South Korea will provide more humanitarian aid to North Korea to help ease rising inter-Korean tensions, Seoul's point man on Pyongyang said Friday.Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said he will make efforts to encourage more private organizations to increase exchanges at a time when the government's assistance to Pyongyang has been suspended due to 2010 punitive measures on the North for its attack on a South Korean warship."What I'll focus on is how to set up the channel of communications bet

North Korea April 17, 2015

South Korea will take additional stimulus measures in the second half of 2015 if the need arises to prop up the slowing economy, the nation's economic czar has said.Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, who is in Washington to attend a G20 ministerial meeting, made the remarks in an interview with CNBC on Thursday amid growing concern that Asia's fourth-largest economy may lose further ground this year due to falling exports and still anemic domestic demand."We are keeping close tabs on overall econ

April 17, 2015

President Park Geun-hye's approval rating has dropped this week from a week earlier amid a bribery scandal involving some of her key aides, a poll showed Friday.The poll conducted this week by research agency Gallup Korea put her approval rating at 34 percent, down 5 percentage points from the previous week.Regarding Park's job performance, 54 percent of the respondents gave a negative assessment while 12 percent gave no response.Only 51 percent of the respondents from the southern regions of Da

Politics April 17, 2015

South Korea bashed North Korea on Friday for its renewed pledge to cling to its nuclear weapons program, saying it would deal sternly with the communist nation's provocative act.The response by Seoul's defense ministry came after Hyon Yong-chol, the chief of Pyongyang's People's Armed Forces, claimed during an international security conference in Moscow on Thursday that its possession of nuclear weapons "is the direct result of the hostile policy by the United States and ... aimed at eliminating

Defense April 17, 2015

President Park Geun-hye arrived in Colombia Thursday on the first leg of a four-nation trip to South America to help boost South Korea's ties with the "continent of opportunities."The visit underscored Park's efforts to build confidence with her counterparts from Colombia, Peru, Chile and Brazil to expand cooperation with the emerging markets.The combined gross domestic product of the four countries stood at US$3.1 trillion, about half that of 33 South and Central American countries.Seoul said l

Foreign Affairs April 17, 2015

Haruki Murakami, a world-renowned Japanese novelist, said Japan needs to offer an "open-ended" apology for its wartime atrocities, according to a news report Friday."Apology is not a shameful thing," he said in an interview with Japan's Kyodo News Service, adding that his country's past invasion of other nations itself is a "fact," regardless of disputes over details.He said Japan should admit what it did and apologize for that until other countries affected say "it's enough."Murakami stressed t

World News April 17, 2015

Asiana Airlines Inc., South Korea's second-largest flag carrier, said Friday that it will suspend its flights to Hiroshima, Japan, until the end of this month in order to review safety measures.The move comes after an Asiana passenger jet carrying 73 passengers skidded off the runway at Hiroshima Airport on Tuesday while landing, leaving 25 people slightly injured."We will suspend flights to and from Hiroshima, during which we will review the overall safety measures related to the Hiroshima rout

Industry April 17, 2015

대구고법 제1형사부(이범균 부장판사)는 함께 술을 마신 10대 학원생들을 성폭행한 혐의(아동•청소년의 성보호에 관한 법률 위반)로 기소된 음악학원 원장 A(40)씨에 대한 항소심에서 원심과 같이 징역 4년을 선고했다고 17일 밝혔다.　A씨는 2013년 5월 경북 포항에서 학원생 B양과 술을 마시다 B양이 취하자 인근 모텔로 데려가 강제로 성폭행하는 등 학원생 2명에게 같은 방법으로 범행을 한 혐의를 받고 있다.　재판부는 “피고인이 보호하고 교육해야 할 어린 제자를 상대로 이런 범행을 저질렀다는 점에서 죄질이 매우 좋지 않고 피해자들도 피고인 처벌을 원하는 점을 고려했다”고 판결 이유를 밝혔다. (khnews@heraldcorp.com)

한국어판 April 17, 2015

The combined market capitalization of South Korean firms listed on the main and secondary bourse has increased more than 10 percent this year to rank 11th among global peers, data showed Friday.The combined market cap of South Korean firms reached $1,341 billion as of Wednesday, the 11th highest in the world, up one notch from the end of 2014, according to the data by the bourse operator Korea Exchange (KRX) and Bloomberg. The Wednesday figure marks a 13.4 percent jump from the end of last year

April 17, 2015

South Korean tech behemoth Samsung Electronics Co. outpaced its competitors in global smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2015, widening its market share lead over its closest rival Apple Inc., data showed Friday.In terms of sales volume, Samsung took up 27.8 percent of the global smartphone market in the January-March period, up from 24.7 percent three months earlier, according to the data by market tracker TrendForce. In contrast, Apple's market share came to 19.9 percent in the first qua

Industry April 17, 2015

Hyundai Motor Co.'s Accent subcompact and Kia Motors Corp.'s Sportage SUV and Rio compact each earned four out of five stars in a U.S. collision test, a report showed Friday. According to the overall safety test conducted by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Hyundai's Accent scored four stars out of five in all three crash tests administered by the agency. The NHTSA releases the outcome of its crash tests for new vehicle models by major carmakers each year, reviewi

Industry April 17, 2015

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se Friday called for closer global cooperation against cyber-attacks, citing the hacking of Sony Pictures and South Korea's nuclear power plant operator by North Korea.After their own investigations, the U.S. and South Korea announced that North Korea was behind the series of online attacks.The communist nation denied the allegations.The two cases "vividly" showed the gravity of the cyber threat, Yun said while delivering a keynote speech at the Global Conference on Cy

Foreign Affairs April 17, 2015

“오피스텔 성매매로 1억원 가까이 모았다”며 인터넷에 통장 잔고를 인증한 사진과 글을 올린 여성이 탈세 조사를 받게 됐다.  국민일보에 따르면 ‘1억 오피녀(오피스텔 성매매 여성)’라고 불리는 해당 여성이 인터넷에 인증글을 게시한 후 국민 신문고(온라인 공공민원창구)에 여성의 탈세 의혹과 관련한 수사 요구가 빗발쳤다고 한다. 이에 서울지방국세청 해당 여성에게 탈세 정황이 있다고 판단해 그의 인적사항을 파악 중에 나섰다고 한다.  국세청은 여성의 탈세가 확인되면 충분한 조사를 거친 뒤 적절한 세금을 물리겠다고 밝혔습니다. 이 여성은 지난 11일경 한 온라인 커뮤니티에 “드디어 200만 더 모으면 1억 되네요” 라며 “내일부터 일할 건데 (1억 원이 모이면) 너무 행복할 것 같아요.”라는 글과 함께 통장 잔액 약 9,800만 원이 찍힌 인증 사진을 올렸다. “

한국어판 April 16, 2015

한때 대세 레이싱 모델로 방송까지 영역을 확장했던 김시향이 최근 미국에서 가장 섹시한 한국 맥심 커버걸로 선정되었다.  미국의 데이터 분석 및 각종 순위선정 기관 랭커 (Ranker)의 조사에 따르면 김시향은 한국에서 맥심 표지를 장식한 인물 가운데 가장 섹시하다는 결과가 나왔다.  김시향을 이어 정인영 아나운서가 2위, 3위에는 걸 그룹 레인보우의 조현영이 선정되었다.  그 밖에도 정가은, 탤런트 강예빈 등이 순위권에 들었다. 　

한국어판 April 15, 2015