demanded that China verify a Chinese media report that China’s State Oceanic Administration plans to send an unmanned aerial vehicle to monitor the submerged rock south of Jeju Island in the exclusive economic zone shared by the two c
Oct. 3, 2012
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Culture links Korea and Lebanon
A few days ago, when a child of a newly arrived Korean diplomat joined his school in Beirut, the first question he got from his Lebanese classmates was whether he was able to sing and dance to the popular Korean song “Gangnam Style.”Today we live in an interconnected world. People-to-people connectivity that governments have championed for decades is being achieved in the cultural arena among younger generations, undeterred by borders and physical distances. In the past, when it came to promotin
Oct. 3, 2012
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Japan’s ‘incorporation’ of Dokdo in 1905 was not just about sea lions
A newly forged cultural agreement will reinforce relations between the two countriesThe explanation presented by the Japanese government on the annexation of Dokdo is oversimplified. Nakai Yozaburo, a resident of Shimane Prefecture in Japan, wished to obtain a exclusive permit to hunt sea lions on Dokdo, according to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1904, he filed a petition with the Japanese government and the islets were subsequently “incorporated” into Japanese territory on
Oct. 3, 2012
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Korea to press Japan at U.N. over sex slavery
South Korea is poised to crank up pressure on Japan over wartime sex slavery and other historical issues at a U.N. session on Wednesday as neighboring countries are increasingly concerned about Tokyo’s rapid swing to the right. Seoul officials plan to urge once again a sincere apology and compensation for the victims during a session of the Third Committee, which covers social, women and human rights issues. Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan raised the issue of the wartime abuses against women at t
Oct. 2, 2012
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Japanese activist sued over Dokdo stakes
A local memorial association said Tuesday that it has filed a defamation suit against a Japanese activist accused of setting up a provocative wooden stake in Japan last month to lay claim to Dokdo.Nobuyuki Suzuki, a member of an ultra-right Japanese party, allegedly put the wooden post with a phrase claiming Japan’s sovereignty over South Korea’s Dokdo islets next to a monument commemorating Yun Bong-gil, a Korean independence fighter, located in Kanazawa of Ishikawa Prefecture on Sept. 22.He th
Oct. 2, 2012
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DUP names candidates to probe Lee home scandal
The main opposition Democratic United Party on Tuesday announced two candidates to lead a special probe to determine if any laws were broken in the purchase of land for President Lee Myung-bak’s retirement home. The party said former judge Lee Kwang-bum and civics rights lawyer Kim Hyoung-tae have been recommended to become the special prosecutor with the investigation set to start this month. President Lee has to choose one of the two candidates by Friday.“Both lawyers are fully qualified to be
Oct. 2, 2012
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Seoul to set up foundation for colonial forced laborers
The South Korean government will establish a foundation to support victims of Japan’s forced labor during that country’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula and their bereaved families, officials of a committee handling the issue said Tuesday.The government has earmarked 1 billion won ($899,361) of budget to set up the foundation around early next year, with the budget proposal to be submitted to the National Assembly next month for approval, according to the forced laborer investigation commi
Oct. 2, 2012
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Young overseas Korean leaders gather in Seoul
More than 100 young Korean political, business and social leaders from 22 countries launched a four-day meeting in Seoul on Tuesday to share their visions for overseas Korean communities and reinforce their cooperation. Organized by the state-run Overseas Korean Foundation and sponsored by the Foreign Ministry, the 15th Future Leaders’ Conference coincides with the Korean Day on Oct. 5. Since its founding in 1998, the annual event has provided a venue for networking between Korean entrepreneurs
Oct. 2, 2012
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Allies discuss lowering tensions in Northeast Asia
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, Japanese Foreign Minister, Koichiro Gemba and Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, right, pose for photographers while attending a meeting in New York, on Friday. (AP-Yonhap)The top diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan opened a three-way meeting here on Friday as Washington apparently seeks to help diffuse tensions between
Sept. 29, 2012
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Seoul raps Tokyo's 'double standards' on territorial issues
South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan issued an unusually sharp criticism Thursday of Japan's territorial claims and refusal to offer a sincere apology for its wartime atrocities.On a visit to New York for the U.N. General Assembly's annual meeting, the minister made clear there will be "no compromise" on the matters unless Tokyo changes its attitude."Our position has always been firm and th
Sept. 28, 2012
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Minister to confront Japan in speech at U.N. assembly
Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan is expected to raise the issue of Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement Friday at the U.N. General Assembly for the first time.“The minister will refer to the importance of proper recognition of history and women’s human rights during wartime, though details are yet to be confirmed,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young told reporters Thursday.Three Asian powers are engaging in a diplomatic quarrel at the U.N. meeting in New York as Korean and Chinese diplomats ge
Sept. 27, 2012
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Korea to watch China’s drone use for territory claims
Lee calls top security meeting to discuss N.K., regional tensionTerritorial tension is brewing again between Korea and China after Beijing reportedly devised a plan to mobilize drones to monitor areas outside its jurisdiction, including Korea’s island of Ieodo. Ieodo, or Socotra Rock, has often been a source of diplomatic spats in recent years as it lies in the overlapping section of the exclusive economic zones of Korea and China. “We’re currently verifying the news reports. While the U.N. Conv
Sept. 25, 2012
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[Newsmaker] Bomb thrower-state leader riles Israel, West yet again
No stranger to incendiary rhetoric, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad riled Israel and the West once again with his remarks on Monday that the world’s only Jewish-majority state had no roots in the Middle East and would be “eliminated.” Speaking in New York ahead of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad also dismissed the credibility of Israel’s threats to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, and condemned the “Innocence of Muslims,” the film trailer depicting the prophe
Sept. 25, 2012
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Korea ready to raise history issue at U.N. assembly: minister
South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan on Monday stressed the importance of promoting "correct history" at the United Nations.Kim said he discussed history issues in a bilateral meeting here with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi. The ministers are visiting New York to attend the 67th session of the U.N. General Assembly."We agreed with the need to publicize history, I mean correct history
Sept. 25, 2012
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S. Korea refutes Japanese PM's remarks on wartime sexual slavery
Japan should resolve a long-standing grievance regarding Korean women forced to serve as sex slaves during World War II through a sincere apology and compensation, a senior Seoul official said Monday, refuting published remarks on the matter by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.The issue of Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of tens of thousands of Korean women for its front-line soldiers is
Sept. 24, 2012
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Ukraine celebrates 21 years of independence
The Embassy of Ukraine in Korea held a reception to celebrate 21 years of independence and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Ukraine at Shilla Hotel, Thursday. Ukrainian Ambassador to Korea Vasyl Marmazov highlighted the fast pace of bilateral relations between his country and Korea, and the ever growing affinity between the peoples of Korea and Ukraine in his welcome remarks during the reception. Some 20,000 ethnic Koreans, dubbed “Koryo-saram,”
Sept. 23, 2012