President Park Geun-hye replaced seven ministers on Friday, completing several weeks of personnel shake-ups to salvage the public trust in the government and to move on from the ferry disaster.Deputy prime minister Choi Kyoung-hwan. (Yonhap)Park appointed Rep. Choi Kyoung-hwan, a political heavyweight and one of her closet aides, as deputy prime minister in charge of economics. Choi replaces Hyun Oh-seok, the first finance minister under the Park government, who has come under fire for making a

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un paid an inspection visit to a front-line east coast military detachment, the country's official news wire said Friday."Kim inspected the Ryo Islet Defense Detachment standing guard over a forward post off the East Coast of Korea," the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, without disclosing the date of the visit, as it often does.The detachment is part of the Large Combined Unit 287 near the country's eastern front line and is responsible for defending the is

South Korea logged a trade surplus for the 28th consecutive month in May, despite sluggish exports growth, customs data showed Friday.South Korea's exports came to $47.8 billion last month, down 1 percent from a year earlier, while imports rose 0.3 percent on-year to $42.5 billion, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. Earlier, the trade ministry said that exports declined 0.9 percent and imports increased 3 percent over the same period. Korea logged a trade surplus of $5.3 billi

The Navy is set to complete construction of a new base near the tense Yellow Sea border with North Korea this year in a move expected to significantly upgrade South Korea's capability to cope with North Korean maritime provocations, officials said Friday.The base on Baengnyeong Island, just south of the sea border known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL), is designed to accommodate advanced patrol boats, such as a 570-ton guarded-missile patrol killer, or PKG, and a 170-ton patrol killer medium ve

The Obama administration is expected to replace Glyn Davies, its top point man on North Korea, in the second half of this year, multiple diplomatic sources said Thursday, as Washington's push for the denuclearization of North Korea shows no signs of moving forward.Chances seem high that Davies, a career diplomat, will be named ambassador to Thailand, according to the sources.He was appointed to the post of special representative for North Korea policy in January 2012 to succeed Stephen Bosworth.

South Korea and Canada have initialed their bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), the South Korean government said Friday, with the official signing due in the second half of this year.The trade pact was initialed by South Korean Deputy Trade Minister Choi Kyong-lim and his Canadian counterpart, Ian Burney, in Seoul on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.With the FTA, South Korea will immediately eliminate its 8 percent import tariffs on all automobiles and auto par

Argentina legend Diego Maradona lashed out at "bribes" within FIFA, demanding action against those involved in corruption claims linked to Qatar's World Cup bid, in remarks published Sunday."There are huge bribes" in the world football governing body, UAE-based Maradona told Abu Dhabi daily, Al-Ittihad. "Those behind them must be held accountable, especially in regards to the latest events related to awarding Qatar the 2022 World Cup."Where has this money gone, who received it, and why," must al

Rescuers scrambled Sunday to deliver food and medical supplies to Afghan families marooned on mountaintops after flash floods killed 80 people in a remote northern district, washing away hundreds of homes and forcing thousands to flee.The death toll was expected to rise, with scores of people said to be missing in the mountainous district of Baghlan province after torrential rains unleashed the floods on Friday.The floods come a month after a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried a village a

A car bomb attack followed quickly by a suicide blast Sunday killed 17 people at a Kurdish political party's office north of Baghdad, as nine died in violence elsewhere in Iraq.Militants have launched major operations in multiple provinces in recent days, killing scores of people and highlighting both their long reach and the weakness of Iraqi security forces.Iraq is suffering its worst violence in years, and with none of the myriad problems that contribute to the heightened unrest headed for qu

Vatican officials insist no political agenda is lurking behind Pope Francis' invitation to the Israeli and Palestinian presidents to pray for peace together in the Vatican gardens. They say no concrete initiatives are expected.But Sunday's unusual summit _ with Jewish, Christian and Muslim prayers intoned in the shadow of St. Peter's Basilica _ could take on great significance on the ground. And it will certainly enhance Francis' reputation as a leader unhindered by diplomatic and theological pr

Pakistani paramilitary forces Sunday killed more than 10 separatist rebels in the violence-stricken southwestern province of Baluchistan as part of a fresh operation to quell a long-running insurgency, officials said.The operation in Dera Bugti district's Gandyari town, 250 kilometers southeast of the capital Quetta, came just three days after troops killed 30 militants in the same area.Officials said the town, close to the borders of Baluchistan, Sindh and Punjab provinces, was the hub of a sep

This image made from video released by the Taliban and obtained by IntelCenter on Dec. 8, 2010, shows a man believed to be Bowe Bergdahl at left. Bergdahl, a U.S. Army soldier, went missing from his outpost in Afghanistan in June 2009 and was released from Taliban captivity on May 31, 2014 in exchange for five enemy combatants held in the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (AP)Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has told people treating him at a U.S. military medical facility in Germany that he was tortured, b

China is catching up to South Korea in export competitiveness of key items, including IT, with South Korea beginning to lose ground in Europe, a local economic think tank said Sunday.A report from the Hyundai Research Institute put South Korea's trade specification index on eight key export items at 0.09 last year, up from 0.07 in 2012. The index measures the degree to which a country imports or exports a certain product. A number in the positive means the country is an exporter, and a negative

The U.S. Department of Defense has approved the use of five types of Samsung Android phones by its employees at their workplaces, Samsung Electronics Co. said Sunday.The devices include the Galaxy S4, Galaxy S4 Active, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 and Galaxy Note 10, all equipped with security solution KNOX. They are now on the U.S. department's Defense Information System Agency's approved product list, the South Korean company said.The phones run on Android 4.4 (KitKat) along with Samsun

Yoon Doo-hyunPresident Park Geun-hye on Sunday named Yoon Doo-hyun, president of YTN Plus, a subsidiary of cable news network YTN, as the new presidential senior press secretary.Yoon, a former journalist and managing editor of the YTN newsroom, replaces Lee Jung-hyun, who offered to step down on Saturday.“President Park Geun-hye has named Yoon Doo-hyun, president of YTN Plus, as successor to senior secretary Lee Jung-hyun,” said presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook.“Yoon has demonstrated his ba

A South Korean woman who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese imperial army during World War II died Sunday, a civic group said, another sign that time is running out for the aging victims to receive an apology and due compensation.Bae Chun-hee died at the age of 91, according to the House of Sharing, which runs a shelter for victims of Japan's sexual enslavement.Her death leaves only 54 surviving victims of one of the most serious wartime crimes by Japan. Initially, 237 women were on

First-quarter corporate investment increased compared to last year, but it was mainly due to a handful of top conglomerates, pointing to a growing imbalance between big and smaller companies, data indicated Sunday.Analysis by corporate watcher CEO Score showed South Korea's top 30 business groups invested 20.5 trillion won ($20.06 billion) in the first quarter of this year, roughly 9 percent more than the same period last year.But excluding Samsung, which increased its investment by 48 percent,

Voter turnout in Wednesday's local elections reached a provisional 56.8 percent, the highest in 16 years, the nation's election watchdog said.More than 23.4 million out of over 41.2 million eligible voters went to polling stations across the country to pick a total of 3,952 officials, including the mayor of Seoul, according to the National Election Commission.The preliminary voter turnout is the highest since 1998, when 52.3 percent was recorded, and the second-highest ever. The highest voter tu

Vote counting began for Wednesday's local elections, with exit polls showing the ruling and main opposition parties each winning five of the 17 metropolitan mayoral and gubernatorial posts up for grabs, while running neck-and-neck in the other races.Voting took place from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 13,665 polling stations nationwide, drawing more than 50 percent of eligible voters, according to the National Election Commission.Ballot boxes were sealed as soon as voting closed and taken to 252 counting

South Korea's ruling and main opposition parties were expected to each win at least five of the17 metropolitan mayoral and gubernatorial posts contested in Wednesday's local elections, according to joint exit polls by local TV stations.The ruling Saenuri Party was forecast to prevail in mayoral races in Daegu and Ulsan, and gubernatorial races in Jeju Island and its traditional power bases in South Gyeongsang and North Gyeongsang provinces, the exit polls revealed.They also showed that the main