Police said Friday that they have brought additional child abandonment charges against a 50-year-old female suspect accused of murdering two men.The suspect, identified only by her surname Lee, has been under investigation over suspicions that she killed her husband and boyfriend, and abandoned their bodies at her house in this city 46 kilometers north of Seoul.The double murder case sent shock waves across the country as the two bodies were found wrapped with blankets inside a rubber container

Social Affairs Aug. 8, 2014

South Korean pop sensation Psy's 2012 global mega-hit, "Gangnam Style," has topped a Billboard genre chart again this week, the charts company said Friday, a move showing the song's long-lasting popularity.The song rose to the top of Billboard's Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs Chart again, climbing a notch from the No. 2 spot shared by "Turn Down For What," a 2013 single by DJ Snake and Lil Jon, last week."Gangnam Style" had spent seven weeks at No. 2 on the "Hot 100," Billboard's main chart, a

Aug. 8, 2014

The National Assembly on Friday endorsed a former ruling party chief as education minister in one of the last steps to forming President Park Geun-hye's new Cabinet.The parliamentary education and culture committee adopted a report endorsing Hwang Woo-yea, a five-term lawmaker and former chief of the ruling Saenuri Party, as the new education minister following a confirmation hearing Thursday.Park tapped Hwang last month immediately after she withdrew her first nominee, Kim Myung-soo, amid contr

Politics Aug. 8, 2014

The government approved the nomination of Gen. Kim Yo-hwan as the country's new Army chief on Friday, an official said.The decision reached at a Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Chung Hong-won came a day after Kim was tapped to lead the Army, which is under mounting public fire over the beating death of a soldier.Kim's formal appointment requires the approval of President Park Geun-hye.Kim's predecessor quit earlier this week over the latest incident that illustrated a deep-rooted

Politics Aug. 8, 2014

US military planes returned to the skies over northern Iraq on Thursday to deliver food and water to thousands of civilian refugees fleeing an onslaught by Sunni extremist militants.A senior US defense official confirmed the mission had dropped "critical meals and water for thousands of Iraqi citizens," and President Barack Obama was due to make a statement.All the planes returned safely after the food drop on an area outside the town of Sinjar where members of the Yazidi minority are besieged b

World News Aug. 8, 2014

Ebola's spread to the United States is "inevitable" due to the nature of global airline travel, but any outbreak is not likely to be large, US health authorities said Thursday.Already one man with dual US-Liberian citizenship has died from Ebola, after becoming sick on a plane from Monrovia to Lagos and exposing as many as seven other people in Nigeria.More cases of Ebola moving across borders via air travel are expected, as West Africa faces the largest outbreak of the hemorrhagic virus in hist

World News Aug. 8, 2014

South Korea and the United States should admit their agreement to transfer wartime operational control of South Korean troops from Washington to Seoul was a mistake and should focus on strengthening combined defense capabilities, a U.S. expert said Thursday.David S. Maxwell, associate director of the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University, made the point, stressing the planned transfer would involve dismantling the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, which he said would "

Defense Aug. 8, 2014

The United States declined comment Thursday on a news report that a Korean American is under investigation in China, possibly as part of a crackdown on Christian-run nongovernmental organizations near the border with North Korea.The Reuters news agency reported earlier that Peter Han, a naturalized U.S. citizen, has been under interrogation by Chinese authorities for the last three weeks and is banned from leaving the country. It quoted a source saying it is unclear what prompted the probe.The r

Foreign Affairs Aug. 8, 2014

South Korea's foreign minister plans to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Friday on the sidelines of Asia's biggest security forum in a bid to discuss North Korea's nuclear program and other bilateral issues, government officials said.South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se is to arrive in Naypyitaw on Friday to join a series of meetings hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including the ASEAN Regional Forum. ARF will be held on Sunday.Yun plans to hold a meeting with C

Foreign Affairs Aug. 8, 2014

China executed another South Korean drug offender Thursday, one day after two South Koreans were executed in the country for smuggling and trading drugs, a government source said.A district court in Qingdao, Shandong Province, ordered the execution of the South Korean criminal surnamed Jang for smuggling a large amount of methamphetamine into the country and selling it there, according to the source.Jang was arrested in 2009 for trafficking 11.9 kilograms of methamphetamine and China's highest c

Social Affairs Aug. 7, 2014

Gen. Kim Yo-hwan, chief of the Army's Second Operations Command, has been nominated to become the country's new Army chief, the defense ministry said Thursday.Kim, 58, a specialist in field operations with broad experience in the Army, will succeed Gen. Kwon Oh-sung, who offered to resign on Tuesday, holding himself responsible for the brutal death of an Army conscript in April. "After the approval of the Cabinet during a weekly meeting slated for Friday, President Park Geun-hye is expected to a

Defense Aug. 7, 2014

South Korea has not decided yet whether or when to propose to North Korea to hold another round of family reunions, an official here said Thursday.The upcoming Chuseok holiday, Korea's biggest traditional autumn celebration, offers a good chance for the two Koreas to resume the event for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.This year's Chuseok falls on Sept. 8."Since it is a humanitarian matter, it can be reviewed on a working level. For now, however, no specific decision has been made,"

North Korea Aug. 7, 2014

South Korea will dispatch a Navy destroyer to Libya on Thursday as the country starts to evacuate South Koreans from the African country amid a worsening security situation there, the foreign ministry said.The dispatch came after the government issued a top-tier travel alert for the violence-ravaged country last week, requiring South Koreans based in Libya to evacuate. "The (4,400-ton) Munmu the Great will leave Oman's Port of Salalah in the afternoon to arrive in the sea of Libya around mid-Aug

Defense Aug. 7, 2014