Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik said Tuesday that South Korea needs to make “meticulous and creative” preparations for a free trade pact with China by carefully studying the possible ramifications the deal may bring about on the local economy.“China is actively raising the need for a free trade agreement with South Korea,” Kim said during a Cabinet meeting. “There need to be meticulous and creative p

Politics April 19, 2011

A South Korean citizen has been confirmed dead in the powerful earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan’s northeastern coastal region last Friday, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. It is the first confirmed South Korean fatality.The 40-year-old construction worker, only identified by his surname Lee, fell to the ground last Friday at a site in the Japanese prefecture of Ibaraki where a thermal po

Politics April 12, 2011

U.S. Pacific commander says no signs of N.K. preparing for missile tests in the near futureNorth Korea established a sophisticated missile launch site on its west coast near its border with China late last year, in apparent preparation to test-fire a ballistic missile that could threaten U.S. territory, reports said Friday.The site in Dongchang-ri in North Pyeongan Province is five times larger th

North Korea April 11, 2011

GNP Rep. Chung Mong-joon reveals chat between his late father and N.K. leaderKim Jong-il has had nightmares at times in which his people threw stones at him, Rep. Chung Mong-joon of the ruling Grand National Party said Sunday, citing his father’s private conversations with the North Korean leader.His remarks indicated that Kim was aware of the growing discontent among his people, who have long suf

Politics March 27, 2011

Seoul police on Thursday captured a 43-year-old man suspected of killing the mother of a senior member of a conservative civic group on Thursday.The murder case has drawn keen public interest as speculation has circulated that pro-North Korea terrorists might have killed her, as her son’s group has actively engaged in a series of activities against the communist country in recent years.The suspect

Social Affairs March 24, 2011

Pyongyang renews threat to strike South’s psychological warfare ‘facilities’Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Thursday that it would not intervene in a plan by North Korean defectors here to fly anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North, a day after the communist state renewed its threat to strike South Korea’s propaganda apparatus.“There is nothing special the government can say about the activities b

Politics March 24, 2011

Police are investigating the possibility that an ethnic Korean of Chinese nationality may have killed the mother of a senior member of a conservative civic group earlier this month, officials said Tuesday.Police said that DNA detected at the scene was identical to that of an ethnic Korean suspected of having robbed a house last April in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, where many ethnic Koreans from Chin

Social Affairs March 22, 2011

North Korea has once again accused U.S. troops of trespassing into the Demilitarized Zone, saying that South Korea would take the responsibility for all the results from the “provocations” including “human damage.”The communist state’s military has sent a notice containing such a threat to the South, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency on Sunday.In the notice, the North cl

North Korea March 21, 2011

Korea to send blankets, water; Lee orders check on Korean nuclear plantsSouth Korea plans to mobilize “all possible means” including military aircraft and Coast Guard vessels to pull its citizens out of Japan should the nuclear crisis in the northeast coast escalate to a dangerous level, the vice foreign minister said Friday.The Seoul government has also advised South Koreans ― even those further

Politics March 18, 2011

South Korea is advising its citizens in Japan to evacuate to safe areas outside a radius of 80 kilometers from the quake-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said Thursday.It had previously told Korean nationals to stay at least 30 kilometers away from the troubled plant. However, it has increased the safety distance as concerns over rising radiation levels are mo

Politics March 17, 2011