“평생 이런 걸 본 적이 없어요.”지난 26일 서울 홍대입구역에서 유승민 바른정당 대선후보의 유세를 본 독일인 여행객은 한국의 대통령 후보 유세가 “신기하다”고 답했다.우리나라 시민들이 보기에는 익숙하기만 한 트럭 위 유세, 춤 공연 등은 상당수 외국인 관광객과 거주민들의 눈에 “특별한 볼거리”로 비춰졌다. 한국으로 여행 온 지 10일째라던 폴 벤하우스(Paul Venhaus, 24)씨는 웃음을 참지 못한 채 연신 스마트폰으로 사진을 찍어댔다. 유세 전후를 장식하는 유세단의 춤을 보고는 “춤과 율동이 후보들의 공약과 무슨 관계가 있는 건지 모르겠다”면서도 “매우 웃긴 광경(Ridiculous)”이라고 했다.   문재인 더불어민주당 대선후보 의정부 유세현장 (코리아헤럴드)이어 “큰 스크린이 달린 트럭들은 TV 프로그램을 광고하러 돌아다니는 줄 알았다”며 “(한국에 비교하면) 독일은 선거 유세가 밋밋하고 재미없다”고 덧붙였다.지난 1일 15,000여명(주최 측 추산)이 몰린 문재인 더불

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump has chosen as his national security adviser a soldier-scholar who fought in both Iraq wars and wrote an influential book that called out the US government for "lies’’ that led to the Vietnam War.　 Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster would remain on active military duty while leading the National Security Council, White House officials said Monday. He joined two retired generals -- Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly -- already

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The National Zoo in Washington is saying a final goodbye to its panda cub Bao Bao. Giant Panda Bao Bao eats bamboos at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington DC, the Unite States on Thursday. (Xinhua-Yonhap)The zoo is packing up the American-born panda for a one-way flight Tuesday to China, where the 3-year-old will eventually join a panda breeding program.　 Bao Bao is scheduled to leave the zoo Tuesday morning and fly from Washington Dulles International Airport in Virg

LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- A Portuguese court has ordered police to extradite a former CIA agent to Italy, where she is due to serve a four-year prison sentence after being convicted of involvement in a US program that kidnapped suspects for interrogation, her lawyer said Tuesday.　 Police took Sabrina de Sousa to a Portuguese jail where she is awaiting extradition, her Portuguese lawyer, Manuel Magalhaes e Silva, told the Associated Press. He said in an email that she was detained Monday and is ex

TRIPOLI, Libya (AFP) -- The bodies of 74 migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe have washed up on a beach west of the Libyan capital, the Red Crescent said Tuesday.Residents of the village of Harcha, outside Zawiya, 45 kilometers from Tripoli, alerted the emergency services after finding a wrecked boat on the beach with bodies inside, the Red Crescent said.More were discovered elsewhere on the beach and still more were feared to be in the sea.Photographs posted by the Z

A South Korean ship with 24 crew members and some 5,000 cars was released Tuesday after being seized by the Libyan military last week, Seoul‘s foreign ministry said.The ministry said that the ship, Morning Compass, which was travelling to reach its final destination of Germany, was captured by the Libyan Navy some 1,400 kilometers east of Misurata in the North African state’s northwest region at 5 p.m. on Saturday. This photo is captured from a Libyan news outlet site by Yonhap News Agency.The s

AALBORG, Denmark (Yonhap) -- The Danish prosecution on Tuesday deferred a decision over whether to repatriate the daughter of South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s close confidante at the center of a high-profile corruption scandal.South Korea’s special probe team, led by Independent Counsel Park Young-soo, has requested Denmark to send Chung Yoo-ra, the 21-year-old daughter of Choi Soon-sil, to Seoul so she could be questioned on a series of alleged wrongdoings related to the president.Chung,

South Korea is reviewing a plan to raise the issue of North Korea’s recent assassination of leader Kim Jong-un’s half brother at an incoming session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. Kim Jong-nam (Yonhap)“Concerning the latest murder, (the government) is reviewing an action to publicize the North Korean regime’s brutality and inhumanity on the occasion of the international community’s human rights discussion,” foreign ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck

PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) -- Jumping ahead of investigators, President-elect Donald Trump is blaming Islamic terrorism for deadly violence in Turkey and Germany and vowing anew to eradicate their regional and global networks.　 Authorities in both countries were still investigating Monday when Trump issued a pair of statements condemning the incidents. The White House had already described the episode in central Berlin, in which a truck rammed into shoppers at a Christmas market, as an apparent te

BERLIN (AFP) -- Berlin's police chief voiced doubt Tuesday that a detained Pakistani man was behind a deadly truck rampage through crowds at a Christmas market, which would mean the perpetrator remains at large."It is indeed uncertain he was the driver," Klaus Kandt told a press conference. "The initial evidence has been limited," he said, while police tweeted that "we remain especially vigilant."

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Saturday instructed the military to step up vigilance against threats or any attempt to instigate national division from North Korea, his office said.The direction comes a day after the parliament impeached President Park Geun-hye for her alleged involvement in a high-profile corruption scandal.Hwang took over as acting president while the Constitutional Court has 180 days to determine whether to endorse the impeachment or not. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn speaks

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- A secret CIA assessment has found that Russia sought to tip last month's US presidential election in Donald Trump's favor, The Washington Post reported Friday, a conclusion that drew an extraordinary rebuke from the president-elect's camp."These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," Trump's transition team said, launching a broadside against the spy agency."The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College vict

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The US Defense Department said Friday that it expects "policy consistency and continuity" on various issues with South Korea in the wake of the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.Pentagon spokesman Commander Gary Ross gave the comment in response to a question from Yonhap News Agency whether the impeachment could have any impact on the planned deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to the South."We look forward to working with Prime Minister Hwang in his new ca

Former Olympic swimming champion Park Tae-hwan closed out his Asian Swimming Championships in Tokyo with a bronze medal in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay event on Sunday. At Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center, Park anchored South Korea to the time of 3 minutes, 18.80 seconds for the bronze medal, sharing it with teammates Yang June-hyeok, Lee Ho-joon and Kim Jae-woo. China won the event with a new championship record of 3:16.37, followed by Japan at 3:17.25. Park, the gold medalist at

PUKHRAYAN, India (AP) -- At least 104 people were killed when 14 coaches of an overnight passenger train rolled off the track in northern India on Sunday, with rescue workers using cutting torches to try to pull out survivors, police said.　 Daljeet Chaudhary, a director general of police, said the death toll was likely to rise because rescue workers had yet to gain access to one of the worst-damaged coaches. About 150 people were injured, he said.　 The train derailed at around 3:10 a.m., jolting

People from all walks of life came to central Seoul to participate in Saturday's protest against Park Geun-hye's presidency, from unionized workers to religious leaders, high-school students and parents with children. Here is what they told The Korea Herald about why they came to protest, and how they felt about the Choi Soon-sil scandal. -- Ed.High school students hold hand signs reading, "Step down, President" and "Searching for the lost seven hours" in Gwanghwamun Square, central Seoul on Sat

In the largest anti-government rally in decades, up to 1 million South Koreans took to the streets in central Seoul on Saturday, demanding President Park Geun-hye’s resignation over a scandal involving her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil. From City Hall through Gwanghwamun Square to Anguk station, protestors packed the boulevards just hundreds of meters from Park’s presidential residence of Cheong Wa Dae, turning the area into a vast sea of candlelight in the evening. Organizers said over 1 mi

Cheong Wa Dae, rival political forces and the police on Friday braced themselves for the massive anti-government rally to be held Saturday in Seoul, which observers say could be a watershed moment for the beleaguered President Park Geun-hye in the Choi Soon-sil fiasco.  Thousands of chartered buses are expected to take residents from other parts of the Korean Peninsula to the rally, which is expected to be the largest candlelight vigil ever to be held in local history.As many as 1 million people

The prosecution appears to be focusing on whether local firms were coerced into funding nonprofit foundations in return for favors, accelerating a probe into the scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her confidante Choi Soon-sil. Out of the 53 local companies that gave a combined 77.4 billion won ($66.5 million) in donations to the Mir Foundation and K-Sports Foundation, Kwon Oh-joon, CEO of the nation’s No. 1 steelmaker Posco, was the first to undergo questioning. Kwon was set to be gri

Negotiations at the UN Security Council over a new sanctions resolution on North Korea are being drawn out with no signs of an imminent breakthrough nearly two months after Pyongyang‘s fifth nuclear test.Analysts said that the delay appears to be in part because of political uncertainties in the United States, which will hold a presidential election this week, and a strategic rivalry between the US and China.Following Pyongyang’s Sept. 9 nuclear test, the most powerful one to date, the US, with