A government panel on Wednesday rejected a proposal to set up a cable car on a popular mountain range near the country's eastern coast, a plan that has been criticized for its potential harm to the regional environment, government officials said.The project calls for a 3.5-kilometer-long cable car system to be built in the southern region of Mount Seorak in Yangyang County, some 215 kilometers east of Seoul, providing a means of convenient transportation all the way up to the peak of the Osaek a

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. said Wednesday a 2.16 trillion won (US$1.8 billion) order to build an offshore facility has been canceled, but there are no losses for the shipbuilder. In a regulatory filing, the world's biggest shipbuilder by orders said Chevron North Sea Ltd. on Tuesday notified them of its decision to cancel the order to build a floating production storage offloading (FPSO) unit, citing a deteriorating business environment."As the process to build the offshore plant has not begun

The Asian club football champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors took fifth place at the FIFA Club World Cup after defeating South African side the Mamelodi Sundowns 4-1 on Wednesday.Kim Bo-kyung, Lee Jong-ho and Kim Shin-wook each scored one goal to help Jeonbuk, the winners of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League, beat the Sundowns at the Suita City Football Stadium in Osaka, Japan.The FIFA Club World Cup features seven teams -- the winners of the continental club championships and

A South Korean appeals court on Wednesday ordered the government to disclose the results of a probe on pollution detected in the water table near a U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) garrison in Seoul. The U.S. Army base in Yongsan, central Seoul, has been suspected as the source of oil that has polluted the nearby water table and land. The Seoul Metropolitan Government has been conducting a water table purification project since 2003 but petroleum-based contaminants above the standard level keep being de

Park Seung-joo, the nominee for minister of Public Safety and Security, offered to step down Wednesday amid the escalating controversy over his shamanistic activities and dissertation plagiarism. "I will step down from the nominee position today. I will go back to work for social activities for children and the youth,” Park said. “Seeing that Donald Trump was elected the US president, I thought its impact on Korean politics, the economy and society would be huge. I believe that it is necessary f

Jay Kim, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California, said Wednesday South Korea's alliance with the United States will not be affected in the long run, amid concerns that Donald Trump will upset close bilateral ties that have withstood the test of time."There's no reason for the Seoul-Washington ties to be damaged," Kim said during an interview with Yonhap News Agency.Trump has made numerous radical comments about the military alliances between two countries, claiming S

South Korea and the Czech Republic agreed to cooperate on the European Union's adoption of additional sanctions against North Korea, the foreign ministry here said Wednesday. "Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek shared the understanding that North Korea's nuclear test is an unpardonable, serious provocation and pledged to do all that is necessary to bring about strong sanctions and pressure from the EU in close collaboration with our (South Korean) side," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said

Impulsive, immoderate and politically untested, Donald Trump did not exactly seem to fit the profile of a candidate for the most powerful job in the world. But with his boundless energy and outsized ego, the 70-year-old billionaire Republican defied all predictions, defeating the far more experienced Hillary Clinton to win the White House.  (AP-Yonhap)On Tuesday, Trump had promised a "Brexit plus plus plus" and voters gave it to him, denying Clinton her place in history as the first woman presid

A South Korean court may announce a sale plan for the embattled STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. without waiting for the company's rehabilitation plan, an industry source said on Monday.The South Korean bankruptcy court handling the company's insolvency proceedings is expected to issue the notice this week for what is called a "package sale" in which the troubled shipyard is to be sold together with its French unit, according to the source. It is said that the notice was originally planned for to

North Korea said Monday that it wants Britain to pull out of upcoming military exercises in South Korea, calling the drills a ``hostile act.'' Britain has announced that it will send fighter jets and support planes to Asia, and that it will take part in exercises in South Korea together with South Korean and U.S. forces in early November.``This is a hostile act, openly joining the U.S. and South Korean forces in moves for a new war against us,'' said North Korean Foreign Ministry official Pak Yu

South Korea and the U.S. should remain calm and self-controlled and not raise unnecessary tension in the region, China's defense ministry said on Monday of the recent large-scale naval drills by the two allies.The official comment, released on its account of the social media service Weibo, came as a response to a question from a reporter about the Chinese government's stance on the joint drills that involved the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, in the waters near C

The alliance between South Korea and the United States faces a grave challenge from the evolving nuclear and missile threat from North Korea, Seoul's top diplomat said Monday, adding that it is more important than ever to maintain the allies' cooperation on a unified front. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se expressed the concerns during a meeting with 14 U.S. security experts belonging to the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a think tank established in 2007 by senior defense and diplomatic

First generation K-pop group S.E.S. is preparing to comeback with a new album next year to celebrate its 20th anniversary of debut, the group's management said Monday."The preparations for a new album and a concert are still in the initial stages and nothing concrete can be said yet," an official from South Korean Entertainment giant S.M. Entertainment told Yonhap News Agency. Lee Soo-man, the founder of the agency and the original inceptor of the group, will spearhead production, making the reu

Uganda has terminated all of its police-related ties with North Korea and is now reviewing whether to suspend military contracts with the communist regime, the foreign ministry here said Monday, following a meeting between senior diplomats from the two countries.The action taken by the Eastern African country is an implementation of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's pledge to sever security and military relations with North Korea, after his meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in

The South Korean government on Monday designated six more regions in the southern part of the country that were hit hard by the latest typhoon as special disaster areas.The new designated areas hit hard by Typhoon Chaba were Busan's Saha district, Gyeongju, Tongyoung, Geoje, Yangsan and Jeju Island. With the announcement, the total number of areas designated as disaster zones reached eight. Soon after the typhoon hit the country, part of Ulsan and nearby Ulju County were marked as areas eligible

South Korea will open a fashion-culture fair this week to help local brands make inroads into overseas markets, the government said Monday.Hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and co-organized by the Korea Creative Content Agency and Council of Fashion Designers of Korea, "Fashion KODE 2017 S/S" is set to take place from Oct. 18-21 at J-Gran House in central Seoul.The annual fair bridges local fashion designers and international buyers. In the sixth edition, a total of 16 brands

An international court handling Cambodia's mass killings in the 1970s could be a precedent for punishing the North Korean leadership for its crimes against humanity, a judge said Monday.Meeting with reporters, Baik Kang-jin, the South Korean judge at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), said that the formation of an independent court like the ECCC would be a likely option to bring to justice those responsible for the human rights violations in the North."If a war crimes t

A South Korean-born U.S. K-pop star has taken his entry ban case to the Seoul appellate court, seeking to regain his right to freely visit his country of origin, his lawyer said Monday.The legal representative of Steve Yoo, more widely known as his Korean name Yoo Seung-joon here, told Yonhap News Agency on the phone, "We've found some of the district court's ruling refutable, which will be fought again in the appellate court."The 39-year-old singer had enjoyed immense popularity among K-pop fan

Nine people, including actor Yoo Ah-in, actress Jun Ji-hyun and director Ryoo Seung-wan, have been voted by local teenagers as the most popular film industry figures in South Korea.The Korea Youth Film Festival announced on Monday winners in nine categories of awards for film people who shined the most over the past year. The winners were chosen in an annual poll jointly carried out by Cast Me, an online human resources platform for films, as a unit event for the festival.Yoo and Jun, who respec

The Philippines is considering a move to purchase additional FA-50 light attack aircraft from South Korea to bolster its defense capabilities, a news report picked up in Seoul on Sunday said.According to the latest issue of IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, Manila may be weighing the need to acquire 36 planes from Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. (KAI) as part of its Flight Plan 2028.  (Yonhap)The weekly cited a source from the Philippine Air Force (PAF) at the Asian Defense and Security 2016 exhibition