President Park Geun-hye expressed condolences Monday to the families of the victims of a recent deadly shooting rampage in a military unit near the tense border with North Korea.Park called on the military to thoroughly determine the cause of the rampage and come up with measures to ensure that a similar incident does not recur."I convey my deep sympathy to the victims' families," Park said in a meeting with senior presidential secretaries. She also apologized to the worried parents whose sons a

The North Korean envoy to the talks to normalize relations with Japan said Monday that he has not heard anything about protests by Japan against the North's recent ballistic missile launch, seemingly contradicting remarks by Japanese officials. Song Il-ho made the comments upon arrival at Beijing Capital International Airport to represent the North Korean delegation for a fresh round of talks with Japan on Tuesday on the fate of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents decades ago.Nort

South Korean scholars have been given permission to visit North Korea this week to possibly resume the joint excavation of an ancient royal palace site in the communist state, officials said Monday.Seoul's Ministry of Unification said it gave permission to five people belonging to the Association of Inter-Korean Historians to visit the North Korean border town of Kaesong on Tuesday so they can check the ruins of Manwoldae, a Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) palace.South Korean scholars, during the visi

North Korea proposed Monday that the two Koreas stop all military hostilities from this week, in an apparent show of its efforts for peace on the Korean Peninsula ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Seoul.The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the National Defense Commission, the North's top military body, also called on the South to stop slandering against each other from Friday.The defense commission further called on South Korea and the United States to suspe

South Korea's financial watchdog will censure a local insurance company for denying benefits to families of policyholders who commit suicide, which will have a far-reaching impact on the country's life insurance sector, officials said Monday.According to the officials, ING Life Insurance Co. was found to have denied payouts of accidental benefits worth 20 billion won (US$19.7 million) in some 90 suicide cases, citing erroneous provisions in their contracts with policyholders.Before 2010, local l

Kakao Talk, a free messenger service provided by Kakao Corp., rose to third place in local brand value, research showed Monday, backed by its market share of more than 90 percent in the sector. Kakao Talk's Brand Stock Top Index (BSTI) reached 915.4 points out of 1,000 in the second quarter, up a notch from a quarter earlier, the data compiled by market researcher Brand Stock showed.BSTI is calculated by running a mock stock-trading test on about 900 brands and adding figures compiled from consu

South Korea is seeking to publish a white paper to shed light on Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women by July 2015 in a bid to protest against Japan's review of its 1993 key apology of such atrocities, officials said Monday.The move comes as Japan has recently said that Seoul and Tokyo officials coordinated the wording of the so-called Kono statement that apologized for coercing women into sexual servitude for its front-line troops during World War II.The Ministry of Gender Equalit

South Korea is likely to announce its position on the rice market liberalization issue in "mid-July," a government source said Monday, apparently delaying its final decision that had been expected within this month."We are likely to postpone an official announcement on rice liberalization as we need more time to gather consensus with lawmakers," a government source close to the matter told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity. "We cannot wait indefinitely, however, since we have to notif

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar struck a stoppage-time penalty as the Netherlands staged an incredible late fightback to beat Mexico 2-1 and reach the World Cup quarter-finals here Sunday.Huntelaar kept his cool in furnace-like conditions to fire Holland into the last eight after Wesley Sneijder had scored an 88th-minute equaliser to cancel out Giovani Dos Santos's goal for Mexico.The dramatic Dutch fightback left Mexico's players in tears as their last 16 jinx struck again.Netherlands' Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

Bryan Ruiz calmly guided 10-man Costa Rica through a tense penalty decider against Greece on Sunday and into the World Cup quarter finals for the first time in the country's history.The Ticos' captain scored the goal that put Costa Rica ahead and also put away his penalty as the Central Americans kept their nerve to win the decider 5-3.The two sides were 1-1 after regulation time with Sokratis Papastathopoulos cancelling out Ruiz's goal in injury time to force extra time which also ended in dead

Retech, a local multi-purpose vehicle provider, aims to reach $100 million in sales this year by diversifying its product lines in the global market. The company has dominated the domestic snow-removal equipment market for a decade, but it is now expanding its business into multi-purpose vehicles including street cleaning equipment and multi-purpose road management vehicles. “We started to diversify our product lines two years ago in a bid to grow our company rather than dwelling on the local ma

SAWWAVE, a local SME specializing in wireless hardware, is out for global expansion on the back of the support from the state-run Small and Medium Business Administration.SAWWAVE’s patent wireless technology, called “electro-polarization,” is used for setting WiFi access points that support more clients than traditional wireless networks. SAWWAVE’s synchronized orthogonal multi polarization antenna for u-Farm service in Hokkaido, JapanKnown for its practical applications for public facilities an

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Sunday, just three days after it raised military tension by launching three short-range rockets into the sea, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.“North Korea fired what appeared to be Scud missiles at 4:50 a.m. and 4:58 a.m. from its eastern coastal city of Wonsan, in the North’s Gangwon Province,” the JCS said. “The missiles are analyzed as having a range of about 500 km.” (Yonhap)Stressing that South Korea was strengthen

President Park Geun-hye has decided to retain incumbent Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, after a series of nomination debacles that dealt a heavy blow to her leadership.“President Park has turned down Prime Minister Chung Hong-won’s offer to resign and asked him to continue to make commitments as Prime Minister,” said senior press secretary Yoon Doo-hyun.  Prime Minister Chung Hong-won. (Yonhap)This is the first time a president has retained a prime minister who offered to resign in the country’s

Pilot error was the main cause of a 2013 Asiana passenger jet crash, U.S. investigators concluded Tuesday.They also warned of the risks from over-reliance on automated systems in the cockpit."The flight crew over-relied on automated systems that they did not fully understand," Christopher A. Hart, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said at a board meeting here. "As a result, they flew the aircraft too low and too slow and collided with the seawall at the end of t

The Federal Reserve slashed its 2014 growth forecast for the US economy after the rough winter but kept policy on hold on Wednesday, showing faith in a modest rebound.Fed Chair Janet Yellen said the economy had picked up after the first quarter's contraction, but she also downplayed a pickup of inflation as any sign of a need to tighten monetary policy.As expected the Federal Open Market Committee cuts its stimulus program back by another $10 billion, to $35 billion a month, compared with $85 bi

Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie scored as Netherlands came from behind to beat brave Australia 3-2 at the World Cup on Wednesday.(AFP-Yonhap)A second-half strike from Memphis Depay settled an electrifying Group B encounter at Porto Alegre's Beira-Rio Stadium after a stunning Tim Cahill volley and a Mile Jedinak penalty helped the Socceroos take a 2-1 lead.Netherlands -- who thrashed reigning champions Spain 5-1 in their opening match -- are now in pole position to finish top of the group with

기사요약: 사상 첫 원정 월드컵 강 진출을 목표로 나선 홍명보호가 18일 (한국시간) 브라질 월드컵 조별 예선 첫 경기인 러시아전에서 1:1로 비겼다. 대한민국 축구 대표팀은 후반 23분 이근호 선수의 선제골로 승리의 기대감을 높였지만 약 6분 뒤 브라질의 동점골을 허용했다. 이로서 한국은 알제리를 꺾은 벨기에에 이어 러시아와 함께 H조 공동 2위 자리에 올랐다. 대표팀은 23일 알제리전, 그리고 27일 벨기에전에서 16강의 포문을 열 예정이다. Korea, Russia play out cautious 1-1 draw[1] South Korea and Russia played to a cautious 1-1 draw in their World Cup opener Tuesday in Brazil.*cautious: 신중한 *draw: 무승부<참고>골키퍼: goalkeeper수비수: defender미드필더: midfielder공격수: forward, striker주장: team capt

CUIABA, Brazil -- South Korea and Russia played to a cautious 1-1 draw in their World Cup opener Tuesday in Brazil.Hours after Brazil and Mexico of Group A finished their game scoreless, South Korea’s Lee Keun-ho, a second-half substitute, and Russia’s Aleksandr Kerzhakov scored six minutes apart in the second half. Both sides took a conservative approach in the first half, avoiding long balls and risky passes. But late into the second half, Korea increased its scoring attempts and Lee broke the

LG전자가 25일 선보이는 G워치 (G Watch)에 ‘홈챗’ 서비스를 탑재할 전망이다. “G워치에 스마트 가전을 제어할 수 있는 홈챗 서비스가 적용될 예정이다”라고 익명을 요구한 한 LG전자 관계자가 전했다.홈챗 서비스는 4월에 LG전자가 선보인 모바일 메신저 서비스로 스마트폰으로 가전제품과 친구처럼 일상 언어로 채팅하는 서비스다. 사용자가 모바일 메신저 ‘라인’에 접속한 뒤 통신모듈이 탑재되어 있는 가전제품을 친구들 등록하면 원격제어가 가능하다. G워치가 가전제품과 어떠한 방식으로 연동되는지에 대해서는 밝히지 않았지만, 업계관계자는 ‘Q 보이스’와 같은 음성인식 기술이 사용될 가능성이 높다고 전했다. LG전자는 2012년 옵티머스 LTE2를 시작으로 음성인식 기능 ‘Q 보이스’를 탑재한 스마트폰을 출시하고 있다. G워치는 적외선 통신모듈을 사용하여 TV와 같은 전자기기를 제어하는 삼성 기어2와 달리 USIM카드가 탑재되어 이동통신 기능이 가능할 것으로 알려졌다. 임태범 전자부품연