A foundation dedicated to help South Korean women sexually victimized by Japan during its colonial rule will not be launched as planned as more preparation time is needed, sources said Tuesday. On Dec. 28, South Korea and Japan reached a deal in which Tokyo expressed an apology for its colonial-era atrocities and agreed to provide 1 billion yen ($9.6 million) for the foundation aimed at supporting the surviving victims, euphemistically called comfort women. The deal aims to put an end to the com

A South Korean nuclear envoy said Tuesday he has "no plans" to hold a bilateral meeting with his North Korean counterpart on the sidelines of a regional security forum in Beijing this week. The annual Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue, which will begin its two-day run from Wednesday, brings together nuclear envoys from six nations involved in long-stalled talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Among those attending the forum are Choe Son-hui, deputy director for North American affairs

North Korea has deployed an intermediate-range ballistic missile to its east coast although there are no signs it's ready for launch, a South Korean government source said Tuesday. (Yonhap)"We have detected signs that the North has deployed what appears to be a Musudan missile," the source said on the condition of anonymity.A South Korean military official said the military is closely watching the situation.Earlier, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported the North is preparing to fire a missile. (Yo

미국 엔터테인먼트 업계가 음악 스트리밍 플랫폼에 점점 더 거센 불만을 표현하고 있다. 케이티 페리, 빌리 조엘 등의 잘 알려진 미국 팝 가수들은 올해 초 미국 저작권 협회에 저작권법 개정을 요구하는 탄원서를 제출했다. 나아가 이제는 폴 맥카트니, 테일러 스위프트, U2 등의 유명인들이 서명한 공개 항의서가 의회에 전달되었다. (Taylor Swift's Instagram)이 항의서는 음반사 BMI, 소니 뮤직, 유니버셜 뮤직 그룹 등의 지지를 받아 앞으로 각종 정치 웹사이트에 광고로 게재될 것이다.항의서 내용은 ‘디지털 밀레니엄 저작권법’에 초점을 두지만, 그 기저에 깔린 의미는 유튜브 등의 플랫폼이 원작자에게 정당한 대가를 치르지 않은 채 음악을 상업화하고 있다는 것이다. 아래는 영문 항의서를 번역한 내용이다. 미국의 수출업에 일조하고 있는 싱어송라이터나 아티스트로써 우리는 다음 세대 창작자들의 생존가능성 여부에 대해 우려하는 바이다. 현존하는 저작권법으로는 음악 창작을 통한 생계

South Korea's spy agency has decided not to send a group of 13 North Korean restaurant workers to a state-run resettlement facility as it plans to hold them under its protection, government officials said Tuesday.The National Intelligence Service has notified Seoul's unification ministry that it will put the group of 13 North Koreans who defected to Seoul en masse in April under its protection for their safety."The NIS has notified the government that its decision was made for their security, gi

Nearly a quarter of citizens in Seoul prefer traditional toilets to western style ones in public restrooms, a government survey showed Tuesday.According to the survey conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government on 3,137 people in March 2015, 22.8 percent of the respondents said they prefer traditional latrines where there is no need for the user to make direct contact with the toilet bowl. A total of 86.7 percent of people who said they preferred traditional toilets cited sanitary reasons, am

The Bank of Korea said Tuesday that its campaign to put dormant coins back to use has successfully put more than 260 million coins back into circulation.In just one month of the recollection campaign in May, people brought out some 267 million coins, worth 36.7 billion won ($31.64 million) in value, to have them changed into banknotes, according to the central bank. The result marks a 1.9-percent increase in the number of reclaimed coins from last year's campaign, and a 1.4-percent rise in their

Nearly half of all South Koreans consume digital news on their smartphones, topping the list of 26 countries studied, a survey showed Tuesday.According to the Korea Press Foundation that released the Korean version of the survey, "Digital News Report 2016," by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 48 percent of Korean respondents said they used their smartphones when reading digital news, followed by Sweden (46 percent) and Switzerland (42 percent).The poll checked 53,330 respondents fr

The Army will soon launch a committee tasked with drawing up a master plan to proactively deal with future security risks, the Army chief of staff said Tuesday.South Korean senior military leaders have studied the U.S. National Commission on the Future of the Army, set up last year by Congress to study the future force and structure of the U.S. Army, as part of efforts to put the envisioned Future Committee in motion. The committee is called upon to establish the master plan based on socio-polit

Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea's top tech firm, released the updated version of its budget tablet series, the Galaxy Tab A, on Tuesday, saying it guarantees a better connection with entertainment.The Android-based "2016 Galaxy Tab A" features a 10.1-inch full HD-level display, a 1.6 GHz octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM and a microSD card slot for up to 200GB of removable storage. It has a 7.300 mAh battery.The tablet is equipped with an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing

South Korea's main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea said Tuesday it will make an effort to root out irregularities in large businesses, adding that there is a need to limit the exercise of excessive power by the heads of family-run conglomerates."The role of the National Assembly is not to speak out for big businesses, but to keep watchful eyes on them," Kim Chong-in, the party's interim leader said, adding the parliament should refrain from defending local conglomerates. On the ongoing debate o

Samsung SDS Co., a key IT unit of South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group, said Tuesday it has decided not to take measures to boost its share price as it mulls spinning off the logistic business.The decision came a week after a group of small investors demanded Samsung SDS buy back shares or pay interim dividends to bolster its share price."Samsung SDS has decided not to consider a share buyback or an interim dividend as a spinoff is under consideration," the company said in a regulatory f

South Korea and Portugal agreed to expand bilateral cooperation in media, education, sports and other culture-related areas, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.The agreement was part of a three-year cultural exchange plan signed at a joint committee meeting in Seoul on Monday between Choi Young-sam, a director of the ministry's bureau in charge of cultural affairs, and Ana Paula Laborinho, head of Portugal's government agency leading international cultural exchanges.Under the plan, both agreed to

The number of registered passenger vehicles in South Korea is expected to top 20 million this month, heralding the advent of the "one household with two cars” era, data showed Tuesday.The number of registered passenger cars here came to 19,964,178 as of the end of May, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Yonhap)It marked a steady increase from 19.7 million in January, 19.75 million in February, 19.8

Nine in 10 South Korean seniors are expected to live on the state pension in 2060, when the country's national pension fund is estimated to dry up, a report said Tuesday.According to the report by the National Pension Research Institute, 91.3 percent of 17.62 million South Koreans aged 65 and older are projected to receive various state pensions in 2060.Last year, 36.4 percent of 6.78 million senior South Koreans received state pensions, but the ratio will likely soar to 41 percent in 2020, 50.2

Embattled Hyundai Heavy Industries is seeking to spin off a business unit, while the labor union strongly opposes the move, claiming that it would lead to a massive number of non-regular workers in the end, industry sources said Tuesday.According to the sources, Hyundai Heavy said in its emailed statement that the spin-off of its facility-assistance business division is one of its key promises to its creditors, which demand a tougher restructuring program, pledging to push ahead with related pro

South Korea's ruling Saenuri Party on Tuesday urged the government to provide a "significant" amount of extra budget to bolster the country's economy that is struggling with a prolonged slump."The country is facing challenges in the job market due to youth unemployment and corporate restructuring issues," the party said during its special meeting arranged to find solutions to the country's employment issues. Ministry of Strategy and Finance in Sejong City (Yonhap)"As the central bank is rolling

The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said that the announcement over the site of a new airport in the country's southeastern region will be made in a "prompt and fair" manner amid growing political tensions over the selection process.With the announcement slated for this week, the presidential office has been walking a tightrope, striving to fend off any possible fallout from the politically tinged race between the two candidate sites: Milyang, South Gyeongsang Province, and Gadeok Island in th

Customer deposits at South Korean securities companies have hit a new high, data showed Tuesday, as investors search for high-yielding vehicles amid record-low interest rates.In a blitzkrieg move, the Bank of Korea slashed its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 1.25 percent on June 9 in an apparent bid to cushion any fallout from the ongoing corporate restructuring drive and bolster the sputtering economy.It was the first rate cut in 12 months.According to the data by the Korea E

Apparently spooked by problems facing the country's top-ranked companies in the shipping and shipbuilding industries, major commercial banks here are beginning to reduce the amount of their loans to large firms, market data showed Tuesday.According to the data from the country's five commercial banks, their outstanding loans to large firms came to some 89.59 trillion won ($77.21 billion) as of end-May, down 1.83 trillion won from 91.42 trillion won at the end of 2015.The five banks are KEB Hana