The U.S. ambassador to Korea has stated that the trade pact between the two countries is “vitally important” to both economies amid calls from the Korean opposition party to repeal it. The Democratic Unity Party is calling for the free trade agreement to be revised, saying the deal contains elements that could damage the Korean economy. But ambassador Sung Kim called the KORUS FTA a milestone i...

The Navy has revived the use of its slogan “Ocean-Going Navy,” signifying its commitment to strengthening open water operational capabilities, a source said Friday. “The Navy is officially using the term ‘Ocean-Going Navy,’ which hadn‘t been in use since the sinking of the Cheonan,” the source said, referring to the deadly North Korean torpedoing of the warship in March 2010. “The term Korean Oc...

Korea’s spending on private education dropped for a second straight year in 2011 as the number of students declined, affected by a chronically low birth rate, a report showed Friday. South Korean parents spent a total of 20.1 trillion won ($17.76 billion) last year on private education for their children, down 3.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the report by Statistics Korea. The dec...

MOSCOW (Yonhap News) ― Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of North Korea’s late leader Kim Jong-il, is having financial problems after his own country and China cut off funding over recent doubts he expressed about his younger brother’s grip on power, a Russian newspaper said. According to the latest edition of Argumenty i Fakty, Kim Jong-nam was recently kicked out of his 17th-floor room at a luxurio...

Police said Friday they have arrested and detained five people, including a Korean man with Canadian nationality, suspected of dealing marijuana in two separate drug rings. Police also booked 31 others, including a 36-year-old college professor from the U.S., for investigation without physical detention for allegedly purchasing the drug from the arrested suspects, the Seoul Metropolitan Police A...

The government said Friday it will designate a non-smoking zone for the country's national parks starting in 2013 as part of efforts to protect the environment and promote public health. Currently, smoking is allowed in several spots within the national parks, including restrooms, parking lots and snack bars. According to the Korea National Park Service, smoking will be completely banned in nat...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Medication via remote-control instead of a shot? Scientists implanted microchips in seven women that did just that, oozing out the right dose of a bone-strengthening drug once a day without them even noticing. Implanted medicine is a hot field, aiming to help patients better stick to their medications and to deliver those drugs straight to the body part that needs them. But T...

Yim Tae-hee, a former South Korean presidential chief of staff, recently met with North Korean diplomats in the Chinese capital, a source here said Thursday. "Yim and an accompanying person met with two diplomats from the North Korean embassy here from Feb. 2 to 4," the source said. "I heard Yim told North Koreans that if Pyongyang shows more flexibility with issues on the Kaesong Industrial Co...

Local doctors successfully transplanted seven organs to a 7-year-old girl last fall, Asan Medical Center said Thursday. It is the first simultaneous transplant in Korea involving that many organs, and a sign of a new era of treatments for hard-to-cure disease, the medics said. According to the hospital, Dr. Kim Do-yeon and his team in October transplanted liver, pancreas, small intestine, stoma...

The Japanese government is likely to turn down a Japanese right-wing group’s plan to erect a “Takeshima Monument” in front of the Korean Embassy in Japan, which claims the disputed islets in the East Sea as Japanese territory, a source said Thursday. Koreans call the islets Dokdo, while Japanese call them Takeshima. A source in the Korean government said the Japanese government would be in a di...

The South Korean military will establish a new submarine command within the Navy by 2015 as part of its efforts to strengthen its underwater operational capabilities. In a related development, the navies of South Korea and the U.S. will be holding a five-day joint anti-submarine drill from Feb. 20 in the West Sea. The exercise is aimed at increasing the allies’ ability to counter North Korean s...

Senior diplomats from South Korea and China are scheduled to hold talks later this month to address outstanding issues between the two nations, including North Korean defectors detained in China, a diplomatic source said Thursday. The talks come as Seoul has urged Beijing not to send back a group of North Koreans detained in China as they hope for South Korean intervention to avoid repatriation ...