Marriage, not child rearing, is the leading cause of South Korean women quitting their jobs, a survey released by an association of the country's largest conglomerates said Sunday.According to the findings by the Federation of Korean Industries based on a poll of 5,887 women nationwide in 2010, the likelihood of a woman giving up work after getting married was 37.8 percent higher than those who remained single.Among women in their 20s, their chances of leaving work after marriage shot up 58.2 pe

Leaders of main opposition blocs announced Sunday they will create a new united coalition party ahead of local elections, a move that upends the country's political structure.Kim Han-gil, the head of the main opposition Democratic Party , and Ahn Cheol-soo, a businessman-turned-politician new to the political scene, said they will seek a union and aim for a transfer of power at the next presidential election.The move was announced just months ahead of the June 4 local elections to pick a new Seo

South Korea beat Japan to become the biggest player in the Chinese import market last year on the back of growing demand for Korean-made machinery and electronics parts, data showed Sunday.According to the Korea International Trade Association, the share of Korean-made products rose to 9.24 percent in 2013 from 9.17 percent a year ago in the Chinese import market, taking the No. 1 spot for the first time.Japan's market share fell to 8.19 percent from 9.78 percent during the same period, the KITA

 박근혜 대통령은 취임 1주년을 맞은 지난 25일 대통령 직속으로 통일준비위원회를 발족하겠다고 밝혔다. 지난 달 기자 회견에서 “통일은 대박”이라며 통일을 경제적 관점으로 접근했던 대통령이 거듭 통일을 강조하면서 적극적으로  이를 위한 준비에 나서고 있다. Seoul to set up body to prepare unification[1] President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday unveiled a plan to launch a preparatory committee for reunification to build public consensus and create a blueprint for the unified peninsula.Launch: start, establishpreparatory: 준비를 위한Public consensus: 사회적 합의 (consensus: agreement) Blueprint: 청사진, 큰 계획, 밑그림[2] Park recent

A four-member North Korean delegation arrived in China on Saturday for talks with Japan on possible repatriation of the remains of Japanese nationals who died in the communist country during World War II.The talks, the first of their kind since August 2012, are scheduled to open on Monday in Shenyang, a major city in northeastern China. North Korean officials said the talks are scheduled to continue for three days."The talks will last three days and the agenda is the issue of the remains of Japa

Korean victims of the Japanese military's sexual enslavement during World War II could be asked to repeat their testimonies, a Japanese news report quoted a ranking Japanese lawmaker as saying Saturday, a remark that could be seen as another sign of Tokyo's unrepentant attitude over its wartime atrocities.Shigeru Ishiba, the secretary general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, made the remark in a meeting with reporters following revelations that the Japanese government will set up a te

Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations asked an emergency session of the Security Council on Saturday “to do everything possible now” to stop Russian “aggression” as Russian troops took over the strategic Crimea region. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call to “urgently engage in direct dialogue with the authorities” in Kiev. Calling the situation in Ukraine “as dangerous as it is destabilizing,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power t

More than 10 knife-wielding attackers slashed people at a train station in southwestern China late Saturday in what authorities called a terrorist attack by Uighur separatists, and police fatally shot five of the assailants, leaving 34 people dead and 130 others injured, state media said.The attackers, most of them dressed in black, stormed the Kunming Train Station in Yunnan Province and started attacking people in the late evening, witness Yang Haifei, told the official Xinhua News Agency in a

South Korean makers of electric-powered vehicle batteries are tapping China for promising opportunities in the country combating serious air pollution problems.The EV market in China, the world's biggest auto market, is expected to grow to be the largest in the world by 2020, as its government has been pouring efforts into cleaning up its notoriously bad air.The Chinese government has found part of the answer to the pollution problem in EVs.China's Finance Ministry said on Feb. 8 that it will ex

할리우드 배우들이 남성형 탈모로 두려움에 떨고 있다. 특히 할리우드 영화감독 겸 배우 케빈 코스트너(59)의 경우가 대표적이다. 지난 25일 쇼비즈스파이 등 외신 보도에 따르면 코스트너는 새 출연작인 “드래프트 데이”를 찍느라 눈 코 뜰새 없이 바쁜 와중에도, 촬영된 영상에 머리 숱이 적은 부위가 카메라에 잡히지는 않았는지 꼼꼼히 체크한다. 코스트너는 수년 전 모발 이식 수술을 받은 것으로 알려져 있으나 여전히 계속되는 탈모로 괴로워하고 있다고 쇼비즈스파이가 보도했다.그는 “내 모발 중 자연산 머리는 세 가닥 정도 밖에 안된다”며 “가닥마다 모우, 래리, 컬리라고 이름도 붙였다”고 농담을 던진 것으로 알려졌다. 외신에 따르면 코스트너 측 관계자는 “코스트너의 헤어스타일리스트는 그의 (인공) 머리카락이 최대한 자연스러워 보이도록 최선을 다해왔지만, 때로는 특수한 제품들을 사용하거나 염색을 해서 머리 숱이 많아 보이도록 했다”고 전했다.이 관계자는 또, “케빈(코스트너)은 헤어스타일리스

The number of babies born in South Korea dropped for the first time in four years in 2013, a report showed Thursday, deepening worries for a country whose already low birthrate undermines its growth potential.According to the report by Statistics Korea, 436,600 babies were born last year, down 48,000 or 9.9 percent from a year earlier.The number marked the lowest since 2005 when 435,031 babies were born. It also represented the first time that childbirths have declined on a year-on-year basis si

South Korea plans to propose that the rival Koreas hold Red Cross talks to discuss further reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, an official said Thursday.The two Koreas wrapped up the first temporary family reunions since late 2010 at a North Korean mountain resort on Tuesday as part of their recent deal meant to improve their soured relations.Under the deal, the two Koreas agreed to hold Red Cross talks after staging the reunions to resolve humanitarian issues."We think abo

South Korea's health agency said Thursday it will review a fitness feature on the latest smartphone by Samsung Electronics Co. to decide whether to designate the device as a medical equipment.Samsung's Galaxy S5 smartphone, introduced Monday, is the first in the industry to come with a built-in heart rate sensor. It can also  be connected to smartwatches to monitor heart rate during exercises.South Korean law stipulates that medical devices, defined as equipment used to diagnose, treat or preven

K-pop group 2NE1 released its long-anticipated second full-length album Thursday, nabbing the top spot on numerous music charts in a matter of hours.Soon after its release on online music services at midnight, "Comeback Home," the main track on the album "Crush," topped real-time charts of 10 services, including Melon, Mnet, Olleh Music, Naver Music, Daum Music and Bugs.Another major piece, "Gotta Be You," came next on those charts while most of the remaining tracks also placed high."Crush" has

South Korean President Park Geun-hye will meet the United Arab Emirates' crown prince of Abu Dhabi Thursday for talks on expanding bilateral cooperation in energy, defense and other areas of mutual interest, her office said.Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who arrived in Seoul Wednesday for a three-day visit, is the highest-ranking Middle Eastern official to visit South Korea since the launch of the Park government last February, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said in a p

CJ Cheiljedang Corp., the food and beverage unit of South Korea's CJ Group, said Thursday it has broken ground for a flour plant due for completion in April next year in southern Vietnam.Once completed, the plant will produce an annual 100,000 tons of flour and 10,000 tons of prepared dry mixes, available for home use and for small and mid-sized commercial bakeries, the company said.CJ Cheiljedang set up a joint venture with Japanese trading firm Sumitomo Corp. in May last year for the project.T

The number of users of the long-term evolution network in South Korea is estimated to have surpassed 30 million this month, data showed Thursday, amid heightened battle among mobile carriers.Earlier data from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning put the number of local LTE users at 29.4 million at end-January. The number has been rising by around 800,000 every month since 2013.SK Telecom Co., the top industry player that takes up half of the local mobile market, had 13.9 million LTE

North Korea has been revving up efforts to attract investment from overseas Koreans amid difficulties in inviting foreigners to the sanctions-hit country, media reports said Thursday. The communist country has been under tightened international sanctions for its third nuclear test in February last year, which imposed penalties on the North's trade, banking and travel."We are to focus more on the projects that aim to create circumstances where overseas Koreans can successfully make economic trans

The nation's top court on Thursday upheld the life sentence for a 25-year-old man for kidnapping and raping an eight-year-old girl in the southern city of Naju.The defendant, only identified by his surname Koh, was convicted of abducting the sleeping elementary school first-grader from her home and brutally raping her before trying to kill her in August 2012 in Naju, 350 kilometers south of Seoul.The Supreme Court also upheld lower courts' order that Koh undergo chemical castration over a five-y

More than 1,100 North Korean women are killed by cervical cancer every year, a recent report showed Thursday, possibly due to a lack of vaccination programs in the communist country.North Korea has a population of 10.09 million women aged 15 years and older who are at risk of developing cervical cancer. Current estimates indicate that every year 1,881 North Korean women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 1,119 die from the disease, according to the report posted on the website of HPV (Human