South Korea's central bank froze the key interest rate for the 13th consecutive month on Thursday as the local economy is slowly recovering amid tame inflation. The monetary policy committee, led by Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Lee Ju-yeol, kept the benchmark seven-day repo rate at 2.5 percent as widely expected.The policy decision is in line with an earlier poll conducted by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency. Eighteen analysts unanimously forecast the BOK to hold the base

June 12, 2014

South Korea and China are seeking to sign a deal on consular affairs when the leaders from the two nations meet for a summit in Seoul soon, sources said Wednesday.The agreement mainly calls for the two countries to notify each other within four days when a national from the other country is arrested or detained. Meeting with consular officials will be also allowed within four days, according to the sources.Following 11-year-long negotiations, the two countries reached the agreement on consular a

Foreign Affairs June 11, 2014

China on Wednesday rejected a call by Japan to drop its bid to have documents related to Japan's sexual enslavement of Asian women during World War II added to the UNESCO world memory list, calling the Japanese request "unreasonable." The reaction by Japan came a day after China confirmed that it has submitted the documents for inclusion in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register to prevent such crimes against humanity from happening again.Japan's chief government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, told r

World News June 11, 2014

South Korea will reveal names of public companies found to have been involved in illegal and unfair business practices later this year, the finance minister said Wednesday.The move is aimed at eradicating deeply rooted practices in the public sector, such as giving business favors to companies that have hired former executives or employees of public firms, and big firms abusing their market dominating power over smaller businesses. "The government will make a thorough review of such cases until

June 11, 2014

South Korea, the United States and China have been seeking for "various options" to resume long-stalled nuclear talks with North Korea, Seoul's chief nuclear envoy said Tuesday, but he declined to comment on prospects for a resumption of talks with the North. Hwang Joon-kook, South Korea's chief envoy for the six-nation talks, also said the three nations would not ease pressure on North Korea until it shows a "practical progress" in taking denuclearization steps before any resumption of nuclear

Politics June 10, 2014

Intelligence agency chief nominee Lee Byung-kee is a member of President Park Geun-hye's senior mentors' circle, with vast experience in politics and security affairs.Lee, currently South Korea's ambassador to Japan, has frequently been cited as one of the core senior mentors to Park since her first presidential bid in 2007. The 67-year-old nominee started his professional career as a diplomat after passing the state exam for diplomats in 1974. He soon moved to politics to serve as a chief proto

Politics June 10, 2014

Moon Chang-keuk, President Park Geun-hye's new pick for prime minister, is a former journalist known for his hard-hitting political commentaries that lean conservative.The 65-year-old joined the JoongAng Ilbo, one of South Korea's major newspapers, in 1975 and spent most of his career writing for the political desk before retiring last year. He has since worked as a chair professor at Seoul's Korea University and a visiting professor at Seoul National University in media studies.Moon's political

Politics June 10, 2014

Marseille striker Jordan Ayem scored a hat trick after entering the game as a substitute Monday as Ghana won its warmup match for next week's World Cup by beating South Korea 4-0.Ghana plays the United States next Monday in Natal, Brazil. The Black Stars eliminated the Americans from the World Cup in 2006 and 2010.Forward Abdul Majeed Waris left the game in the fourth minute with a left leg injury and was replaced by Ayem, who scored in the 13th minute when his shot from 15 yards deflected off d

Soccer June 10, 2014

A nuclear reactor on South Korea's eastern coast was temporarily shut down Monday due to a problem in one of its control rods, operators said.The reactor unit 1 at Hanwool Nuclear Power Plant in Uljin, 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul, was manually turned off after a control rod dropped, according to an official from the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., Ltd.A control rod is used in reactors to control the rate of nuclear fission."Nuclear reactors are designed to shut down automatically when the

National June 9, 2014

North Korea has arrested a US tourist for "hostile activities", Pyongyang's state media said Friday, bringing the total number of Americans held by the reclusive regime to three.The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the man was being questioned, identifying him only in Korean without providing the English spelling of his name."US citizen in custody for committing anti-DPRK (North Korea) hostile activities", KCNA said in the headline of a brief dispatch."The US Citizen, who entered

North Korea June 6, 2014