Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo hinted during a site inspection trip to Europe this week that the auto giant would be shifting its focus from product quality to design.“We have been pouring all our resources into elevating driving performance. Now is the time for us to seek a new leap in car design,” he said. “Hyundai and Kia also have to nurture their own design identity, respectively.”Following his business trip to the group’s production facilities in Slovakia and the Czech Republi

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se plans to ratchet up pressure on Japan over its wartime enslavement of women and call for global efforts for better human rights conditions in North Korea at a U.N. session on Wednesday, officials said Tuesday. Yun departed for Geneva early Tuesday morning for a U.N. Human Rights Council session scheduled for March 3-28. He will be the first South Korean top diplomat to attend the meeting since 2006, and the first ever to raise the sex slavery issue there. His three-

North Korea test-fired four short-range missiles into the sea Thursday, Seoul's defense ministry said, in an apparent show of force to coincide with South Korea-US joint military exercises.A ministry spokesman told AFP the missiles, with an estimated range of 200 kilometers, were fired off the east coast of North Korea."Our military will maintain tight vigilance in preparation for additional launches or any military provocation from the North," the spokesman said.North Korea carries out short-ra

(AP) -- Emerging from a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that U.S.-China relations depend on trust and a positive notion of each other's motives. Neither leader made public mention of a major clash over disputed airspace that's pitted China against the U.S. and its Asian allies.Appearing somber and subdued, Biden said the relationship between the two major powers will significantly affect the course of the 21st century. If the U.S. and China

HANOI, ST. PETERSBURG -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye kicked off her schedule in Vietnam Sunday by attending a joint fashion show and a meeting with business leaders of South Korea and Vietnam to discuss wider cooperation and investment on the second day of her state visit. Park arrived in Vietnam on Saturday for a five-day stay that she plans to use as the starting point for her “sales diplomacy” drive. The highlight of the trip is a summit with Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang on M

Everyone has a favorite cartoon character from childhood that occupies a special place in their memories. Until 2000, characters that reminded many Koreans of their childhood were not Korean creations. Most were Japanese or American, from the classic Tom and Jerry and Thomas and Friends to Pokemon and Digimon. Amid the swarm of foreign characters, the Korean character Dooly was rare in remaining popular since its debut in 1983 through a televised animation series on KBS. But for those who spent

A North Korean man has defected to a South Korean western border island on Friday and is currently under investigation by authorities, a military official said. “An unarmed North Korean man arrived in Gyodong Island earlier in the day,” a military official said. “He was found by residents at around 3:40 a.m.” The 46-year-old man knocked on the door of an island resident‘s home, saying he came from the North, the official said. He was subsequently reported to military officials who took custody o

President Park Geun-hye plans to host a lunch for the chiefs of the country‘s top 10 business conglomerates next week to hear their views on how to revitalize investment and create jobs, her spokeswoman said Friday.The lunch, slated for Wednesday, would mark the first time Park has invited the top 10 chaebol heads to Cheong Wa Dae, though she held breakfast meetings with accompanying business leaders during her trips to the United States and China earlier this year.Park plans to use the meeting

The office of President Park Geun-hye bristled Friday at the main opposition party likening an election meddling scandal involving the state intelligence agency to the 1960 presidential election rigging that forced the resignation of then-President Rhee Syng-man.Earlier this week, members of the main opposition Democratic Party issued an open letter urging Park to learn a lesson from the case in which the Rhee government employed a series of illicit means to help him win re-election in the March

The two Koreas agreed Friday to hold reunions of separated families at the North’s Mount Geumgangsan resort in late September in the latest sign of easing tensions on the peninsula.During a meeting at the border village of Panmunjeom, Red Cross officials agreed that 100 people from each side would meet their loved ones from Sept. 25-30 in the program that had been suspended for nearly three years.The two sides will also arrange a video meeting among 40 families from each side from Oct. 22-23 and

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her “trustpolitik”toward North Korea on Friday, saying the policy and her principled approach to Pyongyang contributed to reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.Ban, who arrived in his native South Korea on Thursday for a home leave, made the remark during a meeting with Park, saying he came home light-hearted after Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to reopen a joint industrial complex and hold talks on setting up re

Six months in office, President Park Geun-hye’s approval ratings have reached a new high buoyed by her North Korea and security policies. Park’s approval ratings have gradually climbed since taking office in February and she now enjoys the highest approval ratings recorded by democratically elected presidents after six months in office, after President Kim Young-sam’s 83 percent. At the start of her term, a Gallup Korea polls gave Park an approval rating of 42 percent, which has climbed to 59 pe

YASNY, Russia (Yonhap News) -- South Korea’s new multipurpose satellite made contact with a ground station in the Asian country early Friday, confirming its successful deployment into its target orbit, officials in Yasny said.The first communication contact was made at 2:35 a.m. (5:35 a.m. KST), according to the officials from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).The Korea Multipurpose Satellite-5 (KOMPSAT-5) was launched Thursday from a launch base in Yasny, located some 1,800 kilomete

 In the first public hearing of its kind in Seoul, former North Korean political prisoners testified Tuesday to a United Nations' investigative body on the brutal treatment the communist country meted out to people who stepped out of line.   The public hearing is part of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) commissioners' 10-day visit to South Korea to investigate and compile reports on human rights conditions in the North.   The U.N. established the COI under its Human Rights Council in March, and i

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has extended a condolence letter to mark the one year anniversary of the death of the Unification Church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the North's state media said Tuesday.   According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) report monitored in Seoul, Kim "sent words cherishing the memory of Moon Sun Myung."   "Kim Jong-un prayed for the repose of Moon, who worked hard for national concord, prosperity and reunification and world peace," the KCNA said in an English

South Korea on Tuesday proposed talks with the North on Sept. 25 to restart the stalled tours to Mount Geumgang after a five-year freeze in a fresh sign of thaw in cross-border relations. The surprise announcement came two days after Pyongyang accepted Seoul’s offer of talks to arrange the first reunions of separated families in almost three years and proposed a separate meeting on Thursday over the tour project. While stressing the need to deal with the two issues separately, the Unification Mi

Pyongyang on Sunday accepted Seoul’s proposal for talks on Friday to arrange the first reunions of separated families in nearly three years around Korean Thanksgiving next month in another sign of a thaw in their relations.Positively evaluating the North’s acceptance, Seoul requested that the talks be held at the Peace House on the South’s side of Panmunjeom as initially proposed. Pyongyang said it wanted to hold the meeting at Mount Geumgang so that Seoul officials could take stock of facilitie

GAESEONG -- The two Koreas agreed Wednesday to take steps to reopen the Gaeseong factory park after 133 days of suspension, as the sides compromised on the key issue of how to prevent another closure in the future. Under a five-point accord signed at the close of the seventh round of talks in Gaeseong, they will meet again “in the near future” to form a new joint committee to discuss compensation for businesses and ways to improve passage, communications and customs and how to protect South Kore

Skepticism was growing about the prospect of an early normalization of the Gaeseong industrial complex as the two sides geared up for new talks on Monday in the North’s border city.The two Koreas failed to narrow their differences during the previous four rounds this month. The sour mood was especially apparent after a North Korean delegate refused to shake hands with his counterpart before talks last week. Pyongyang has consistently blamed the South on every occasion the talks have failed to pr

Top South Korean and U.S. military officers reiterated Thursday that the allies would respond firmly to any North Korean provocations in accordance with their recently signed contingency plan.During their 37th Military Committee Meeting, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Jung Seung-jo and his U.S. counterpart Gen. Martin Dempsey also reaffirmed that preparations for the transfer of wartime operational control slated for 2015 were “on track.”Dempsey reiterated the U.S. commitment to def