South Korea and the United States have kicked off a joint committee to look into the incident involving a live anthrax sample that was mistakenly sent to an American military base in South Korea from the U.S., a diplomatic source said Friday.   U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Thursday that 22 personnel may have come in contact with a live anthrax sample that was accidentally sent to Osan Air Base in South Korea, but none have shown signs of infection. A U.S. military laboratory in Utah inadvertent

Defense May 29, 2015

South Korean football club Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors clinched a knockout berth at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League with a huge victory at home Wednesday.   Thanks to a 4-1 win over Shandong Luneng at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, Jeonbuk finished second in Group E with 11 points. Jeonbuk joins three other K League Classic sides in the round of 16. The top South Korean league last put four teams in the knockout stage in 2010.   Earlier Wednesday, S

Sports May 6, 2015

Rival parties on Wednesday failed to pass a pension reform bill for civil servants aimed at reducing chronic deficits in funds.   The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) couldn't get the bill through the National Assembly during the plenary session. The proposal calls for raising the contribution rate from the current 7 percent to 9 percent over the next five years, with the entitlement rate to be reduced from 1.9 to 1.7 percent in stages over

Politics May 6, 2015

Swaziland hopes South Korea will reopen its embassy in the southern African country to better strengthen cooperation between the two countries, the lower house speaker of the African country said Wednesday."We do need the Korean embassy to reopen in our country ... I believe it will be easy for us to cooperate, to be closer to each other and to talk through the embassy," Themba Msibi, the House of Assembly Speaker, said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.The South Korean embassy in Pretoria

International April 8, 2015

Hwang Pyong-so, the top political officer of North Korea's military, has been promoted to a member of the politburo presidium at the country's political party, making him again the North's de facto No. 2 man, Pyongyang's media reported Wednesday.The North Korean Central Television described Hwang as doubling the posts of a member of the political bureau presidium of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK)'s central committee as well as a director of the general political bureau of the Korean People's

North Korea April 8, 2015

A top aide to President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the White House’s classified computer systems are secure while acknowledging vulnerabilities in its unclassified system.Obama adviser Ben Rhodes made the remarks in response to a CNN report that Russian hackers got access to sensitive White House information such as the president’s private schedule.The White House acknowledged in October that it had detected suspicious activity on its unclassified network while assessing possible cyberthreat

International April 8, 2015

Four South Koreans died and one was seriously injured on Monday as a bus carrying them collided with another bus in Nepal, Seoul's foreign ministry said.   The accident occurred as a bus carrying more than 15 people collided with the oncoming bus while on the move to Kathmandu from Pokhara, about 200 kilometers west of the capital, according to the ministry.Two Korean men in their 60s and another two women in their 50s were found dead and another Korean man in his 60s was in critical condition,

International March 30, 2015

Top-ranked Lydia Ko shot a course-record and career-best 11-under 61 on Saturday to take the early second-round lead in the New Zealand Women's Open.The 17-year-old New Zealander, coming off a victory Sunday in the Women's Australian Open, broke the Clearwater record of 63 set last year by Mi Hyang Lee in her victory.Ko rebounded from an opening bogey with an eagle on the par-5 second and birdied Nos. 4-7, 9-13 and 18. ``I didn't know what I was shooting but when I went past the scoreboard on 13

Sports Feb. 28, 2015

Uber says a database containing the names and drivers' license numbers of 50,000 of its drivers was breached in May.The ride-sharing service says it has notified the drivers and hasn't received any reports of the information being misused. Uber says it will offer a one-year membership in Experian's ProtectMyID Alert identity theft protection service to the drivers involved.The company said Friday the breach affects drivers in multiple states, but involves only a ``small percentage'' of its curre

Business Feb. 28, 2015

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has urged the North's military to become elite units in full preparation for war with the United States after inspecting the new guard unit hall at a war museum, Pyongyang's media said Saturday.   Kim has toured the recently opened the guard unit hall at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, which contains records of the 1950-53 Korean War and hosts a statue of the country's founder and Kim's grandfather, Kim Il-sung, according to the official Korean Ce

North Korea Feb. 28, 2015

The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on Friday unanimously passed a bill that calls for strengthening sanctions on North Korea as well as countries and businesses helping the communist regime in its pursuit of nuclear weapons.   Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel, the committee's ranking member, introduced the legislation (H.R. 757) earlier this month. A similar bill in the House last year but was later scrapped after the Senate did not act on it before the previo

North Korea Feb. 28, 2015

A Singaporean navy ship has located the fuselage of the crashed AirAsia plane in the Java Sea, Singapore's defense minister said Wednesday.Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen said on his Facebook page that images taken by a remote controlled vehicle from the ship showed parts of the plane's wing and words on the fuselage.He said Indonesian search officials have been notified so they can begin recovery operations.The plane disappeared from radar on Dec. 28 less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Su

North Korea Jan. 14, 2015