A local daily reporter and a blogger were arrested for spreading false rumors about a TV announcer's personal life, prosecution officials said Monday, in yet another case of online libel leading to criminal charges.The Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office said the two face defamation charges for their online postings. They had claimed that Hwang Soo-gyeong, an announcer with state-run broadcaster KBS, was caught having an affair, and that her prosecutor husband was going to divorce her.The

Social Affairs Oct. 14, 2013

The United States moved closer to a default that could damage the economy and a partial government shutdown entered its third week as Senate Democratic and Republican leaders remained at odds in their last-ditch negotiations to end the fiscal crises gripping Washington.Congress is racing against the clock, with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warning that the U.S. will quickly exhaust its ability to pay the bills on Thursday. Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund's managing director, sp

World Business Oct. 14, 2013

South Korea said Monday that it has postponed an investor relations event planned for the end of the month at a joint inter-Korean factory park in Gaeseong.The event that was originally set for Oct. 31 was arranged to attract foreign investors to set up factories at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, which is currently home to only South Korean companies."Seoul sent the message to the North last Friday adding that under present circumstances, the conditions for holding the event cannot be met," a

North Korea Oct. 14, 2013

Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski will make a four-day state visit to South Korea next week for a summit with President Park Geun-hye about economic and security cooperation, the presidential spokeswoman said Monday.The Oct. 21-24 visit is Komorowski's first trip to South Korea since he took office in 2010. He will also be the first European head of state to make a state visit to the country under the Park administration, presidential spokeswoman Kim Haing said.Komorowski is scheduled to h

Foreign Affairs Oct. 14, 2013

Chinese inflation hit a seven-month high of 3.1 percent in September, data showed Monday, with analysts warning further upward pressure on prices would restrict the government's options to boost the economy.The rise in the consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation in the world's second-largest economy, was sharply up from the 2.6 percent logged in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).It was also ahead of expectations of 2.9 percent in a poll by Dow Jones Newsw

World Business Oct. 14, 2013

Prosecutors said Monday they were closely analyzing documents seized from the headquarters of Hyosung Group over suspicion that the country's 26th-largest conglomerate evaded a massive amount of taxes.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office last week raided the company's headquarters in central Seoul to obtain computer hard drives and documents, including accounting books, after the country's tax agency had filed a charge against the group's chairman, Cho Suck-rai, 79, for allegedly leadi

Social Affairs Oct. 14, 2013

Colonial Japan forced hundreds of Korean girls into hard labor to produce its war supplies, a report showed Monday, adding to the grievances of Koreans against Japan's exploitation in war times that also include sexual enslavement.The average age of Korean females subjected to forced labor came to 16.46 years, according to the report on 1,039 cases of coerced labor on Korean women by Japan during its colonial rule from 1910-45.  Among those drafted for factory jobs, the average age came out to b

Social Affairs Oct. 14, 2013

South Korea logged a trade surplus for the 20th straight month in September despite shrinking exports, customs data showed Monday.South Korea's exports came to US$44.71 billion last month, down 1.5 percent from the same month a year earlier. They are also down 3.4 percent from August, according to the data provided by the Korea Customs Services. The country's imports shrank 3.6 percent on-year to $41.03 in September and fell 1.1 percent from the previous month, the data showed.As a result, Korea

Oct. 14, 2013

Seoul and Washington have agreed to reset the timing of the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) next year after reviewing North Korean threat and the South Korean forces capabilities to deal with it, the defense ministry here said Monday.  The issue of the OPCON transfer to Seoul surfaced as the major issue in this year's parliamentary audit on the defense ministry, which in May proposed the U.S. government to reconsider the December 2015 deadline in light of the rising North Korean

Defense Oct. 14, 2013

South Korean stocks reverted to positive territory late Monday morning after trading lower in the earlier session, as some large-cap financial and defensive shares turned to gains, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 0.39 points, or 0.02 percent to 2,025.29 as of 11:20 a.m.State-run Korea Electric Power Corp. shot up more than 2 percent, with Shinhan Financial Group advancing 1.2 percent. The local currency was changing hands at 1,072.55 won against the g

Oct. 14, 2013