A magnitude 4.9 quake occurred near waters off of Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea, marking the eighth time in a week that a tremor was reported in South Korea, the Korea Meteorological Administration said Saturday.   The seismic event took place at 7:02 a.m. with the epicenter located 31 kilometers south of the island that is the northernmost of the West Sea that lie just south of the sea demarcation line that separates the two Koreas.   The KMA said the quake was the sixth largest detected

Social Affairs May 18, 2013

GWANGJU—Koreans on Saturday honored the 33rd anniversary of a popular uprising in the southern city of Gwangju that acted as the watershed event in the nation's transition into a democracy.   The official event was attended by 2,500 people including President Park Geun-hye, senior government officials, political figures, related organizations and civic groups, and took place at 10 a.m.   The ceremony, held at the May 18 National Cemetery where people killed by troops under Chun Doo-hwan are buri

Social Affairs May 18, 2013

WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama plans to replace the top commander of U.S. forces in Korea, the Pentagon announced Friday, a move that comes as North Korea shows no signs of returning to dialogue aimed at easing military tensions and denuclearizing the peninsula.Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the Pentagon would promote Lt. Gen. Curtis ``Mike'' Scaparrotti, formerly deputy commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, to the rank of a four-star general to serve as commander of the 28,500 troops

Defense May 18, 2013

GENEVA (AP)-The World Meteorological Organization says last year was the ninth-warmest since record-keeping began in 1850, despite the cooling effect of the weather pattern called La Nina. The U.N.'s weather agency says this marks the 27th year in a row the global average temperature--58 degrees Fahrenheit (14.45 degrees Celsius) in 2012-- surpassed the 1961-1990 average. WMO said in annual climate report Thursday the years from 2001 to 2012 were all among the top 13 warmest on record - the hott

International May 2, 2013

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP)- The European Central Bank has cut its benchmark interest rate to a new record low to stimulate the lagging economy in the 17 countries that use the euro. The bank's rate-setting council lowered the refinancing rate a quarter-point to 0.5 percent at a meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia.  The move comes amid fears the eurozone economy may not recover later in the year from its recession.   In theory, a cut helps companies by lowering borrowing costs for banks that have borrow

May 2, 2013

The top nuclear envoys from South Korea and China held talks on Thursday, with Seoul and Pyongyang continuing to haggle over the fate of a troubled joint economic venture facing permanent closure.Lim Sung-nam, chief South Korean envoy to the six-party talks on the North's nuclear program, met his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei and discussed a full range of issues on North Korea, a diplomatic source here said. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Lim and Wu reaffirmed efforts f

North Korea May 2, 2013

President Park Geun-hye apologized to her rival political party on Friday for "causing concern" over a series of resignations by her nominees for senior government posts, a spokesman said.The president made the apology during a dinner meeting with leaders of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, DUP spokesman Jung Sung-ho said in a press briefing.The meeting was the first between the president and the DUP leadership since her inauguration on

Politics April 12, 2013

BEIJING (AP)— A northeastern Chinese city near the border with North Korea staged an air raid drill amid tensions over Pyongyang's latest threats, state media reported Friday.   Authorities in Huichen, a city of 250,000 people in Jilin province, sounded alarms in residential areas on Thursday morning, the China News Service reported. Participants were shown to underground shelters and the all-clear was sounded 30 minutes later, it said.  CNS quoted the leader of the exercise, Xu Helin, as saying

North Korea April 12, 2013

　건설업자 윤모(52) 씨의 별장 성접대 의혹을 조사중인 경찰이 이미 의혹을 받고 있는 김학의 법무차관 외에 다른 유력 고위 공직자들도 접대 대상에 포함, 수사를 확대하고 있는 것으로 드러났다.　22일, 경찰이 피해 여성 등을 통해 확보한 진술에 따르면 이미 사퇴한 김학의 차관 외에도 국정원 고위 간부, 전 •현직 경찰 수뇌부, 병원장, 전•현직 언론인 등 최소 10여명이 윤씨의 별장에서 성관계를 한 것으로 알려졌다. 　경찰은 성접대 의혹을 받고 있는 인사들이 윤씨로부터 접대를 받은 뒤 공사 수주와 각종 인허가에서 특혜를 준 것이 아닌지도 따져보고 있다. 또 윤씨가 이미 여러 차례에 걸쳐 사기•횡령• 특수강간 등 혐의로 고소•고발 당했으나 모두 무혐의 처리된 것에 대해, 이번 ‘별장 성접대’ 사건과 연관성이 있는지 수사하고 있다.　이번 사건이 알려진 것은 윤씨와 내연관계였던 권모(52) 씨가 지난해 윤씨를 경찰에 성폭행•공갈 혐의 등으로 고소하면서부터. 수사 중, 윤씨가 고위층 성접

한국어판 March 22, 2013

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis urged princes, presidents, sheiks and thousands of ordinary people gathered for his installation Mass on Tuesday to protect the environment, the weakest and the poorest, mapping out a clear focus of his priorities as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics The Argentine native is the first pope from Latin America and the first named for the 13th-century friar St. Francis of Assisi, whose life's work was to care for nature, the poor and most disadvantaged. Echoing th

International March 19, 2013

Creditors of Ssangyong Engineering & Construction Co. agreed Tuesday to rescue the troubled builder through a debt-to-equity swap program worth 170 billion won ($152.9 million), creditor bank officials said. The builder's creditor banks, including Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank, held a meeting headed by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the country's financial watchdog, later in the day to discuss the matter and agreed to the plan, they said.The swap will prevent the cash-strapped builder fr

Industry March 19, 2013

Talks between the country's ruling and main opposition parties on the envisioned government restructuring ended without an agreement Sunday, possibly causing difficulties for the new Park Geun-hye administration that is set to come into office later this month.   "We were unable to reach an agreement today," Chin Young, deputy chief of Park's transition team, told reporters following his meeting with officials from the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP).   The meeting between the DUP

Politics Feb. 17, 2013

With a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI did what no pope has done in more than half a millennium, stunning the world by announcing his resignation Monday and leaving the already troubled Catholic Church to replace the leader of its 1 billion followers by Easter.Not even his closest associates had advance word of the news, a bombshell that he dropped during a routine meeting of Vatican cardinals. And with no clear favorites to succeed him, another surprise likely awaits when the cardinals el

World News Feb. 11, 2013