Presidential front-runner Moon Jae-in maintained his lead in approval ratings this week despite the continued rise of a longtime rival, a poll showed Thursday.Moon, former leader of the liberal Democratic Party, garnered 44.8 percent from Monday to Wednesday, up 2.6 percentage points from last week, Realmeter said. The main contenders in South Korea's presidential election (from L to R): Sim Sang-jeung, Ahn Cheol-soo, Hong Joon-pyo and Moon Jae-in. (Yonhap)Ahn, co-founder and former leader of th

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has watched a contest aimed at showing the special military forces' capacity to drop from planes and strike targets, Pyongyang's state media said Thursday, amid tensions over the North's nuclear and missile programs.The North's leader guided the contest of the Korean People's Army special operation forces, during which combatants dropped from light transport planes, according to the Korean Central News Agency.These photos released by North Korea's Rodong Sinmun on

Collegians who are depressed or stressed out try to find solace in drinking, which exacerbates their mental conditions and perpetuates a cycle of deterioration, a study said Thursday, indicating a different perspective is needed to solve campus drinking problems.The latest health and social welfare review from the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs said a survey of 503 university students indicated the degree of depression raised a person's desire to find a way to deal with it. When s

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to help the US with the problem of North Korea."President Xi wants to do the right thing. We had a very good bonding. I think we had a very good chemistry together. I think he wants to help us with North Korea," Trump said during a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, referring to his first meeting with Xi last week. US President Donald Trump welcomes Chinese President Xi

South Korea will create an 8 trillion won ($7 billion) fund over the next five years to help restructure small and medium-sized enterprises, the nation's financial regulator said Thursday, in the latest move to weed out weaker manufacturers.State-run financial institutions, including the National Pension Service, will pour 4 trillion won into the fund and the remaining 4 trillion won will be raised by the private sector, officials at the Financial Supervisory Service said.(Yonhap)The move is aim

WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group heading to the Korean Peninsula has "no particular objective in its current course."Tillerson made the remark during a joint news conference in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in response to a question whether the US dispatch of the massive strike group signifies plans for military intervention in North Korea. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (Yonhap)"The Carl

Troubled Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. is surely to have logged a profit in the first quarter of the year, and will also report good business results during the remainder of the year, its chief said Thursday, urging bondholders to approve a debt rescheduling scheme for the world's largest shipyard by order backlog.Jung Sung-leep, president of Daewoo Shipbuilding, also said the shipbuilder's liquidity crisis would not happen again if the latest debt rescheduling is implemented as p

A former two-term lawmaker close to ousted former President Park Geun-hye was elected to the National Assembly in Wednesday's by-elections that also determined the new heads of three municipalities.Kim Jae-won of the Liberty Korea Party won the only parliamentary seat up for grabs in the by-elections after getting some 48 percent of the votes cast in the electoral district covering the North Gyeongsang Province city of Sangju and three nearby towns.(Yonhap)Kim, 52, served two terms as a lawmaker

WASHINGTON -- Last week's US missile strikes on Syria show President Donald Trump will also be different from his predecessors in dealing with North Korea, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday.Spicer made the remark during a discussion at the Newseum in Washington after MSNBC's Greta Van Susteren asked how different Trump's handling of North Korean threats will be compared with his predecessors, who failed to keep the regime from moving forward with its nuclear programs.(Yonhap

A painting by Korean abstract artist Kim Whan-ki has been sold for 6.55 billion won ($5.74 million) on Wednesday, making it the most expensive South Korean artwork ever sold.At an auction held in Seoul, Kim's "Tranquility 5-IV-73 #310" with his signature style of blue dots and a white-edged square broke the previous record of 6.32 billion won set by the very same artist during an auction held in Hong Kong last November with a painting named "12-V-70 #172." The auction for the 205-by-261-centimet

Hundreds of white hackers and cybersecurity experts from both home and abroad gathered in South Korea to reinforce and show off their skills against hacking attacks.The Codegate 2017 International Hacking Competition and Global IT and Security Conference opened in Seoul for a three-day run. The annual event, the 10th of its kind, is hosted by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.Audrey Tang, Taiwan's new digital minster, speaks during the Codegate 2017 International Hacking Competiti

Major presidential contenders on Wednesday put forward their differing proposals for constitutional revision aiming to address the current concentration of power in a single national leader, long blamed for corruption and political polarization.A special parliamentary panel on the revision invited leading presidential candidates, including Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic Party and Ahn Cheol-soo of the center-left People's Party, to listen to their views on altering the basic law last amend

Researchers said Wednesday they have found that lactic acid bacteria in kimchi, a traditional Korean fermented vegetable dish, is potentially effective in treating atopic dermatitis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease. The team, led by Choi Hak-jong, a senior researcher at the government-funded World Institute of Kimchi, said it has confirmed that the bacteria, known as "Weissella cibaria WIKIM28," helped improve a case of atopic dermatitis in an experiment with a mouse. Lactic acid bacteria fr

최경희 전 총장 "우수학생 유치하려 했을 뿐…최순실도 몰랐다"정유라 학사비리 사건 정식 재판 시작 (사진=연합뉴스)'비선실세' 최순실씨가 딸 정유라씨의 이화여대 학사 비리 혐의로 재판에 넘겨진 최경희 전 총장 등에게 사과의 뜻을 밝혔다.다만 최씨는 학사 비리에 딸 정씨의 책임은 전혀 없다며 다 자신의 잘못이라고 주장했다. 최씨는 12일 서울중앙지법 형사합의29부(김수정 부장판사) 심리로 열린  학사비 리 사건 첫 정식 재판에서 이 같은 입장을 밝혔다. 최씨는 최 전 총장, 남궁곤 전 입학처장 등과 함께 재판을 받는다.최씨는 "이런 일로 이화여대 관계자들이 이런 일을 겪게 해드려 죄송하다"며 "여기있는 이대 관계자들께 정말 사과드린다"고 말했다.또 "명문대를 이렇게 만든 것에 대해 진심으로 죄송하다"고도 울먹였다. 최씨는 그러나 자신이 김 종 전 문화체육관광부 차관을 통해 정씨를 이대에  입 학하게 했다는 건 사실이 아니라고 주장했다.최씨는 "이대가 승마 특기생을 몇년 만에 뽑는다기에

Hong Joon-pyo, the presidential candidate of the Liberty Korea Party, struggled Wednesday to rally conservative voters, disparaging his liberal rivals as weak on security and vowing to arm South Korea with US tactical nuclear weapons.His moves came as security is emerging as a key issue for the May 9 election with North Korea seen preparing for another nuclear test and the United States sending an aircraft carrier strike group to the peninsula in an apparent show of force against the wayward reg

Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, the candidate for the People’s Party, is to resign from his current seat as a lawmaker upon officially registering himself for the May 9 presidential election Saturday, his aides confirmed Wednesday. “It is the posture of a responsible politician to give up one’s parliamentary seat when registering as a presidential candidate,” Ahn said earlier in the day in an interview with local daily Hankook Ilbo.Centrist presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo (Yonhap)His camp officials lat

The government unveiled a string of measures Wednesday to help the ailing local tourism industry overcome the sharp decline in Chinese visitors in the face of a diplomatic standoff between South Korea and China over a US anti-missile system.The local tourism industry is battered by Beijing's apparent retaliation against South Korea for the planned deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense on its soil.Since March 15, China has banned travel agencies there from selling travel packages

The Korea Development Bank (KDB) and Export-Import Bank of Korea (EXIM Bank) -- the two main creditors of troubled Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. -- on Wednesday rejected calls from a key bondholder to allow a three-month extension for the repayment of bonds that mature this month, and allow it to conduct due diligence on the world's largest shipyard by order backlog.Earlier, the state-run National Pension Services (NPS) demanded that under its proposal, the NPS and other corporate

Korea Aerospace Industries Co. has secured contracts worth a combined 280 billion won ($245 million) to supply parts to Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer S.A. by 2033, the company said Wednesday. In a regulatory filing with the Financial Supervisory Service, the country's sole aircraft manufacturer said it will provide wing parts for three types of Embraer airplanes by the end of 2033.(Yonhap)The three planes are the Embraer KC-390 military transport aircraft and the E190-E2 and E185-E2 pa

A South Korean drama series will be shown on a major television network in Cameroon starting this month, a local production company specializing in Africa said Wednesday. (Yonhap)Frame in Africa said it has recently inked a contract with LTM to air KBS 2TV's "Bridal Mask" for two years on the Cameroonian terrestrial broadcaster in the prime time slot at 8-9 p.m.This would become the first Korean drama to be shown in Africa through a commercial deal, according to Frame.The show, which was broadca