Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest automaker, said Tuesday it has reached a tentative agreement with its labor union on this year's pay increase 119 days after the start of negotiations. On Wednesday, the labor union plans to hold a vote on whether to approve the agreement signed late Monday at the carmaker's main production plant in Ulsan, located 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Under the agreement, unionized workers and management will set up a special pay system and standard wage ref

South Korea on Tuesday formally notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday it will open its rice market starting next year with a 513 percent tariff rate."The government has submitted to the WTO secretariat its plan to revise the country's tariff rate on rice imports ahead of market opening through tarrification that will go into effect Jan. 1, 2015," the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a press release.The move comes as a special agreement with the WTO that allowed the

Hong Kong's embattled leader called Tuesday for an immediate end to street demonstrations that have drawn tens of thousands and paralysed the city, but protesters refused to move until Beijing grants the financial hub genuine democracy.In his first public comments since demonstrators were tear gassed by riot police on Sunday evening, chief executive Leung Chun-ying said protests organised by the pro-democracy Occupy Central group had got "out of control"."Occupy Central founders had said repeate

Volcanic tremors and fears over a fresh eruption forced rescuers with gas masks to halt operations to recover bodies from a Japanese mountain on Tuesday, 72 hours after its eruption.Vulcanologists warned of the possibility of another major explosion at the 3,067-metre (10,121-foot) Mount Ontake, noting tremors have become larger.At least 36 people are known to have died in the eruption, with the bodies of 24 of them still on the volcano. About 60 people suffered injuries."Ground search operation

Hong Kong's chief executive Leung Chun-ying Tuesday called on protest leaders to "immediately" withdraw their followers from the streets in his first public comments since demonstrators were tear gassed by police."Occupy Central founders had said repeatedly that if the movement is getting out of control, they would call for it to stop. I'm now asking them to fulfil the promise they made to society, and stop this campaign immediately," Leung said.Occupy Central is the main grassroots group behind

President Park Geun-hye called on officials Tuesday to make aggressive efforts to help improve the lives of North Koreans as she made clear that North Korea's human rights issue is a top priority in dealing with the communist country.The issue of the North's human rights had long been placed on the back burner in South Korea where many people, mostly liberals, have shied away from the issue out of fear that it could strain inter-Korean relations.The issue was also pushed back on the priority lis

North Korea's political instability took a turn for the worse in 2013 from a year earlier, the World Bank said Tuesday, apparently due to the execution of its leader's uncle. The bank's annual World Governance Indicators (WGI) data showed the aggregate indicator of "political stability and absence of violence (PV)" for the communist nation dropped to minus 0.53 in 2013 from minus 0.11 a year earlier.It marks the lowest PV figure for North Korea since the bank launched the WGI program in 1996. Th

K-pop idol group Girls’ Generation left for China on Tuesday without Jessica, backing up claims that she was forced out of the group by her label SM Entertainment.　Eight members of the group -- Taeyeon, Tiffany, Seohyun, Sunny, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung and Yoona -- turned up at Incheon International Airport on Tuesday morning before flying to Shenzhen, China, to attend a fan meeting.　Jessica, however, was not sighted at the airport. 　(OSEN)The other girls did not respond to any of the questions f

A cruise ship carrying 104 passengers and five crew members ran aground in waters off a southwestern island on Tuesday but all people on board were rescued, the Coast Guard said.The accident took place around 9:14 a.m. when the 171-ton vessel Vacance hit a submerged rock in waters not far from Hongdo Island, South Jeolla Province.Coast Guard officers rushed to the scene upon receiving a distress call and rescued all of those aboard the ship in 30 minutes with the help of nearby fishing boats, ac

South Korean paddler Cho Gwang-hee picked up gold in the K-1 (kayak single) 200-meter race in the men's sprint event on Monday at the Incheon Asian Games. The 20-year-old came home in first place in a time of 35.464 seconds, seizing the first Asiad gold medal in the discipline for the host country since its last win at the 1990 Asian Games. Uzbekistan's Ernest Irnazarov came in second place in 36.531 seconds, while Japan's Seiji Komatsu secured the bronze with a time of 36.754 seconds. The South

North Korea's chief delegate defied Japan's pressure on Monday to quickly produce a preliminary report on the North's probe into the fate of more than a dozen Japanese nationals it has admitted to kidnapping decades ago as the two nations began a fresh round of talks. Song Il-ho, North Korean ambassador for normalization talks with Japan, started the one-day talks with Junichi Ihara, head of the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, at a hotel in Shenyang as Pyongyang ha

The unification ministry said Monday it has approved a local aid group's plan to provide 200 million won (US$190,512) worth of agro-materials in humanitarian assistance to North Korea.Upon the approval, Ace Gyeongam, the foundation run by bed maker Ace, will cross the inter-Korean land border on Tuesday to deliver the agricultural materials, including greenhouse goods, to North Korea's North Hwanghae Province, according to the ministry.Six officials from the foundation will visit North Korea to

South Koreans regard Catholicism as the most trustworthy and influential of the major religions in the country, a survey showed Monday.In an annual survey of public opinion on South Korean society, politics and religion, Catholicism placed first with 3.39 points in the category of reliability among the country's five largest religions.A social research institute run by the Buddhist Jogye Order conducted the poll on 1,500 people aged 16 or more around the country in August. Those polled were aske

The Korean traditional martial art of taekwondo will begin its Asian Games competition on Tuesday, with the host expected to collect multiple titles.A total of 16 weight classes, eight each for men and women, will be contested. A country can be represented in up to 12 of them, half a dozen each for men and women.On the first day, South Koreans will be featured in the men's74㎏ and 87㎏, and the women's 49㎏ and 53㎏. Yoon Jeong-yeon, the reigning Asian champ in the women's 53㎏, is seen as a gold med

The ratio of senior citizens aged 65 and over in South Korea has risen to an all-time high in 2014, government data showed Monday, indicating that its population is aging at a fast pace.According to the data by Statistics Korea, 12.7 percent of the country's population of 50.4 million is aged 65 or older, which is higher than the 12.2 percent tallied in 2013.This marked the highest number ever since related data started to be compiled in 1960, when the ratio stood at 2.9 percent. The agency expe

The government said Monday that it will create a comprehensive map of underground conditions while also requiring a safety analysis before any major construction projects to help prevent sinkholes.The decision follows weeks of a special inspection prompted by the recent discovery of several underground cavities in Seoul.An earlier inspection of the underground cavities in Seokchon, southeastern Seoul, by the Seoul metropolitan government had concluded the hollows were formed by extensive and rec

Some 20,000 government officials, environmentalists and businesspeople from around the world gathered in the eastern city of Pyeongchang on Monday for a U.N. environmental convention on biodiversity, the environment ministry said.The 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, dubbed COP 12, kicked off with a ceremony for a 19-day run, with about 20,000 representatives from 194 countries attending, the ministry said.During the conference themed "Biodi

President Barack Obama admitted Sunday that the United States had underestimated the opportunity that a collapsing Syria would provide for jihadist militants to regroup and stage a sudden comeback.Speaking to CBS News, the president said that former Al-Qaeda fighters driven from Iraq by US and local forces had been able to gather in Syria to form the newly dangerous Islamic State group.A US-led coalition of Arab and Western allies has begun an air campaign to counter the group, hitting targets i

Police repeatedly fired tear gas in clashes with protesters fighting for democracy as parts of Hong Kong descended into chaos Sunday with tens of thousands on the streets to demand Beijing grant the city full universal suffrage.The rare scenes -- in which crowds faced down riot police in the international financial hub -- forced protest leaders to warn supporters to "retreat and save their lives" if rubber bullets were fired.Protesters screamed "Shame!" at officers, many in gas masks and riot ge

Senior diplomats from North Korea and Japan were set to resume a fresh round of talks on Monday as Pyongyang snubs Tokyo's demand to quickly produce a preliminary report on the North's probe into the fate of more than a dozen Japanese nationals it has admitted to kidnapping decades ago. North Korea agreed in May to re-investigate the issue of Japanese nationals kidnapped by the North's agents in the 1970s and 1980s. In return, Japan lifted some of its unilateral sanctions imposed on the North ov