A South Korean sailor from a fishing vessel freed recently from Somali pirates apparently fell to his death from his hotel in Kenya on Wednesday, a foreign ministry official said.   Kim Yong-hyun, 68, one of the 43 crew members of the Keummi 305 released last week after four months in the hands of Somali pirates, died at 2:25 a.m. Wednesday (local time) apparently after falling from his third-fl

Social Affairs Feb. 17, 2011

   South Korean stocks started higher on Thursday as investor sentiment got a boost from Wall Street gains sparked by growing optimism about the U.S. economic recovery, analysts said.   The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) advanced 11.36 points, or 0.57 percent, to trade at 2,000.47 in the first 15 minutes of trading.   Tech shares were in focus with market leader Samsung Electr

Feb. 17, 2011

   WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The Obama administration is committed to pass through Congress pending free trade deals with South Korea, Panama and Colombia this year, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday.   "We would like to pass all of them, alongside trade adjustment assistance, and we want to do it this year," Geithner told a Senate Finance Committee hearing. "They're overwhelmingly i

Feb. 17, 2011

 Park Geun-hye, former chairwoman of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), said Wednesday that President Lee Myung-bak will have to assume full responsibility for his possible attempt to review his election pledge to build an "international science-business belt" in the central Chungcheong province.  Park, a leading presidential hopeful who has frequently clashed with Lee over key state policies,

Politics Feb. 17, 2011

   A South Korean fishing vessel, freed by Somali pirates after four months of captivity, is expected to arrive at a Kenyan port this week en route to South Korea, a government official here said Sunday.   "The ship, Keummi 305, is currently passing through international waters at 8-knot average speed after receiving fuel supply from a Finnish warship belonging to a fleet of the European Union," t

Politics Feb. 13, 2011

   North Korea's foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has spread across many parts of the country after the first case was confirmed in the capital city on Dec. 25, a U.S. broadcaster said Sunday.   Radio Free Asia (RFA), quoting a report by the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health, said the communist country confirmed that since the first case hit a small cattle farm in Pyongyang, the highly

North Korea Feb. 13, 2011

  Nearly half of North Korean defectors here have remitted money to their families in the impoverished communist nation under U.N. sanctions, a poll showed Sunday.   According to the survey of 396 North Korean defectors residing in South Korea, aged 15 or older, 49.5 percent said they have sent money to their families in the North, while 46 percent said they have not and 4.5 percent said that they

North Korea Feb. 13, 2011

  Prices of many daily necessities increased in January despite government efforts to fight rising inflation, a report by the state-run consumer protection watchdog showed Sunday.   The report by the Korea Consumer Agency showed that of the 80 everyday consumer necessities monitored such as sugar, cereals and detergents, prices for 53 of the products, or 66.3 percent, went up in the cited month co

Feb. 13, 2011