Reports: Chinese police kill Tibetan man, wound 2

BEIJING (AP) -- Police in western China fatally shot a Tibetan man and wounded two others amid protests against Chinese rule, an activist group and a U.S. broadcaster said Saturday.The three men were shot Tuesday by police who were looking for or had detained another man in connection with a Jan. 25

March 10, 2012

Greece secures biggest debt deal in history

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greece's private creditors agreed Friday to take cents on the euro in the biggest debt writedown in history, paving the way for an enormous second bailout for the country to keep Europe's economy from being dragged further into chaos.Greece would have risked defaulting on its

March 10, 2012

S. Korea presses Japan on wartime sex slavery

South Korea urged Japan on Friday to resolve a long-running grievance regarding aging Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II, pressing Tokyo to take “fundamental measures” for the victims.The issue was discussed in detail when South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Ahn Ho-young held talks with his Japanese counterpart Kenichiro Sasae in Seoul earlier in the day, Seoul officials said.During the talks, Ahn called on Japan to “take fundamenta

March 9, 2012

Obama proclaims implementation of FTA with S. Korea

U.S. President Barack Obama has issued a proclamation on the upcoming implementation of a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea.The two nations have agreed to put the FTA into effect as of next Thursday.The proclamation, posted on the White House's Web site on Wednesday, innumerates related st

March 9, 2012

New envoy to U.S. says N. Korea needs help

North Korea needs help from the international community to come forward and join global society, as international relations have changed since the late 20th century, said the new South Korean ambassador to the United States.“I believe the United Nation’s perspective on North Korea is very appropriate in that the U.N. sees the need for help in North Korea to encourage it to join global society,” Choi Young-jin, ambassador to the United States, told reporters in Seoul, Thursday, after receiving a

March 8, 2012

‘China not immune to pressure’

A senior Foreign Ministry official said China seemed to be feeling the international pressure over its policy of forcefully repatriating North Korean defectors.“China seems very uncomfortable about the issue of North Korean defectors being internationalized. The Chinese authorities seem to be thinking deeply on how to deal with this issue,” the official said on condition of anonymity.On Monday in Washington, D.C., a U.S. congressman urged the U.S. government to link treatment of North Korean ref

March 7, 2012

S. Korean official visits China on N.Korean defector issue

A South Korean government official visited Beijing on Wednesday for a two-day consultation with Chinese authorities over North Korean defectors.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Kim Soo-kwon, director-general of the Korean Peninsula peace regime bureau, will meet with Chinese foreign ministry officials to find solutions on China’s policy of forced repatriation of North Korean refugees. He will also meet with North Korean defectors who have been living in the South Korean Consulate G

March 7, 2012

Foreign minister to visit U.S. on N.K.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan will travel to the United States this week, officials said Tuesday, after a diplomatic breakthrough under which North Korea agreed to halt key parts of its nuclear weapons program in exchange for food aid from the U.S.During his five-day trip starting Wednesday, Kim plans to hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday in Washington after making a stop in New York, a senior official at the foreign ministry said.In New York, Kim wil

March 6, 2012

‘Failure to pass N.K. rights bill shameful’

Second Vice Foreign Minister Kim Sung-han said it was “shameful” that South Korea has not been able to pass a pending bill on North Korean human rights at the National Assembly for the past three years.“The U.S., which has signed the North Korean Human Rights Act, is more active than us in making efforts to improve North Korean human rights,” Kim told reporters.“It is irony, or rather a shame, for South Korea to have the bill pending at the National Assembly for more than three years, while it s

March 5, 2012

Nepali tourism showcased in Seoul

The Nepali Embassy held a seminar to attract tour companies here to offer more packages to Nepal. The country of 27 million people receives around half a million tourists each year, but is trying to attract more to visit world-renowned sites such as the birthplace of the Shakya Muni Buddha and Mount Everest in the Himalayas. Tourism is already forms a large part of the country’s economy, creating an estimated 548,000 jobs.Visitors contribute around 3 percent of the country’s GDP, but the newly-f

March 4, 2012

Israel shows art through film

A special Israeli video art show is to be held in Seoul from March 6. The exhibition titled “Afterwards: The Story from Israel” at the Total Museum of Contemporary Art is presenting seven Israeli video artists’ works to Korea. The exhibition at the Pyeongchang-dong museum is part of the Israeli Embassy’s celebrations of 50 years of diplomatic ties with Korea this year. More than 150 people attended the Korea-Israel Friendship Association’s 2012 general meeting on Feb. 28, which also marked the a

March 4, 2012

‘Brothers’ Turkey, Korea to partner on trade

Korea could ink a trade agreement with Turkey by the end of March, according to the country’s ambassador here.“Our target date is the end of March and at the latest by the end of the first half of this year,” said Turkish Ambassador, Naci Saribas. The trade volume between the two nations is almost $6 billion with $5.7 billion of that being South Korean goods going to Turkey.He listed Turkish imports to Korea of textiles, clothing, agriculture, food, small machinery, chemicals, iron and steel, mi

March 2, 2012