Medical staff move a soldier posing as the sergeant who was captured after a shooting spree on June 22 to an emergency center at a hospital in Gangneung, Gangwon Province. (Yonhap)The Army said Friday it has punished two former top commanders over two major incidents that are both blamed on a deep-rooted culture of abuse and bullying in barracks.It said it cut the wages of a major general for one month, holding him responsible for a shooting rampage near the border with North Korea that killed f

　When 2PM made its debut in 2008 with the single, “10 Points Out of 10 Points,” the idol group captured the hearts of many K-pop fans with the members’ masculine, beast-like image. 　However, back then, the seven-member-turned-six-member boy band was not much more than an idol group that performed songs mainly composed by its agency’s CEO and producer Park Jin-young of JYP Entertainment.　Now after more than seven years in the game, the members’ vast experiences as long-time K-pop singers have led

South Korea asked its people staying in southern Turkey near the border with Syria to leave the area, an official said Friday, the latest in a series of warnings amid a worsening security situation.   The foreign ministry recommended South Koreans who are staying within 10 kilometers of the border with Syria to immediately leave for safe areas, according to the ministry official.   The move comes as the security situation is worsening in border areas due to the U.S-led airstrikes against Islamic

British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Kabul Friday on an unannounced visit, becoming the first world leader to hold talks with newly-inaugurated President Ashraf Ghani, officials said.   Ghani was inaugurated on Monday to lead Afghanistan as most NATO troops leave the country by December after 13 years of fighting the Islamist insurgency that erupted after the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.   Ghani was elected in a fraud-tainted election in June that plunged Afghanistan into months

Lee Kun-hee, the de facto head of Samsung Group who has been hospitalized since May after suffering a heart attack, might be transferred to his house for further medical treatment, group sources said Friday, amid media reports that his condition is improving.    In preparation for home medical treatment, the sources said that Samsung Group is building an elevator inside Lee's house located in central Seoul.    "It is right that we are building an elevator in case of his release from the hospital

Senior U.S. government officials handling Korean affairs are to visit Seoul this weekend for meetings with their counterparts on ways to strengthen the alliance between the two countries and to discuss other pending issues, officials said Thursday.   Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense David Shear said he and Assistant Deputy Secretary of State Daniel Russel will make a joint trip to Seoul to talk about ways to further bolster the traditional alliance between the two countries.   "I look forwa

A man whose body was found in the Philippines in July has been positively identified as South Korean, a South Korean official said Friday.   The official in the South Korean Embassy in the Philippines said the embassy has received confirmation from South Korean police that fingerprints of the body belonged to a South Korean man.   The official identified the victim only by his family name Lee aged 45.   Lee's body was found with a gunshot wound in his neck in Malabon, a northern suburb of Manila

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'