Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is willing to play a mediator's role in resolving difficult issues between the two Koreas, a South Korean official now visiting Iran said Monday.The Iranian leader made the remarks during his meeting with South Korean Assembly Speaker Kang Chang-hee in Tehran on Monday, according to Kang's spokesman Bae Sung-rye.Kang is the first South Korean Assembly speaker to visit Iran since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1962.The spokesman said Rouhani told

Foreign Affairs Jan. 27, 2014

President Park Geun-hye plans tovmeet with officials of her party later this week to mark the firstvanniversary of her election, a party official said Tuesday.The meeting will take place over dinner at the presidentialvoffice Cheong Wa Dae on Thursday, which marks exactly one year since Park's election."It will likely be an occasion to encourage the party leadership and staff who worked hard during last year's presidential election," the official told Yonhap News Agency by phone, asking that he

Politics Dec. 17, 2013

Russia and Vietnam will cooperate in offshore oil exploration and deepen military ties, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday after "constructive and open" talks with his counterpart in Hanoi. Putin hailed increased bilateral trade -- worth some $3.6 billion last year, up 20 percent year-on-year -- as the two countries work towards a free trade agreement. They signed agreements on issues ranging from defence cooperation to joint oil exploration in Vietnam's offshore blocks, after Putin met Vietn

World News Nov. 12, 2013

Most mobile phone users have never heard of Tizen. Neither have car owners or anyone with a fridge.Samsung Electronics Co. wants to change that. The South Korean electronics giant is in a quiet push to make its Tizen operating system a part of the technology lexicon as familiar as Google's Android or Apple's iOS. Its ambition doesn't stop there. Samsung sees the software in your car, fridge and television too.The first developer conference in Asia for Tizen wrapped up Tuesday after a two-day run

World Business Nov. 12, 2013

Flamboyant former Japanese premier Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday called on his one-time protege and the nation's current leader to abandon nuclear power as anti-atomic sentiment runs high after the Fukushima disaster. The 71-year-old has emerged as a high-profile critic of the nuclear power industry he once supported, a move that surprised Shinzo Abe's administration which is pushing to restart Japan's shuttered reactors.Abe was Koizumi's right-hand man during part of the latter's 2001-2006 tenur

World News Nov. 12, 2013

China's leaders promised Tuesday a bigger role for the free market in the country's state-dominated economy as they try to overhaul a worn-out growth model.In a brief statement issued following a four-day meeting aimed at producing a reform blueprint for the coming decade, Communist Party leaders said state ownership will remain a pillar of the economy. But they gave an unusually strong endorsement to Chinese private businesses, saying they also are ``important components'' of the economy.Chines

World News Nov. 12, 2013

A leftist lawmaker, on trial for rebellion charges, flatly denied Tuesday that he had plotted to overthrow the South Korean government in the event of an inter-Korean war.Rep. Lee Seok-ki of the minor opposition Unified Progressive Party (UPP) has been indicted on charges of conspiring and inciting a rebellion, as well as sympathizing with North Korea, in violation of the South's anti-communist National Security Law, prosecutors said."(I) have never intended to conspire to stage a rebellion," Le

Politics Nov. 12, 2013

A U.N. Security Council sanctions committee will send a team of investigators to Cuba later this month to examine the case of a North Korean ship that was caught carrying weapons from the Caribbean nation, a news report said Saturday.The 14,000-ton Chong Chon Gang ship was intercepted by Panamanian authorities in July while trying to pass through the Panama Canal with a shipment of weapons suspected to be in violation of U.N. sanctions.North Korea and Cuba have both said that the ship was transp

North Korea Oct. 12, 2013

North Korea is set to complete construction of a lavish ski resort, touted as one of its young leader Kim Jong-un's pet projects, in late November and will formally open it next January, China's state media reported Saturday.The Masik ski resort, located near the North's east coast city of Wonsan, has been under construction since earlier this year.South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers this week that the North Korean regime has "wasted" $300 million to build leisure and sports facilities, incl

North Korea Oct. 12, 2013

The mother of an American man jailed in North Korea for unspecified anti-government crimes has expressed her gratitude to the North Korean government for allowing her to meet her son in Pyongyang, a news report said Saturday.Kenneth Bae, a 45-year-old Korean-American known as a Christian missionary, was arrested in North Korea last November on charges of unspecified anti-government activities. In April, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.His mother, Bae Myung-hee, 68, flew to Pyongyang o

North Korea Oct. 12, 2013

South Korea's Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok on Friday stressed the importance of a prudent fiscal policy as the world economy strives for sustained and balanced growth."A credible medium-term fiscal consolidation plan and structural reforms should be executed to increase policy space and improve economic fundamentals," he said in written suggestions submitted to the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group.This year's sessions opened Friday in Washington

Oct. 12, 2013

The U.S. government said Friday it played a limited role in the ongoing trip to North Korea by the mother of a jailed American man.In North Korea, Bae Myung-hee reportedly met her son, Kenneth Bae, who has been held in the communist nation for nearly a year, on Friday (local time).  She arrived there a day earlier.The State Department said it was aware of her visit."The U.S. government did not arrange Mrs. Bae's private trip. We helped her coordinate her trip with the Embassy of Sweden in Pyongy

North Korea Oct. 12, 2013