3월 수입차 판매량이 주요 브랜드의 신차효과 및 적극적인 프로모션 등을 통한 판매 증진에 힘입어 신규등록대수 집계 이후 월별 판매량 최고치를 경신하며 고공행진을 이어갔다.4일 한국수입자동차협회(KAIDA)가 발표한 자료에 따르면 지난 3월 수입차 신규등록대수는 1만5733대로 전년 동월(1만2063대) 대비 30.4％, 전월(1만3852대) 대비 13.6％ 증가했다. 올해 1분기 누적 등록대수 역시 4만4434대로 전년 동기(3만4964대) 대비 27.1％ 크게 늘어났다. 이처럼 사상 최고 월별 판매량을 기록한 이유로는 ‘톱 5’ 브랜드의 판매량이 증가세를 보였으며, 최근 부진을 면치 못했던 도요타의 판매량이 증가세로 돌아섰으며 Q50의 신차효과가 지속된 인피니티의 호조세가 이어진 것이 영향을 미쳤다는 분석이다.3월 브랜드별 등록 대수는 BMW가 3511대로 지난 1ㆍ2월에 이어 1분기 내내 1위 자리를 지킨 가운데 메르세데스 벤츠가 2532대의 판매량을 기록해 2위를 차지했으며

A Mongolian-flagged cargo ship sank off the coast of South Korea's southern city of Yeosu on Friday, killing two of 16 North Korean crew members on board and leaving 11 missing, the Coast Guard and Seoul's unification ministry said.The 4,300-ton Grand Fortune 1 ran aground at around 1:19 a.m., some 74 kilometers off the coast of Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, after sending a rescue signal, according to officers.Of the 16 crew members aboard the ship, all North Koreans, two were found dead and thr

The former head of financially troubled shipping and shipbuilding conglomerate STX Group was called in by prosecutors Friday to face questioning over alleged embezzlement and business malpractice.Kang Duk-soo, who headed the group between 2003 and February 2014, appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in southern Seoul around 9:20 a.m. to undergo questioning as a suspect in the corruption case."I apologize for causing worry to the people, and I will sincerely respond to the in

South Korea has successfully test-fired an extended range ballistic missile and will develop a longer range missile capable of striking all parts of North Korea, Seoul's defense ministry said Friday.South Korea currently operates Hyunmoo ballistic missiles with a range of 300 kilometers, and has been developing longer range missiles to beef up its defense against Pyongyang under a new missile deal with the United States.The guidelines revised in October 2012 allow Seoul to extend the maximum ran

Top South Korean, U.S. and Japanese nuclear envoys will gather here early next week for discussions on ways to deal with North Korea, as it threatens to take additional provocative acts, possibly including another nuclear test.The U.S. State Department announced Thursday that Washington's special representative for North Korea policy, Glyn Davies, will host the trilateral session four days later.It is intended to "exchange views on a wide range of issues" related to North Korea, the department s

South Korea named its new chief negotiator for the six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program on Thursday ahead of a scheduled meeting with the envoys from the United States and Japan.Hwang Joon-kook, the ambassador in charge of negotiations for the South Korea-U.S. defense cost sharing pact, replaces Cho Tae-yong, who was promoted to vice foreign minister earlier this year, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.The 54-year-old career diplomat led the South Korean del

Seoul City signed an agreement with Beijing Thursday to make joint efforts in tackling air pollution, including hazardous ultrafine dust that has been increasingly affecting Northeast Asia.The agreement, signed between Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and his counterpart Wang Anshun during Park's one-day visit to the Chinese capital, calls for the establishment of an environmental team within a joint committee in charge of economic and cultural exchange projects.The committee, set up by the local gover

The drone that crashed on a South Korean border island during Pyongyang's live-fire drill earlier this week is believed to have been sent from an airport on the west coast of North Korea, a military official said Thursday.South Korea collected the drone from Baengnyeong Island, just south of the western maritime border during North Korea's live-fire drill on Monday.The drone was discovered while South Korean Marines returned artillery fire after some of the North's shells fell into southern wate

South Korean banks forecast the credit risks of households to stay high in the second quarter on concerns over excessive household debt, the central bank said Thursday.An index gauging larger firms' credit risks came in at 25 for the April-June period, unchanged from the previous quarter, according to a survey of 16 local banks conducted by the Bank of Korea. The number marked the highest level since 28 tallied for the first quarter of last year.Credit risks refer to the likelihood of borrowers

South Korea's science ministry said Thursday it will host a ministerial-level meeting next year to discuss solutions to environmental pollution and resource shortages, with science ministers and other representatives from OECD member nations set to attend.The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said the two-day meeting of the Committee of Science & Technological Policy at Ministerial Level under the Economic Cooperation and Development, will kick off in Daejeon, 164 kilometers south of

The U.S. forces stationed here had an unused, Seoul-contributed defense fund of more than 600 billion won ($567 million) as of January, though the amounted declined from five months earlier, government data showed Thursday.The unspent defense cost for United States Forces Korea  came to 621 billion won as of the end of January, down some 90 billion won from the end of August in 2013, according to the data by the foreign ministry.The amount of unspent fund at end-January accounted for about 77 pe

Financial authorities said Thursday they will intervene to prevent top financial company executives from walking away with retirement payments way out of proportion, a measure that follows public outrage against astronomical wages and compensation packages that went to corporate leaders last year.Records showed that Park Jong-won, former president of Korean Reinsurance Co., received 15.9 billion won ($15 million) in retirement benefits, which is 245.5 times an average annual salary of company em

The Kremlin confirmed Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has finalized the divorce from his wife of 30 years Lyudmila following the couple's sudden split last summer.Putin's official biography, which described him as recently as March 27 as "Married. Wife Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Putina," now states simply that he has two daughters with no mention of a first lady.The president's spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to state-owned Itar-TASS news agency that "the divorce has completed."The

블라디미르 푸틴(61) 러시아 대통령과 아내 류드밀라 푸티나(56)의 이혼 절차가 마침내 종지부를 찍었다. 지난해 이미 결별을 선언한 두 사람은 이로써 30년 간 이어온 결혼 생활을 끝냈다.2일(현지시간) 타임과 BBC방송 등 외신에 따르면 드미트리 페스코프 대통령 공보수석은 이날 푸틴 대통령 내외가 이혼 수속을 끝냄과 동시에 결혼 생활을  공식 마감했다고 밝혔다.푸틴 대통령과 아내 류드밀라는 지난해 6월 국영방송 로시야24에 출연해 “우리는 갈라서기로 했으며 30년 결혼 생활은 끝났다”면서 결별을 공식 발표한 바 있다.세간에 알려진 둘의 공식적인 이혼 사유는 류드밀라 여사의 대중 공포증. 당시 류드밀라 여사는 “대중 앞에 서는 게 싫었다”며 “비행기를 타는 것도 힘들었다”고 밝힌 바 있다.하지만 두 사람의 파경 뒤에는 그간 많은 미녀 스타와 염문설을 뿌린 푸틴 대통령의 화려한 여성 편력이 문제가 됐다는 분석이 힘을 얻고 있다.그 중 ‘푸틴의 연인’으로 가장 많이 알려진 스타는 ‘리

A soldier with "mental health issues" killed three people and wounded 16 before turning the gun on himself Wednesday at Fort Hood, the US military base devastated by a deadly 2009 shooting rampage.Base commander Lieutenant General Mark Milley said the gunman, who served in Iraq in 2011, was being treated for depression and anxiety, and being checked for possible Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.All of the dead and wounded were military personnel. At least four of those injured were hospitalized in

The office of President Park Geun-hye said Thursday it has opened a page linked to its website to collect suggestions and opinions on deregulation, one of Park's top priorities in efforts to spur South Korea's slowly recovering economy.Anyone can file recommendations, suggestions or whatever opinions they have about government regulations by clicking on a banner on Cheong Wa Dae's website at www.president.go.kr. The government will take a look at those views and get back to the writers with answ

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization plans to provide $400,000 to North Korea to help eradicate the rapidly spreading foot-and-mouth disease there, a U.S. radio report said.The Voice of America reported Wednesday the U.N. body was considering a proposal to North Korea over the infectious animal disease that broke out near Pyongyang in early January, citing the FAO's Chief Veterinary Officer Juan Lubroth.The FAO also plans to send quarantine officials to North Korea after finalizing its aid

Two paintings worth millions of euros by the French artists Paul Gauguin and Pierre Bonnard, stolen in London in 1970 then abandoned on a train, have been recovered in Italy.Gauguin's "Fruit on a table or small dog" and Bonnard's "Woman with two chairs," which were stolen from a family house in the British capital, were recovered from an Italian factory worker who had hung them in his kitchen for almost 40 years.The Gauguin painting is worth between 10 and 30 million euros ($13 and $41 million)

Three government officials were shot dead on Wednesday in Thailand's insurgency-stricken south -- among them a woman who was then beheaded, police told AFP.The trio, a village chief and two women assisting him, were gunned down as they drove on a remote road after attending a meeting in a notorious security 'Red Zone' in Yala province, a hotbed of the insurgency."One woman was shot and then beheaded, while another woman and a man were also shot dead," said Police Lieutenant Virasak Suwannadecha

Kim Kardashian has waded into Syria's conflict, calling on fans through Twitter to save the ancient Armenian Christian village of Kassab, whose residents fled as rebels seized control of the hamlet in late March.She appeared to have bolstered false claims by loyalists of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who said Syrian rebels desecrated the village's churches and slaughtered residents. She used the (hash)SaveKessab hashtag that was used to spread the false claims, causing its popularity to explode