A South Korean film has been invited to this year's Berlin International Film Festival, its production company said Tuesday. Director Lee Song Hee-il's thriller "Night Flight" will be screened in the Panorama non-competition category of the annual film festival, Cinema Dal said.   The movie is about boys who choose to become monsters to survive in a jungle-like school.   It is the director's third invitation to the Berlin festival following invitations in 2006 for "No Regret" and 2010 for "Br

Film Jan. 21, 2014

 North Korea continued its charm offensive toward South Korea on Tuesday despite Seoul's clear rejection of a series of overtures by Pyongyang.   North Korea repeated its demand that South Korea scrap its upcoming joint military drills with the United States, saying Seoul should immediately halt "hostile military actions."   The North's main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, said the country's recent overture is designed to end the armistice and establish lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.   The

North Korea Jan. 21, 2014

  The daily volatility of the South Korean currency rose in 2013 compared with a year earlier due to geopolitical risks and the Federal Reserve's monetary stimulus tapering, the central bank said Tuesday.    The average daily volatility of the local currency reached 5.2 won last year, compared with 4.2 won the previous year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). It recorded 3.4 won in the fourth quarter of last year, smaller than 5.3 won in the third quarter.   The won showed the fourth-lowest v

Jan. 21, 2014

  Prime Minister Chung Hong-won instructed the financial watchdog chief Monday to sternly punish those responsible for a recent massive leak of personal information of credit card users, calling for fundamental measures to prevent recurrence.   According to the prosecution, sensitive personal information, including resident registration numbers, bank account numbers and credit ratings, of as many as 104 million customers were leaked altogether from the country's major credit card firms of KB Koo

Politics Jan. 20, 2014

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's leading mobile carrier, said Monday it plans to deploy a mobile network service this year that is four times faster than the current Long Term Evolution (LTE) service.   SK Telecom said it has successfully demonstrated the upgraded service, dubbed the 3band LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) service, by combining a 20MHz bandwidth and two 10MHz bandwidths. It is expected to be available to local users in late 2014 as soon as mobile devices supporting the network are launched by s

Latest News Jan. 20, 2014

Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., South Korea's top two tech firms, are expected to post an all-time high global market share in smartphones in the first quarter of 2014, data showed Monday, widening the gap with their U.S. and Chinese rivals.   Samsung's portion is projected at 36.2 percent, and its smaller rival LG Electronics is anticipated to record a 5.9 percent share, the data by market researcher Strategy Analytics showed.    It will mark the first time for the top two play

Technology Jan. 20, 2014

South Korean boy group EXO has been chosen as one of the rising artists worth noticing in 2014 by the U.S. Billboard magazine.   EXO is the only Asian group mentioned in the magazine's article, "14 Artists to Watch in 2014," which was posted on its website on Monday (U.S. Eastern time).   The list also includes British soul musician John Newman, U.S. pop duo Holychild and U.S. R&B singer Banks.   "EXO looks positioned to be K-pop's next crossover phenom with an American fan base brewing for the

Jan. 16, 2014

 A district court denied an arrest warrant late Wednesday night for a former chief of local telecom giant KT Corp. suspected of committing a host of corporate crimes, including embezzlement.   The Seoul Central District Court dismissed the prosecution's request for the warrant to detain Lee Suk-chae, the former head of the country's top fixed-line operator and No. 2 mobile carrier, for further questioning.   "There is not enough reason to detain (Lee) at the present stage considering that his cr

Latest News Jan. 16, 2014

 The Obama administration's top Asia hand said stand-offs between South Korea and Japan, as well as tensions between China and Japan, threaten the international community, strapped with a fragile economy.   On a trip to Europe, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel said strained ties between the world's second-and third-largest economies, China and Japan, are something that the world can't afford.   "By the same token, (South) Korea and Japan are two leadi

Latest News Jan. 16, 2014

 A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday passed a bill approving a two-year extension of a civilian nuclear cooperation accord with South Korea.   The bill is designed to give the two sides more time to negotiate a new agreement on their partnership on peaceful nuclear energy use.   The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved it by voice vote.   Signed in 1974, the current version of the allies' nuclear energy partnership agreement is slated to expire in March. The two sides have st

Latest News Jan. 16, 2014

 The U.S. House of Representatives took another landmark step Wednesday against Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean and other Asian women during World War II, formally calling on the secretary of state to pay more attention to the matter.   A document attached to a spending bill for 2014 urges the secretary to encourage the implementation of a 2007 resolution on the "comfort women" issue.   The House "notes" the passage of the resolution and "urges the Secretary of State to encourage the Govern

Latest News Jan. 16, 2014