The third son of Moon Sun-myung, the founder and leader of the controversial Unification Church, has filed a lawsuit against his mother to get back his company’s money allegedly sent to her missionary group without his consent, court officials said Monday.Moon Hyun-jin, 42, chairman of the Unification Church International, the parent company of Washington Times Aviation Inc., demanded 23.8 billion

In this file photo, an armed Somali pirate along the coastline while the Greek cargo ship, MV Filitsa, is seen anchored just off the shores of Hobyo, northeastern Somalia, where its being held by pirates. (AFP-Yonhap News)  A Singapore-registered chemical tanker with crew that include four South Koreans has been hijacked by Somali pirates, foreign ministry officials here said Sunday.   The MT Gemi

LISBON (Yonhap News) -- Park Geun-hye, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s special envoy, arrived in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, Sunday on her second leg of a nine-day European tour after wrapping up a three-day visit to the Netherlands.In the Netherlands, Park, a former head of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), met with Queen Beatrix and ranking government officials for discussions o

The worst yellow dust storm this year covered the Korean Peninsula on Sunday as winds blew a thick layer of the dust from deserts in northeastern China.The weather agency issued a yellow dust watch for five northwestern islands, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan, Ulsan, Gwangju, and Chuncheong, Gyeongsang and Jeolla provinces. It posted yellow dust advisories for the afternoon in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Gangwon p

A third of South Korea’s fathers feel they don’t talk enough with their children, with the lack of dialogue experienced most among single-parent and poorer families, a survey showed Saturday.More than 34 percent of fathers said they don’t spend enough time talking to their children, while 19.8 percent of mothers felt the same way, according to the survey by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Fami

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il wants to hold a summit meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak at any time, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said in Seoul Thursday.“Although we did not meet with the leader of North Korea, when we had already departed from our guest home, we were asked to come back to receive a personal message,” Carter said in a press conference. He added Kim “specific

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― North Korea has made progress in building a light water reactor in its nuclear complex, a U.S. think tank said Wednesday, amid concerns that that might serve as another way of making nuclear weapons for the reclusive communist state.Citing commercial satellite imagery taken March 8, the Institute for Science and International Security said on its website that North Korea

Diverse issues put on hold due to the by-elections, which are expected to shake up the nation’s political circles.The government plans to submit the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement to the National Assembly for ratification in early May after finishing translation checks, according to local news reports.The trade pact will likely cause a clash between the rival parties, which are already fiercely d

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The Obama administration Tuesday urged Congress to quickly approve a free trade deal with South Korea despite demands that the deal be deliberated along with similar pacts with Panama and Colombia.“We believe that Congress needs to move on these because they are job creators here in America,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.U.S. President Barack Obama has

The following article was contributed by Han Dong-man, deputy director general of international economic affairs bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He recently attended international meetings on clean energy in Abu Dhabi and Paris. -- Ed. Han Dong-manWith the impending exhaustion of fossil fuels and the threat posed by climate change, mankind is faced with an urgent call for a pa

South Korea’s judiciary systems, including the electronic litigation process and legal training programs, have been growing in popularity in other Asian countries, the top court here said Monday.According to the Supreme Court, a group of seven high-profile Vietnamese judicial figures, including the vice president of the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam, arrived in Seoul on Sunday to visit South K

Luxembourg’s foreign minister visited Korea last week with a message for Assembly members over the failed passage of Korea’s trade pact with the European Union.“This is very serious, it is not pressure, but, if we cannot manage the entry into force on the July 1, then we have to change the date (into force) in the council and therefore, my suggestion is to do everything that can be done by the gov

(Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (left) watches a North Korean soldier looking through the window as she pays a visit to the conference room of the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission at Panmunjeom Sunday. Yonhap News)Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Sunday mourned hundreds of her country’s soldiers who fell during the 1950-1953 Korean War and visited the truce v

 Police and election authorities are investigating allegations about an illegal campaign for Ohm Ki-young, the ruling party candidate for Gangwon governor.The provincial election authorities said Friday that they received a report about 29 people making telephone calls in a pension in Gangneung to entreat voters to cast ballots for Ohm. According to various opinion polls, Ohm is currently leading

A South Korean container vessel which escaped an apparent hijack by pirates off Somalia on Thursday is back to normal sailing, owners Hanjin Shipping Co. said Friday.“The Hanjin Tianjin began to sail Thursday night, escorted by the South Korean destroyer Choi Young, right after its crew had been rescued,” a Hanjin Shipping official said. “It is speeding up to reach its next port in Singapore becau

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is likely to fly directly to Seoul after visiting North Korea, sources said Thursday, a trip that could include a meeting with President Lee Myung-bak.Carter will be traveling to Pyongyang next week for discussions expected to focus on North Korea’s denuclearization, a peace treaty and humanitarian food aid to the impoverished communist nation. He will be accompa

Ex-IAEA deputy director concerned by danger of possible radiation leak at YongbyonThe light water reactors being built in Yongbyon, North Korea, will not be a danger as long as IAEA safeguard measures are properly in place, a nuclear expert said. The remarks came from Olli Heinonen, former deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency until last year, in an e-mail interview wit

A long convoy of lorries believed to be carrying gifts for North Korea’s elite was seen entering the communist state on the eve of a major holiday, according to a South Korean Internet newspaper.The Daily NK, staffed by anti-Pyongyang activists, said Tuesday it had received video footage of more than 200 trucks crossing the Yalu River nose-to-tail from China on April 14.The North celebrates the an

North Korea detained three Japanese men on apparent drug smuggling charges in its special economic zone last month, but it later released one man, a news report said Wednesday.The three Japanese employees of a machine maintenance firm in Tokyo visited the city of Rason, near North Korea’s border with Russia, in March to check machines at a food manufacturing factory, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspape

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― U.S. President Barack Obama has reinforced trade restrictions against North Korea to buttress a United Nations arms embargo on the North for its nuclear and missile tests, the White House said Monday.Obama has extended trade restrictions against North Korea every year since 2009 under Executive Order 13466 issued by former President George W. Bush upon his termination of