Several countries have launched tax evasion probes after a massive leak of confidential documents lifted the lid on the murky offshore financial dealings of a slew of politicians and celebrities.The scandal erupted on Sunday when media groups began revealing the results of a year-long investigation into a trove of 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which specialises in creating offshore shell companies.Among those named in the "Panama Papers" are close associate

World Business April 5, 2016

Park Byung-ho of the Minnesota Twins picked up his first Major League Baseball hit, as three South Koreans made their first appearances of the 2016 season Monday across the United States.Batting sixth as the designated hitter, Park went 1-for-3 and scored a run in his big league debut against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The O's prevailed 3-2 with Matt Wieters' walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth.Park was called out on strikes against Baltimore starter C

Baseball April 5, 2016

South Korean rhythmic gymnast Son Yeon-jae said Tuesday she is satisfied with her improving performance, but will work harder to earn a medal at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics.Son collected two silver medals in clubs and ribbon over the weekend at the International Federation of Gymnastics World Cup in Pesaro, Italy. Before that, she'd picked up a handful of medals in Russia, Finland and Portugal."I feel good because I saw my performance getting better," Son said upon her arrival at the Inch

Sports April 5, 2016

Prosecutors said Tuesday they have indicted a renowned South Korean broadcast script writer on charges of swindling some 7 billion won  from her acquaintances, including a high-profile actor.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said the suspect, identified only by her surname Park, is accused of pocketing some 4.6 billion won from actor Jung Woo-sung between November 2008 and July 2009.Park fooled the victim into investing in a private equity fund, which did not exist, by claiming fami

Social Affairs April 5, 2016

Recent satellite imagery shows "suspicious activity" at North Korea's nuclear complex in what could be a sign that Pyongyang might be trying to harvest weapons-grade plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, a U.S. website monitoring the North said Monday.The website 38 North said in a report that the satellite imagery has shown "exhaust plumes" from a thermal plant used to heat the Yongbyon nuclear complex's Radiochemical Laboratory, where spent nuclear fuel rods are reprocessed to extract plutonium."

North Korea April 5, 2016

North Korea should freeze all nuclear activities and take other initial denuclearization steps if it wants to resume negotiations to resolve the standoff over its nuclear programs, a senior American diplomat said Monday.Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel made the remark during a seminar in Washington after Pyongyang's powerful National Defense Commission called earlier in the day for negotiations to find a fundamental solution to the heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.Russel sai

North Korea April 5, 2016

South Korean President Park Geun-hye paid tribute to six Mexican cadets at a monument as she began the third day of her visit to Mexico.Park laid a wreath at the Heroic Cadets Memorial in Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, a monument that honors the six cadets who fought to the death in 1847 during the Mexican-American War.Park also attended a formal welcoming ceremony at the presidential palace before holding talks with her Mexican counterpart, Enrique Pena Nieto.The summit comes as South Korea i

Foreign Affairs April 5, 2016

South Korea plans to conduct a flight test of two new reconnaissance planes in the United States this week, which can help the country better detect signs of North Korean missile launches and other threats, officials said Monday. The planes, part of the enhanced Baekdu program, will undergo their first flight tests in an airfield in Texas later this week, according to officials at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.The test is intended to examine the operability of the aircraft with

Defense April 4, 2016

South Korea's unification ministry said Monday it has slapped five pastors with 2 million won fines each for meeting North Koreans without the government's approval.The pastors belonging to the National Council of Churches in Korea met with their North Korean counterparts in China in late February without receiving the ministry's approval for their contact. The fines mark the first time Seoul has penalized the NCCK for breaking rules regarding the meeting of North Koreans.South Korean nationals

Social Affairs April 4, 2016

South Korea's ICT ministry said North Korea's disruptions of GPS signals, which started last week, continued to affect local airplanes and ships on Monday.The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said the GPS disruptions that began Thursday have been repeating at intervals ever since, impacting Seoul's adjacent city of Incheon, and the surrounding Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces.The ministry said 746 airplanes and 621 vessels experienced disruptions, but no significant damage has been rep

North Korea April 4, 2016

Mexico has vowed it will continue to detain a North Korean freighter, an official said Monday, in the latest sign of its resolve to enforce U.N. resolutions on Pyongyang.Mexico detained the Mu Du Bong after identifying the ship as belonging to Ocean Maritime Management, a North Korean firm blacklisted by the U.N. for illegally shipping arms.One of the company’s ships was detained by Panamanian authorities in July 2013 for carrying Soviet-era MiG-21 fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles and o

World News April 4, 2016

South Korea and Japan are each other's most important neighbors, sharing strategic interests, a draft of Tokyo's annual foreign policy report said Monday.Japan's ties with South Korea have greatly advanced since last year's bilateral deal to settle the issue of Korean women forced to work at wartime Japanese military brothels, said the draft Diplomatic Bluebook for 2016 obtained by Kyodo News Service.According to the draft of the Japanese foreign ministry, South Korea is one of the most importan

Foreign Affairs April 4, 2016