Police said it found traces of activity by a National Intelligence Service agent connected to online posts about the presidential election. The employee came under fire over allegations that she had posted negative online comments about the Democratic United Party presidential candidate Moon Jae-in. The opposition party’s officials surrounded the agent’s house, virtually putting Kim under house...

In a landmark ruling, a Seoul court on Thursday sentenced a 31-year-old pedophile to 15 years in prison and ordered that he be subject to hormonal treatment that suppresses sexual impulses for three years. It marks the first time that the court has ordered the measure since a bill passed last July that allows hormonal treatment, or “chemical castration,” for convicted child molesters over 19 yea...

A South Korean diplomat in Saudi Arabia died earlier this week in an apparent car accident, a senior official at Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday. The body of the consular official, who was only identified by his surname Kim, was found inside his car on Wednesday on a motorway in Riyadh, the Seoul official said on the condition of anonymity. "Local police are investigating into the exact ...

Some seven out of 10 Japanese people regard South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo as their territory, with 90 percent being aware of a diplomatic row between the two countries over it, a survey showed Thursday. According to the survey of 440 Japanese citizens and students on the Dokdo issue, 91 percent said they have heard of Japan's diplomatic tension with South Korea over Dokdo, the rocky ...

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bipartisan resolution condemning North Korea's latest rocket launch, but the Senate has yet to work on it, a congressional source said Wednesday. The House passed the resolution by voice vote without any objection on Tuesday, added the source. The non-binding resolution characterizes the North's long-range rocket launch on Dec. 12 as a "flagrant vi...

Google's executive chairman is preparing to travel to one of the last frontiers of cyberspace: North Korea. Eric Schmidt will be traveling to North Korea on a private, humanitarian mission led by former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson that could take place as early as this month, sources told the Associated Press on Wednesday. The sources, two people familiar with the group's plans, asked not to...

President-elect Park Geun-hye’s transition team could be launched within this week with the personnel line-up taking shape, sources said Wednesday. “The list of the remaining members of the committee will be released within the next two to three days at the latest,” said Yoon Chang-jung, spokesman for the transition team. On Wednesday, Park remained at her residence in Samseong-dong, southern S...

A total of 24 South Korean nationals were killed or injured in a deadly bus crash on a rural highway of the U.S. state of Oregon, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday. Five Koreans were among the nine people who died after the tour bus carrying 47 people slid off an icy highway and down an embankment Sunday morning in Oregon, the ministry said in a statement, identifying the Korean victims by...

The number of North Koreans who fled from poverty and political oppression in the communist country and defected to the South nearly halved last year compared with the previous year due mainly to tightened border security there, government data showed Wednesday. A total of 1,508 North Koreans defected from their country and entered South Korea during 2012, compared with the corresponding figure ...

Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik on Wednesday called on government officials to strive to achieve national unity, a key ideal to make the country a better place. “Our society experiences fast-spreading conflicts among different classes and along generational and ideological lines, which splits public opinion,” Kim said during the government’s kick-off meeting for 2013. “If we fail to overcome these...

South Korea has decided to buy eight advanced multi-purpose maritime helicopters from the United States for its Navy, military sources said. The MH-60R Seahawk helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. was chosen over the AW-195 Wildcat manufactured by the Anglo-Italian company AgustaWestland, they said. “After completing test evaluations in September, we’ve conducted a series of analy...

TOKYO (AFP) ― Japan’s new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Tuesday told his special envoy to Seoul to work to improve ties with South Korea, describing it as Tokyo’s most important neighbour, media reports said. Abe plans to dispatch veteran lawmaker and former finance minister Fukushiro Nukaga to Seoul to see president-elect Park Geun-Hye on Friday in an attempt to improve relations soured by a rumbli...