French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen and German automaker Volkswagen AG will recall 3,241 vehicles in South Korea due to defective parts in their braking systems and fuel pipes, the transportation ministry said Sunday.   Peugeot's 2,962 vehicles manufactured and sold here between Dec. 15, 2006 and Feb. 24, 2009 are subject to the recall, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime

   A female opposition lawmaker said Sunday that she has transferred her permanent address to Dokdo, seeking to put further pressure on President Lee Myung-bak's government to sternly deal with Japan's frequent claims to the easternmost South Korean islets.   Rep. Park Sun-young, who serves as the spokesperson of the minor Liberty Forward Party, told Yonhap News Agency that she changed her permane

French chief believes Seoul ready for Michelin Red GuideHere for his bi-annual visit to Le Cordon Bleu’s Korean campus, Andre J. Cointreau ― president, CEO and MD of the prestigious culinary institution ― revealed a desire to change up the curriculum with a program devoted to Korean cuisine.“We have now opened a Thai cuisine classical cycle in Le Cordon Bleu,” Cointreau told The Korea Herald durin

   SEOUL (AP) _ North Korea says it will fire at South Korea if it continues allowing activists to launch propaganda leaflets toward the North.   The North's official Korean Central News Agency says the country's military conveyed the warning to South Korea's military Sunday.   The warning comes one day before South Korea kicks off annual military drills with the United States. The North says the

   TOKYO (AP) _ Nintendo's latest game machine, offering glasses-free 3-D images, went on sale in Japan on Saturday ahead of a global rollout, and analysts say it promises to be the world's first 3-D mass-market product.   ``I'm so excited,'' said 9-year-old Natsumi Miyasaka, clutching her brand new blue 3DS portable that her father bought for her. Customer Toyohisa Ishihara shows a Nintendo Co. 3

   UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously to impose sanctions on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, his five adult children and top associates.   Voting after a day of discussions _ interrupted at times for consultations with home capitals _ council members agreed on Saturday to freeze the assets of Gadhafi, his four sons and one daughter, and to ban travel by the whole

   INCHEON -- A chartered Korean Air plane carrying 235 South Koreans out of strife-torn Libya arrived in Seoul Saturday, as the government was preparing to send another to bring home more Koreans stranded there.   Those who returned home were met at Incheon International Airport by relatives and friends. Also arriving with them were three foreigners.     Despite the long flight, all looked health

   North Korea held a meeting of young leaders Saturday, urging them to play a bigger role in building a "great, prosperous and powerful country" by next year, the country's  media said.    The North's communist regime has set 2012, the centennial of the birth of its late founder and president, Kim Il-sung, as the deadline for achieving the goal.    Although such gatherings with young people are c

   DAMYANG -- About 1,000 ducks found dead earlier this week at a farm in southern South Korea were confirmed Saturday to have been infected with a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza, raising concern that the lethal virus is spreading in the country, officials said.    The H5A1 virus was found on the duck farm in Damyang county of South Jeolla Province, about 350 kilometers south of Seoul

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Four Americans taken hostage by Somali pirates off East Africa were shot and killed by their captors Monday, the U.S. military said, marking the first time U.S. citizens have been killed in a wave of pirate attacks plaguing the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean for years.U.S. naval forces quickly boarded the captured yacht after hearing the gunfire and tried to provide lifes

    Hwang Young-jo, a South Korean Olympic gold medalist in the men's marathon, has a busy summer ahead of him, as he tries to juggle his duties for his home province and also for a future generation of athletes. (Yonhap News)   Hwang, who won the marathon at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, is one of the honorary ambassadors for the 2018 Winter Games bid for PyeongChang. The alpine town, in it

  South Korean middle and high school students feel closer to relatives on their mother's side than to those on their father's, showing a tendency to shift to a maternal society, a survey said Tuesday. (The Korea Herald)   According to the poll on 6,979 students from middle and high schools nationwide conducted in June and July last year by the National Youth Policy Institute, 83.4 percent answere

  South Korea's imports of U.S. beef nearly doubled in 2010 from a year earlier due largely to dwindling concerns over its safety here, the government said Tuesday.   The farm ministry said the country imported 125,681 tons of beef from the U.S. last year, up 97 percent from 63,817 tons tallied in 2009.   The total effectively exceeded amounts imported by Seoul before the U.S. beef import ban went

  South Korean actress Lee Young-ae, widely popular across Asia, has given birth to twins, her agent here said Monday.Lee, 40, became a mother of fraternal twins, a boy and a girl, at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at a Seoul hospital, said Storms Company."The mother and the babies are healthy," it said.Lee Young-ae (The Korea Herald)She was secretly married in 2009 in the United States to a Korean businessman

   South Korea's spy agency denied a local media report on Monday that its agents had broken into an Indonesian presidential delegation's hotel room last week in Seoul to steal sensitive arms procurement information.   Quoting an unnamed senior official, the Chosun Ilbo said that a trio, who had broken into the suite room of the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul and fled after a delegation member saw

Obama talks jobs with Jobs, other tech leaders   WOODSIDE, California (AP) _ President Barack Obama assembled someof the biggest names in Silicon Valley to confer on jobs and innovation, trying to get leaders from companies like Google and Apple behind his push to keep spending on high-tech initiatives even as Republicans push to slash the budget.   Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, Google chief e

The Financial Services Commission suspended operations of four savings banks on Saturday, following its similar sanction against three debt-saddled players since January.The regulator announced that it halted businesses of Busan II Savings Bank, Jungang Busan Savings Bank, Jeonju Savings Bank and Bohae Savings Bank for six months until Aug. 18.The series of measures against distressed savings bank

JYJ, a pop trio consisting of members from one of Asia’s favorite groups, “Dong Bang Shin Ki,” has won its legal battle to work independently from its management company.When three members of the quintet, namely Kim Jaejoong, Park Yoochun, and Kim Junsu (more commonly known as Hero, Micky and Xia), formed JYJ, SM Entertainment claimed the action was a breach of contract. JYJ members Kim Jun-su (le

   South Korean stocks ended 1.82 percent higher Friday as investors hunted for bargains following recent bearish trading, analysts said. The local currency gathered ground against the U.S. dollar.   The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) advanced 35.92 points to 2,013.14, ending above the 2,000-point level for the first time in three sessions. Trading volume was heavy at 488.9 mi

  A free trade pact between South Korea and the EU will bring great economic benefit to both sides, and break ground for the consolidation of the two markets, an EU diplomat said Friday.      On Thursday, the European Parliament approved the free trade pact with South Korea, bringing it one step closer to coming into force this July. Seoul and Brussels signed their bilateral free trade agreement (