Lotte Group, South Korea's fifth largest conglomerate, said Wednesday that it has been selected as the preferred bidder to buy local car rental company KT Rental. After taking over the country's biggest car rental firm, Lotte will guarantee the employment of KT Rental employees, the group said. Lotte said the latest acquisition is aimed at expanding the car rental service into its new growth engine. The group, whose business portfolio ranges from beer and beverages to department and discount sto

Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations asked the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to look at allegations that the Islamic State group is using organ harvesting as a way to finance its operations.Ambassador Mohamed Alhakim told reporters that in the past few weeks, bodies with surgical incisions and missing kidneys or other body parts have been found in shallow mass graves."We have bodies. Come and examine them," he said. "It is clear they are missing certain parts."He also said a dozen doctors

Chinese businesswoman Chen Yili paid a South Korean hospital thousands of dollars to reshape her face in the hope she would look more like the glamourous stars she saw on television.Instead she says she was disfigured by the operation - one of a growing number of Chinese women who claim shoddy procedures and a lack of regulation in South Korea's booming "medical tourism" industry, have left them physically scarred. "They said they would design my face to look like a South Korean, and help me des

South Korea was ranked the most popular overseas destination for Chinese people during their weeklong national holiday that started this week, a Chinese government survey showed Wednesday. About 5.19 million Chinese are expected to travel abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday season, up 10 percent from the same period last year, and 15.6 percent of them are predicted to visit South Korea, according to the survey by China's National Tourism Administration.  Chinese tourists look around shops in M

North Korea on Wednesday lashed out at South Korea's foreign minister over his recent meeting with the U.S. secretary of state to enhance cooperation to solve the North's nuclear issue. The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North's ruling Workers' Party, said the strengthening of cooperation between Seoul and Washington is aimed at bolstering the United States' efforts to invade the North. The criticism came out after Yun Byung-se, South Korea's foreign minister, met with U.S. Secreta

Only 17, top-ranked Lydia Ko says she's already planning to retire from golf by the time she's 30, and become a psychologist.Ko makes her second start at No. 1 in Thursday's first round of the Women's Australian Open at Royal Melbourne along with Karrie Webb and Australia's Su Oh, who won the Australian Ladies Masters last week in her second start as a professional.The South Korean-born Ko says she will soon start an on-line psychology degree to prepare for life after golf."I say my plan is to r

Most South Koreans hit the road to visit their hometowns for Lunar New Year causing traffic jams on the country's highways Wednesday, as the five-day holiday kicked off.As of 11 a.m., there were severe traffic jams on South Korea's two major expressways in the central part of the country around Cheonan, 92 kilometers south of Seoul, said the Korea Expressway Corp., the country's expressway operator.  A man holding his grandchild poses at Jeju International Airport after their reunion on Wednesda

Iran is "good," China and Russia are "very good," but North Korea's cyberattack capabilities are actually not that great, according to an impromptu ranking by US President Barack Obama.In an interview with online site "re/code" published Tuesday, Obama used North Korea's relative lack of electronic prowess to underscore how dangerous even less skilled cyber attackers can be. US President Barack Obama (AP)"Just to give you a sense of how challenging this is - it's not as if North Korea is particu

Hyundai Motor Co. on Wednesday unveiled the images of the all-new Tucson SUV ahead of an upcoming European motor show.The Tucson, to be showcased at the Geneva Motor Show that kicks off on March 3, is tailored to meet European consumer demands with updated features and design, South Korea's top automaker said in a press release. The new version, the first update in six years, boasts both "bold" SUV images and "sophisticated urban" styles, with a large-size hexagonal grille that connects to the h

South Korea's No. 1 automaker, Hyundai Motor Co., and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. sold more cars in January in Europe compared with a year ago, thanks to the growing popularity of Hyundai's new i20 models, data showed Wednesday. Hyundai sold 33,197 cars in January, up 7.1 percent from the same period last year, with Kia selling 25,996 cars, up 5.5 percent, according to the data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA). Their combined market share in the re

A landmark U.N. report on human rights abuses in North Korea stands strong despite the recent retraction by a high-profile North Korean defector of some of his accounts of the hardship in the communist nation, the former head of a U.N. investigative panel said Tuesday.Michael Kirby, a retired Australian judge who headed the Commission of Inquiry (COI) established by the U.N. to look into the North's human rights violations, made the remark at a seminar marking the first anniversary of the COI re

The prosecution on Monday called for the court to sentence Cho Hyun-ah, former vice president of Korean Air, to three years in prison on charges of obstructing aviation safety and coercing cabin crew staff to make false statements over the so-called “nut-rage” incident.Cho, 40, had caused public uproar by forcing a cabin crew chief to disembark from a flight from New York to Seoul on Dec. 5 after not following the carrier’s protocol on serving macadamia nuts. The de facto heiress of the flag car

Japan's deputy foreign minister has said negotiations with the Islamic State group threatening to execute a Jordanian pilot and a Japanese journalist have become "deadlocked," local media reported Saturday.Yasuhide Nakayama, who is leading Tokyo's emergency response team in Amman, told reporters in the Jordanian capital late Friday that there had been no progress in trying to secure the release of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto and airman Maaz al-Kassasbeh."It has become deadlocked," he said, ac

North Korea "reportedly" sacked the chief of its Supreme Guard Command, the elite personal bodyguard force tasked with protecting the North's leader Kim Jong-un, in the wake of last month's killings by a North Korean army deserter, a Chinese scholar wrote in an op-ed for state media on Saturday. Hu Mingyuan, associate researcher at the Center for Northeast Asian Studies, a research institute of the Jilin province that shares borders with North Korea, did not specify where he got the information.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected a joint naval and air force drill targetting the U.S. Navy, state media said Saturday as Pyongyang is upset about U.S.President Barack Obama's recent remarks on the eventual collapse of the North Korean regime.The North has already staged two rounds of air force and army drills earlier this month. But it heightened the level to a joint naval and air force drill involving fighters and torpedoes this time. "A drill of services of the Korean People's Ar

Samsung Electronics Co. has taken over Brazil's No. 1 printing solutions company, Simpress, to bolster its printing business in the Latin American market, industry sources said Saturday.The tech giant recently signed a contract to take over a 100-percent stake in Simpress with a plan to run it as a subsidiary, they said.The Sao Paulo-based firm provides printing outsourcing solution services to local companies, financial and public organizations.Samsung plans to sell its printers through Simpres

President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama will be at the National Prayer Breakfast next week in Washington, the first time the two men have been together in nearly a year.While the president and the Tibetan spiritual leader could have a chance encounter at the event Thursday, the White House played down any official engagement between the two.As he has done in the past, the president will see many religious leaders at the event, but we don't have any specific meeting with the Dalai Lama to annou

The Navy began taking measures Saturday to drive sit-in protesters out of the construction site of a naval base on a major southern island to complete the construction project by December as planned, triggering strong resistance from the protesters.Civic groups, environmental activists and some residents in the village near the construction site have staged protests in a make-shift tent at the entrance of the site since October last year when the Navy began constructing apartment buildings to be

A U.S. textbook publisher said Friday it "unequivocally" stands by the description of Japan's sexual enslavement of women during World War II in one of its books after Japan's government asked for changes in it.Japan made the request to the publisher, McGraw-Hill, last month, claiming there are grave errors and descriptions in the book, "Tradition & Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past," which it said conflict with the country's stance on the sexual slavery issue.The request was seen as

Saudi Arabia's top financial official said Friday that South Korea will be one of the countries to be invited to the kingdom if Saudi Arabia pursues a project to build nuclear reactors, according to South Korea's presidential office.Mohammed al-Jasser, Saudi Arabia's minister of economy and planning, made the comment in a meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Park's office said. Still, he did not elaborate.Park called for support from Saudi Arabia so that South Korea can participate