A visiting Japanese ruling-party lawmaker stressed Friday the importance of keeping friendly ties with South Korea as the two neighbors have been facing unusually icy relations over historical issues.   "Close neighbors are more important than distant relatives,"Yoshitada Kounoike from the Japan's Liberal Democratic Party cited a Japanese proverb in a lunch meeting with South Korean lawmakers held in the local parliament building in Yeouido, western Seoul.   The proverb was picked as Kounoike em

Foreign Affairs Aug. 9, 2013

The U.S. State Department on Thursday warned Americans not to travel to Pakistan and ordered nonessential government personnel to leave the U.S. Consulate in Lahore because of a specific threat to that diplomatic mission.In a travel warning, the State Department said the presence of several foreign and indigenous terrorist groups posed a potential danger to U.S. citizens throughout Pakistan.The personnel drawdown at the Lahore consulate was a precautionary measure and wasn't related to the recen

World News Aug. 9, 2013

South Korean stocks closed marginally lower Friday as institutions and foreigners sold off local equities amid no fresh momentum to fuel the market, analysts said. The local currency edged up against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) declined 3.26 points, or 0.17 percent, to finish at 1,880.71.Trading volume was light at 276.5 million shares worth 3.48 trillion won ($3.12 billion) with losers outpacing gainers 454 to 316. The main index moved in a tight ran

Aug. 9, 2013

Half of all South Koreans favor maintaining the inter-Korean factory park at Gaeseong, even if it entails slight sacrifices, a local poll showed Thursday.The polls conducted by Gallup Korea on behalf of the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies (IPUS) at Seoul National University said 50.4 percent of those surveyed wanted the Gaeseong Industrial Complex to be kept in operation. This is a gain from 45.7 percent tallied last year.The factory park, which is home to 123 South Korean companies

North Korea Aug. 9, 2013

South Korean pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin of the Los Angeles Dodgers earned his team-leading 11th win of the season here on Thursday, keeping the St. Louis Cardinals at bay over seven strong innings in the Dodgers' 5-1 victory.The left-hander allowed one unearned run on five singles and struck out seven at Busch Stadium to improve to 11-3 in his rookie Major League Baseball (MLB) season. His winning percentage of .786 is the highest by a rookie pitcher in Dodgers' history.He lowered his ERA from 3.15 to

Baseball Aug. 9, 2013

South Korea issued a warning for a possible power shortage Friday as high temperatures led to a large increase in power consumption for cooling.Friday's warning was the second of its kind issued this year.The preliminary warning was issued at 1:39 p.m. after the country's power reserves dipped to below 3.5 million kilowatts, the Korea Electric Power Corp. said in a released statement.A light warning is issued when the power reserves fall below 4.5 million kilowatts, followed by a preliminary war

Social Affairs Aug. 9, 2013

A Seoul appellate court on Friday commuted the sentence of a pro-baseball player-turned-entertainer, charged with fraud, from 18 months to one year.Kang Byeong-gyu, 40, was found guilty of failing to return 300 million won ($273,822) that he borrowed from an acquaintance."A jail term is inevitable as the damage has not yet been reimbursed, although (Kang) came to an agreement with the victims,"Lee Jong-un, a judge of the Seoul Central District Court, said in his ruling.In the same ruling, the co

Social Affairs Aug. 9, 2013

South Korean stocks traded slightly higher late Friday morning, as shares of large-cap exporters pared earlier losses, analysts said. In a choppy trading, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 2.89 points, or 0.15 percent, to 1,886.86 as of 11:20 a.m.Tech giant Samsung Electronics shot up 1.5 percent, with chipmaker SK hynix jumping nearly 3 percent. In contrast, chemical and telecom issues lost ground. LG Chem shed 1 percent, and top mobile carrier SK Telecom slid 0.7 pe

Aug. 9, 2013

The top-division Dutch football club PSV Eindhoven has confirmed that South Korean footballer Park Ji-sung will return to the Netherlands on a one-year loan deal.PSV's technical director Marcel Brands announced on the team's website late Thursday, Korean time, that Park will rejoin the team from the English side Queens Park Rangers (QPR)."Park has passed a medical in Eindhoven and will train with his new PSV teammates for the first time on Thursday morning," the website reported. "The South Kore

Soccer Aug. 9, 2013

The government said Friday it will impose tax on more plastic surgeries starting next year, in line with its tax code overhaul aimed at broadening the tax revenue base.Starting in March of 2014, Seoul will expand its 10 percent value-added tax on plastic surgeries to include more procedures such as jaw reconstruction surgery, pimple treatment and hair removal, the country's health and finance ministries said.Current rules on tax have only applied to a limited number of operations, such as liposu

Aug. 9, 2013

A U.S. trade commission is expected to rule in favor of Apple Inc.'s patent infringement claims against Samsung Electronics Co. this week, granting another home-turf victory to the iPhone maker and raising concern over an import ban on Samsung's smartphones and tablets, industry watchers said Friday.The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is scheduled to give its final ruling on Apple's patent infringement claims against Samsung Friday (U.S. time).Last year, ITC made a preliminary ruling t

Industry Aug. 9, 2013