North Korea's latest missile test shows the communist nation is moving solidly toward perfecting capabilities to strike back with a nuclear weapon if it comes under a nuclear attack, a US expert said Thursday.The North carried out the missile launch on Feb. 12 in its first provocative act since the inauguration of US President Donald Trump. Pyongyang said the launch represented a successful test of a newly developed intermediate-range missile powered by solid fuel, calling it the Pukguksong-2. 

Defense Feb. 24, 2017

Three-quarters of South Koreans want the Constitutional Court to confirm President Park Geun-hye's impeachment and deliver the ruling by March 13, when one of the justices is set to retire, a poll showed Thursday.The joint survey by NGO People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and two pollsters found that 74 percent of those polled wanted the court to deliver its verdict before acting Chief Justice Lee Jung-mi completes her term. (Yonhap)Park's ouster requires the approval of at least six

Social Affairs Feb. 23, 2017

Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to hold a shareholder meeting on March 24, an industry source said Thursday. Samsung's board of directors will hold a meeting on Friday to decide the date and agenda for the annual shareholder meeting, according to the source.  (Yonhap)Attention is focused on how Samsung will respond to shareholders over the arrest of Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who has been in jail since last Friday, over his alleged role in a presidential influence-peddling scandal. The arre

Industry Feb. 23, 2017

Senior officials from South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet in Washington next week to coordinate their policies toward North Korea, including the recent assassination of its leader's half brother, according to the foreign ministry Thursday.The three countries' top envoys on the North Korean nuclear issue will sit together on Monday in their first joint meeting since the President Donald Trump administration took office last month. (Yonhap)"The meeting will be taking place very time

Foreign Affairs Feb. 23, 2017

Special prosecutors in Seoul are attempting to arrest an incumbent presidential aide in connection with allegations President Park Geun-hye received medical treatments from those without due safety checks, their spokesman said Thursday.The investigation team, led by Independent Counsel Park Young-soo, is trying to locate the whereabouts of Lee Young-seon with a court-issued warrant after he repeatedly disobeyed its summons, spokesman Lee Kyu-chul told a regular press briefing. Lee Kyu-chul, spok

Politics Feb. 23, 2017

South Korea's state financial watchdog said Thursday it has taken punitive steps against listed firms here for a total of 185 violations related to disclosure-related rules last year.It marks a sharp increase from 126 cases discovered in 2015 and 63 a year earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. The logo of the Financial Supervisory Service (Yonhap)The FSS added it has imposed 2.2 billion won ($1.9 million) in fines in connection with 63 cases in 2016.Other administrative measur

Feb. 23, 2017

Impeached President Park Geun-hye is set to mark the fourth anniversary of her inauguration on a gloomy note this weekend amid speculations that she could become South Korea's first leader to be relieved of her post before the end of the five-year term.The anniversary falls on Saturday as the Constitutional Court's trial on Park's impeachment over a corruption scandal involving herself and her friend is heading into the homestretch with its ruling expected to be handed down next month.If the cou

Politics Feb. 23, 2017

South Korean girl group GFriend will drop a new album next month amid anticipation that it will follow the success of the group's previous hits, its management agency said Thursday.  (Yonhap)The upcoming EP, slated to come out March 6, is the first in eight months after its full-length album "LOL," according to Source Music.The six-member act -- Sowon, Yerin, Eunha, Yuju, SinB and Umji -- rolled out two albums last year and enjoyed enormous popularity at home and abroad with back-to-back hits "R

Performance Feb. 23, 2017

A diplomatic row between North Korea and Malaysia is deepening as Pyongyang blamed the Southeast Asian country for its probe into the death of the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, experts said Thursday.In its first official response, North Korea said that Malaysia colluded with South Korea in its investigation into the killing of Kim Jong-nam, claiming that Seoul is masterminding an anti-North Korea conspiracy.Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur have maintained diplomatic ties for more th

International Feb. 23, 2017

Police officers have been assigned to guard the Constitutional Court's eight justices ahead of a highly controversial ruling on President Park Geun-hye's impeachment, a court official said Thursday.The court, which has been reviewing the legality of Park's impeachment over a corruption scandal, is widely expected to announce its verdict before March 13, when a second justice of the nine-member bench is set to complete her term. (Yonhap)"We determined that the justices needed additional security

Politics Feb. 23, 2017

The recent assassination of his half-brother shows how vulnerable North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is to potential challenges to his power, a former North Korean spy here said Thursday."The fact that Kim Jong-un assassinated his own half brother in such a brutal manner conversely shows the regime is that vulnerable," Kim Dong-sik, formerly a North Korean agent, said in a report on the recent murder.He is currently a researcher at South Korea's state-run Institute for National Security Strategy, h

North Korea Feb. 23, 2017

The recent murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's half brother will likely bolster the ongoing move in the United States to add the North to the list of states sponsoring terrorism if Pyongyang is proved to have been involved in the death, a senior foreign ministry official in Seoul said Thursday.Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of late former leader Kim Jong-il, died on Feb. 13 at an airport in Kuala Lumpur after apparently being poisoned by two Asian women. He was waiting for a flight to Maca

International Feb. 23, 2017

A Seoul court on Thursday rejected a request to question North Koreans who defected to the South while working at a restaurant in China last year.The Seoul Administrative Court turned down the request sought by the Lawyers for a Democratic Society to call the defectors as witnesses in a case it filed to nullify the decision by the National Intelligence Service that banned its lawyers from talking to those that arrived in the South. In this file photo taken on April 11, 2016, an employee of a Nor

Social Affairs Feb. 23, 2017

The market for frozen dishes is growing fast in South Korea, on the back of a new social trend in which more people are choosing to live and eat alone, industry data showed Thursday.The market for frozen meals, such as frozen fried rice with prawn or kimchi, reached 46.5 billion won ($40.6 million) in 2016, growing by more than five-fold from 8.9 billion won in 2012, according to the data released by CJ Cheiljedang, a leading food manufacturer.  (Yonhap)Fried rice with various ingredients that c

Industry Feb. 23, 2017