The top nuclear envoys of South Korea, the US and Japan agreed to closely cooperate in coping with North Korea's latest missile test and jointly brace for additional provocations, the foreign ministry here said Thursday.Kim Hong-kyun, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs at the South Korean foreign ministry, talked to his US and Japanese counterparts -- Joseph Yun and Kenji Kanasugi -- in separate telephone calls, according to the ministry. Kim Hong-kyun (L), So

US President Donald Trump has empathized that all options are on the table in dealing with North Korea and its repeated provocations amid concerns that Pyongyang may push to carry out an additional nuclear test, foreign media reports said Thursday. The remarks came in a telephone conversation earlier in the day with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to the reports which quoted Abe from a nationally televised press conference.(Yonhap)The North fired a ballistic missile from its easter

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- North Korea is 78 percent likely to conduct missile launches in the next 30 days, a US think tank has predicted based on analysis of big data on the communist nation."Beyond Parallel," a North Korea analysis project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, made the prediction together with big data firm Predata after analyzing how often the North is discussed on the Internet in an effort to predict future possibilities, with a higher frequency meaning stronge

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The ballistic missile that North Korea fired Wednesday is believed to be a medium-range Scud ER, a US defense official was quoted as saying."A Scud ER (extended range) flew about 60 kilometers before suffering an in-flight failure and crashing into" the East Sea, the official was quoted as saying by AFP. North Korea test-fires a ballistic missile in this undated file photo. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (KCNA-Yonhap)The US Pacific Command had e

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- Secondary sanctions aimed at cutting off business links to North Korea will be an "early topic" when US President Donald Trump holds summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a senior White House official said Wednesday."I'm not going to go into specifics of our approach on North Korea, but I will say this is going to be an early topic in our conversation during the summit," Matt Pottinger, senior National Security Council director for Asia, told reporters in respons

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that tackling North Korean threats is "my responsibility," calling the communist nation "a big problem" and saying autocratic leader Kim Jong-un "is not doing the right thing."Trump made the remark during a joint news conference with Jordanian King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein at the White House, referring to his upcoming summit meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping set for Thursday and Friday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

South Korean stocks opened lower Thursday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 10.67 points, or 0.49 percent, to 2,150.18 in the first 15 minutes of trading.The decline followed overnight losses on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.20 percent, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index declining 0.58 percent.Most large-cap stocks were mixed across the board.SK Telecom, the No. 1 mobile carrier in the country, gained 0.7

Employees at South Korea's tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. stayed at their jobs for an average 10 years, corporate data showed Thursday, which is an almost two-fold increase from a decade earlier.According to the data compiled by Samsung, the average employment period of its employees was estimated at 10.8 years in 2016, up from just six years tallied in 2005.(Yonhap)Industry watchers said the increase came as employees refrained from switching their jobs as Samsung has emerged as one of lead

Sales of clothes dryers have surged in South Korea, with demand to hit a new high this year amid concerns over air quality, industry sources said Thursday. The domestic sales of the clothes drying machines are anticipated to reach around 500,000-600,000 units in 2016, up by at least fivefold from the previous year, according to industry data.(Yonhap)Its manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., have revised up the sales estimate from 200,000 units, since their fir

South Korean footballer Son Heung-min has set a new single season scoring record for an Asian player in the English Premier League (EPL) Son bagged his ninth league goal in Tottenham Hotspur's 3-1 win over Swansea City at Liberty Stadium in Swansea, Wales, on Wednesday (local time), the highest number ever scored by an Asian player in a single EPL season. Son's South Korean compatriot Ki Sung-yueng was the previous record holder. The Swansea midfielder netted eight goals during the 2014-15 seaso

The Brazilian Air Force has mobilized an aircraft to search for a missing South Korean cargo ship with 22 crew members that apparently sank in the South Atlantic last week, but the operation has yet to make any headway, a government official said Wednesday.On Tuesday, a C-130 aircraft from the Brazilian Air Force was sent to where the ship, the Stellar Daisy, was believed to have sunk, for the third search and rescue operation in a row. Stellar Daisy, a South Korean cargo ship that likely sank i

South Korean stocks ended slightly lower Wednesday as foreign investors and institutions offloaded local stocks. The Korean won fell against the US dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 0.25 points, or 0.01 percent, to 2,160.85.The broad index bucked overnight gains on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.19 percent, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index climbing 0.07 percent.Institutions remained net sellers of local stocks, selling more than 167 billi

Die-hard supporters of former President Park Geun-hye created their own political party on Wednesday, pledging to revive what they call a bona fide conservative movement that would vindicate the ex-leader jailed in a corruption scandal.The preparatory committee for the establishment of the Saenuri Party held an inaugural ceremony at Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul and appointed two representatives of a civic group supporting Park as the co-chiefs.  Supporters of former President Park Geun-hye wave

Yoo Seong-min, the presidential nominee of the Bareun Party said Wednesday if elected he would upgrade the country's deterrence against North Korean threats by introducing more US missile defense systems and pushing for joint operation of US nuclear assets.Laying out his security-related election pledges, the candidate of the splinter conservative party said that "currently, the United States single-handedly makes most decisions regarding its nuclear assets."Yoo Seong-min, a lawmaker and preside

The number of South Korean venture firms run by women has increased gradually in recent years, industry data showed Wednesday, although such firms are still small compared to those managed by men.As many as 2,923 venture startups were headed by women CEOs last year, according to figures tallied by the Small and Medium Business Administration and the Korea Technology Finance Corporation. The number represents 8.7 percent of the total 33,547 venture firms.   (Yonhap)The figures have risen steadily

Hancom Inc., a South Korean software maker, said Wednesday that it has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) powered mobile messenger application that translates conversations in a foreign language.The app, available both on the Android and iOS operating systems, instantly translates texts between Korean and English, the company said. The service will be available in Chinese and Japanese sometime soon. (Yonhap)The homegrown software firm said it has applied a Neural Machine Translation (NMT)

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential nominee of the centrist People's Party, marked the start of his campaign Wednesday by meeting with citizens on an early morning subway.Ahn, who has recently emerged as a formidable challenge to liberal front-runner Moon Jae-in in the May 9 poll, won the nomination of his party a day earlier.Ahn Cheol-soo (L), the presidential nominee of the centrist People's Party, takes a selfie with a passenger on the subway in Seoul on April 5, 2017. (Yonhap)Riding the subway f

South Korea's human rights watchdog on Wednesday called for a change in the public's perception that blames low birthrate on individual problems rather than societal structure. In a report presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea also said the nation should first address problems such as women's career interruption, shortage of public childcare centers and low rates of paternity leave.The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (Yonhap

Korean animal rights activists called on Norway to stop its whale hunt in a rally in Seoul timed with the start of its annual whaling season. Members of the coalition comprising the Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth, the Korean Animal Welfare Association and the Hotpink Dolphins staged the protest in front of the Norwegian Embassy in Seoul. A minke whale after it has been caught (Yonhap)The rally came after the North European country's six-month whaling season began on Saturday with a quota

South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Hong Joon-pyo, the presidential nominee of the conservative Liberty Korea Party, has faced mounting criticism over his move to preclude a by-election to pick his successor, observers said Wednesday.Calls have been growing for Hong to resign quickly to pave the way for a by-election to be held in tandem with the presidential vote on May 9. But he has vowed to have his successor selected through the regular gubernatorial elections in June 2018, saying a by-election w