Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan hinted that the South Korea might allow for an “interim entity” if the North collapsed and said China’s role should be considered when he talked with a top U.S. diplomat, according to a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable dating from before his term as minister.The diplomatic cable in question was disclosed by Aftenposten, Norway’s largest newspaper which claims to have Wik

South Korea confirmed five additional foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks at two beef cattle farms and a milk cattle farm in provincial areas on Sunday despite nationwide quarantine efforts to contain the spread of the highly contagious animal disease, provincial government officials said.   The South Chungcheong provincial government said two milk cows at a farm in the central city of Cheonan,

Police continued their search on Sunday for a man suspected of stealing 530 million won (US$472,760) in cash from a armored van in this southeastern city on New Year's Eve.   The suspect, thought to be in his 20s or 30s, is still at large after robbing the cash-carrying van that was parked on a college campus on Friday afternoon in Gumi, 261 kilometers south of Seoul.At the time of the theft, the

(Bloomberg)The smoking rate in South Korea fell in 2010 from a year earlier, the nation's health ministry said Sunday, but it still maintains a higher-than-average rate compared to other advanced OECD nations.   According to the survey conducted by the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, the smoking rate for people aged 19 or older here reached 39.6 percent last year, down from 43.1 p

A business arm of South Korea's largest Buddhist sect said Sunday it has expanded its Web site on temple stay programs to support Chinese, Japanese and three other foreign languages as well as English.   The Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism, affiliated with the Jogye Order, said it has retooled the site (http://eng.templestay.com) so that information on programs is also available in German, Frenc