The Website of South Korea's public broadcaster KBS suffered a series of malfunctions on Wednesday for an unidentified reason, officials said.The broadcaster's Website went off line from 8:00 p.m. to 8:18 p.m. for a third time on Wednesday, following two malfunctions reported earlier in the evening, according to company officials.The broadcaster said it is currently trying to find out the cause of the failures, adding that it is unlikely that hackers were behind it. KBS added that there have bee

NongHyup Bank, the banking unit of South Korean financial holding company NongHyup Financial Group Inc., said Wednesday its online and smartphone banking system was paralyzed for an unknown reason.The bank said that an error occurred at 6:20 p.m. at its operating system located in Anseong, 77 kilometers from Seoul. The online transaction system remained malfunctioning as of 7:35 p.m."No hacking activities were identified behind the failure," an official from the bank said. "We are currently maki

YEOSU -- Police raided the head office of a Seoul-based major chemical company and its plant in this provincial city on Monday as part of efforts to determine the exact cause of an explosion last week that killed six workers and wounded 11 others.All of the victims are contract workers who were doing welding work on a storage tank at Daelim Industrial's plant in Yeosu, a port city on the nation's southern coast.The exact cause of the March 14 blast has yet to be determined, with surviving worker

The U.N. chief for refugees says the number of refugees from Syria could increase by “two or three times” the present level by the end of the year if the country's conflict doesn't end. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres says the international community should work toward ending the conflict and says there is a “risk of an explosion” throughout the already volatile Middle East region if it continues much longer. Guterres was speaking in Ankara on Sunday, days after the number o

President Park Geun-hye plans to hold her first Cabinet meeting on Monday as soon as the minimum number of ministers needed for such a meeting is met following their parliamentary confirmation process, her spokeswoman said. Park has been unable to hold a Cabinet meeting since being inaugurated on Feb. 25 due to a delay in the parliamentary confirmation process for her minister nominees. The first meeting has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, and will b

매년 2월 스페인 바르셀로나에서 열리는 모바일 월드 콩그레스가 10여일 남짓 남았다. 올해 “모바일의 새로운 지평선”이라는 주제로 열리는 MWC에는 전세계 통신사들과 전자업체들이 모여 25일부터 28일까지 4일간 혁신적인 제품과 차세대 네트워크 기술을 선보일 예정이다.시장조사업체인 Strategy Analytics 에 따르면 올해 3대 화두는 4G 패블릿 (phablets), 부상하는 중국 업체들과 구글의 안드로이드 플랫폼이 아닌 다른 모바일 플랫폼을 사용하고 있는 기기들의 증가추세다.“우리는 MWC에서 공개되는 LTE 스마트폰 중 비중 있는 숫자가 5인치 대나 그 이상인 디스플레이를 탑재할 것으로 예상한다”고 SA 측은 밝혔다. 또, “화웨이와 ZTE 또한 더 큰 존재감을 과시할 것이고 이들은 3G와 4G 네트워크를 사용하는 많은 하드웨어 기기와 소프트웨어 그리고 서비스까지 보여줄 것”이라고 했다.올해 MWC에서는 업계에서 잘 알려진 인물들이 기조연설을 하는데 이 중 KT의 이석채

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's prime minister says the world should impose tough new sanctions against North Korea if it goes ahead with plans for a nuclear test.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a television talk show Tuesday that Japan and the international community will need to impose ``quite severe measures'' against North Korea if it conducts the test. He said North Korea would not gain anything from such a provocation.     Last week, North Korea announced plans for a nuclear test after the United Nat

South Korean President-elect Park Geun-hye praised the European Union (EU)'s efforts to resolve the humanitarian crisis in North Korea, and expressed hope for closer economic ties with India and the Middle East as she held a series of meetings with their top envoys Tuesday. In her meeting with EU Ambassador Tomasz Kozlowski, Park thanked the envoy for the EU's efforts to improve the human rights situation in North Korea and for delivering "transparent" aid to the impoverished nation. "I hope to

The top U.S. diplomat on East Asian policy, Kurt Campbell, voiced hope on Tuesday that Washington wants to maintain the "strongest possible" relationship with Seoul's new government, a day before he meets with President-elect Park Geun-hye.Campbell arrived at Incheon International Airport earlier in the day with other senior officials from the White House and the Pentagon, marking the first high-profile visit by U.S. officials to Seoul since Park's election victory last month."I'd like to unders

President-elect Park Geun-hye'stransition team expressed regret on Saturday over opposition criticism that the team is filled largely with conservatives.Park finalized the lineup of her transition team on Friday, laying the groundwork for launching her five-year presidency set to begin on Feb. 25."It is deeply regrettable that some opposes the formation of the transition team for opposition's sake," Yoon Chang-jung, chief spokesman for the transition team, told a news briefing.He rejected opposi

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The suffering of a university student and her male friend who were brutally attacked aboard a bus in India's capital did not end after the woman was gang-raped and both were savagely beaten for 2 1/2 hours. Dumped naked on a roadside, the pair encountered shocking apathy as passersby offered only cursory looks and police debated jurisdiction for 30 minutes before taking them to a hospital, where the man received no treatment as he sat without clothes on the floor, the friend r

Local credit card firms have suspended interest-free installment purchases for card-accepting businesses with annual sales over 100 billion won (US$93.9 million) following a revised financial act, market sources said Saturday.According to the sources, South Korean credit card firms stopped their interest-free installment purchase services for businesses, including large discount stores, airliners, and mobile carriers.The suspension came as local credit card member stores refused to follow the re

Kim Tae-chon, former boss of South Korea's noted criminal syndicates in the 1970s and 1980s, died early Saturday at a hospital in Seoul after about a year of treatment for diseases. He was 64.The cause was said to be heart failure, according to officials at Seoul National University Hospital, where Kim had been admitted since December 2011 for treatment of a type of thyroid disease. Kim had been under intensive care since March because of difficulty in breathing.Kim "died early today after being

WASHINGTON -- Apparently, North Korea has something new to show off to Google chairman Eric Schmidt -- a renovated website for its main propaganda apparatus.The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Friday unveiled the new version of its website, http://www.kcna.kp, hosted on servers in Pyongyang.It features a much better design and many sophisticated functions, including link services among text articles, photos and video clips.It provides Korean, English, Chinese, Spanish and Japanese news serv

Running against time, two leading liberal opposition presidential hopefuls agreed on Monday to hold a TV debate as part of their efforts to merge their candidacies in December's election.The TV debate, scheduled for Wednesday, comes only six days before the Nov. 26 deadline set by the national election commission to register their candidacy. The two have earlier agreed to merge their bids before the deadline."The two candidates have moved ahead their merger negotiations by agreeing to hold a TV

PAJU -- A delegation of Unification Church officials who visited North Korea to accept condolences over the death of church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon did not discuss inter-Korean ties with the North during their two-day stay in the communist country, a church-affiliated businessman said Saturday.The delegation, including Moon's seventh and youngest son, Hyung Jin Moon, and Park Sang-kwon, the pr

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Saturday to work closely together to resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff and continue cooperation on a project to build a gas pipeline stretching from Russia across both Koreas, an official said.Lee and Putin reached the agreement during a one-on-one summit held in this Far Eastern Russian

Apple is rising to be the newsmaker in the global tech arena as foreign media reported on Saturday that the company is planning to launch an Internet radio service, competing with Pandora Media.The Cupertino-based firm is also reportedly making moves to offer the fourth-generation communication technology LTE-based iPhones around the world, including Korea.Involving the Apple’s entry in the field

South Korean stocks are expected to move higher next week on growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will roll out additional credit easing measures, analysts said Saturday.The country's key stock index, the KOSPI, gained 0.7 percent this week to close at 1,929.58 on Friday. On Friday alone, the index rallied 2.57 percent as investors cheered the bond-buying program of the European Cent

BERLIN -- Kim Ok, the rumored fourth wife of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, was treated for a cervical disk problem and coxitis at a hospital in Berlin in May, sources here said Saturday.Kim, 48, arrived in the German capital via Beijing and stayed at a hotel while receiving treatment at the Charite hospital, according to multiple South Korean residents here, who asked not to be named.Kim,