Japan's agriculture minister stepped down Monday following questions over political funding contributions, the latest in a series of such resignations. Koya Nishikawa resigned as head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries saying he wanted to avoid disruptions to parliamentary proceedings.Questions arose over an alleged 1 million yen ($8,400) donation to a ruling Liberal Democratic Party chapter headed by Nishikawa from a company run by a sugar manufacturers association that had

World News Feb. 23, 2015

Police said Monday that a civilian worker with the Eighth U.S. Army has been charged with violating a drunken driving inspection and injuring a police officer on duty.The U.S. national contractor, whose name was withheld, is suspected of hitting the police officer while dodging a crackdown on drunken drivers late Sunday in the Seoul district of Yongsan where the Army base is located, according to police.During questioning, the 31-year-old said he was searching for a hospital to get medication fo

Social Affairs Feb. 23, 2015

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's No. 1 mobile carrier, on Monday won a patent lawsuit against global mobile messenger Viber, a court ruling that could shut out the messenger service from local smartphones.The Seoul Central District Court said Viber has infringed on four patents held by SK Telecom and that the company should not distribute its application in the South Korean market.In the lawsuit filed last year, SK Telecom had claimed that Viber's feature of reorganizing selected information from c

Industry Feb. 23, 2015

The government on Monday accepted the resignation of the Navy chief who offered to quit over alleged corruption and named a vice admiral as his successor, the defense ministry said.Adm. Hwang Ki-chul expressed his will to step down from the post in December, two weeks after the state audit agency announced the outcome of an investigation into alleged graft involving the country's indigenous salvage ship, the ministry said in a statement.Chung Ho-seop, vice chief of naval operations, will replace

Defense Feb. 23, 2015

George Mason University Korea will host an open house event for Korean high school students on Saturday, school officials said.The school will invite students in second and third year in high school for a campus tour and introduction to the application process at the university, which is part of the Incheon Global Campus. “We are offering this open house to allow third-year high school students the ability to expand their range of choices for college and second-year students to learn about and p

Social Affairs Dec. 18, 2014

A European Union court on Wednesday ordered the Palestinian group Hamas removed from the EU terrorist list for procedural reasons, but says the bloc can maintain asset freezes against Hamas members for now.The Islamic militant group, which calls for the destruction of Israel, hailed the decision. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the EU to reverse it.Hamas was put on the EU terrorist list as part of broader measures to fight terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. It w

World News Dec. 17, 2014

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se met Wednesday with a U.S. congressman who spearheaded an effort for the passage of a landmark 2007 resolution on Japan’s wartime sex slavery in the U.S. House of Representatives, officials said.Rep. Michael Makoto Honda, a California Democrat whose district includes the Silicon Valley, arrived in Seoul earlier in the day for a five-day stay to meet government officials to discuss an alliance between Seoul and Washington and situations in Northeast Asia.

Foreign Affairs Dec. 17, 2014

North Korea has refused to accept a protest letter from South Korea over its unilateral decision to amend the wage system for its workers at a joint industrial zone in its border city of Kaesong, a Seoul official said Tuesday.The North earlier said it has scrapped the 5-percent cap on the annual increase rate in minimum wages for around 53,000 employees at the Kaesong Industrial Complex. It also announced plans to relax requirements for overtime and severance pay for them.The South said the Nort

North Korea Dec. 16, 2014

North Korea has a strong will for dialogue with South Korea but it continues to set a halt to the cross-border spread of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets as a precondition, a South Korean lawmaker said Tuesday after a rare visit to the communist nation.Rep. Park Jie-won of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy met with Won Dong-yon, vice chairman of the North's Asia-Pacific Committee, during a visit to an inter-Korean industrial complex in the North's border city of Kaesong.P

North Korea Dec. 16, 2014

Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday, killing at least 84 people, officials said, in the worst attack to hit the country in over a year.The overwhelming majority of the victims were students at the army public school, which has children and teenagers in grades 1-10.The horrific violence, carried out by a relatively small number of militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban group, a Pakistani militant group trying to overthrow the govern

World News Dec. 16, 2014

Former Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry announced his retirement on Tuesday, ending a 20-year career in which he earned a place in the pantheon of modern greats. The 37-year-old Henry, a member of the France teams that won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship, was linked to a potential coaching role with the Gunners after ending his career at the New York Red Bulls, but announced he will become a TV analyst.Henry, who holds the French record of 51 goals in 123 internationals

Soccer Dec. 16, 2014

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Wednesday that North Korea has shown provocative and conciliatory gestures as a North Korean vessel violated the western maritime border only days after ranking officials made a surprise visit to the South.Park made the remarks in a meeting with Le Luong Minh, secretary general of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), at her office, requesting that ASEAN play a role in prodding the North into giving up its nuclear weapons.As North

Foreign Affairs Oct. 8, 2014