TOKYO -- South Korea fell to Japan 3-1 in the quarterfinals of the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup here Thursday.   At National Stadium in the Japanese capital, midfielders Hanae Shibata grabbed a brace and Yoko Tanaka had another for the victorious host. Jeoun Eun-ha had the lone goal for South Korea.   With Japan holding on to a 2-1 lead, Tanaka scored her team-leading fifth goal of the tournament i

North Korea's state media said Thursday Typhoon Bolaven left three dead and 3,300 homeless and submerged farmlands, as the disaster-prone nation braced for the second major storm in less than a week.   The North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the human casualties caused by Bolaven, which swept the North on Tuesday and Wednesday, without giving the number of those injured or missing,

HWASEONG, Gyeonggi Province -- Four people were missing Monday after an explosion apparently triggered by overheating at a glue factory in a city south of Seoul, police and fire officials said.The explosion occurred just before noon, destroying one building and damaging three others at the factory in Hwaseong, 60 kilometers south of the capital, the officials said.Four workers remained unaccounted

BEIJING -- The leaders of South Korea and Japan on Sunday discussed security cooperation, which has recently gained momentum as the two neighbors seek to sign two military pacts on sharing information and logistical support.President Lee Myung-bak and his Japanese counterpart Yoshihiko Noda held a bilateral meeting as they gathered here for the annual tripartite summit with China.Seoul and Tokyo a

The National Assembly's Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Committee on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling on the Lee Myung-bak government to halt quarantine inspections on U.S. beef following a case of mad cow disease in California.The resolution signed by both ruling and opposition party lawmakers during a committee meeting urged the Lee administration to immediately suspend quarantine

Speculation that the South Korean government is considering a move to halt U.S. beef imports is unfounded since there is no risk to public health, a senior aide to the president said Saturday.Senior press secretary Choe Geum-nak said media reports that the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae is reviewing the possibility of halting imports are not true.The comments came as some media outlets reported

The South Korean and U.S. defense authorities agree that the chances of another North Korean nuclear test are "very high," a senior military official said Friday."The assessment of South Korea and the U.S. is that chances are very high that North Korea will carry out a nuclear experiment," South Korea's deputy minister of defense, Lim Kwan-bin, told reporters after two days of meetings here with h

South Korean stocks are expected to track developments in eurozone countries and global and domestic economic data next week, local analysts said Saturday.The country's key stock index, the KOSPI, closed at 1,975.35 on Friday, a dip of 0.1 percent from a week earlier, mainly due to North Korea's geopolitical risk, and persistent eurozone woes fueled by the downgrading of Spain's long-term credit r

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observed a combined arms exercise to mark the 80th anniversary of the Korean People's Army (KPA), a media report said Saturday.The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) picked up in Seoul said without specifying the date of the exercise that Kim, who has been made the supreme commander of the KPA, "guided" the military maneuver. The anniversary of the North Korean armed

U.S pop star Lady Gaga wowed some 50,000 people in the audience at the Olympic stadium in Seoul with her provocative but creative stage costumes and performances.　Riding on to the the stage on a horseback, clad in a futuristic body suit and metal headpieces designed by Italian fashion power house Giorgio Armani specially for the concert, Lady Gaga made her first official appearance here, saying th

  SHANGHAI -- South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan advanced Monday to the men's 200-meter freestyle final at the world championships, taking aim at his second gold after winning the 400-meter freestyle a day earlier.  Park was timed in 1 minute, 46.23 seconds and finished second in his 200-meter heat race after France's Yannick Agnel with 1:45.62 at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships. Park will c

The French government considers that IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is innocent until proven guilty following his arrest in New York on sexual assault charges, its spokesman Francois Baroin said Sunday."The French government respects two simple principles: that the judicial proceedings are under way under the authority of American justice, according to American law, and the respect for the presu

PARIS (AP) -- The stunning arrest of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn in connection with a sexual assault in New York is throwing the French presidential race into disarray.Some rivals and political observers said it could bury any presidential bid by Strauss-Kahn, considered the strongest potential challenger to unseat the unpopular President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's election.Others urged c

South Korea's Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. started work Sunday on a $219 million project to expand a gas-fired power station near Baghdad, an Iraqi Electricity Ministry spokesman said.The Al-Quds station located in a suburb northeast of the capital will increase production to 1,400 megawatts from 900 megawatts after 18 months, said Qais al-Waeli, spokesman for the ministry's gas projects

Famous singer Seo Tai-ji spoke up about his divorce with actress E Ji-ah for the first time on Saturday, claiming that the two went their separate ways in June 2000.In a press release, Seo said that the two silently signed a marriage registration in October 1997 after Seo left for the U.S., putting a stop to his singing career in Korea a year earlier.The couple initially met through a friend in 19

SYDNEY (AFP) -- Dock workers at Australia's three major ports went on a 24-hour walkout Saturday after talks stalled over a protracted wages and conditions dispute, crippling about one-quarter of the nation's freight.The powerful Maritime Union of Australia called the strike at terminals in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane over after deadlocked contract negotiations with major freight firm Patrick h

TRIPOLI (AFP) -- Moamer Kadhafi said he will not quit power and called for negotiations with the United States and France to end the Libyan conflict, in a speech aired on television early on Saturday.NATO "must abandon all hope of the departure of Moamer Kadhafi. I have no official functions to give up: I will not leave my country and will fight to the death," he said in a speech marking the cente

South Korean stocks are expected to trade in a tight range next week as investors will likely take a breather after the benchmark index's sharp rise, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 2,192.36 on Friday, down 0.25 percent, or 5.46 points, from one week ago.Although the KOSPI finished this week lower, the market staged a rally during the whole

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea will stage live-fire artillery exercises in the coming week on two frontline islands including one hit by a deadly North Korean shelling last November, a news report said Saturday.A defense ministry spokesman told AFP that regular military exercises will be carried out on the two islands but declined to give further details on the timing or whether live-fire drills will b

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday urged North Korea to improve ties with South Korea through inter-Korean dialogue before any resumption of the six-party nuclear talks."And with respect to North Korea, we have made consistently clear what we expect from North Korea in its actions in the future," Clinton told reporters after meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto at t