It’s official: Pope Francis is coming to Korea. His visit was widely predicted. In multiple news reports, sources at the Vatican and Seoul had said the papal visit was highly likely. Still, the announcement by the Vatican on Monday was a source of surprise, and of course joy, for many Catholics here because the holy man decided to commit the entire five days of his trip to Asia, his first as po...

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (AFP) ― In complete darkness, a group of men tried everything they could to save the Fukushima nuclear plant from catastrophe. Their struggle was in vain. Three years later, the control room at the site of the worst atomic crisis in a generation ― which forced a hard look at Japan’s energy policy ― sits as a grim time capsule. Helmets, masks, several pairs of gloves and overall...

In China, Korean TV drama “My Love from the Star” seems to have stirred up a syndrome that stands strong even amid a series of national tragedies ― a terrorist attack that left 33 people dead and a flight gone missing with another 152 of its nationals aboard. Kim Soo-hyun, the male lead in the drama, has become the heartthrob of Chinese girls. In the series, he played Do Min-jun, an alien in the...

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The world was little closer to knowing for sure who invented Bitcoin Friday, despite Newsweek’s claim to have unmasked the enigmatic “Satoshi Nakamoto” behind the computer-coded currency. The magazine relaunched its print version with an ostensibly huge scoop, identifying 64-year-old Japanese-American engineer Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto as the creator. But the mystery remained a...

The Park Geun-hye administration appears to be discontented with the economic policies created by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok. This was suggested through the remarks of Prime Minister Chung Hong-won on Thursday, who claimed that the state economic policy team has failed to gain public credibility due to its inconsistency in carrying out major policies. During a minis...

The Gyeonggi Province gubernatorial race is becoming one of the hottest contests in the June 4 local elections with the ruling and opposition parties going to great lengths to bring their best cards into the game. For the ruling Saenuri Party, five-term lawmaker Rep. Nam Kyung-pil is considered the favorite to fill the post currently held by potential conservative presidential hopeful Kim Moon-s...

The nomination for the new governor of the Bank of Korea came as a bit of a surprise as many had speculated that President Park would pick an outsider with an academic or political background to guide the central bank amid increasing concerns over a volatile global economy. Instead, on Monday Park nominated Lee Ju-yeol, the central bank’s former senior deputy governor, to take over the governors...

BEIJING (AFP) ― China’s annual show of political theater, the National People’s Congress, opens this week ― the first under a new Communist Party leadership facing intractable problems including endemic corruption, slowing economic growth and tensions with neighboring countries. The rubber-stamp NPC, which begins Wednesday at the imposing Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, ...

Rep. Chung Mong-joon, who announced his candidacy in the Saenuri Party’s primary for Seoul mayor, is a veteran politician with a career only a few can match. Chung has had a very successful political career despite criticism that he lacks common touch, a claim that is backed up by comments such as that regarding Seoul’s bus fares. The seven-term lawmaker has been quoted estimating bus fares to ...

Chinese President Xi Jinping said pollution was Beijing’s biggest challenge as thick smog blanketing northern China cleared after seven straight days at hazardous levels. Xi called preventing air pollution the “most prominent” problem Beijing faces, according to a report on China National Radio, as pollution dropped to “very unhealthy” levels from “hazardous,” according to a U.S. Embassy monitor...

Hamstrung by allegations of evidence fabrication, the prosecutors’ office is facing a major crisis. The developments that threaten to undermine not only the prosecutors’ office but also cast doubt on the integrity of South Korea’s entire legal system began to play out last year when a former Seoul city official was tried on charges of espionage. Although the defendant, Yoo Woo-seong, a North Ko...

NEW YORK (AFP) ― The astonishingly high price paid for the messaging service WhatsApp underscores how mobile apps are transforming the way we communicate, shaking up the global telecom sector. Facebook’s deal to pay up to $19 billion for WhatsApp comes on the heels of a $900 million purchase of another messaging service, Viber, by Japanese Internet giant Rakuten. And the California-based messag...

Thrust to centre stage in Ukraine’s fast-moving political drama, the hugely charismatic but equally divisive Yulia Tymoshenko has remained coy about her political future after being set free by parliament. The fiery 53-year-old, who was jailed after losing to Viktor Yanukovych by a razor-thin margin in a 2010 presidential poll, walked free on Saturday in the latest dramatic twist to antigovernme...

Thousands of helmeted protesters steeled themselves Wednesday for new clashes with riot police on Kiev’s flame-engulfed main square after the deadliest night of violence in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history. U.S. President Barack Obama warned starkly of “consequences” after apocalyptic scenes on Tuesday in which 26 officers and civilians died as battles broke out across central Kiev. Obama said he ...

Brainwashed from birth, under constant surveillance, cowed by the all-embracing state and facing the specter of disappearing forever in its vast network of camps if they step out of line. The cruel lot of North Koreans was spotlighted Monday in a landmark report by a U.N.-mandated human rights panel, which said it was time for regime officials to face international justice. Its 400 pages were f...