The daughter of the chairman of SK Group, South Korea's third largest business conglomerate, is serving with a naval unit defending South Korea's sea border with North Korea, a military source said Tuesday.Chey Min-jung, the second daughter of Chey Tae-won, was commissioned as a naval officer in November 2014 and has since taken part in the Navy's anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia last year."Lieutenant Chey has been posted to the headquarters section of the frontline unit under the 2n

Companies March 1, 2016

Hotel Shilla Co., an affiliate of South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group, said Tuesday it plans to open a duty-free shop in downtown Bangkok, speeding up efforts to expand its overseas presence.The company said the duty-free shop, which will open within this year, comes after Hotel Shilla first established a joint venture named GMS Duty Free with a Thai firm in 2013, where the South Korean retailer holds a 25-percent stake.Hotel Shilla said it has not decided on the opening date for the ne

Industry March 1, 2016

The U.S. stated Monday that there is “absolutely no connection” between the ongoing international move to place strong sanctions on North Korea and its consultation with South Korea for deployment of its advanced missile defense system here. The statement echoed the Seoul government in saying that stationing the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile system on the peninsula to counter North Korean threats was an issue of security, and is not related to the recent Washington-Beijing cooperat

North Korea March 1, 2016

Chinese tourists in South Korea spent more in the country following the introduction of an on-the-spot tax refund system, local data showed Tuesday.Since February, South Korean department stores offered instant tax refunds to foreign tourists who buy products at local duty-free shops, in line with its efforts to revitalize the tourism industry hurt by the economic slump. Local tourism was also affected by the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome last year.Lotte Department Store said

March 1, 2016

The White House said Monday it is trying to learn more about an American college student detained in North Korea, after Pyongyang claimed the student admitted to his "severe" crime of stealing a political sign from a hotel and asked for forgiveness.Otto Frederick Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, has been detained in the North since Jan. 2 for stealing a political sign that had promoted "the Korean people's love for their system" from the hotel, according to the Korean Central News Age

North Korea March 1, 2016

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Monday for the "faithful implementation" of a landmark agreement between South Korea and Japan on resolving the issue of Japan's wartime sexual slavery.Ban made the remark during a high-level panel discussion at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, referring to the December deal between Seoul and Tokyo that centers on Japan's admission of responsibility for the wartime crime and plans to pay reparations to the victims."The agreement last December between

Foreign Affairs March 1, 2016

Efforts to adopt a new U.N. Security Council resolution expanding sanctions on North Korea have encountered a last-minute delay as Russia has yet to give its consent to the draft worked out between the United States and China.The United States is stepping up efforts to win Moscow's agreement, a prerequisite for the resolution's adoption as Russia is a veto-holding permanent member of the council, with U.S.Secretary of State John Kerry speaking twice by phone with his Russian counterpart, Sergei

North Korea March 1, 2016