South Korea's Navy fired warning shots against North Korean boats operating south of the western sea border, military officials said, after raising the alert status in response to a number of ships violating the demarcation line over the past week. The North Korean boats retreated to north of the border upon the warning shots, officials said. The latest move comes as a growing number of North K...

LONDON(AFP) - A fertility technique that uses DNA from three parents to create an embryo could become legal in Britain after a public consultation on its ethical implications was launched on Monday. The results of the consultation will help inform a decision by the government on whether to legalise the technique as early as next year -- potentially making Britain the first country in the world t...

President Lee Myung-bak on Friday endorsed a parliamentary motion authorizing an independent investigation into suspicions surrounding his retirement home project, despite complaints it is unfair for the opposition party to select candidates to lead the probe. The decision, made at an extraordinary Cabinet meeting, appears to reflect concerns about political repercussions a veto could cause, inc...

Prosecutors are stepping up their investigations into corruption scandals involving politicians from both the ruling and opposition parties. Political parties are keen to the development of the inquiries which coincide with the launch of a three-way race for the December presidential election and are expected to affect voter sentiment considerably. Prosecution investigators on Thursday raided t...

A South Korean rights activist who claims he was tortured while in the custody of Chinese security agents early this year has put off a plan to take his case to the United Nations, a coalition of civic groups representing the activist said Thursday. Activist Kim Young-hwan was released in July after 114 days in detention in China. Since his release, Kim has claimed in Seoul he was tortured by Ch...

South Korea and Uzbekistan on Thursday agreed to boost their joint construction and development projects in the Central Asian country and enhance cooperation in the legal, tourism and financial sectors, Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday. Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov reached the agreement during their summit talks in Seoul. Karimov came here on Wednesday for a...

TOKYO (Yonhap News) ― Japanese Emperor Akihito has expressed his wish to visit South Korea and said he could apologize for Japan’s colonial rule if needed, a Japanese weekly reported, amid heightened diplomatic tension between the two nations. During a Sept. 4 issue briefing with Koji Tsuruoka, the deputy vice-minister for foreign policy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Akihito said he and Em...

The ruling Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate Rep. Park Geun-hye said Thursday she was open to a meeting with her opposition rivals to discuss ways to ensure a clean, policy-based campaign. Independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo on Wednesday proposed the three-way talks with Park and the main opposition Democratic United Party’s Moon Jae-in. “It will be possible to meet whenever there is an op...

Before industrialization, Korea’s steep, rugged mountains were a perfect home for long-tailed gorals, a species of wild goat dwelling at high elevations from Russia all the way down to the Himalayas. These small, antelope-like ungulates were often spotted resting on rocky cliffs in mountains throughout the country, where their predators, including humans, couldn’t dare to climb. But as Korea de...