South Korea's presidential office on Saturday welcomed U.S. President Barack Obama's nomination of the Korean-born Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim as the next leader of the World Bank. "We believe that President Kim is the right person to carry out the duties to reform the World Bank and eradicate poverty," the office said in a statement. "We highly appreciate President Obama's decision...

President Lee Myung-bak and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agreed Saturday to work closely together to cope with North Korea's planned rocket launch, sharing concern that the move is a "grave provocation" violating U.N. Security Council resolutions, the presidential office said. Ban arrived in Seoul earlier in the day to attend the Nuclear Security Summit, set for Monday and Tuesday, a bienn...

HANOVER (AFP) - Dartmouth College students, returning from spring break, were divided over President Obama's decision to nominate their president to lead the World Bank. Jim Yong Kim, a Korean-American who became the first Asian-American to lead a prestigious Ivy League university, began his tenure at Dartmouth in 2009 as something of a rock star, a reflection of his success in tackling global h...

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- U.S. President Barack Obama left for Asia early Saturday, in a trip that will include a visit to the tense and fortified border zone between the two Koreas. Air Force One carrying the president and his aides took off from Andews Air Force Base outside Washington at 00:07 am local time. Obama wants to pay tribute to some of the 28,500 U.S. soldiers serving in South Korea. He...

North Korea will hold a session of its primary legislative body on April 13, the communist state’s news agency said Saturday. The Korea Central News Agency said the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly Thursday decided to hold the fifth session of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang on April 13. It is the first time Pyongyang holds the assembly’s session since the Dec...

SYDNEY (AFP) - A senior US official has warned North Korea's upcoming missile launch would be aimed south for the first time and impact in an area "roughly between Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.” Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, delivered the message in person to Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr, the Sydney Morning Herald reported...

President Barack Obama on Friday nominated Dr. Jim Yong Kim, a Korean-born physician, to lead the World Bank, citing his tireless efforts to improve the lives of people in developing nations and promote global health. "Jim has spent more than two decades working to improve conditions in developing countries around the world,” Obama said in a statement. “The World Bank is one of the most powerful...

South Korea plans to hold a series of meetings to try to verify the computer simulation results for a proposed naval base at the center of a dispute, officials said Friday. The announcement came alongside vocal public opposition against a central government project to build the naval base on the country's southern resort island of Jeju by 2015, one year behind its original schedule. The planned...

Lawmakers of the ruling Saenuri Party were far wealthier than their peers in the opposition, government data showed Friday. According to the data from the National Assembly, Saenuri Rep. Chung Mong-joon was by far the richest lawmaker in Korea last year with 2.227 trillion won ($1.96 billion) in assets, although the amount was 1.648 trillion won less than a year ago. The sixth-term lawmaker is ...

China appears to be tightening border security against North Korean defectors in the face of growing international pressure to end repatriations to the repressive state. Multiple sources informed of Beijing’s border control efforts told local media that China recently installed a police alert system in each household of a border town on a trial basis. Chinese residents there can push a button t...

The nation’s largest umbrella union of journalists is set to support media workers on strike against what they call interference by politically biased management in news reporting. Members of the National Union of Media Workers gathered at Seoul Plaza around 3 p.m. Friday to protest the administration’s alleged ongoing interference and suppression of freedom of speech. They vowed to support the ...

Seoul City’s two subway transit corporations will double the number of security guards starting Monday, officials said Friday. According to Seoul Metropolitan Government, 84 more security guards will patrol lines one through eight, coinciding with the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit which starts Monday. Responding to a public outcry against subway crime, Seoul Metro and Seoul Metropolitan Rapid T...