The South Korean finance minister will head to the Bahamas this week to attend the annual board meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank, where he will discuss bilateral and multilateral cooperation with his Central American counterparts, the finance ministry said Thursday.Yoo Il-ho, who is doubled-hatted as vice prime minister for economy, will depart late Friday on a 10-day trip that will also take him to the United States for a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors

International April 7, 2016

The number of South Koreans getting married dropped to a 12-year low in 2015, a government report showed Thursday, partly on a steady decline in the number of people in the marriage age group.In 2015, the number of marriages came to about 302,800, the lowest since 302,500 tallied in 2002, according to Statistics Korea.The annual figure represents a 0.9-percent drop from a year before, with 2015 marking the fourth consecutive year the number decreased.A drop in the number of marriages spells a pr

Social Affairs April 7, 2016

South Koreans can begin casting their ballots during the preliminary voting period for the April 13 parliamentary elections later this week, the state election office said Thursday.The preliminary voting will kick off on Friday for a two-day run at 3,511 polling stations across the country, the National Election Commission said.Voters are required to carry a valid form of photo identification and visit a nearby polling station between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., the NEC said.The NEC additionally set up p

Politics April 7, 2016

Federal Reserve policymakers were broadly worried about the threat of slower global growth to the US economy, the minutes from their March 15-16 meeting showed Wednesday.As they decided against an interest rate hike at that meeting, several also cautioned against an increase in April, saying it would signal a sense of urgency over US monetary conditions that "they did not think appropriate," the minutes said.The minutes showed most of 17 participants in the Federal Open Market Committee policy r

World Business April 7, 2016

The Air Force is conducting a five-day exercise aimed at rescuing pilots who are stranded deep inside enemy territory, by mobilizing two search and rescue helicopters, the military said Thursday.The rescue drill began its five-day run on Monday and will run till Friday at Yeongwol and Danyang, both some 200 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to the Air Force. The exercise was based on a simulation of rescuing pilots who have been forced to eject from their aircraft in hostile territories d

Defense April 7, 2016

The nongovernmental human rights group, Amnesty International, has listed North Korea as one of 11 countries that have carried out executions for the past five years, a U.S. media report said Thursday.AI said in its annual report released a day earlier that information on North Korea cannot be verified on its own, but reports have shown that North Korea has carried out capital punishment on various crimes, according to the Washington-based Voice of America.The report said the purging of North Ko

North Korea April 7, 2016

North Korea has recently opened a hospital in Tanzania and since been striving to boost earnings apparently to make up for its foreign income squeezed by international sanctions, a media report said Thursday.Maibong Sukidor Medical, a Korean traditional medical center, opened near the East African country's former capital of Dar es Salaam in early February, the Washington-based Radio Free Asia said. A copy of the center's business cards showed a doctor named Pak Jae-hong serves as the managing d

North Korea April 7, 2016

The United States has welcomed China's restrictions on mineral trade with North Korea, saying it will continue to urge Beijing to do more until there are "concrete signs" of Pyongyang's denuclearization. This week, China, the North's diplomatic and economic lifeline, imposed restrictions on North Korean coal and iron ore trade, while banning imports of North Korean gold and rare earth, in line with new U.N. sanctions against the North's nuclear and missile programs. In a statement released on We

North Korea April 7, 2016

South Korea will remain a second seed in the final Asian qualifying round for the 2018 FIFA World Cup despite the world football governing body's ruling that the country should be awarded a forfeit victory for their unplayed qualifier against Kuwait last month. FIFA's Disciplinary Committee announced on Wednesday (local time) that Kuwait have forfeited their Group G matches against South Korea and Laos in the second round Asian qualifiers for the World Cup in Russia. Kuwait have been suspended b

Soccer April 7, 2016

Prosecutors on Thursday formally arrested a former chief of South Korea's rail operator on suspicions of bribery in connection to a now-scrapped urban development plan in Seoul.The Seoul Central District Court issued a warrant to arrest Huh Joon-young, who led the Korea Railroad Corp. from 2009 to 2011, noting there are considerable reasons to believe he committed the crimes and could possibly destroy evidence.The 63-year-old is accused of receiving some 20 million won of illegal political funds

Social Affairs April 7, 2016

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has slammed Donald Trump's suggestion that South Korea and Japan develop their own nuclear weapons for self-defense, saying nothing can be "more volatile" or "more contrary" to peace and stability.Kerry also said in an interview with PBS on Tuesday that countries around the world are greatly concerned about the Republican front-runner and that wherever he goes as America's top diplomat, he gets questions, "What has happened to your politics?""When Donald Trump

World News April 7, 2016

South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam on Wednesday expressed his "deepest condolences" over the death of Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Germany's former foreign minister and key architect of the country's 1990 reunification.During his visit to the German Embassy in central Seoul, Lim wrote in the visitors' book, "His contributions to the unification of Germany will be remembered for long by the world, in particular by Korea."Genscher died of a heart failure at his home in Wachtberg near Bonn

Foreign Affairs April 6, 2016