Over 83 percent of Middle East respiratory syndrome transmissions in Korea were linked to five super-spreaders during the outbreak in South Korea this summer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday.The nation’s death toll, meanwhile, was raised to 37 on Sunday after another patient died. The patient was recovering from the aftereffects of MERS after testing negative earlier. The 152nd patient received a lung transplant after suffering from MERS but failed to recover fully. Fo

MOUNT GEUMGANGSAN, North Korea -- With joyful screams and unstoppable tears, 389 South Koreans were reunited with their long-lost kin at the Mount Geumgangsan resort as the first round of reunions began Tuesday.Some of the participants from the two Koreas collapsed as they recognized their brothers, sisters, sons and daughters they had been separated from since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Others looked confused, trying to identify their relatives and calling out each other’s names in trem

This is the second installment in a series of interviews with renowned scholars and experts on China as a resurgent Asian power triggering shifts in the regional order. This installment looks into China’s social problems and policy efforts to address them. -- Ed.Over the last several years, the Chinese government has been paying notable policy attention to “social governance” in tandem with nongovernmental organizations to address an array of social issues including the public welfare, a sociolo

WASHINGTON -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye's first visit to the Pentagon on Thursday morning underscores her committment to Seoul’s alliance with the U.S. before she sits down for a summit at the White House.Park’s planned visit to the military superpower’s core defense organ was seen as a way to show off their bilateral ties and that they remain unshaken by growing concerns over Seoul inclining toward Beijing. She is set to hold a summit with her U.S. counterpart Barack Obama on Friday

The Seoul Central District Court on Thursday cleared former presidential secretary Cho Eung-cheon on charges of leaking presidential confidential information.Cho, who had worked in the civil discipline department, was indicted in January for allegedly handing over 17 documents containing confidential information including allegations that Chung Yoon-hoi, Park’s former aide, colluded with presidential aides and meddled in state affairs by forming a secret group. Chung was Park’s chief of staff wh

The main opposition party Thursday removed its Rep. Kang Dong-won from the National Assembly’s House Steering Committee over his remarks alleging fraud in the 2012 presidential race that prompted fury from the ruling camp and placed his party in a strategic quagmire.The New Politics Alliance for Democracy’s senior vice floor leader Rep. Lee Choon-suak said during a party meeting that Kang’s argument made earlier this week was an individual belief that the party disagrees.Saenuri Party members su

WASHINGTON -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye started her official schedule Wednesday by paying tribute to Korean War veterans, embarking on her mission to upgrade the bilateral alliance with the U.S. amid growing concerns over a cozy relationship between Seoul and Beijing.On her second day in Washington, Park laid a wreath at the Korean War Veterans Memorial -- a monument established to honor American soldiers who served in the 1950-53 Korean War. Park’s visit to the memorial, a symbol of

Mokpo English Village in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, is hosting an English contest this Saturday bringing together elementary school students to boast their linguistic skills.The event, to be held Saturday, will start with a quiz for students from fourth to sixth grades in elementary schools to be followed by a speaking contest.The quiz will cover trivia, science and arts to be conducted in English. The winner will receive an award given by Mokpo’s education superintendent. Participants in the

WASHINGTON -- President Park Geun-hye kicked off her official four-day visit to Washington on Tuesday to seek fresh momentum in reinforcing the alliance with the U.S., and bringing the focus back on North Korea’s nuclear ambition. Expectations are high for the South Korean leader as her trip to Washington comes at a critical juncture in dealing with North Korea amid looming provocations from the North, such as a long-range missile launch, and subtle tensions following Seoul’s closer relations wi

Labor unions of the two Koreas have settled on the schedule for a friendly football competition in Pyongyang, officials in Seoul said Monday.The football event for labor workers from the Koreas will take place from Oct. 28 to 31 in the North Korean capital, officials from the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions said.The dates were agreed upon at a working-level meeting in Gaeseong, north of the border, between the two sides. Workers from the two sides p

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Angus Deaton of Britain and the United States won the Nobel Economics Prize on Monday for his work on consumption, poverty and welfare, the jury said."By emphasising the links between individual consumption decisions and outcomes for the whole economy, his work has helped transform modern microeconomics, macroeconomics and development economics," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said."To design economic policy that promotes welfare and reduces poverty, we must first unders

The government and the ruling Saenuri Party are accelerating moves to introduce state history textbooks for secondary education despite burgeoning opposition from academics, teachers and progressive voters.The Saenuri Party held a discussion with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Hwang Woo-yea on Sunday afternoon and mapped out plans of unifying the history textbook publication under the government’s direct watch. Earlier this month, the party also launched a special committee aime

Former Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun shared a hotline with then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a former spy chief said in an interview with a local newspaper on Friday.In the article published in JoongAng Ilbo, former National Intelligence chief Kim Man-bok said, “While arranging for the second inter-Korean summit in October 2007, there was no need to activate the back channels.Kim, who was quoted as saying that the hotline was in operation 24 hours a day, later explained that while

RIYADH (AFP) - The Saudi-led coalition denied Tuesday its warplanes were behind the bombing of a wedding in southwestern Yemen in which 131 people were killed."The coalition did not conduct any air strikes in the area over the past three days," coalition spokesman Brigadier-General Ahmed al-Assiri told AFP, referring to the deadly bombing Monday near the Red Sea city of Mokha."This is completely false," he said.Residents accused the Arab coalition, which launched an air war on the Huthi Shiite r

SANAA (AFP) - A suspected Saudi-led coalition air strike has killed at least 131 civilians, including many women and children, at a wedding in Yemen, medical officials said Tuesday.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Monday's air raid, saying intentional attacks on civilians were considered a "serious violation of international humanitarian law".Residents said the Arab coalition, which launched an air war on the Huthi Shiite rebels in late March, was behind the attack on the wedding hall

South Korean President Park Geun-hye pledged Monday to dispatch additional military engineers to conflict zones at the U.N. leaders’ summit on peacekeeping, joining other countries’ promises to boost their contributions for missions under growing strain.“They will be assisting reconstruction and humanitarian activities in conflict zones,” Park said at the event attended by some 50 heads of state and cochaired by U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.“Korean peacekeep

South Korea said Tuesday it will ban foreigners and overseas Koreans entering the country to seek work from joining its health insurance program immediately upon arrival, in a bid to revise a legal loophole that had allowed some nonpermanent residents to exploit the system.The current National Health Insurance Act allows foreign nationals and Koreans living in other countries to qualify for the self-backed national health insurance scheme after residing here for at least three months.Those who t

Nearly 70 percent of foreign workers in South Korea receive less than 2 million won ($1,700) in monthly wages with the intragroup salary disparity being as wide as 53-fold, a report showed Wednesday.Statistics submitted by the National Tax Service to Rep. Lee In-young showed that of the 479,527 reported foreign workers, 323,100 were subject to taxation. The total payroll reached 9.45 trillion won. The number of those subject to taxes had increased by 138 percent since 2008, while the total wages

The head of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission attended an international ombudsman meeting to share South Korea’s policies for handling civil complaints, the state-run anticorruption body said Wednesday.ACRC chairman Lee Sung-bo introduced the organization’s e-People system at the board of directors meeting of the International Ombudsman Institute in Windhoek, Namibia, where representatives of ombudsman institutions in 91 countries across the world were present. The e-People system,

Third-term Rep. Park Joo-sun bolted from the main opposition party to create a new one Tuesday, claiming the New Political Alliance for Democracy had run its course under the current leadership.The prosecutor-turned-politician said at a press conference that he would move to reorganize the opposition bloc and build an alternative political force, dealing yet another blow to NPAD chairman Rep. Moon Jae-in. Rep. Park Joo-sun answers reporters` questions at the National Assembly on Tuesday. YonhapP