North Korea’s military has elected leader Kim Jong-un as a delegate to the upcoming Workers’ Party conference, the North’s state media reported Tuesday. The development came amid mounting international pressure on the communist country to call off next month’s rocket launch that Pyongyang claims is designed to put a satellite into orbit as part of its peaceful space program. South Korea, the Un...

The ruling Saenuri Party is struggling to fend off a strong opposition challenge in Busan, one of its traditional strongholds in the southeastern region. To drum up support for her party in next month’s parliamentary election, Saenuri chief Park Geun-hye travelled to the port city Tuesday, her third visit in a month’s time. “New politics that Saenuri dreams to realize is starting right here in ...

North Korea vowed Tuesday to go ahead with its planned rocket launch next month, defying successive warnings from global leaders attending the Nuclear Security Summit now under way in Seoul. The North’s defiant stance, released through its foreign ministry, came after Pyongyang announced earlier this month it would launch a long-range rocket in mid-April to put a satellite into orbit as part of ...

Prosecutors launched an internal probe into allegations that the main opposition Democratic United Party’s senior advisor Rep. Sohn Hak-kyu bribed regional party members before last year’s Seoul mayoral by-election, officials said Tuesday. A former party member recently claimed that Sohn, who was chairman of the then-Democratic Party at the time, summoned regional committee chairpersons to party...

More than 30 people in North Korea were executed last year, international human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, reported Tuesday. According to its annual report on capital punishment execution around the world, at least 30 people received the death penalty and were killed, ranking sixth among the list. “In January 2011 unconfirmed reports suggested that more than 200 officials had been ...

A scaffolding collapse at the nation’s biggest thermal power plant caused one death on Tuesday morning. Thirteen workers fell from a height of about 10 meters when a scaffold set up to assist their maintenance work inside a Boryeong thermal power plant broke down. Ten workers escaped or were rescued by 119 rescue workers right after the accident, and several hours later, three more were rescued...

Korean workers are renowned for having the longest working hours in the world. But in terms of official retirement age, they are driven into quitting their jobs earlier than their counterparts in any of the 34 member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Korea does not set the corporate retirement age by law but allows private companies to decide on their own. Acco...

Noda’s remarks on Korean sex slaves expected to trigger backlash The Japanese government on Wednesday approved three new high school textbooks in the latest round of screenings that claim Dokdo as Japanese territory, instantly sparking a strong protest from the Korean government. The Japanese education ministry announced the first results of the textbook screenings, which are running from 2012-...

South Korean first lady Kim Yoon-ok hosted a luncheon and cultural performances on Tuesday for the visiting spouses of global leaders attending the ongoing Nuclear Security Summit. Seventeen spouses came to Seoul with heads of state and leaders of key international organizations for the global conference, one of the largest international events South Korea has ever hosted. Kim welcomed 15 spous...

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged other states to continue combating nuclear terrorism, saying the threat is "one of the gravest dangers of our time." The president was speaking at the first plenary session of the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, which has drawn representatives from 53 nations and four international organizations to discuss countermeasures to nuclear terrorism. Firs...

South Korea, Belgium, France and the United States said Tuesday they have agreed to develop high density, low enriched uranium (LEU) to replace highly enriched uranium (HEU) used in research reactors, removing a potential source of nuclear terrorism. The project, announced on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, comes as part of efforts to minimize civilian use of HEU, the four...

North Korea said Tuesday it would go ahead with a widely criticized plan for a satellite launch and called on U.S. President Barack Obama to drop his "confrontational mindset". "We will never give up the right to launch a peaceful satellite, a legitimate right of a sovereign state and an essential step for economic development," a foreign ministry spokesman told the official KCNA news agency. T...