WASHINGTON -- The United States has no plans to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea despite renewed threats from North Korea, the White House said Monday.   "Our policy remains in support of a non-nuclear Korean peninsula," Robert Jensen, deputy spokesman for the National Security Council, told Yonhap News Agency in an e-mail. "There is no plan to change that policy. Tactical nucle

   WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is working hard to clear the pending free trade deal with South Korea through Congress this spring so as not to lag behind the European Union, which ratified a similar deal with Seoul set to take effect in July, the chief U.S. trade official has said.   "The EU-Korea trade agreement is scheduled to take effect on July 1 of this year," U.S. Trade Representa

 South Korea expressed deep concern over the bloodshed in Libya and urged North Korea to improve its human rights conditions during a U.N. human rights meeting held in Geneva on Monday, the foreign ministry said.   Second Vice Foreign Minister Min Dong-seok made the appeal during a keynote speech at a high-level segment meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council that opened in Geneva, Switzerland, o

North Korea on Sunday threatened to strike South Korean psychological warfare apparatus on the border “in light of self-defense,” in more tough rhetoric ahead of the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise to begin Monday.“Should the anti-North psychological warfare continue, our army will directly fire at the (Imjin) Pavilion and other origins of the psychological warfare to destroy them under t

   SEOUL -- The unification cost on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of a sudden collapse of the North Korean regime is estimated to reach an astronomical 2,525 trillion won (about $2.14 trillion), a state-run think tank said Sunday.   Nam Sung-wook, director of the Institute for National Security Strategy, made the estimate in a report to be presented to a unification policy public hearing, which

  A disgraced South Korean clone scientist has won a research project from Libya amid growing unrest in the North African nation, colleagues at his research lab here said Sunday.   Under the 150-billion won ($133 million) project with the Libyan government, Hwang Woo-suk will conduct stem cell-related research activities for incurable diseases, according to Hwang's Sooam Bioengineering Research In

The Korea Herald guide to the nation’s most useful websitesIf you want to do a bit of research before taking a trip in South Korea, don’t settle for the standard Google search or hastily read travel books. Here are 21 cyber destinations covering Korean travel, history, society and language, targeting both tourists and expats. Non-Korean visitors ― and possibly many Koreans, too ― could find these

   WASHINGTON (AP) _ Ratcheting up the pressure, U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday said Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has lost his legitimacy to rule and urged the Libyan leader to leave power immediately.   It was the first time Obama has called for Gadhafi to step down, coming after days of bloodshed in Libya. Gadhafi has vowed to fight to the end to maintain his four-decade grip on power

  South Korea's police have asked the local court to issue an arrest warrant for a U.S. service member accused of breaking into the home of an elderly Korean couple in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, and assaulting them, officials said Sunday.   The unidentified 20-year-old American soldier stationed in Dongducheon, 70 kilometers north of the capital, is in detention on charges of intruding into the

 South Korean manufacturers' confidence inched down for the second quarter on jitters over currency volatility and rising costs of raw materials, a poll showed Sunday.   In its survey of 1,326 local manufacturers, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) said the business sentiment index slipped to 108 for the April-June period from 111 for the current quarter.   A reading above 100 means

 An Egypt Air chartered plane carrying 60 South Koreans left a central Libyan city on Sunday for Cairo, as Seoul continued to pull its nationals out of the African nation mired in a bloody anti-government revolt.   The foreign ministry in Seoul said the flight left Surte, central Libya, for the Egyptian capital around 11:15 a.m. Sunday, Korean time. A ministry official said the plane carried 60 So

   French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen and German automaker Volkswagen AG will recall 3,241 vehicles in South Korea due to defective parts in their braking systems and fuel pipes, the transportation ministry said Sunday.   Peugeot's 2,962 vehicles manufactured and sold here between Dec. 15, 2006 and Feb. 24, 2009 are subject to the recall, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime

   A female opposition lawmaker said Sunday that she has transferred her permanent address to Dokdo, seeking to put further pressure on President Lee Myung-bak's government to sternly deal with Japan's frequent claims to the easternmost South Korean islets.   Rep. Park Sun-young, who serves as the spokesperson of the minor Liberty Forward Party, told Yonhap News Agency that she changed her permane

French chief believes Seoul ready for Michelin Red GuideHere for his bi-annual visit to Le Cordon Bleu’s Korean campus, Andre J. Cointreau ― president, CEO and MD of the prestigious culinary institution ― revealed a desire to change up the curriculum with a program devoted to Korean cuisine.“We have now opened a Thai cuisine classical cycle in Le Cordon Bleu,” Cointreau told The Korea Herald durin

   SEOUL (AP) _ North Korea says it will fire at South Korea if it continues allowing activists to launch propaganda leaflets toward the North.   The North's official Korean Central News Agency says the country's military conveyed the warning to South Korea's military Sunday.   The warning comes one day before South Korea kicks off annual military drills with the United States. The North says the

   TOKYO (AP) _ Nintendo's latest game machine, offering glasses-free 3-D images, went on sale in Japan on Saturday ahead of a global rollout, and analysts say it promises to be the world's first 3-D mass-market product.   ``I'm so excited,'' said 9-year-old Natsumi Miyasaka, clutching her brand new blue 3DS portable that her father bought for her. Customer Toyohisa Ishihara shows a Nintendo Co. 3

   UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously to impose sanctions on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, his five adult children and top associates.   Voting after a day of discussions _ interrupted at times for consultations with home capitals _ council members agreed on Saturday to freeze the assets of Gadhafi, his four sons and one daughter, and to ban travel by the whole

   INCHEON -- A chartered Korean Air plane carrying 235 South Koreans out of strife-torn Libya arrived in Seoul Saturday, as the government was preparing to send another to bring home more Koreans stranded there.   Those who returned home were met at Incheon International Airport by relatives and friends. Also arriving with them were three foreigners.     Despite the long flight, all looked health

   North Korea held a meeting of young leaders Saturday, urging them to play a bigger role in building a "great, prosperous and powerful country" by next year, the country's  media said.    The North's communist regime has set 2012, the centennial of the birth of its late founder and president, Kim Il-sung, as the deadline for achieving the goal.    Although such gatherings with young people are c

   DAMYANG -- About 1,000 ducks found dead earlier this week at a farm in southern South Korea were confirmed Saturday to have been infected with a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza, raising concern that the lethal virus is spreading in the country, officials said.    The H5A1 virus was found on the duck farm in Damyang county of South Jeolla Province, about 350 kilometers south of Seoul