A Belgian professional football club recently purchased by a South Korean marketing firm has signed its first player from the Asian country, officials said Friday.Sportizen, a Seoul-based sports marketing agency that recently acquired A.F.C. Tubize, said the second-division Belgian club has signed midfielder Hwang Jin-sung to a one-year contract.Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Sportizen said Hwang could make his Belgian debut at home on Wednesday.Earlier this month, Sportizen a

Professional wrestlers from the United States, Japan and several other nations gathered in the North Korean capital this week to participate in an international contest, Pyongyang's state media said Friday.Kanji Inoki, a Japanese lawmaker who was a pro wrestler, arrived in Pyongyang a day earlier, along with foreign participants. He played a pivotal role in arranging the rare event to take place in the reclusive communist state.The two-day Pyongyang International Pro-Wrestling Contest is schedul

A prominent opposition lawmaker has been indicted on charges of defaming a younger brother and a former close aide of President Park Geun-hye by raising allegations that they had intervened in presidential affairs, prosecutors said Friday. Rep. Park Jie-won of the No. 1 opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy claimed that a group of powerful people -- including Park's younger brother Ji-man and Chung Yoon-hoi, who served as the president's chief of staff when she was a lawmaker -- exerted

A map service that provides views of North Korea's streets and buildings will be launched by a South Korean Internet portal for the first time in the country on Friday as part of efforts to disclose what has been secretly guarded information to the private sector, a state-run geographic institute said.The National Geographic Information Institute (NGII) said the map, which covers North Korea's entire territory, will begin operation through Daum Communications Corp., the South's second-largest on

South Korea's trade commission said Friday that it has decided to impose anti-dumping duties on Chinese plate glass for another three years to help protect local manufacturers from price-cutting practices. The Korea Trade Commission said it will keep anti-dumping duties of 15.22-36.01 percent on the Chinese products over the next three years. "The decision will help local plate glass makers suffering from low-priced imports improve their competitiveness and production," the commission said. The

South Korea's industrial output grew for the second straight month in July, raising expectations that the economic recovery might be gaining some momentum, a government report showed Friday. According to the report by Statistics Korea, production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries expanded 1.1 percent last month from June. The growth rate, however, slowed down from a revised 2.6 percent gain a month earlier.Production in the service sector inched down 0.4 percent on-mon

The Islamic State group killed more than 160 Syrian government troops seized in recent fighting, posting pictures Thursday of terrified young conscripts stripped down to their underwear before meeting their deaths in the arid Syrian countryside. The slayings were the latest massacre attributed to the extremist group, which has terrorized rivals and civilians alike with widely publicized brutality in Syria and Iraq as it seeks to expand a proto-state it has carved out on both sides of the border.

South Korea plans to issue state bonds worth about 6.7 trillion won ($6.6 billion) in September, the finance ministry said Thursday.According to the ministry, the government is seeking to sell 1.75 trillion won in three-year Treasurys, 1.6 trillion won in five-year debts and 1.85 trillion won worth of 10-year bonds next month.It also plans to issue 750 billion won worth of bonds that mature in 20 years and 750 billion won in 30-year bonds.The total to be issued is 100 billion less than Treasurys

The South Korean financial watchdog said Thursday it has cautioned troubled Kookmin Bank against a lack of supervision of its employees, which has led to corruption such as massive embezzlement and illegal loans.The Financial Supervisory Service also reprimanded 68 Kookmin Bank officials involved in the scandals. One of the officials was reprimanded in two separate cases.After conducting thorough inspections on the two different cases, the watchdog concluded that 51 employees had pocketed a comb

Samsung Electronics Co. won a small but meaningful battle Wednesday after a U.S. court dismissed Apple Inc.'s bid to ban sales of its nine older models in the United States.Judge Lucy H. Koh, a U.S. district judge in San Jose, California, rejected an injunction filed by the iPhone maker to block sales of nine Samsung smartphone lines, including the Galaxy S3, for infringing its patented technologies.The court decision came after a U.S. federal jury concluded in May that Samsung and Apple have in

Shoddy construction of a subway line extension has caused the formation of large underground cavities in southeastern Seoul, the city government said Thursday.Earlier this month, the city government discovered the seven hollows below an underpass in Seokchon-dong while inspecting the underground conditions following the appearance of sinkholes, sparking safety concerns.Announcing the result of an inspection, the city government blamed Samsung C&T Co., the construction arm of Samsung Group in cha

South Korea's antitrust watchdog has launched an investigation into Kakao Corp., the operator of the country's most-used messenger service Kakao Talk, for possibly abusing its market leader position, industry sources said Thursday.An investigation is underway into allegations that Kakao was involved in abusing its market dominance in deals with smaller service suppliers. A probe is also being conducted on its scheduled merger with Daum Corp., the country's No. 2 Internet portal operator, the sou

South Korea and the United States wrapped up their joint military exercise Thursday, a day earlier than scheduled, officials here said, spawning speculation that the move might be intended to help soothe North Korea.The allies' Combined Forces Command in Seoul announced that it successfully completed its annual computer-assisted simulation drill, named Ulchi Freedom Guardian."This year's Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise further strengthened our combined defense and enhanced the readiness of the R

South Korea on Thursday expressed "deep" concerns over Japan's repeated moves to deny its wartime atrocities as Tokyo's prime minister reportedly sent a message earlier this year to a ceremony to honor its war criminals.In April, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a condolence message to a memorial service held in a temple in western Japan to commemorate Japanese wartime leaders, including convicted class-A war criminals, according to Japanese media.Seoul's foreign ministry said a series of

More than 2,000 Chinese companies have registered for an annual trade exhibition with North Korea, which will be held in October in the Chinese border city of Dandong, state media reported Thursday. North Korea and China have held the joint trade fair since 2012, underscoring the hopes of Beijing as it seeks to help develop business ties with the isolated neighbor despite the North's defiant pursuit of nuclear weapons.The two nations will kick off the five-day trade show, named the North Korea-C

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has "guided" an intensive paratrooper exercise in person, the country's state media said Thursday, in what is seen as a response to the ongoing South Korea-U.S. joint defense drill.Kim inspected an airborne unit conducting parachuting drills and gave pep talks, the Korean Central News Agency reported.As is usual, the KCNA did not specify the time and venue of Kim's visit.Kim expressed satisfaction with the successful training exercise by the troops, it said."He pu

South Korea extended its current surplus streak to a 29th consecutive month in July, helped by solid exports and a narrowing service account deficit, central bank data showed Thursday.The current surplus came in at $7.91 billion last month, compared with $7.92 billion in June, according to the preliminary data by the Bank of Korea. The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade.With the July data out, South Korea's current account surplus during the January-July period totaled

The father of a student killed in April's ferry disaster ended a nearly 50-day hunger strike on Thursday, apparently due to worsening health and in response to a plea from his family, his spokesman said.Kim Young-oh, whose high school daughter was killed in the sunken ferry Sewol, had fasted for 46 days to demand an independent probe into one of the country's deadliest maritime accidents that left nearly 300 people dead or missing."Kim Young-oh, the father of Yoo-min, ended fasting as of today,"

A Seoul court on Wednesday sentenced the chief of a subcontractor of telecom giant KT Corp.'s financially troubled affiliate to 20 years in prison for masterminding a large-scale loan fraud.The 46-year-old chief of Joonangtnc Co.Ltd, surnamed Seo, was found guilty of colluding with other employees of KT ENS Co., a subsidiary of the country's No. 2 mobile operator KT Corp., to take out some 1.83 trillion won ($1.71 billion) in loans from 16 local banks using forged documents from May 2008 to Janu

임상아의 이혼 소식이 전해진 가운데 그의 가방 브랜드가 미국 잡지 ‘LUCKY’ 9월호 표지를 장식하며 “임상아 가방”의 인기를 입증했다. 최근 발매된 ‘LUCKY’ 9월호 표지에서 배우 다코다 패닝은 임상아의 브랜드 ‘SANG-A’의 가방을 들고 포즈를 취하고 있다.앞서 임상아의 브랜드 ‘SANG-A’는 배우 제시카 심슨, 브룩 쉴즈, 가수 리한나, 비욘세 등 수많은 스타들이 들어 화제가 된 바 있다. 특히 임상아는 2011년 봄 컬렉션에 농어류의 일종인 퍼치의 가죽을 주재료로 활용, 환경친화적인 재료를 사용하는 하이패션 디자이너로서 이름을 알렸다.현재 임상아 가방은 미국 21개 매장에서 큰 가방의 경우 2000달러 전후로 판매되며 일부 가방은 9000달러를 넘기도 한다. 클러치는 1000달러 안팎이다. 임상아 가방 브랜드는 미국을 비롯한 캐나다, 두바이, 프랑스, 이탈리아 등 20개국에서 판매되고 있다.한편 임상아는 음반 프로듀서 제이미 프롭과 2001년 결혼했으며, 결혼 10년