South Korea's national image is heavily affected by its cultural content, especially food and K-pop, a survey showed Saturday.It also demonstrated the need for South Korea to further diversify the supply routes of its cultural products.The two-month poll was conducted by the country's Culture Ministry and Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange from October with 6,500 respondents from 14 foreign nations.Korean food was chosen as the most popular cultural content of Korea with 46.2 pe

Feb. 6, 2016

A U.S. radar ship capable of tracking North Korean missiles has arrived in Japan, an official said Friday, as the communist nation is forging ahead with preparations for a banned long-range rocket launch.The USNS Howard O. Lorenzen "made a scheduled port visit" to the port of Sasebo near the Korean Peninsula "as part of the ship's routine presence and operations in the region," Cmdr. Bill Clinton, the spokesman for the U.S. 7th Fleet, told Yonhap News Agency.The arrival coincides with heightened

Foreign Affairs Feb. 6, 2016

The Pentagon on Friday released nearly 200 photographs of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, taken mostly between 2004 and 2006, involving 56 cases of alleged abuse by U.S. forces.The often dark, blurry and grainy pictures are mainly of detainees' arms and legs, revealing bruises and cuts, and they appear far less dramatic than those released more than a decade ago during allegations of torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Those now-infamous Abu Ghraib photos included images of naked detainees s

World News Feb. 6, 2016

A 10-month old baby was among three dead after a 16-storey tower block was toppled by a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in southern Taiwan Saturday, with rescuers battling to free residents still trapped inside.Officials said four buildings collapsed in the quake which struck the island in the early hours of the morning, but rescue efforts are centering on the tower block that tumbled onto its side.Firefighters pulled survivors from the twisted concrete, trying to access apartments through windows and

World News Feb. 6, 2016

The first phone call between South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Chinese President Xi Jinping since the North's nuclear test appears to show that Beijing is still unprepared to act differently in its handling of Pyongyang, a U.S. expert said.In the 45-minute call initiated by Xi, Park asked for Chinese cooperation in efforts to put together U.N. sanctions strong and effective enough to make North Korea change its course, saying North Korea's provocations pose threats to peace in Northeast A

Foreign Affairs Feb. 6, 2016

U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone Friday and agreed on the importance of a "strong and united international response" to North Korea's provocations, the White House said.It was the first that the two leaders have spoken since the North's Jan. 6 nuclear test. The conversation also came amid mounting calls for China to use more of its leverage with Pyongyang to rein in its recalcitrant neighbor."Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the complete and

Foreign Affairs Feb. 6, 2016

Recent satellite imagery shows the arrival of tanker trucks at the launch pad of North Korea's rocket site in an indication that the communist nation is forging ahead with a planned rocket launch, a North Korea-monitoring website said Friday.The imagery taken of the North's Sohae or Dongchang-ri site on Wednesday and Thursday showed the tanker trucks at the old fuel and oxidizer bunkers, 38 North said in a report, adding that the trucks' presence more likely indicates the filling of tanks within

Foreign Affairs Feb. 6, 2016

Chinese President Xi Jinping's rare phone call to his South Korean counterpart, Park Geun-hye, underscores growing concerns over North Korea's defiant pursuit of missile and nuclear programs.It marked the first time that a Chinese leader has held a telephone conversation with a South Korean president over a North Korean nuclear test. No consultations were held between the leaders of the two neighbors when North Korea carried out three previous nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.Park is the fir

Foreign Affairs Feb. 6, 2016

The United States declined comment Friday on a phone conversation between President Park Geun-hye and Chinese President Xi Jinping in which the Chinese leader repeated calls for dialogue to resolve tensions on the Korean Peninsula without mentioning sanctions on North Korea."We are not going to comment on conversations that took place between China and ROK," Katina Adams, a spokesperson at the U.S.State Department, said in response to a request for comment from Yonhap News Agency.It was the firs

Foreign Affairs Feb. 6, 2016