By cities, the area of urban living forest per capita stood at only 4.35 square meters for Seoul, 5.29 square meters for Gyeonggi Province and 5.95 square meters for Incheon. This is far lower than London’s 27 square meters, New York’s 23 square meters and Paris’ 13 square meters.“With the rising interest in well-being and healthy leisure, the nationwide demand for sustainable green services has been on the increase,” a KFS official said.According to the KFS data, about 85.8 percent of Korean ci

Despite tension abating on the Korean peninsula after breakthrough talks earlier in the week, Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday it would cautiously deal with North Korea over recent agreements on bilateral cooperation, citing Pyongyang’s volatility.Presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook told reporters that the negotiation between the two Koreas is not over, but has just begun, noting that there is a wide consensus among the officials that Seoul should first watch to see whether Pyongyang keeps its end

 President Park Geun-hye urged Saenuri Party lawmakers to take the lead in forwarding her labor reform initiative at a luncheon for ruling party lawmakers Wednesday, calling the task a shared duty for future generations.During the gathering at Cheong Wa Dae, Park thanked the lawmakers for passing a reform bill on the civil service pension system in May, but asked them to push ahead with another set of reform bills during the upcoming regular session that kicks off on Tuesday.  President Park Geu

 South Korean President Park Geun-hye is at a crossroads, with frustration mounting over the prospects of inter-Korean ties and the heightened security tension over North Korea’s mine attack. As she passes the midway point of her single, five-year term Tuesday, the result of marathon negotiations by senior officials from the two Koreas could serve as a watershed moment for her presidency.At her term’s halfway mark, Park also remains stranded on the diplomatic front, as her efforts at achieving d

A former presidential secretary reportedly claimed Wednesday that it was President Park Geun-hye’s former top aide who ordered him to conduct an internal investigation of a rumor, which later grew into the infamous “Cheong Wa Dae document leak scandal.”Cho Eung-cheon, a former Blue House secretary for civil discipline, said that the leaked documents were written after former Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon gave a direct order to probe the rumors that Park was about to “sack him” in local vernacular

A presidential panel for Korean unification Tuesday denied a recent report that President Park Geun-hye had suggested a possible unification of the two Koreas next year by indicating a sign of sudden changes in North Korea."The president that day was requesting the panel to be better prepared for the unification because no one can predict when it could actually happen,” said the presidential committee for unification preparation in a statement. “She was neither commenting nor suggesting a sign o

President Park Geun-hye on Monday ordered the military to maintain strong readiness against North Korea’s constant threats, asserting that its land mine attack earlier this month was a “clear military provocation” intended to kill South Korean soldiers.Park made the comments at a Cabinet meeting in an underground bunker to mark the launch of the Ulchi exercise, a four-day pan-national drill against contingencies. A joint military Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise with the U.S. was also launched fo

President Park Geun-hye is facing a dilemma over her address planned for the Aug. 15 Liberation Day holiday as she struggles to set the tone of her message toward North Korea after an unprecedented land mine attack in the demilitarized zone, which has further strained inter-Korean ties.The president is to deliver her annual speech to mark the nation’s liberation from Japanese rule Saturday, urging the people to join her efforts to overhaul four major sectors and bring cultural prosperity.  She i

The government has decided to designate Aug. 14 an extra public holiday and offer free access to state-run museums and palaces on the weekend when South Korea celebrates’ the 70th anniversary of the nation’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule. President Park Geun-hye speaks at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. (Yonhap)The decision was made during a Cabinet meeting presided over by President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday, as part of efforts to boost the public’s sense of national pride and also

The South Korean government is considering making Aug. 14 an extra public holiday to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the nation's liberation from Japan‘s 1910-45 colonial rule, according to reports quoting multiple officials.The plan on issuing an order to close all public offices and agencies, will be discussed during a weekly Cabinet meeting Tuesday and would be finalized a week after. Private companies will be given the choice to follow suit.President Park Geun-hye is expected to express

A ruling party lawmaker Sunday denied an allegation that he sexually assaulted a 40-year-old woman in Daegu, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, last month.In a telephone interview with Yonhap News Agency, the lawmaker repudiated the claim, saying that he was cleared of the charges and he didn‘t harm the woman.  The woman, whose name was withheld, claimed the Saenuri lawmaker took her clothes off against her will and sexually assaulted her at a hotel. The case was reported to the police by t

The ruling Saenuri Party chairman vowed on Thursday to push for sweeping labor reforms in South Korea to help young job seekers find quality work, while the opposition leader followed with his own labor policy pitch.In a speech delivered at Columbia University in New York, Saenuri Rep. Kim Moo-sung said many young Koreans are frustrated because there are not enough jobs in the market, and his party has been working to loosen the nation’s rigid labor market. Saenuri Party chairman Kim Moo-sung sp

Scud missiles fired into Saudi Arabia by Yemeni rebels in recent months came from North Korea, a South Korean intelligence official said Wednesday, in the latest case that illustrated North Korea's support for the weapons programs of some countries in the Middle East.Saudi Arabia has shot down about 40 percent of some 20 Scud missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels, said the official, who is familiar with the issue.He did not give further details on how South Korea reached the conclusion that th

South Korea will complete a major upgrade on the home-grown dual-barrel K-11 rifle by the end of 2016, the head of the state defense development agency said Wednesday, after the use of the Army assault rifle was suspended last year due to a glitch in the shooting control system."(We) are pushing to improve the K-11 dual-barrel rifle by a large scale before the end of next year in order to turn what has become an ugly duckling into a swan in the shortest time possible,"Jung Hong-yong, president o

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- An Afghan official said Wednesday his government is examining claims that reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar is dead. The Taliban could not be immediately reached on the government's comments about Omar, who has been declared dead many times before. Omar, the one-eyed, secretive head of the Taliban and an al-Qaida ally, led a bloody insurgency against U.S.-led forces after they toppled him from his rule in Afghanistan in 2001. Zafar Hashemi, a deputy spokesman for Af

Korea’s top spy agency chief Monday categorically denied allegations the agency used a hacking program to wiretap citizens during the first session of a bipartisan parliamentary committee that aims to probe any wrongdoings by the NIS. 　Lee testified before the National Assembly Intelligence Committee’s closed-door session, saying that the NIS had found no evidence of civilian surveillance following an internal investigation into computer files believed to hold evidence.   　“(The NIS) has never s

The main opposition party reignited a heated political debate Monday by suggesting as part of its electoral reform plan to raise the number of lawmakers from the general elections next year. The proposal prompted different reactions and interpretations from main and minor parties, cautiously tiptoeing around a potential rise in the number of parliamentary seats and the negative public opinion over lawmakers’ prerogatives.Kim Sang-kon, head of the reform committee of the New Politics Alliance for

The main opposition party on Wednesday appointed software mogul-turned-politician and former presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo to lead its own investigation into alleged wiretapping of citizens by the nation’s spy agency.Ahn, founder of antivirus software company AhnLab, accepted a request by New Politics Alliance for Democracy chairman Moon Jae-in to form an interparty committee to probe the fresh allegation against the National Intelligence Service, the party said. The committee will consis

President Park Geun-hye on Monday indicated she would grant special pardons next month to mark the 70th anniversary of Korea’s independence from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule."The people are struggling with their lives now, and I believe that special pardons are needed to be carried out to mark the 70th anniversary of Liberation Day as well as to achieve the national growth and forge national reconciliation,” she said at a meeting with her senior secretaries. President Park Geun-hye (Yonhap)The

President Park Geun-hye’s new top political aide faces the daunting challenges of restoring the frozen relationship between her and her party and putting her reform drive back on track by normalizing communication with the parliament.Hyun Ki-hwan, a former Saenuri lawmaker and one of the Park’s faithful retainers, was named as the new senior presidential secretary for political affairs Friday. Though his parliamentary career has been relatively short, Park appointing the one-term lawmaker as her