A South Korean author recently released a historical fantasy novel written in English about a super heroine from 17th century Korea.Written by Lee Jung-jin, a former professor of Seoul's Korea University, the novel, "Lady Bora from Diamond Mountain," was released on Aug. 1 by Amazon's CreateSpace on-demand publishing platform. Lee, also known as Daisy Lee Yang, is the wife of Yang Sung-chul, a former lawmaker who served as the South Korean ambassador to the United States under the Kim Dae-jung a

Books Sept. 4, 2014

Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest automotive conglomerate, said Thursday that its U.S. sales reached record high levels for August by gaining 5.5 percent on-year to 124,670 units, fueled by demand for popular models.Hyundai Motor America and Kia Motors America, the distribution and marketing arms of the group's flagship companies, said sales were up 5.9 percent and 5 percent, respectively, in the one-month period compared with a year earlier.HMA said it sold 70,003 cars last month,

Industry Sept. 4, 2014

The United States said Wednesday it has seized about $500,000 in assets traceable to proceeds from corruption accumulated by former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, vowing to deny foreign officials safe haven for their corrupt assets.The seized assets are an investment that a daughter-in-law of the former South Korean president made in a Pennsylvania limited partnership, the Justice Department said in a press release. It did not elaborate on who the daughter-in-law is.The latest seizure bro

Social Affairs Sept. 4, 2014

South Korea's economy expanded 0.5 percent in the second quarter from three months earlier but at the slowest pace in over a year, central bank data showed Thursday.Korea's gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic performance, slowed from a 0.9 percent growth logged in the previous quarter, according to the revised data by the Bank of Korea.The seasonally adjusted figure also slipped from an earlier estimate of a 0.6 percent growth made in late July.Asia's fourth-largest economy

Sept. 4, 2014

The K League, the national governing body of professional football, launched an English-language website Wednesday, hoping that the move will help it better communicate with its growing international fan base. The website at www.kleague.com/eng contains information on the first-division K League Classic and the second-tier K League Challenge. The site features fixtures and results, match reports, statistics, league tables, video highlights and overviews of each club in both circuits. The page al

Soccer Sept. 3, 2014

Russian photographer Andrei Stenin, missing since early August, has been found dead in Ukraine, the RIA-Novosti press agency he worked for announced on Wednesday."Our colleague, the photographer Andrei Stenin, is dead. It turns out he was not a prisoner, he has been dead for a month," said the agency's head Dmitry Kiselev. (AFP)

World News Sept. 3, 2014

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, head of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, on Wednesday reshuffled his 20-month old cabinet.He kept key ministers including finance, foreign and economy ministers, while appointing five women, a record-high matching the number in Junichiro Koizumi's first cabinet launched in 2001.Here is a list of the new cabinet:   ++ denotes lawmaker from LDP's junior coalition partner New Komeito  F denotes female      Prime Minister: Shinzo Abe   *Finance and Deput

World News Sept. 3, 2014

Chinese President Xi Jinping and all six other members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the country's most powerful body, made a rare public appearance Wednesday to commemorate 69 years since Japan's surrender at the end of World War II.The ceremony was the first since Beijing earlier this year declared September 3 as a national day to mark Japan's defeat -- it signed the formal surrender on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, with China celebrating the following day.Re

World News Sept. 3, 2014

Slightly more than 60,000 students around the country left school in the 2014 school year due to various reasons such as diseases, financial difficulties and maladjustment, data showed Wednesday.According to the tally compiled by the Ministry of Education, 60,568 students attending elementary, middle and high schools in the country dropped out as of April 1 this year. The figure was 11.2 percent lower than a year ago.The ministry attributed the decrease to the government policy of bolstering car

Social Affairs Sept. 3, 2014

President Park Geun-hye asked the chairman of German software giant SAP Wednesday to increase investment in South Korea, her office said.Park met with Hasso Plattner, co-founder and chairman of the supervisory board of SAP, though no details of the meeting were immediately available.She also called on the German company to help South Korean software developers and promising startups make inroads into global markets.The German company plans to announce its plan to set up an innovation center in P

Politics Sept. 3, 2014

South Korea's top conglomerate, Samsung Group, which has been conducting a series of reorganizations, said Wednesday there are no scheduled affiliate shakeups "for the time being," slowing down its apparent efforts to prepare for the transfer of its management rights. "While it is hard to tell exactly until when, there will be no (affiliate reshuffles) for the time being," said Lee Jun, Samsung's chief communications officer, when asked by reporters if there are any plans to reshuffle its affili

Industry Sept. 3, 2014

South Korea's state audit agency has launched an inspection on the financial regulator for its decision giving local life insurers access to personal health records for use as credit information, financial sources said Wednesday.According to the sources, a team of inspectors from the Board of Audit and Inspection has been at the Financial Services Commission (FSC) since Monday for a probe expected to continue up to 15 days.The BAI sees the FSC's decision as somewhat problematic, the sources said

Sept. 3, 2014

South Korea's trade minister said Wednesday that he expected to see the conclusion of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement with China in the near future, possibly before the end of November."We may see significant progress in FTA talks with China in the near future," Yoon Sang-jick said while meeting with reporters here. "Actually, the Chinese side says it wants the FTA negotiations concluded before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Meeting in November."The APEC

Politics Sept. 3, 2014