South Korea asked its people staying in southern Turkey near the border with Syria to leave the area, an official said Friday, the latest in a series of warnings amid a worsening security situation.   The foreign ministry recommended South Koreans who are staying within 10 kilometers of the border with Syria to immediately leave for safe areas, according to the ministry official.   The move comes as the security situation is worsening in border areas due to the U.S-led airstrikes against Islamic

Social Affairs Oct. 3, 2014

British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Kabul Friday on an unannounced visit, becoming the first world leader to hold talks with newly-inaugurated President Ashraf Ghani, officials said.   Ghani was inaugurated on Monday to lead Afghanistan as most NATO troops leave the country by December after 13 years of fighting the Islamist insurgency that erupted after the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.   Ghani was elected in a fraud-tainted election in June that plunged Afghanistan into months

World News Oct. 3, 2014

Lee Kun-hee, the de facto head of Samsung Group who has been hospitalized since May after suffering a heart attack, might be transferred to his house for further medical treatment, group sources said Friday, amid media reports that his condition is improving.    In preparation for home medical treatment, the sources said that Samsung Group is building an elevator inside Lee's house located in central Seoul.    "It is right that we are building an elevator in case of his release from the hospital

Oct. 3, 2014

Senior U.S. government officials handling Korean affairs are to visit Seoul this weekend for meetings with their counterparts on ways to strengthen the alliance between the two countries and to discuss other pending issues, officials said Thursday.   Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense David Shear said he and Assistant Deputy Secretary of State Daniel Russel will make a joint trip to Seoul to talk about ways to further bolster the traditional alliance between the two countries.   "I look forwa

Politics Oct. 3, 2014

A man whose body was found in the Philippines in July has been positively identified as South Korean, a South Korean official said Friday.   The official in the South Korean Embassy in the Philippines said the embassy has received confirmation from South Korean police that fingerprints of the body belonged to a South Korean man.   The official identified the victim only by his family name Lee aged 45.   Lee's body was found with a gunshot wound in his neck in Malabon, a northern suburb of Manila

Social Affairs Oct. 3, 2014

South Korea could include its move to lower the transactions tax rate in its stock market stimulus measures expected to be unveiled this month, government and industry sources said Friday.   Earlier, Shin Je-yoon, head of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), confirmed that he is to announce stock market stimulus measures "within October," calling for cooperation from the National Assembly to pass related bills going forward.    The FSC has already drawn up its draft measures, which are not u

Social Affairs Oct. 3, 2014

North Korea replaced the vice chairman of its powerful National Defense Commission in this year's second session of the rubber-stamp parliament on Thursday, the country's media said.   Hwang Pyong-so, the top political officer of the Korean People's Army, was elected as vice chairman of the all-powerful defense commission, replacing Choe Ryong-hae who had taken the position in the past parliamentary session in April, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English report, monito

North Korea Sept. 25, 2014

An American man recently sentenced by North Korea to six years of hard labor says he is digging in fields eight hours a day and being kept in isolation, but that so far his health isn't deteriorating.   Under close guard and with only enough time to respond to one question, 24-year-old Matthew Miller spoke briefly to an Associated Press Television News journalist at a Pyongyang hotel, where he had been brought to make a phone call to his family. It was his first appearance since he was convicted

North Korea Sept. 25, 2014

Hyundai Group is expected to be able to streamline its cyclical ownership structure with the sale of its logistics unit to be completed next week, raising market confidence in the cash-strapped conglomerate, corporate sources said Thursday.    Insiders said the money generated by the sale of Hyundai Logistics to Japanese private equity fund Orix Corp. will be used by Hyundai chairwoman Hyun Chung-eun and her family to purchase a100 percent stake in Hyundai Global, the holding company for the ent

Sept. 25, 2014