A Seoul court on Thursday turned down a request by state prosecutors to arrest Shin Jae-min, former vice minister of culture, who is accused of having received bribes from a local businessman. Prosecutors sought an arrest warrant for Shin, a close confidant to President Lee Myung-bak, earlier this week in their widening investigation on the high-profile bribery case. Shin is suspected of taking...

SEOUL, Oct. 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has pressed for the quick resumption of long-stalled talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs without preconditions, Pyongyang's state media said Wednesday. Kim also repeated the North's longstanding stance that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is a dying wish of his late father, the country's founder Kim Il-sung....

(Yonhap News) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has pressed for the quick resumption of long-stalled talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs without preconditions, Pyongyang's state media said Wednesday. Kim also repeated the North's longstanding stance that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is a dying wish of his late father, the country's founder Kim Il-sung. The Nort...

Handmade soaps are to be sold at a Halloween event in Seoul to raise funds for refugees. Boogasari’s “trick or treat” music night special will see soaps made by North Korean defectors sold on the door for 5,000 won per bar, with proceeds going to the makers as part of the Soap for Hope project. The concert at Yogiga Expression Gallery, near Hapjeong Subway Station exit 5, will kick off at 4 p.m...

A group assisting homeless people in Seoul is seeking volunteers and donations to help prepare rough-sleepers for the winter. Members and friends of Jamon’s Rock City Church have been going out on Sunday evenings for the past three weeks to speak to and offer help to homeless people and sex workers around the Yeongdungpo Station area. The group has been given clothes by local clothing swaps, bu...

A tour of the House of Sharing is to be held on Sunday. The center in Gwangju, just outside of Seoul, houses the world’s first human rights museum devoted to the theme of sexual slavery, telling the story of the Korean “comfort women” who suffered at the hands of the Japanese military during the Asia-Pacific war (1932-1945). Those attending will pay 5,000 won to enter the museum and 5,000 won t...

Handmade soaps are to be sold at a Halloween event in Seoul to raise funds for refugees. Boogasari’s “trick or treat” music night special will see soaps made by North Korean defectors sold on the door for 5,000 won per bar, with proceeds going to the makers as part of the Soap for Hope project. The concert at Yogiga Expression Gallery, near Hapjeong Subway Station exit 5, will kick off at 4 p.m...

Three men were arrested on fraud charges for luring investors into a fake development project on the site of the Indonesian embassy here, said police officials on Wednesday. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the three men falsely led investors into believing that a profitable multi-purpose complex would be built where the embassy currently stands and then disappeared with the in...

The Korean Animal Protection Society is to hold a dog walk in Daegu on Sunday, Nov. 6. Participants will meet at Daemyoung Dog Shelter near Daemyoung Subway Station Exit 4 at 2:30 p.m. before walking their new furry friends around the lake at Dyuru Park. “In Korea, we rarely get big dogs so most of the dogs we will be walking are small companion animals,” said walk organizer, Emma Thompson. “Th...

The six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs is the “golden key” to opening the door for regional powers to achieve peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia, former Chinese state councilor Tang Jiaxuan said Wednesday. The comments come amid a flurry of renewed diplomatic efforts on how to restart the six-party talks that stalled when North Korea quit the aid-for-disarmament negot...

Koreans with dual citizenships may now have to renounce them to work in the courts or prosecution, according to a legal revision by the Justice Ministry released to the media on Wednesday. The revision states that a dual citizenship is a reason for automatic disqualification from becoming a judge or prosecutor, citing national security and conflicting interests. The ministry said that the laws ...

Joining in on the popular outrage directed at credit card firms, bar and karaoke owners demanded Wednesday that they benefit from the same reduction in credit card commission rates as restaurant owners. “People in the nightspot business are discriminated against by credit card companies, which excluded us from their plan to lower commission cuts for small proprietors,” said Oh Ho-seok, head of t...