Defense Minister Han Min-koo on Saturday visited an Aegis-equipped destroyer tasked with immediately detecting North Korea's long-range rocket in case of a launch, his ministry said. Aboard the 7600-ton KDX-III destroyer Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong, Han instructed the troops to maintain full combat posture with North Korea poised to launch what it claims to be a space vehicle. (Yonhap)Pyongyang informed U.N. agencies that it would send a satellite into orbit between Feb. 8-25.  The minister noted that

미국 정부가 이라크 및 아프가니스탄 전쟁 당시 미군이 적군 수감자에 자행한 학대 장면이 담긴 사진들 200여장을 추가 공개했다고 AP 통신을 등 미 외신들이 5일 전했다. 미 국방부는 5일 (현지시간) 2004년과 2006년 사이에 미군 병사들이 이라크·아프가니스탄 포로에게 자행한 56건의 학대 장면이 담긴 198장의 사진을 공개했다. (美국방부/AP)사진은 대체로 어둡고 흐리지만 포로들의 팔과 다리에 멍이 들어 있거나 상처가 나있는 것을 보여준다. 이러한 사진 공개는 미국 법원이 지난해 인권단체의 손을 들어주며 정부에게 미군의 이라크·아프가니스탄 포로 학대 사진들을 공개하라고 판결한 것에 따른 것이다.      미국시민자유연맹(ACLU)은 수년간 포로 학대 관련 사진 공개를 요청해왔지만 미국 정부는 사진이 공개되면 폭력적인 반발을 일으킬 수 있고 해외 미군과 미국인이 공격을 받을 위험에 처할 수 있다는 이유로 반대해왔다. 이번에 공개된 사진들과 관련, 56건의 학대사건 중 14건은

The Pentagon on Friday released nearly 200 photographs of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, taken mostly between 2004 and 2006, involving 56 cases of alleged abuse by U.S. forces.The often dark, blurry and grainy pictures are mainly of detainees' arms and legs, revealing bruises and cuts, and they appear far less dramatic than those released more than a decade ago during allegations of torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Those now-infamous Abu Ghraib photos included images of naked detainees s

South Korean stocks are expected to move sideways during the holiday-shortened week on signs of a slowing Chinese economy and fluctuating oil prices, though falling odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike could ease downward pressure, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 1,917.79 on Friday, down 0.36 percent from a week ago.  The index got off to a strong start after Japan decided to adopt a negative interest rate to shore up the flagging economy,

A 10-month old baby was among three dead after a 16-storey tower block was toppled by a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in southern Taiwan Saturday, with rescuers battling to free residents still trapped inside.Officials said four buildings collapsed in the quake which struck the island in the early hours of the morning, but rescue efforts are centering on the tower block that tumbled onto its side.Firefighters pulled survivors from the twisted concrete, trying to access apartments through windows and

Police said Friday they have recovered two butane canisters in a suspicious white box in South Korea's main airport near Seoul, but no accident was reported.Police said they received a report around 4:30 p.m. that the box suspected to contain explosive devices was found in a man's bathroom in Incheon International Airport, South Korea's main gateway.Police cordoned off the area as an explosive ordnance disposal unit was checking the bathroom.A scan from portable digital x-ray equipment showed th

The 2015 corporate earnings this week showed that the manufacturing industry, once the backbone of the nation’s exports-driven economic growth, is losing steam at a fast pace. (Yonhap)The nation’s top two manufacturers ― Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor ― recorded a double digit year-on-year fall in their net profit last year, squeezed by falling demand in major overseas markets and growing competition from cheap rival products. Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor announced a 19 percent a

South Korea's new finance minister said Wednesday that the country should mobilize all resources to carry out structural reforms in order to put the economy back on a growth path and make it stronger."It's urgent to complete reforms in the education, labor, public and financial sectors in order to make a breakthrough in the low-growth trap," Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho said in his inauguration ceremony. "All resources should be funneled into the task.""There is no tomorrow unless we revamp the ri

A group of former "comfort women" declared Wednesday the nullification of the recent South Korea-Japan agreement on the wartime sexual slavery victims, urging the Seoul government to make a "proper" resolution.The agreement, reached on Dec. 28, has sparked a wave of public protests among victims and their supporters, who claim Japan got the better end of the deal by obtaining Seoul's promise to settle the issue once and for all if Tokyo fulfills its commitments.Under the deal, Japan apologized a

The weekly rally held to protest Japan’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II marked 24 years Wednesday, becoming the longest-running demonstration in the world.　Despite the landmark deal between Seoul and Tokyo on Dec. 28, the decades-long ordeal of the victims -- euphemistically called “comfort women” -- appears to be far from over, with the victims and their supporters still crying out for the same demands in front of the Japanese Embassy in downtown Seoul.　 (Yonhap)In the 1

The Cabinet has decided to raise President Park Geun-hye’s annual salary by more than 3 percent and expand the merit-based wage system in the public sector, the Ministry of Personnel Management announced Tuesday. Park is set to earn 212 million won ($179,000) this year, compared to 205 million won last year, after the Cabinet approved the bill on government employees’ salaries in the meeting held in the morning.Given that the nation’s average consumer price inflation stood at 0.7 percent last ye

South Koreans gathered across the street from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Wednesday to condemn Seoul and Tokyo for sealing a deal over Japan’s sexual enslavement of Korean women without consulting the victims or gaining their consent. 　Enraged by what they called political collusion between the two countries, nearly 1,000 people jammed into a narrow downtown street to participate in the 1,211st weekly rally held by the former sex slaves and their supporters. 　 (Yonhap)The Korean Council for

Kim Yang-gon, a top North Korean official in charge of cross-border affairs, was killed in a car accident, the North’s state media reported Wednesday, drawing attention to the impact of his death on inter-Korean relations. He was 73.Kim Yang-gon (Yonhap)The North’s Korea Central News Agency said that Kim, a secretary of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party and director of the party’s United Front Department, died at 6:15 a.m. on Tuesday following the accident, without elaborating.T

Koreans pointed to political feuds as the biggest reason for deteriorating social conflicts in the country, a state-led survey showed Tuesday. 　According to the poll by the Presidential Committee for National Cohesion, 51.8 percent of the respondents said that the political wrangling between the ruling party and opposition bloc contributed most to worsening social confrontations. 　In the multiple-choice survey of 2,000 Koreans aged 19 and over, the wealth gap was chosen as the second-biggest fac

Braving social bias and ostracism, Kim Hak-soon, a South Korean comfort woman, took to the podium in 1991 to testify about her wartime forced prostitution experiences for the first time in public. 　Another 237 Korean women, forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II, followed suit, demanding a sincere apology and legal compensation from the Japanese government. 　Later that year, Kim and three other victims filed a lawsuit against Japanese authorities. But Japan’s highest

South Korea’s state-appointed media monitoring agency said Sunday that it has set out specific guidelines to restrict the use of foreign languages in TV commercials.　According to the guidelines for the nation’s broadcasters by the Korea Communications Standards Commission, TV advertisements are now banned from containing foreign languages or songs for more than 15 seconds -- half of the 30-second time slot. 　The regulation covers the narrative of product slogans, company names and catchphrases s

The Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday that a law barring South Koreans from changing their resident registration numbers was unconstitutional.The court said the current law on resident registration numbers excessively violates citizens’ basic rights to make decisions about their own personal information, ordering the government to present a revision by the end of 2017. “It is an excessive violation of rights that the government does not allow Koreans to change their resident numbers regardles

South Korea’s human rights watchdog said Tuesday that police and prosecutors were recently cautioned for denying foreign suspects’ rights to self-defense by detaining an African man for 12 days without contacting his embassy. 　According to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, police and prosecutors arrested a Nigerian and detained him for 12 days, ignoring his multiple requests to contact the Nigerian Embassy. 　Police arrested the man, who was at the time on the wanted list, on a theft

 A lesbian was elected Thursday as the student body president of Korea’s most prestigious university, the first time someone from a sexual minority has held such a post. 　Kim Bo-mi, 23, the sole candidate for Seoul National University’s 58th student council election, won 86.8 percent of the vote in the election, according to the university’s election committee. 　The voter turnout in the vote held Monday to Thursday was 53.3 percent, with only 11.2 percent voting against Kim, 0.1 percent abstaini

Myanmar's boisterous election campaign draws to a close Friday, two days before milestone polls that could finally propel Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party to power after a decades-long struggle against the military. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) is eyeing an outright majority at Sunday's general election, the first the party has contested since 1990.Myanmar was ruled for half a century by a brutal and isolationist junta which crushed pro-democracy movements through a combin