President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday called for closer cooperation with Japan in countering North Korea's provocations and bringing about its denuclearization, saying the communist state's evolving nuclear and missile programs pose a "serious" threat to both countries. South Korean President Park Geun-hye shakes hands with her Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe ahead of a bilateral summit in the Laotian capital of Vientiane on Wednesday. (Yonhap)During a bilateral summit with Park, Japanese Prime M

President Park Geun-hye arrived in Laos on Tuesday to attend a series of summits with the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), where she is expected to call for stronger international unity against North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.Her four-day visit to the Laotian capital of Vientiane comes amid Pyongyang's continued provocations, including Monday's launch of three mid-range ballistic missiles. It is the third and last leg of her three-nation trip that also to

President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday will hold a summit with her US counterpart Barack Obama in Vientiane to discuss an array of issues, including North Korea's continued provocations, her office Cheong Wa Dae said.The summit will be held in the afternoon -- hours after Park arrives in the Laotian capital to attend a series of summits with the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Cheong Wa Dae said. Their talks were arranged amid Pyongyang's continued provocations, incl

A 24-year-old alleged rapist who also attempted a kidnapping was summoned to Uijeongbu District Court, Monday, for an investigation to determine the validity of his warrant.The accused, surnamed Choi, was caught Sunday in a car chase after attempting to abduct the teenage victim.In the police interrogation that followed, he reportedly admitted to committing rape “due to a failure to suppress libido.”(Yonhap)As for the attempted abduction after the rape, he claimed he “wanted to take the victim t

A 5-year-old autistic boy was found dead in a lake in Seoul Olympic Park one day after disappearing from a children’s play cafe in the park on Saturday. Internet users have lashed out at the lack of security cameras in the park. According to the Seoul Songpa Police Sunday, the boy was reported missing around 2:20 p.m. on Saturday by his mother who had accompanied him to the kids’ cafe. The mother realized the boy was missing 30 minutes after she last saw him. The last record of him, recorded on

Three men and one woman were found dead in Ansan city, Gyeonggi Province on Monday in an apparent group suicide by nitrogen gas inhalation. 　They were found at around 8:20 a.m. in an office on the second floor of a multipurpose building in Danwon-gu, Ansan.　Their faces were covered with plastic bags with a hose attached to two nitrogen gas containers.  (Yonhap)　The four were not linked by their age, occupation or residence. 　Their ages varied from 26 to 44, and each were from Jecheon, Seongnam,

President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday reconfirmed their differences over the planned deployment of a US anti-missile system to South Korea, but agreed to strengthen their "strategic communication," Park's office Cheong Wa Dae said.During the summit on the sidelines of an economic forum in China's eastern city of Hangzhou, Park repeated that the need for a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system on the Korean Peninsula will disappear if North Korea's nuclear

President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held a summit in Hangzhou, China, on Monday amid strains in their relations over the planned deployment of a US antimissile system in South Korea.The bilateral talks, the eighth between Park and Xi, were held on the sidelines of the summit of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies in China's eastern lakeside city.The issue related to the stationing of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system on the Korean Peninsula has

The Seoul High Court on Wednesday convicted an 80-year-old man with a six-year prison term for the attempted rape of a 92-year-old woman.　The man was indicted in March for breaking into the house of his neighbor and trying to rape her. He was given six years in the first trial, but later appealed for a lighter term. The High Court dismissed his appeal and upheld the original verdict. The man was also sentenced to undergo 40 hours of a rehabilitation program against sexual violence. In February,

Two women were arrested by police Tuesday for falsely exposing ordinary women and men as sex workers on social media. The Seoul Suseo police said that two women who were behind Instagram accounts Gangnam Patch and Hannam Patch had been arrested for online defamation.  The now-defunct account of Gangnam Patch. (Instagram capture)The 24-year-old Gangnam Patch operator, surnamed Jeong, and the 28-year-old Hannam Patch operator surnamed Yang knew each other through online correspondence but were not

South Korea will resume its policing operations next month to prevent Chinese fishermen from illegally entering neutral waters of the Han River estuary ahead of the peak season for crab fishing, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday. In June, the joint military police unit composed of the Marine Corps personnel and police forces under the approval of the UNC Military armistice commission successfully completed its first round of operations near the Han River to expel Chinese fishermen, th

The France-based leg of the yearlong South Korea-France cultural exchange project has drawn the curtains with a colorful flourish, celebratory of the 130th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties.As of the end of August, the events of the "Years 2015-2016 of Korea-France Bilateral Exchanges" have hailed about 2.26 million visitors in France, which ran from September 2015, the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said on Tuesday.Being the largest cultural project between the

A senior South Korean diplomat will leave for China on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said, raising expectations that Seoul is seeking to arrange a summit between the leaders of the two countries.Lim Sung-nam, vice foreign minister, will be in Beijing until Thursday during which he will meet with his Chinese counterpart, Liu Zhenmin, according to the ministry. His trip is just days before leaders of the group of 20 industrialized and emerging countries are to gather in China early next month. E

The former university professor who forcibly fed human feces to his pupil-turned-employee was convicted with eight years in prison Tuesday. The Supreme Court found Jang, 53, guilty of abusing his 30-year-old pupil for two years since March 2013.Jang was indicted in August 2015 under charges of feeding human feces to the victim, as well as beating him with an aluminum bat and spraying tear gas over his face which was covered by a plastic bag. (Yonhap)The first trial gave Jang 12 years in prison,

US wearable-maker Fitbit will launch its newest fitness wristband models Charge 2 and Flex 2 in Korea in September and in October, respectively, the company announced Tuesday.  Fitbit Charge 2 (Fitbit)Fitbit Charge 2 has a display screen that is four times larger than its predecessor Charge HR, which allows the wearer to see all information in one screen. Just as HR did, this Charge 2 allows non-stop monitoring of heartrate, checks the wearer’s inner oxygen level and offers recommended breathing

Two workers died and four were injured when the roof of a three-story building collapsed Sunday during renovation work in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, Monday.Three of the six workers were buried under the debris when the roof collapsed during work to transform the third floor from a motel to hospital offices.  (Yonhap)Two of the buried workers died, but one was found alive after a 14-hour rescue effort. The building’s structure was too weak use heavy machinery in the rescue operation, and t

Two taxi passengers Thursday abandoned their driver, who had suffered cardiac arrest while driving, flaring up a nationwide morality discussion. Daejeon Dunsan Police on Thursday said the driver, 63, passed away after sudden heart failure while driving at around 8:40 a.m. on Thursday in Seo-gu, Daejeon. Whether he passed away while still behind the steering wheel or after, due to lack of prompt emergency measures, has yet to be discerned. The late man, unconscious after the incident, reportedly

A court ruled Sunday that consensual sex between a teacher and an underage student still applied as sexual abuse of a minor.The Bucheon branch of the Incheon District Court gave a female cram school instructor an eight-month prison term with two years of probation for cultivating a sexual relationship with her 13-year-old pupil. Under Korean law, the teacher would only serve the prison term if she ran afoul of the law again within two years.  (123RF)The instructor, 32, was indicted for having se

Half of Koreans have at least once thought about taking an alternative trip to avoid the “holiday stress” that comes with family holidays such as “Chuseok,” a survey by Expedia has revealed. According to the survey “holiday stress,” such as nagging family members, cooking for an enormous crowd and driving long hours back to remote hometowns, makes for restless few days.The online travel agency targeted more than 1,000 Korean men and women between ages 20 and 50 on Aug. 19 and found that 50 perce

One woman has died and another was left injured after a man stabbed them with a knife in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province on Thursday. A 33-year-old man, identified by his surname Lee, stabbed the two senior janitresses at around 8 a.m.Both women were taken to the hospital, however, only one regained consciousness. Police used a taser gun to bring Lee under control. He then claimed to have taken cyanide poison, however, a medical check proved this statement to be false and found that he had been drinki