Automobile recalls in South Korea spiked in 2010 because of tighter safety-related regulatory control and monitoring, a government report showed Monday.   According to the report by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, 270,000 vehicles of 87 locally made and imported models were recalled last year, up 110,000 units from a year earlier.   The total number of vehicle models recalled

Mobility Jan. 17, 2011

   WASHINGTON -- Chinese President Hu Jintao Sunday called for early resumption of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear dismantlement deadlocked for years over the North's provocations and ensuing international sanctions.   "China actively advocates and promotes the six-party talks process," Hu said in a written interview with The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. "We hope that

Politics Jan. 17, 2011

  South Korea has blocked its people in the South from accessing Web sites using North Korea's national Web domain name, saying the sites contain "illegal information" under the nation's anti-communism and security laws, officials said Thursday.    The blockage by the South's state-run Communications Standards Commission came less than a day after an expert said North Korea had renewed the use of

North Korea Jan. 13, 2011

ULLEUNG ISLAND/SEOUL -- South Korean and Japanese maritime police were jointly investigating whether a South Korean fishing boat violated Japanese waters near the South Korean islets of Dokdo, officials said Thursday.    The two sides began the joint probe around 2 p.m. in waters about 69 kilometers southwest of Dokdo in the East Sea off the Korean Peninsula after the 29-ton South Korean fishing b

Politics Jan. 13, 2011

Four workers were trapped five meters underground after scaffolding collapsed at a reservoir construction site in eastern South Korea, police officials said Thursday.   Police and firefighters are trying to find the best approach to rescue them, but rescue efforts were complicated by huge amounts of debris, officials said. Two other construction workers near the site of the collapse were injured a

Social Affairs Jan. 13, 2011

Heads of South Korea's largest conglomerates on Thursday vowed efforts to outperform expectations for the country's economy this year and urged an early implementation of a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States to help achieve their goal.   The ambitious plan came from the executive council of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the largest industry lobby in South Korea with a m

Jan. 13, 2011

   ULLEUNG ISLAND -- A South Korean coast guard ship is in confrontation with a Japanese patrol ship in waters near the South Korean islets of Dokdo over an issue of violating an exclusive economic zone, an official said Thursday.(Yonhap News)

Politics Jan. 13, 2011

   WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The brain undergoes changes in adolescence that suppress fearful experiences learned in childhood, said a study released Monday that could explain why teenagers act so brashly at times.   Scientists studied the fear responses of mice for clues about how adolescents would react to situations that resembled prior experiences that involved pairing of electric shocks and tonal n

Social Affairs Jan. 11, 2011

   HONG KONG -- The number of mobile phone subscribers in China exceeded 850 million last year as more Chinese people began to consider mobile phones everyday necessities, a government report showed Monday.   The net addition of Chinese mobile users reached a record high of more than 100 million in 2010 alone, according to the report from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

Industry Jan. 10, 2011