More than 90 percent of Chinese and Japanese people hold unfavorable views of each other's nations, a survey found Thursday, as the two countries are in a territorial standoff over a set of rocky islands in the East China Sea.Results of the annual survey, jointly sponsored by state-run media China Daily and a Japanese think-tank Genron NPO, are the worst in nine years, the China Daily reported in its front-page article.According to the survey, 92.8 percent of Chinese surveyed hold a negative vie

World News Aug. 8, 2013

The prosecution on Thursday raided the office of Gwangju Mayor Kang Un-tae, who is alleged to have been involved in a forgery scandal that allowed the city to win a bid for an international sports event.The Gwangju City government has been under fire for fabricating signatures of then-Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik and Culture Minister Choe Kwang-shik on bidding documents submitted to the governing body of the 2019 World Swimming Championships.The Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office sent investig

Social Affairs Aug. 8, 2013

Rival political parties on Wednesday agreed on a list of witnesses they will summon for a parliamentary probe into the state spy agency's alleged meddling in last year's presidential election.The agreement comes after weeks of wrangling between rival parties over who should stand as witnesses and how to ensure their appearance at the hearings.The probe, which began early last month, aims to uncover the truth behind allegations that the National Intelligence Service(NIS) conducted an online smear

Social Affairs Aug. 7, 2013

Former President Chun Doo-hwan, who owes 220 billion won (US$196.8 million) to state coffers, had inherited massive personal assets before taking office in the 1980s, a close aide claimed Tuesday.Chun was ordered by the nation's top court in 1997 to return the funds to the state coffers, which he was found to have illegally accumulated through bribery from big businesses during his military rule from 1980 to 1988."Political funds played no role in increasing Chun's assets, as he had inherited a

Social Affairs Aug. 6, 2013

Saenuri Party Chairman Rep. Hwang Woo-yea on Monday suggested holding a three-way meeting among President Park Geun-hye, Democratic Party Chairman Rep. Kim Han-gil and himself, raising hopes for an end to bipartisan deadlock over the parliamentary probe into the National Intelligence Service. “As the chairman of the ruling party, I suggest a trilateral meeting where the chief of the ruling and opposition parties meet with the president,” Hwang said at Monday’s Supreme Council meeting. “I implore

Politics Aug. 5, 2013

Police raided KT&G’s head office in Seoul on Monday over bribery allegations involving the tobacco maker’s senior executives, a subcontractor and a government official. An intelligence crime unit at the Korean National Police Agency seized computer hard disk drives and USB drives from KT&G’s real estate development team with a court-issued warrant.The raid came after the police found that the real estate project team at the tobacco company deliberately deleted relevant documents and files stored

Social Affairs Aug. 5, 2013

The international Red Cross has said it will provide North Korea with an emergency fund of US$320,000 to help flood victims in the communist country.In a report posted on its website Thursday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said it has allocated 299,744 Swiss franc from its disaster relief emergency fund "to help the DPRK Red Cross Society in delivering immediate assistance to 5,000 families or 20,000 beneficiaries."DPRK stands for the Democratic Peop

Social Affairs Aug. 2, 2013

Woori Finance Holdings Co., South Korea's top banking group, said Friday that its second-quarter earnings declined 51.4 percent from a year ago on a one-off factor and falling profit margin.Net profit amounted to 148.2 billion won (US$131.7 million) in the April-June period, compared with 305 billion won the previous year, the group said in a regulatory filing. From three months earlier, net income declined 29.5 percent.In the first half, the group's earnings fell 63 percent on-year to 358.3 bil

Aug. 2, 2013

South Korean stocks traded 0.15 percent lower late Wednesday morning, led by losses in techs and carmakers.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 2.91 points to 1,914.14 as of 11:20 a.m.Tech shares continued to trade lower, with Samsung Electronics falling 0.62 percent and LG Electronics losing 0.55 percent.Samsung SDI, a local plasma display panel maker, decreased 0.6 percent.Hyundai Motor, the country's top carmaker, lost 1.26 percent and its auto parts affiliate Hyundai

July 31, 2013

South Korean non-governmental organizations (NGOs) started shipping out humanitarian aid to North Korea on Wednesday to help alleviate the plight of children and sick people in the impoverished country.The move comes after Seoul's unification ministry approved the shipment of goods earlier in the week as a sign that South Korea is open to offering urgent humanitarian assistance to the North in spite of sanctions on the North for its nuclear device detonation in February.The Korea Association of

Social Affairs July 31, 2013