Police on Friday arrested a woman who first filed a sexual assault complaint against singer-actor Park Yoo-chun, who was mired in a series of similar allegations, on charges of false accusation and attempted blackmail.The Seoul Central District Court issued a warrant to formally arrest the woman in her 20s, whose identity was withheld, citing the possibility of the suspect destroying evidence or fleeing. Her cousin was also arrested for alleged involvement in the process.Park, a member of the fa

Performance Aug. 5, 2016

A U.S. court on Thursday rejected a demand from a right-wing Japanese group that a girl's statue symbolizing victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery be removed from the city of Glendale, a Korean-American activist group said.The 9th U.S. Court of Appeals issued the verdict, upholding a lower-court ruling that also dismissed the demand from the Japanese group Global Alliance for Historical Truth, according to the Korean American Forum of California.Thursday's ruling means that there will be no

International Aug. 5, 2016

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday he hasn't set any plan to meet with North Korean officials during the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics.Ban arrived in the Brazilian Olympic host city earlier Thursday to visit the athletes' village and take part in the torch relay.Also on the same day, Choe Ryong-hae, North Korea's No. 2 man, landed in Rio to attend the opening ceremony.Choe's arrival fueled speculation about a possible meeting with South Korean-born Ban. Their trip to Rio comes on

North Korea Aug. 5, 2016

South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan would be the first to tell you he shouldn't be the one in the spotlight at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and that suits him just fine.He does bring impressive credentials -- with four Olympic medals and two world championships -- but in his main event, the 400m freestyle, Park is ranked only sixth this year. His time of 3:44.26 is nearly three seconds behind the leader, Mack Horton of Australia."I am only sixth in the world and people aren't probably all that in

Olympic Games Aug. 5, 2016

No South Korean ships were attacked by pirates in the first six months of the year, while piracy on the whole dropped from a year earlier, the government said Friday."There have been no reports of a pirate attack on a South Korean ship in the first half," said the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.The number of incidents of piracy came to 98 in the January-June period, down 26.9 percent from a year earlier, while that of ships hijacked by pirates more than halved to five from 13 over the cited pe

Social Affairs Aug. 5, 2016

The chief organizer for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games said Thursday the main purpose of his visit to Rio de Janeiro is to learn about Olympic preparations.With Rio hosting South America's first Summer Games, Lee Hee-beom, president of the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, said he will be picking Rio's collective brain."We still have many things to learn and one of our main purposes to be in Rio is to learn from the experience in the Olympic Ga

Olympic Games Aug. 5, 2016

The navies of South Korea and the United States agreed Thursday to bolster cooperation and information sharing, especially in anti-submarine warfare, in order to address threats across the region, the U.S. Navy said Thursday.Adm. Jung Ho-sub, South Korea's chief of naval operations, reached the agreement when he held talks with his U.S. counterpart, Adm. John Richardson, at the Pentagon, the Navy said in a release. "It's extremely important as we work together -- as our two navies work together

Defense Aug. 5, 2016

The latest U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea are having little impact on the country's economy, a U.S. expert said, citing trade data between the North and its biggest economic partner, China.William Brown, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and non-resident fellow at the Korea Economic Institute in Washington, also said in a recent report that the sanctions do not appear to be affecting the North's domestic economy.The latest sanctions, which were adopted on March 2 in r

North Korea Aug. 5, 2016

South Korea will dispatch some 340 teachers and university students to 16 developing countries in the latter half of this year to carry out educational programs, the government said Thursday.The contingent will be made up of 140 teachers who will be stationed abroad for more than one year and 200 teacher trainees attending local teachers' colleges who will stay for a shorter period, according to the Ministry of Education and the National Institute for International Education Of the 140 long-term

Social Affairs Aug. 4, 2016

A recent decision by South Korea and the United States to place an advanced missile defense system on Korean soil is aimed at countering threats from North Korea, a government official said Thursday, saying that it's regrettable to see criticism by a Chinese state-run newspaper not based on objective facts.In an editorial dated on Wednesday, People's Daily claimed that the planned deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system poses a serious threat to China's strategic security inte

Defense Aug. 4, 2016