Joo Won (SIM Entertainment)South Korean actor Joo Won will host a charity fan meeting on Saturday to raise money for a teenage patient with cerebral palsy, as well as for multicultural families, his agency SIM Entertainment announced Friday. The financial donations made at the event will help 17-year-old cerebral palsy patient Kim Young-soo receive some needed dental treatment, according to the star's agency. The funds raised will also go to support multicultural families in Korea in need of med

South Korea could include its move to lower the transactions tax rate in its stock market stimulus measures expected to be unveiled this month, government and industry sources said Friday.   Earlier, Shin Je-yoon, head of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), confirmed that he is to announce stock market stimulus measures "within October," calling for cooperation from the National Assembly to pass related bills going forward.    The FSC has already drawn up its draft measures, which are not u

South Korea's Yang Hak-seon takes home the silver medal in the men's vault at the Asian Games on Thursday. (Yonhap)The hyped-up inter-Korean gymnastics duel in the men's vault fizzled at the Asian Games on Thursday, with neither of the two main attractions able to take the top position on the podium.   Yang Hak-seon of South Korea took the silver medal, while his North Korean rival Ri Se-gwang, after a botched landing in his first attempt, settled for fourth place.   Ri had won the Asiad gold in

North Korea replaced the vice chairman of its powerful National Defense Commission in this year's second session of the rubber-stamp parliament on Thursday, the country's media said.   Hwang Pyong-so, the top political officer of the Korean People's Army, was elected as vice chairman of the all-powerful defense commission, replacing Choe Ryong-hae who had taken the position in the past parliamentary session in April, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English report, monito

North Korea's Kim Un-hyang wins gold in the women's balance beam at the Asian Games on Thursday. (Yonhap)   The 23-year-old scored 14.700 points, edging out Vietnam's Thi Ha Thanh Phan, who took silver with 14.433 points, and Shang Chunsong of China, who claimed bronze with 14.300 points. Kim gave the communist country its second gymnastics gold medal.   This was North Korea's first time competing in an Asian Games gymnastics event since 2006, as one of its gymnasts was caught having overreporte

South Korean gymnast Yang Hak-seon wins silver medal in the men's vault at the Asian Games on Thursday. (Yonhap)South Korean gymnast Yang Hak-seon won the silver medal in the men's vault at the Asian Games on Thursday, failing to defend his title at the Asian competition.   Yang scored 15.200 points, only marginally lower than the 15.216 points earned by the gold medalist, Shek Wai Hung of Hong Kong. China's Huang Xi took the bronze with 14.800 points.   Yang stuck to techniques that were more f

An American man recently sentenced by North Korea to six years of hard labor says he is digging in fields eight hours a day and being kept in isolation, but that so far his health isn't deteriorating.   Under close guard and with only enough time to respond to one question, 24-year-old Matthew Miller spoke briefly to an Associated Press Television News journalist at a Pyongyang hotel, where he had been brought to make a phone call to his family. It was his first appearance since he was convicted

South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan wins silver medal in the men's 100-meter freestyle at the Asian Games on Thursday. (Yonhap)South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan picked up the silver medal in the men's 100-meter freestyle at the Asian Games on Thursday.   Park touched in 48.75 seconds to rank behind Ning Zetao of China. Shinri Shioura of Japan took the bronze.   Ning set an Asian record with 47.70 seconds to win his third gold medal in Incheon. Shioura finished in 48.85.   Park earlier won bronze

South Korea's female fencing squad comes second to team China at the Asian Games on Thursday. (Yonhap)South Korea's female fencing squad captured silver in the epee team event at the Asian Games Thursday, but the the men's foil team ended up winning bronze.   The team of Choi In-jeong, Kim Myoung-sun, Choi Eun-sook and Shin A-lam was beaten by China's Xu Anqi, Sun Yujie and Sun Yiwen 43-19 in the gold-medal decider on the women's epee team at Goyang Gymnasium, north of the host city.   South Kor

Hyundai Group is expected to be able to streamline its cyclical ownership structure with the sale of its logistics unit to be completed next week, raising market confidence in the cash-strapped conglomerate, corporate sources said Thursday.    Insiders said the money generated by the sale of Hyundai Logistics to Japanese private equity fund Orix Corp. will be used by Hyundai chairwoman Hyun Chung-eun and her family to purchase a100 percent stake in Hyundai Global, the holding company for the ent

North Korean weightlifter Kim Un-ju sets a world record in the women's 75-kilogram event at the Asian Games on Thursday. (Yonhap)North Korean weightlifter Kim Un-ju set a world record en route to winning the gold medal in the women's 75-kilogram event at the Asian Games on Thursday.    Kim lifted 128㎏ in the snatch and then hoisted a world record of 164㎏ in the clean and jerk for a total of 292㎏ which was a new Asian Games record.   Kim beat by 1 kg the previous clean and jerk record owned by Na

   At least 285,000 people have fled their homes because of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning that intensified battles could lead to a "massive exodus".   Local Ukrainian authorities have so far registered some 117,000 people flooding out of the east to other regions of the country, the UN refugee agency said.   Vincent Cochetel, head of the UNHCR's European Bureau, told reporters in Geneva that the number "is in our view a low estimate," since most men fl

A man dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire Tuesday on foreign troops at a military base, causing casualties, an Afghan military spokesman said.   NATO said it was investigating an "incident'' involving both Afghan and international troops at Camp Qargha, a base west of the capital, Kabul, which trains officers for the country's army.    Gen. Mohammmad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Defense Ministry, wrote on Twitter that "a terrorist using (the) uniform of (the) Afghan Army'

Hyundai Motor Group's global chairman left for the United States Tuesday to assess overall market conditions and review corporate strategies to help the carmaker capitalize on opportunities and deal with challenges in the coming months.   The trip by Chung Mong-koo comes 15 months after his last visit to the world's second-largest new vehicle market, and is his third overseas tour of 2014.   Earlier in the year, he inspected operations of Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. in Europe and Chin

South Korea's high-end hotel chain Lotte Hotel canceled its plan to host a Japanese annual event marking the establishment of the Japanese self-defense forces on Thursday, citing unfavorable public sentiment here.   The Embassy of Japan in Korea had planned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the modern Japanese military at Lotte Hotel in central Seoul on Friday.    "In consideration of the public sentiment, (we) canceled the Japanese embassy's special event scheduled for

President Barack Obama, faced with a potentially awkward scene at the Texas-Mexico border, sought to recast the political debate over a flood of young migrants as a question of Republican willingness to tackle the problem, and not his decision to skip a chance to view the crisis first-hand.   Obama turned to one of his chief critics, Texas' Republican Gov. Rick Perry, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2016, to try to make his point.   Following a meeting with Perry in Dallas Wedne

The North East Asia Trade Tower (NEAT) in Incheon has taken the title of South Korea's tallest building, the firms behind the project said Thursday.   The tower in Songdo, a city within South Korea's second-largest sea port city, is 68 stories tall and stands 305 meters tall. The new building, which took eight years to build and cost 516.3 billion won (US$509.3 million), joins the ranks of a growing number of landmark skyscrapers in the country.   The 80-story, 301-meter-tall Busan Haeundae Doos

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that Washington and Beijing agreed on "important urgency" of swiftly curbing North Korea's nuclear weapons program, adding that they discussed "specific ways" to advance the goal of denuclearizing North Korea.   "The United States and China agreed on an important urgency of achieving a denuclearized, stable and prosperous Korean Peninsula, and we discussed specific ways in which we think can advance that goal," Kerry told reporters as the two nati

Thousands of South Korean farmers rallied in Seoul on Thursday, protesting Chinese demands for more access to the local agricultural market as part of a planned free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea.   About 5,000 farmers who grow chili peppers, onions, and garlic gathered in Seoul's financial district of Yeouido, protesting China's reported move to ask for greater access for its agricultural products at the next round of negotiations for a bilateral FTA.   The 12th round of FTA talks betw

A hugely controversial Russian law banning curse words in films, theatre, the media and arts came into force on Tuesday, part of a Kremlin-backed drive to play up traditional values and root out swearing.   The legislation, wich was signed off by President Vladimir Putin in May, imposes hefty fines on offenders -- up to 2,500 rubles ($72) for individuals and up to 50,000 rubles ($1,460) for businesses.    Movies featuring obscenities will not be issued a distribution licence, while traders will