The Ministry of Employment and Labor said on Monday it would draft a road map for boosting the country’s employment rate to 70 percent, from the current 60 percent, in five years in its policy report to President-elect Park Geun-hye’s transition committee. Promoting job sharing, offering jobs for youths, women and the elderly, and improving the quality of workers’ lives will be included in the ministry’s drive for job creation.The two sides also discussed ways to increase cooperation among relat

Foreign Affairs Jan. 14, 2013

Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan will visit Rwanda and Morocco, new non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, as Korea is pushing for new international sanctions against North Korea over its Dec. 12 launch of a long-range rocket.Kim is beginning a four-nation tour on Saturday which also includes Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. In Africa, Kim plans to meet with his counterparts to discuss “issues of common interest and ways to promote cooperation on the international stag

Foreign Affairs Jan. 11, 2013

Senior diplomats from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are set to hold bilateral meetings next week to coordinate responses to North Korea’s missile test and discuss future cooperation between their new foreign policy teams. Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, will visit Korea Tuesday to meet Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun. He will visit Japan two days later.Shinsuke Sugiyama, Japan’s envoy to the six-party talks on North Korean nuclear prog

Foreign Affairs Jan. 10, 2013

South Korea is seeking to speed up lackluster discussions at the U.N. Security Council to hammer out its response to North Korea’s recent rocket launch by the end of the month, Seoul officials said Wednesday. The 15-member council has been mulling action over the Dec. 12 liftoff, which violates its bans on Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile activity. But talks languished in the face of China’s resistance to punishment against its unruly ally and the Christmas and New Year holidays. Now a member of

North Korea Jan. 9, 2013

PYONGYANG (AP) ― Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday that his delegation is pressing North Korea to put a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests and to allow more cell phones and an open Internet for its citizens.Richardson told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview in Pyongyang that the group is also asking for fair and humane treatment for an American citizen detained in North Korea.“The citizens of the DPRK (North Korea) will be better off with more cell p

North Korea Jan. 9, 2013

Nearly 100 doctors have been caught for misusing narcotics and psychotropic drugs such as propofol, police said Wednesday.Police have uncovered 98 medical workers ― mostly doctors ― and eight hospitals in a two-month nationwide crackdown on illegal use of drugs by hospitals.The crackdown, conducted jointly with the health authorities, came after a local obstetrician was arrested in August on charges of injecting his girlfriend with an anesthetic that caused her death and then abandoning her body

Social Affairs Jan. 9, 2013

North Korea spent $10 million to build a museum near the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, and the museum will begin its operations in April, a news report said Tuesday.Washington-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that the museum is located near the entrance of the Angkor Archaeological Park in northern Cambodia, the place of the largest Hindu temple complex in the world.The overseas construction unit of the state-run Mansudae Art Studio, the North’s group of artists, is building the museum with

North Korea Jan. 8, 2013

A group of South Korean companies operating at a joint-venture factory park in North Korea has filed a formal complaint that the communist country’s sudden decision to take a longer New Year’s holiday seriously hurt their business, officials said Monday.Currently, 123 South Korean firms are operating at the joint industrial park in the North’s border city of Gaeseong, producing garments and other labor-intensive products. Despite cross-border tension, the park has been running without any restri

North Korea Jan. 8, 2013

SHENYANG, China (Yonhap News) ― North Korea is moving to give mineral resources development rights to Chinese companies in return for pledges to upgrade its backward infrastructure, sources said Monday.Sources with ties to North Korea and Chinese businesses, said Pyongyang would give resources development rights to Chinese investors if they are willing to build social infrastructure such as roads and hotels.Such moves come as the impoverished North that does not have not many manufactured goods

North Korea Jan. 8, 2013

South Korea’s execution of its inter-Korean cooperation fund remained below 10 percent last year for the fourth straight year, government data showed Sunday.Last year, the government spent 69.4 billion won ($65.2 million), or 6.9 percent of the 1.006 trillion won set aside for the inter-Korean cooperation fund, according to the data from the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.The fund was created in 1991 to support humanitarian and economic exchanges between the divided Kor

North Korea Jan. 6, 2013