South Korean girl group 2NE1 has been chosen by U.S. media website BuzzFeed as one of "11 girl groups from around the world to love right now."According to an article posted on the popular website Monday, 2NE1 is riffing on the format all over the world, along with British "X-Factor" champs Little Mix.The article further mentioned that the four members -- CL, Park Bom, Dara and Minzy -- are amazing dancers who create wild, over-the-top videos and that each have a distinct personality.2NE1's seco

April 2, 2014

The nation's top court on Wednesday accepted the resignation of a senior judge for delivering a controversial ruling that valued a convicted former tycoon's prison labor at 500 million won ($467,726) a day.Chang Byong-woo, the chief of the Gwangju District Court in the southwestern city of Gwangju, offered to resign on Saturday, holding himself accountable for allowing Huh Jae-hoh, the former chairman of the now-defunct Daeju Group, to pay off his fines of 25.4 billion won through 50 days of man

Social Affairs April 2, 2014

A co-leader of South Korea's new opposition party called on the government Wednesday to push for an inter-Korean summit to defuse high tension on the Korean Peninsula following the North's military provocations.Lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo made the proposal in his first address to the National Assembly after taking the helm of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy last month, along with former Democratic Party leader Kim Han-gil. NPAD holds the largest number of seats in parliament after the ruling

Politics April 2, 2014

Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest automotive conglomerate, said Wednesday that its U.S. sales moved up 3.7 percent in March, while its hold on the domestic market slipped slightly.The conglomerate said combined sales of cars made by Hyundai Motor Co. and affiliate Kia Motors Corp. in the United States stood at 121,782 units last month, up from 117,431 tallied a year earlier. The total is equivalent to 17.3 percent of all 703,534 cars sold worldwide by the two companies during the mo

Industry April 2, 2014

South Korea has called on North Korea to repay millions of dollars in loans it provided years ago, an official said Wednesday, amid rising tensions over Pyongyang's live-fire artillery drills and its threat of a nuclear test.South Korea's state-run Export-Import Bank sent a message to its North Korean counterpart on Tuesday to inform the North of its debt obligations, said the official at the unification ministry.The move came a day after North Korea failed to pay back $7 million as the third in

North Korea April 2, 2014

There were 209 reported attempts of technology theft in the past five years, an overwhelming majority of them from small- and midsize companies, South Korea's spy agency said Tuesday.According to a center for protection of industrial secrets under the National Intelligence Service, attempted theft of trade secrets to foreign countries has grown to cover a wider range of sectors, with smaller companies falling prey because of weaker security awareness and lack of resources to invest in advanced s

April 1, 2014

South Korea is conducting a probe into an unidentified drone that fell on one of its border islands during the latest cross-border exchange of artillery fire with North Korea in the western sea, military officials said Tuesday.The drone was collected from Baengnyeong Island, just south of the western maritime border, at around 4 p.m. on Monday, shortly after the North finished its three-hour shelling drill with coastal artillery guns and multiple rocket launchers. It was not immediately known wh

North Korea April 1, 2014

Ssangyong Motor Co., the local unit of Indian sport utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra, said Tuesday that its sales soared 23 percent on-year in March on the strength of consumer demand for its popular Korando family of rugged off-road vehicles.The carmaker's total sales hit 13,232 units last month compared with 10,761 vehicles sold a year earlier. Domestic sales reached 5,850 units, a 18.8 percent increase from the same one-month period in 2013. Exports, including knockdown kits, were ta

Industry April 1, 2014

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's No. 1 automaker, said Tuesday that its March sales jumped 10.6 percent from a year earlier, helped by the launch of new cars and a rise in production at home and abroad.The company said it sold 431,532 cars last month, with domestic sales rising 3.1 percent to reach 57,812. Overseas shipments gained 11.9 percent to 373,720 cars.On the domestic front, sales of the premium Genesis sedan reached 3,187 units, a three-fold gain from a year before, it said.The Grandeur

Industry April 1, 2014

North Korea warned Japan against selling a property in Tokyo that serves as the North's de facto embassy during their first high-level talks in more than a year, the chief Pyongyang delegate said Tuesday, adding that there would be "no need" for progress in bilateral talks unless Japan addresses the issue.The strongly worded remarks by Song Il-ho, North Korea's ambassador in charge of talks to normalize relations with Japan who led the two-day talks that ended on Monday in Beijing, suggested tha

North Korea April 1, 2014

North Korea on Tuesday launched scathing verbal attacks on South Korean President Park Geun-hye as it denounced her recent proposals calling for bolstering exchanges with the communist country.The North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper called her an eccentric old maid, an idiot and a hen over her comments on North Korea's economic difficulties and its homeless children.Park's comments "are an unpardonable insult" to the North, the newspaper said.The North's verbal attacks came more than a month af

North Korea April 1, 2014

Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest automaker, said Tuesday that its sales jumped 15.2 percent in March from a year ago, mainly helped by more overseas demand.The carmaker said it sold a total of 272,002 units overall last month, up from 236,076 a year earlier.Of all cars sold, sales in the home market contracted 1.3 percent on-year to 39,005 units, while overseas sales stood at 232,997, an 18.5 percent increase from March 2013, the company said in a statement."Despite economic uncert

Industry April 1, 2014