Opposition urges Lee government to keep election pledgeLegislators on Monday continued to uphold their regional interests over the location of the envisioned multi-trillion-won science-business belt and pounded the government with questions on the safety of nuclear power plants.Opposition lawmakers called on the Lee Myung-bak administration to stick to the president’s campaign pledge to locate the

North Korea appeared to be speeding up its construction of a light-water reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, raising eyebrows in Seoul as fears rise over radioactive materials from Japan’s tsunami-stricken nuclear power plant.Satellite photos taken last month and broadcast by KBS-TV showed a new round structure being built in Yongbyon and foundation work underway next to it. A high-ranking So

Panel starts reviewing where to locate multi-trillion-won facilitiesLawmakers engaged in a heated dispute over a proposal to divide up an envisioned multi-trillion-won science-business belt into two or three different regions as a panel assigned with selecting the location held its first meeting Thursday. The Lee Myung-bak administration last year sought to set up the science-business belt in Sout

A plan to lower telecommunication-related rates will be announced in May that can help stem hikes in consumer prices, the head of the country's communications regulator said Wednesday.Choi See-joong, chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, told reporters that the taskforce made up of the finance ministry and other related agencies are in the process of formulating a master plan.The taskfo

The nation’s weather agency considered creating an artificial rainstorm above the Taebaek Mountains along the eastern coast to block the inflow of radioactive materials from Japan’s crippled nuclear plant, an opposition legislator said Wednesday.Rep. Shin Hak-yong of the Democratic Party said he was told that the Korea Meteorological Agency attempted the rainmaking despite the possibility of causi

(Yonhap News)Radioactive water leak into sea stops at FukushimaTOKYO (AFP) - A leak of highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant was stopped Wednesday, the operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) announced."Workers confirmed at 5:38 am (2038 GMT) that the water running off out of a pit had stopped," the embattled operator said in a statement.TE

President Lee Myung-bak said Tuesday that his government will share its experience of dredging and developing the country’s four main rivers with Malaysia ahead of summit talks with visiting Prime Minister Mohamed Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak later in the day.“The Malaysian prime minister said he wished to take a look at the four rivers being developed,” Lee said during an Arbor Day event in Yeoju, G

Cheong Wa Dae said Monday it will take some time before giving the green light to a new bill requiring listed companies to hire legal experts.The National Assembly last month passed a revised commercial bill that requires all listed businesses to employ lawyers or law professors of more than five years’ experience to monitor for potential legal problems in addition to the counsels they already hav

President Lee Myung-bak has decided to replace two of the three deputy chiefs of the National Intelligence Service two months after the nation’s main spy agency’s failed attempt to steal information from a visiting Indonesian delegation caused diplomatic humiliation. Lee named Jeon Jae-man, diplomatic minister at the South Korean Embassy in Beijing, as the first deputy chief of the NIS, and Lee Jo

North Korea is taking steps to toughen control of IT gadgets such as computers and mobile phones to block outside information out of fears that the democratization movements in the Middle East and northern Africa could arouse its people.Pyongyang has ordered institutions and households to report on how many computers and even portable data storage devices such as USBs and MP3 players they own earl

President vows to complete military reform, reinforce Dokdo sovereigntyPresident Lee Myung-bak on Friday apologized for failing to keep his election pledge to build a new international airport in the southeastern part of the country and said that the high-speed KTX train network would help reduce inconvenience for people traveling abroad.“I am sorry that (the government) failed to keep the pledge

The president of South Korea’s leading university was trapped in his office almost overnight on Friday when a group of staff and students staged a protest outside his door to demand a role in the school’s process of gaining independence from state control.Some 400 staff and students at Seoul National University sat in the hallway outside President Oh Yeon-cheon’s office for almost 12 hours until 3

South Korea’s human rights watchdog said Friday it is against the government’s move to adopt a U.S.-style plea bargain system.The proposed system would allow prosecutors to either drop an indictment or give a lenient sentence to a suspect in return for his admission of wrongdoing and testimony.The decision by the National Human Rights Commission came after the Justice Ministry in December asked th

Lee to speak on broken election pledge FridayRep. Park Geun-hye, currently the ruling Grand National Party’s strongest presidential hopeful, on Thursday expressed regret over the government’s decision to chuck President Lee Myung-bak’s election pledge to build an airport in the southeastern part of the country, adding that Korea should keep pushing for it.The GNP’s factional leader and Lee’s polit

Ministry ditches Lee’s election pledge, citing economic viabilityThe government’s decision to ditch a plan to build a new international airport in the southeastern part of the country drew angry backlash from legislators Wednesday ahead of the by-election next month as well as the general and presidential elections next year.The airport was one of President Lee Myung-bak’s election campaign pledge

South Korea to ship instant rice, drinking water for quake victimsTokyo’s decision to restate its territorial claims on Korea’s easternmost islets in school textbooks is provoking Koreans once again, as Seoul continues to send aid supplies to its quake-stricken neighbor.Viewing the two as separate issues, the Seoul government plans to continue humanitarian aid to Japan while taking stern actions a

Former prime minister to keep job as head of shared growth panelFormer Prime Minister Chung Un-chan said Monday he will continue to lead a nongovernmental panel for mutual growth of small and large companies a week after writing to President Lee Myung-bak offering to quit. Chung’s decision comes after he, the ruling party’s coveted potential election candidate, received a “response” of some sort f

The Seoul government on Friday imposed a temporary ban on food imports from parts of Japan contaminated by radiation from its quake-stricken nuclear power plant. Tokyo has so far advised against eating broccoli, cauliflower and leafy vegetables such as spinach produced near the Fukushima Daiichi plant. It is also limiting shipments of spinach, turnips, parsley and milk from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Toc

Groups of North Korean defectors here were set to fly anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North on Friday and Saturday despite the communist state’s renewed threat to strike the South’s “strongholds of psychological warfare” and safety concerns raised by South Koreans living near the border.Residents of Cheorwon in Gangwon Province and Paju in Gyeonggi Province have protested the leaflet campaigns out

The main opposition Democratic Party is racked by internal bickering over whether chairman Sohn Hak-kyu, one of its presidential hopefuls, should run in the by-election next month, while the ruling Grand National Party is concentrating its resources on winning the governorship in Gangwon Province.An aide to Sohn criticized a group of DP legislators calling on the party chairman to run in the by-el