Actor and theater director Baek Won-gil was found dead Friday in an apparent drowning accident, fire officials said. Gangwon Fire Headquarters said they found Baek’s body in meter-deep water at Namdae Stream in Gangneung, Gangwon Province at 9 a.m. Rescuers had been conducting a search operation after Baek’s friend reported him missing Thursday. Police officials think Baek drowned while on a fishing trip. According to local news reports, Baek had recently moved to Yangyang County and had spent t

South Korean stocks closed 0.2 percent lower Friday as improved economic data sparked concerns over a reduction in the U.S. quantitative easing, analysts said. The local currency gained against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 3.8 points to finish at 1,920.11. Trading volume was moderate at 334.8 million shares worth 3.55 trillion won ($3.19 billion) with losers outpacing gainers 429 to 354.Analysts said Seoul shares lost ground due on the market outlo

‘국보센터’ 서장훈이 지난 15일 MBC 무릎팍 도사에 출연해 전 부인 오정연과의 이혼에 얽힌 이야기를 포함해 여러 소문에 대해 해명했다.서장훈은 이날 방송에서 “지금 나오는 이혼에 대한 소문들이 모두 그 친구 (오정연)에게 안 좋은 이야기다. 그 친구를 나쁜 사람처럼 몰아가는데, 그런 부분은 바로 잡아야겠다고 생각한다”고 하면서 “그 친구는 누구에게 그런 이야기를 들어야 될 만한 사람이 아니다”고 설명했다.서장훈은 이혼 사유에 대해 “성격이나 가치관의 차이 때문에 헤어진 것”이라며 오정연은 “소탈하고 좋은 사람”이라고 덧붙였다. 또한 그동안 이혼 소문에 대해 침묵했던 이유에 대해 “밝혀야 할 필요성을 못 느꼈다”면서 “내가 이러쿵저러쿵 하면 그 친구에게 피해가 될 것 같았다”고 설명했다.그 외에도 서장훈 선수는 결병증이 있다는 소문에, “깔끔하고 예민하다”면서 결벽증까진 아니더라도 정리하는 습관이 있다고 말했다. 서장훈은 그 외에도 현역시절과 어린 시절에 대한 이야기를 풀어놓았다.

South Korea on Friday proposed holding talks with the North next week to arrange the first reunions of separated families in nearly three years in September. The offer delivered through the border communication channel was a follow-up to President Park Geun-hye’s Liberation Day address one day before, in which she suggested resuming family reunions and establishing a peace park inside the Demilitarized Zone. On Wednesday, the two Koreas agreed to take steps to reactivate the factory complex in G

State prosecutors began searching the national archives Friday as part of their ongoing probe into the disappearance of a 2007 inter-Korean summit transcript that has become a major political issue.The move comes after a Seoul court earlier this week allowed the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office to see all presidential records of the Roh Moo-hyun administration of 2003-2008 that are supposedly kept at the National Archives of Korea (NAK).With the court-issued search and seizure warrant,

South Korea's producer prices fell for the 10th straight month in July as the local currency's gain to the U.S. dollar helped offset higher oil costs, the central bank said Friday.The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, slid 0.9 percent in July from a year earlier, compared with a 1.4 percent on-year decline in June, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).On a yearly basis, the producer prices have fallen every month since October 2012 when such prices fell 0.5 percent

South Korean stocks opened lower Friday tracking overnight losses on Wall Street as an improved economic data sparked concerns over a reduction in the U.S. quantitative easing, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 16.20 points, or 0.84 percent, to 1,907.71 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Tech shares closed bearish, with No. 1 player Samsung Electronics plunging 1.08 percent and top chipmaker SK hynix falling 1.2 percent. Top flat panel maker LG Display sh

The number of new apartments provided by construction firms is on the rise. According to R114, an online real estate information provider, about 250,000 households are expected to move into new apartments next year.

With astonishing speed, Egypt has moved from a nation in crisis to a nation in real danger of slipping into a prolonged bout of violence or even civil war.Egypt has become increasingly polarized since the Islamists rose to power following the 2011 revolution that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Fault lines touching key and potentially explosive issues like identity, the rights of Christians and other minorities, and democratic values have never been greater. The Muslim Brotherhood and their hard-

The Korean Red Cross plans to provide North Korea with an emergency fund of US$100,000 to help flood victims in the communist country, an official from the organization said Friday.  "The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has asked for our participation in supporting the flood-hit North Korea," the official said. "In accordance, we've decided in humanitarian terms to send $100,000 to the IFRC to provide the victims there with relief goods." he added. The mon

Woori Finance Holdings Co. put up a public notice on Friday to sell its brokerage unit and five other affiliates in the second phase of the government's process to privatize South Korea's top banking group.Woori Finance made it public that Woori Investment & Securities Co. and three other units -- WooriAviva Life Insurance Co., Woori Asset Management Co. and Woori FG Savings Bank Co. -- will be sold in a bundle. Woori Financial Co. and Woori F&I Co. will be put up for sale separately.The group a

North Korea displayed fake missiles in its recent street parade in an apparent bid to exaggerate its military prowess, a U.S. news report said Thursday, citing analysis by government and civilian experts here.A set of North Korean weaponry rolled through the streets of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, in a July 26 ceremony to mark the Korean War Armistice anniversary.It included a purported road-mobile Musudan medium-range missile and a Hwasong-13 intercontinental ballistic missile."Our asse

Weeping relatives in search of loved ones uncovered the faces of the bloodied, unclaimed dead in a Cairo mosque near the smoldering epicenter of support for ousted President Mohammed Morsi, as the death toll soared past 600 Thursday from Egypt's deadliest day since the Arab Spring began. World condemnation widened for the bloody crackdown on Morsi's mostly Islamist supporters, including an angry response from President Barack Obama, who canceled joint U.S.-Egyptian military maneuvers.Violence sp

남북한이 14일 7차 당국간 실무회담을 열고 개성공단 정상화를 위한 막판 협상을 벌였다.이날 회담에서 남북이 합의문 도출을 이뤄낸다면 개성공단 사태는 발생 133일 만에 극적으로 해결책을 마련하게 된다. 남북은 이날 회담에서 최대 쟁점인 유사사태 재발방지 보장 '주체' 문제를 집중 협의한 것으로 알려졌다.특히 그동안 이번 사태를 일으킨 '북'을 단독으로 재발방지 보장의 주체로 명시 해야 한다고 주장한 우리 정부의 입장이 탄력적으로 돌아선 것으로 알려져 주목된다.남북한이 한발짝씩 양보할 경우 이날 회담에서 합의문 타결 가능성이 있는 것으로 관측된다.북한은 이날 오전 10시에 시작된 전체회의에서 지난 7일 조국평화통일위원회(조평통) 대변인 특별담화에서 밝힌 내용대로 재발방지 주체로 '남과 북'을 모두 언급한 것으로 보인다.통일부 당국자는 북한이 조평통 담화를 중심으로 자신들의 입장을 설명했다고 전했다.우리 측은 이날 재발방지 보장에 중점을 두고 개성공단 공동위원회, 개성공단 국제화 등을

프로야구 삼성 라이온스의 외야수 조동찬 (30)이 무릎부상으로 전치 6주 진단을 받으면서 사실상 남은 시즌 출전이 무산되었다.조동찬은 14일 대구 세명 병원에서 자기공명상 장치(MRI) 검진을 통해 왼쪽 무릎 골절과 인대의 일부가 손상되었다는 진단을 받았다. 6주 치료 기간에 재활까지 감안하면 잔여 시즌은 물론이고 포스트시즌까지 출전이 불투명해지게 되었다. 삼성 류중일 감독은 진단 결과를 듣고 조동찬의 복귀가 어렵다고 말한 것으로 알려졌다.한편 조동찬은 이를 두고 “전후방 십자 인대가 안 나간 게 천만다행”이라는 반응을 보였다. 조동찬은 전날 대구구장에서 열린 LG전에서 주루 중 LG 1루수 문선재와 충돌해 부상을 입었다. 문선재는 이후 조동찬에게 전화해 사과한 것으로 알려졌다.조동찬은 이번 시즌을 정상적으로 소화할 경우 시즌 후 자유계약선수(FA)가 될 수 있었으나, FA선언에 필요한 엔트리 등록일수 (145일)를 채우지 못하고 시즌아웃되면서 이를 1년 후로 미뤄야 할 처지에 놓였

South Korean pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin of the Los Angeles Dodgers outdueled the National League (NL) Cy Young Award candidate Matt Harvey of the New York Mets to earn his 12th win of the season on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium.Ryu pitched seven strong innings, giving up one earned run on five hits and a walk while striking out three, as the Dodgers defeated the Mets 4-2. It was LA's seventh straight victory, while Ryu extended his personal winning streak to six. Ryu improved to 12-3 in his rookie Major L

The new head of KB Financial Group Inc. reiterated Wednesday that it is looking into possible options to strengthen its non-banking business ahead of the government's impending move to sell Woori Finance Holdings Co.'s brokerage units.Group Chairman Lim Young-rok, who took office a month earlier, said that as the group has heavily focused on its banking business, it is striving to strengthen the competitive edge of its non-banking business."The group is currently studying possible options by rev

A Chinese man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly kidnapping a South Korean boy and demanding ransom, a news report said Wednesday. The 31-year-old Chinese man, Huang Xinghai, was sentenced for the kidnapping of the 10-year-old boy last December, with two other accomplices receiving eight and seven years in prison each by a local court in Beijing, the Beijing-based Jinghua News reported. The Korean boy was released shortly after his parents reported the kidnapping to local pol

Prosecutors said Wednesday that they have apprehended a nephew of former President Chun Doo-hwan for questioning as part of their efforts to find concealed assets of the former military dictator convicted of taking bribes while in office in the 1980s.Lee Jae-hong, 57, a son of Chun's elder sister, is accused of managing Chun's properties worth 6 billion won ($5.36 million) hidden under borrowed names while running a mid-sized landscaping company, prosecutors said.Chun was ordered by the nation's

South and North Korea resumed talks Wednesday aimed at restarting operations at a joint factory park in the communist country that has been shut down for more than four months.Working-level officials from both sides met six times last month, but no breakthrough has been made mainly due to disagreements on which country is responsible for the current suspension and safeguards to prevent another work stoppage at the Kaesong Industrial Complex. From the outset of negotiations, each side blamed the