The potential deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea should not affect China's pressure on North Korea because THAAD is aimed only at the North and reining in Pyongyang is in China's interest, the White House said Friday.Shortly after the North's long-range rocket launch in February, South Korea and the U.S. jointly announced they would begin official discussions on the possible placement of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system in Sou

The U.S. will lose much of its leverage in Asia if it pulls troops out of South Korea, a U.S. congressman said Friday, criticizing Donald Trump's suggestion that the U.S. should end defense support for allies unless they pay more."If we pull out of the Pacific and we, you know, take our troops out of Korea and take our troops out of Japan, then we lose much of the leverage," Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said on CNN. "It certainly, you know, it weakens the leverage we have against China and it, in effe

The U.S. Treasury Department put South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan and Germany on its "monitoring list" for foreign exchange policies Friday, but none  was designed as a currency manipulator."Korea has a significant bilateral trade surplus with the United States and a material current account surplus," the epartment said in the Report on Foreign Exchange Policies of Major rading Partners of the United States."Treasury estimates that during the second half of 2015 through March 2016, the Korean a

South Korea's top three shipbuilders failed to clinch a single deal in April, industry data showed Saturday, casting concerns that the firms may roll out possible restructuring of their workforces.Local shipbuilders only managed to win five construction deals over the first four months of this year, which is only around 5 percent of the average amount posted in previous years.Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., failed to win any deals in April. Samsung

Samsung Electronics Co. stood as the No. 1 seller of liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions in the first quarter of 2016, data showed Saturday, despite its shipments plunging amid the rise of Chinese rivals.The South Korean tech giant sold 10.5 million units of LCD TVs in the January-March period, far outpacing other global rivals, the data compiled by industry tracker WitsView showed. Samsung's shipments, however, marked a 34.4-percent on-quarter drop.LG Electronics Inc., Samsung's smaller So

South Korean shares are expected to take a breather next week as worries remain that the recent decision by the Bank of Japan not to unveil additional stimulus measures could lower the overall appetite for risky assets, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 1,994.15 points on Friday, down 21.34 points, or 1.05 percent, from a week ago. This marked the first time in three weeks that it has posted a weekly loss. Bank of Japan (Bloomberg)The market

The American-led U.N. command at the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas has dismissed as unsubstantiated accusations from North Korea that U.S. troops tried to provoke its frontline troops with "disgusting acts." A North Korean military statement Friday warned U.S. soldiers to stop what it called "hooliganism" at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom or they'll meet a "dog's death any time and any place."It said U.S. troops pointed their fingers at North Korean soldiers and made s

NEW YORK (AP) -- Sales rose 5.4 percent at established U.S. McDonald's restaurants in the first quarter, marking the third straight increase as the world's biggest burger chain fights to stage a comeback.The Oak Brook, Illinois, company attributed strong sales to the introduction of its all-day breakfast menu last fall, as well as a new ``McPick 2'' value deal that replaced its long-running Dollar Menu.CEO Steve Easterbrook said Friday that he was pleased that the "turnaround is taking hold."McD

A presidential official has sought a court injunction to ban the publication of a weekly magazine over its report that the official instructed a conservative civic activist to stage a rally in favor of the government, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday.Sisa Journal reported that Huh Hyun-joon, an official handling communications with the public at the presidential office, sent a text message to Chu Sun-hee, secretary general of a conservative civic group, to hold a rally on Jan. 4 in support of South Kor

LONDON (AP) -- Most people send a card, call, or post on Facebook for someone's birthday, but President Barack Obama went the extra mile on Friday -- thousands of miles, actually --  to deliver 90th birthday greetings to Queen Elizabeth II over lunch at Windsor Castle.Britain's oldest and longest-serving monarch celebrated her birthday a day earlier, the same day Obama arrived in the evening for what likely is the final visit here of his presidency. So the two heads of state sat down for an only

BEIRUT (AP) -- At least 10 people were killed Friday when airstrikes hit several rebel-held neighborhoods in Syria's contested northern city of Aleppo and neighboring Idlib province, anti-government activists said. Aleppo, Syria's largest city and former commercial center, has seen sporadic clashes since the February 27 cease-fire, as government troops advanced, boxing in opposition-held areas from all sides except for a corridor from the northwestern edge of the town. The Britain-based Syrian O

The top Ecuadorian envoy in Seoul made a desperate appeal Friday for Koreans' financial support to help his country emerge from the devastation caused by last week's massive earthquake and ensuing aftershocks that claimed nearly 600 lives.During a press conference, Ecuadorian Ambassador Oscar Herrera Gilbert underscored the severity of material damages and human casualties, and the pressing need to secure relief supplies such as tents for more than 25,300 people displaced by the quakes."Your sup

 Workers at shipyards of Hyundai Heavy Industries, located in Ulsan, South Gyeongsang Province, raised concerns over a possible massive layoff on Friday, insisting that CEOs and executives have to be responsible for their poor management before considering a workforce reduction or downsizing.   　“We want to believe that the recent news report that the company is set to announce a 10 percent workforce reduction plan next week is not true,” Kim Byung-jo, a spokesperson of the shipbuilder’s labor u

근 10년간 한국에 거주해온 영국인 제시카 우드 (가명) 씨는 지난 2009년 영국인 남편과의 사이에서 첫딸을 낳았다. 아이는 첫돌을 넘긴지 얼마 되지않아 병원에서 뇌성마비 판정을 받았지만, 만 6세가 된 지금도 거주국인 한국에서는 법적으로 ‘장애인’이 아니다. 한국에서 태어나 자랐지만 부모가 모두 외국인이고, 본인도 한국국적 소지자가 아니기 때문이다.　우드 씨의 자녀는 법적으로 장애인이 아니기 때문에 늘상 휠체어를 사용함에도 장애인전용주차구역을 이용할 수 없다. 약 9개월에서 12개월에 한번씩 교체해야 하는 뇌성마비 아동용 발보조기 (약 50만원) 에 대한 지원도 받을 수 없다. 또한 장애인 아동을 위한 특수 학교에 아이를 등록시킬 때도, 자녀가 장애인임을 ‘증명’하기 위해 수십장의 서류를 제출해야 했다.　인권 전문가들은 단순히 부모가 외국인이기 때문에 국내에 거주하는 장애아동이 장애인 등록을 할 수 없다면, 지난 1990년 한국이 서명한 유엔아동권리협약에 위반된다고 지적했다. 　

작년 8월부터 부산에서 한국 생활을 시작한 결혼이민자 A씨는 올해초 법무부에서 이주자들을 대상으로 운영하는 한국어 교육 수업을 받다가 깜짝 놀랐다. 중년 여성인 한국인 교사가 베트남 출신 이주 여성들 앞에서 차별적인 발언을 했기 때문이다.　익명을 요청한 그는 코리아 헤럴드와의 인터뷰에서 “교사가 베트남 이름은 예쁘지 않으니 귀화 후 한국이름으로 바꾸라고 했고, 학생들 앞에서 이슬람 교도들은 위험하다는 인종차별적 발언까지 했다”고 주장했다. 　출신국가를 밝히는 것을 원하지 않은 A씨가 들은 수업은 정부에서 한국 시민권 신청을 희망하는 결혼비자 (F-6) 소지자들을 위해 개설한 ‘사회통합프로그램.’ 2년간 꾸준히 이수하면 이주자들 사이에서 까다롭다고 알려진 시민권 취득 면접과 필기 시험을 면제 받을 수 있다. 그런 혜택에도 불구하고 A씨는 최근 교육 과정을 그만두기로 결정했다. 더 이상 특정 교사의 문제적 발언들을 견딜 수 없다는 게 그 이유였다. 여성가족부가 주관하는 결혼이민자 대상 

Lee Soo-yeon, a 27-year-old office worker in Seoul, can’t get enough of “Descendants of the Sun,” the ongoing Korean drama series that features a military romance between a solider and a surgeon. 　“I think the series has many things that I can’t really see or achieve in my real life, such as the sense of justice, responsibility and altruism,” she told The Korea Herald. “And on top of all that, it is just very romantic.”　The 16-episode series takes place in a fictional war-torn Mediterranean coun

When Kim Mi-eun was in middle school, she accidentally read a story about an incest victim in a newspaper. That’s when she realized she had been constantly raped by her father, who had told her to keep their “playing sessions” a secret. 　“I’d been abused by my father since I was a first-grader, and it lasted for 12 years,” Kim told The Korea Herald. “During sex education classes at school, they teach you to run away when a stranger tries to sexually abuse you. But they don’t specifically tell yo

South Korea issued a nationwide warning on Japanese encephalitis Sunday, urging the public to take precautionary measures including vaccination.　The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued the warning in response to discovery of the culex tritaeniorhynchus, a species of mosquito that carries the virus, in South Jeolla Province and Jejudo Island.　The virus is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable encephalitis in Asia. Most human infections are asymptomatic or result in only mil

　South Korean tobacco-makers and retailers expressed their opposition to the Health Ministry’s new antismoking policies, which require all firms to fix health-warning illustrations on their cigarette products, claiming the government is interfering with their rights to product design.　The new measures, scheduled to be implemented starting later this year, requires health warnings consisting of text and images to be printed on the top 50 percent of the front panels of all cigarette packages. Also

The number of baptisms in the Catholic church declined last year although the overall Catholic population rose slightly in South Korea, the local Catholic church said Wednesday.According to the statistics released by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea (CBCK), a total of 116,143 Catholics were baptized last year in the country, down 6.9 percent from the previous year.However, statistics showed that South Korea's Catholic population rose slightly by 1.7 percent to about 5.65 million, which