Police on Friday arrested a woman who first filed a sexual assault complaint against singer-actor Park Yoo-chun, who was mired in a series of similar allegations, on charges of false accusation and attempted blackmail.The Seoul Central District Court issued a warrant to formally arrest the woman in her 20s, whose identity was withheld, citing the possibility of the suspect destroying evidence or fleeing. Her cousin was also arrested for alleged involvement in the process.Park, a member of the fa

A U.S. court on Thursday rejected a demand from a right-wing Japanese group that a girl's statue symbolizing victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery be removed from the city of Glendale, a Korean-American activist group said.The 9th U.S. Court of Appeals issued the verdict, upholding a lower-court ruling that also dismissed the demand from the Japanese group Global Alliance for Historical Truth, according to the Korean American Forum of California.Thursday's ruling means that there will be no

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday he hasn't set any plan to meet with North Korean officials during the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics.Ban arrived in the Brazilian Olympic host city earlier Thursday to visit the athletes' village and take part in the torch relay.Also on the same day, Choe Ryong-hae, North Korea's No. 2 man, landed in Rio to attend the opening ceremony.Choe's arrival fueled speculation about a possible meeting with South Korean-born Ban. Their trip to Rio comes on

South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan would be the first to tell you he shouldn't be the one in the spotlight at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and that suits him just fine.He does bring impressive credentials -- with four Olympic medals and two world championships -- but in his main event, the 400m freestyle, Park is ranked only sixth this year. His time of 3:44.26 is nearly three seconds behind the leader, Mack Horton of Australia."I am only sixth in the world and people aren't probably all that in

No South Korean ships were attacked by pirates in the first six months of the year, while piracy on the whole dropped from a year earlier, the government said Friday."There have been no reports of a pirate attack on a South Korean ship in the first half," said the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.The number of incidents of piracy came to 98 in the January-June period, down 26.9 percent from a year earlier, while that of ships hijacked by pirates more than halved to five from 13 over the cited pe

The chief organizer for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games said Thursday the main purpose of his visit to Rio de Janeiro is to learn about Olympic preparations.With Rio hosting South America's first Summer Games, Lee Hee-beom, president of the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, said he will be picking Rio's collective brain."We still have many things to learn and one of our main purposes to be in Rio is to learn from the experience in the Olympic Ga

The navies of South Korea and the United States agreed Thursday to bolster cooperation and information sharing, especially in anti-submarine warfare, in order to address threats across the region, the U.S. Navy said Thursday.Adm. Jung Ho-sub, South Korea's chief of naval operations, reached the agreement when he held talks with his U.S. counterpart, Adm. John Richardson, at the Pentagon, the Navy said in a release. "It's extremely important as we work together -- as our two navies work together

The latest U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea are having little impact on the country's economy, a U.S. expert said, citing trade data between the North and its biggest economic partner, China.William Brown, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and non-resident fellow at the Korea Economic Institute in Washington, also said in a recent report that the sanctions do not appear to be affecting the North's domestic economy.The latest sanctions, which were adopted on March 2 in r

South Korea will dispatch some 340 teachers and university students to 16 developing countries in the latter half of this year to carry out educational programs, the government said Thursday.The contingent will be made up of 140 teachers who will be stationed abroad for more than one year and 200 teacher trainees attending local teachers' colleges who will stay for a shorter period, according to the Ministry of Education and the National Institute for International Education Of the 140 long-term

The net lending of South Korea's public sector jumped 94 percent on-year in 2015, posting a surplus for the second straight year, the country's central bank said Thursday.Net lending -- which refers to total revenue minus total expenditures -- came to 33.8 trillion won ($30 billion) in 2015, compared with 17.4 trillion won from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. The bank said total revenue of the general government sector and public corporations reached a recor

The customs agency on Thursday said it has begun to use QR codes for South Korean goods cleared for e-commerce exports in the latest move to enhance the credibility of the goods and prevent the spread of knockoffs.The Korea Customs Service said it began to provide QR codes to logistics companies via their computer network earlier in the day so that logistics companies can print out commercial invoices with QR codes and stick them on packages.Foreign buyers can scan QR codes -- a type of matrix b

President Park Geun-hye on Thursday visited a provincial nursing home to promote a pilot telemedicine program designed to offer the elderly and others in hard-to-reach areas easier access to quality medical services, her office Cheong Wa Dae said.Her visit to the nursing home in Seosan, a city 151 kilometers south of Seoul, was the latest in the recent series of on-site tours to promote various government policies and evaluate whether they have been properly implemented.Park met with those who r

The head of South Korea's leading automotive conglomerate Hyundai Motor Group called for stepped up efforts to develop and further explore overseas markets, Thursday, calling it the only viable way to overcome a prolonged slump in the South Korean market."Just as Hyundai and Kia have maintain their growth by exploring overseas markets, we must work to boost overseas sales as a way of overcoming current uncertainties," group chairman Chung Mong-koo was quoted as saying while visiting a production

South Korea's government on Thursday halted the Seoul city's controversial program of providing cash allowances to thousands of young jobseekers, which kicked off earlier this week.On Wednesday, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said it had selected a total of 3,000 applicants and would provide them with 500,000 won ($448) per month, for up to six months, to help them maintain basic living standards, while they try to find work.The Ministry of Health and Welfare, however, prohibited the municipa

A recent decision by South Korea and the United States to place an advanced missile defense system on Korean soil is aimed at countering threats from North Korea, a government official said Thursday, saying that it's regrettable to see criticism by a Chinese state-run newspaper not based on objective facts.In an editorial dated on Wednesday, People's Daily claimed that the planned deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system poses a serious threat to China's strategic security inte

The South Korean economy will unlikely gain recovery momentum in the short-term as faltering exports and flaccid production offset a modest rise in domestic consumption, a state-run think tank said Thursday."Despite continued favorable growth in domestic demand, including retail sales and construction investment, the economy is showing little signs of an overall recovery," the Korea Development Institute said in its monthly evaluation of the country's economic conditions."Moreover, a rapid impro

Police on Thursday said Maestro Chung Myung-whun, embroiled in a rumor scandal over the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, has been cleared of suspicions he embezzled orchestra's assets for personal expenses.Last year, two civic groups filed a petition with the Jongno Police Station after local broadcaster MBC reported allegations of the conductor siphoning off some tens of millions of won by exaggerating the cost of plane tickets he purchased. After analyzing the 63-year-old's travel records and rec

South Korea on Thursday lashed out at North Korea for criticizing Seoul's move to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system, saying that Pyongyang is trying to drive a wedge among its citizens over the issue.North Korea's committee handling inter-Korean affairs said Wednesday that if the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system is deployed in South Korea, the country will become the stage for nuclear confrontation by regional powers.Seoul's unification ministry said that North Korea shoul

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has stressed the need to strengthen the military's morale and boost combat readiness at a military gathering for exemplary servicemen, the North's media said Thursday.The leader made a speech at the meeting for commanding officers and soldiers from military units, which won the title of the O Jung-hup-led 7th Regiment, held on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency.The O Jung-hup-led 7th Regiment served as the military unit that defende

Prosecutors on Thursday summoned a ruling party lawmaker for questioning over charges of using illegal political funds by siphoning from wages meant to be given to his aides.Rep. Lee Koon-hyon of the ruling Saenuri Party appeared before the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office over allegations that he spent some 244 million won ($218,000) of illegal political funds between July 2011 and December 2015 while he was a member of the previous National Assembly. The money, which was originally