South Korea's pro football players need to have a voice and they deserve to have a representative organization here, a high-ranking official at the international pro footballers' union said Thursday.Theo van Seggelen, secretary-general at FIFPro, said South Korea will officially become a member of the global footballers' association in its general congress in Cairo in December. At its two-day Asia-Oceania Congress in Seoul, FIFPro officials discussed ways to help South Korean footballers set up

Soccer June 8, 2017

Nearly a month has passed since the inauguration of President Moon Jae-in on May 10. Among the many adjectives used by the media to define Moon's personality, "unauthoritarian" stands out.Moon's departure from the stereotypical authoritarian attitudes of a president became a hot topic in the news starting his inaugural day. President Moon Jae-in (3rd from  left) and his senior secretaries walk around Cheong Wa Dae, with coffees in their hands, on May 11, 2017. (Cheong Wa Dae)Following an unprece

Politics June 8, 2017

Player A: 115 home runs in 1,184 games in South Korea. Zero 30-homer seasons. Two .300 seasons.Player B: 210 home runs in 868 games in South Korea. Four 30-homer seasons, including back-to-back 50-homer seasons in 2014 and 2015. Regular season MVP awards in 2012 and 2013.Both players are currently biding their time in the U.S. minor leagues, hoping for a shot in the Big Show. And as it turns out, Player A has a much better shot at cracking a major league roster this year, despite less impressive

Baseball June 8, 2017

President Moon Jae-in will give a state of the nation address at the National Assembly next week, officials at the presidential office said Thursday, a move aimed at urging the opposition-led parliament to approve his government's request for a $10 billion extra budget.The president will give the address at 2 p.m. Monday in his first visit to the parliament since his inauguration on May 10.  (Yonhap)The president is widely expected to explain deteriorating conditions in the country's job market

Politics June 8, 2017

Two North Korean fishermen recently rescued in the East Sea have expressed a willingness to defect to the South, Seoul's unification ministry said Thursday.The Ministry of Unification allowed the North Koreans, a father in his 50s and son in his 20s, to stay despite likely protests from Pyongyang.(Yonhap)They are among four fishermen who were rescued from two ships drifting in waters off its east coast last week."The government handled the issue on humanitarian grounds and respected their will a

North Korea June 8, 2017

South Korean President Moon Jae-in launched a strong warning against North Korea Thursday, saying the communist state will only get further isolation and international sanctions from its missile provocations.The remarks came hours after the North fired what appeared to be surface-to-ship cruise missiles from its east coast.The short-range missiles apparently posed no immediate threat to South Korean and US forces here, but they marked the North's fifth missile or rocket launch since the Moon Jae

North Korea June 8, 2017

South Korean stocks closed slightly higher Thursday after trading nearly flat throughout the session as investors took to the sidelines amid a series of global events, analysts said. The Korean won rose against the US dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index inched up 3.43 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,363.57. Trade volume was moderate at 402 million shares worth 8.1 trillion won ($7.21 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 441 to 366.Analysts said Seoul shares traded nearly f

Market June 8, 2017

South Korea's population of baptized Catholics reached about 5.6 million, the world's 43rd largest, in 2015, the local church said Thursday.According to the official statistics released by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea based on the 2017 Vatican yearbook, 5.592 million South Koreans were baptized Catholics as of the end of 2015. The figure was about 1 percent up from 5.5 million in the previous year. (Yonhap)The population rose steadily from 5.22 million in 2011 to 5.31 million in 201

Social Affairs June 8, 2017

KT&G Corp. said Thursday it will soon release heat-not-burn cigarettes amid the growing popularity of the smoke-free tobacco despite concerns of the emissions of toxic substances similar to those of conventional cigarettes.The largest tobacco manufacturer in South Korea will begin marketing the new product in September, a KT&G official said, noting Phillip Morris Korea began selling iQOS on May 27.  (Yonhap)"We are witnessing the growing popularity of iQOS, although it's not been so long since i

Industry June 8, 2017

International sanctions have led to growing regional inequality in North Korea, as limited resources are concentrated in Pyongyang by markets, a report showed Thursday. The sanctions regime may have sped up the redistribution of increasingly scarce resources through the internal market system, according to the report by South Korea's Institute for National Security Strategy and Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. (Yonhap)"There is considerable evidence that sanctions have increa

North Korea June 8, 2017

South Korean and Japanese parliamentary leaders on Thursday called for the two countries' closer cooperation against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats. South Korean National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun and leaders of the Japanese Diet discussed the urgency of resolving North Korea's missile and nuclear issue, according to assembly spokesman Kim Young-soo. The meetings were held hours after the communist nation fired anti-ship cruise missiles into the East Sea. South Korea's National

North Korea June 8, 2017

South Korea urged North Korea to stop its hostile military action Thursday after the communist country shot off what appeared to be several anti-ship missiles."In the morning today, North Korea fired several suspected ground-to-ship cruise missile from near Wonsan toward the East Sea," Cho June-hyuck, spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said. "(We) urge North Korea to immediately stop its aggressive military action." (Yonhap) The government is watching closely for the possibility of No

North Korea June 8, 2017

South Korea, Japan and China agreed Thursday to strengthen cooperation for environmental protection and scientific research in the Arctic, the foreign ministry said."Climate change is affecting the vulnerable Arctic ecosystems, the livelihoods of local inhabitants and indigenous communities on a global scale, while the melting of ice brings new opportunities, such as natural resources and marine fisheries, in the Arctic, as well as the opening of sea routes," the three countries said in a joint

Social Affairs June 8, 2017

South Korea has signed a multilateral treaty to participate in the international movement to prevent offshore tax erosion, the finance ministry here said Thursday.Ambassador Yoon Jong-won to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development inked the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting on Wednesday in Paris, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.As of Wednesday, 68 countries, including 33 OECD members, h

Economy June 8, 2017

The South Korean economy has been on a modest recovery path thanks to brisk exports and investment despite a slight downturn in industrial output, a state-run think tank said Thursday."The Korean economy maintained a moderate improvement led by exports and investment demand, although industrial output growth moderated slightly," the Korea Development Institute said in its monthly evaluation of the country's economic conditions. Triggered by an upturn in global trade, Asia's fourth-larg

Economy June 8, 2017