South Korea's unification ministry said Tuesday it is mulling over how to reopen an inter-Korean communication hotline, which was severed early last year following North Korea's nuclear and missile tests.In February 2016, North Korea cut off two inter-Korean communication channels as it expelled remaining South Koreans from a joint industrial park in response to South Korea's closure of the Kaesong complex. This photo taken on July 19, 2016, shows an inter-Korean hotline that was set up in 1971

The United States will leave "all options" on the table in responding to a threatened intercontinental ballistic missile test by North Korea, a State Department spokesperson was quoted Tuesday as saying.Katina Adams made the remark after North Korea warned Saturday that it is "not too far away" from test-firing an ICBM capable of striking the US mainland. (KCNA-Yonhap)"As we have said before, all options for responding to future provocations must remain on the table," she told Washington-based V

South Korean shares advanced late Tuesday morning, despite the overnight decline on Wall Street, as institutions' buying offset a selling binge by foreign and retail investors.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 11.08 points, or 0.47 percent, to 2,368.87 as of 11:20 a.m.Most large caps traded mixed, with market kingpin Samsung Electronics rising 0.13 percent and global chipmaker SK hynix losing 0.17 percent. Naver, the operator of the country's top Internet portal, added 0.11 pe

South Korea and the United States held a meeting on Tuesday to make preparations for their next round of high-level talks on defense and security issues, the foreign ministry said.The meeting took place in Seoul between Acting Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Anita Friedt and her South Korean counterparts, according to the ministry.  (Yonhap)The closed-door meeting was aimed at making preparations for the next Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group t

South Korea on Tuesday approved three additional requests by local aid providers to contact North Koreans despite the North's rejection of civilian inter-Korean exchanges, government officials said.The move reflects Seoul's resolve to seek civilian engagements with North Korea even as Pyongyang has turned down South Korean civic groups' offer for exchanges. (Yonhap)It raised the number of Seoul's such approvals to 18 since liberal President Moon Jae-in took office May 10."The three aid groups as

A Britain-based scholar has raised the need to tighten international sanctions on North Korean diplomats to close loopholes in the existing sanctions regime for the country's nuclear and missile programs, a news report said Tuesday.Andrea Berger, associate fellow at Britain's Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, made the argument in a recent report identifying the challenges of implementing sanctions on North Korea, according to US-based Radio Free Asia. This undated

A British relief group will make a six-day visit to North Korea next week to provide 40 tons of flour for bread to be consumed by the North's children, Voice of America reported Tuesday.George Rhee, leader of the London-based Love North Korean Children and a Briton of Korean descent, said in a recent message on his Facebook account that the group's planned visit to Pyongyang has been approved after a long wait, adding the visit is scheduled to begin next Monday. This undated photo, taken from th

The number of South Korean skin cancer patients has spiked nearly 40 percent over the past four years, flirting with the 20,000 mark, apparently due to increased sunlight exposure, data showed Tuesday.Skin cancer patients in the country numbered 19,435 at the end of last year, up 38 percent from four years earlier, according to the data from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service.People in their 70s accounted for the largest portion of the total at 28 percent, trailed by sexagenarians

Three opposition parties on Tuesday voiced their disapproval for a 11.2 trillion-won ($9.9 billion) extra budget bill aimed mainly at creating jobs in the public sector, reiterating it does not meet legal requirements.The move came a day after President Moon Jae-in made an emphatic call for parliamentary support for the bill, saying "unemployment, if left unattended, could lead to a crisis equivalent to national disaster." Reps. Lee Yong-ho, Lee Hyun-jae and Lee Jong-koo (from left), the policy

Rival parties failed Monday to adopt reports on the results of parliamentary confirmation hearings for President Moon Jae-in's top government and judicial nominees, casting clouds over his efforts to swiftly form his government.The ruling Democratic Party sought to adopt the reports on Fair Trade Commission chairman-nominee Kim Sang-jo, Constitutional Court chief-designate Kim Yi-su and Foreign Minister-nominee Kang Kyung-wha, but failed to do so due mainly to objections from the main opposition

A group of South Korean scientists have developed a new technology to print three-dimensional nano-sized electronic tubes, the state-run institute said Monday, a finding that may contribute to the development of wearable technologies such as bendable electronic devices.The team, led by Seol Seung-kwon at the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, developed the printing technology using a new nozzle to print highly conductive 3D carbon nanotubes. (Photo courtesy of the Korea Electrotechnolog

PARIS (AFP) -- French President Emmanuel Macron‘s party is on course for an overwhelming parliamentary majority, after Sunday’s first round of voting for the National Assembly left traditional parties in disarray.Projections showed Macron widening his centrist revolution, with his Republic on the Move party and its ally MoDem tipped to win between 400 and 445 seats in the 577-member National Assembly in next Sunday’s second round.Such a share would give Macron one of the biggest parliamentary ma

The United States Marine Corps. has brought light, off-road high mobility vehicles to South Korea to join an ongoing military drill, officials said Monday.The 3rd Marine Division stationed at a camp in Japan's Okinawa is conducting military maneuvers in South Korea by mobilizing US utility task vehicles, according to officials at the allies' marines. This image captured from the website of the US Defense Department on June 12, 2017, shows utility task vehicles which US Marine Corps. has brought

About 14,000 people are dying prematurely every year in South Korea as a result of air pollution, a medical professor said Monday, citing a report by the US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.Cheong Hae-kwan, a professor at the Medical College of Seoul's Sungkyunkwan University, said during a seminar that the number of premature deaths in South Korea caused by air pollution was tallied at 13,703 in 2013 in the IHME report.This May 2017 file photo shows people looking at the landsc

Unfair contracts and practices are posing a grave threat to the livelihood of cultural artists operating in Seoul, a survey conducted by the metropolitan government said Monday.In the poll of 315 cartoonists and webtoon writers and 519 illustrators from last December to February this year, four of five illustrators, or 79 percent, and 37 percent of cartoonists and webtoon writers said they were forced to sign unfair contracts.Among the unfair contracts signed by illustrators, demand for excessiv

GOMA (AFP) -- Eleven people were killed and more than 900 inmates escaped Sunday after unidentified assailants attacked a jail in DR Congo's restive east, an official said."The Kangwayi prison in Beni was attacked at 3:30 pm (1330 GMT) by assailants whose identity is not yet known," Julien Paluku, governor of North Kivu province, told reporters."In the exchange of fire between security forces and the attackers, authorities have (counted) 11 dead including eight members of the security forces," P

Three major parties agreed Monday to deliberate on a 11.2 trillion won ($9.9 billion) extra budget bill, aimed at creating jobs for youth, party officials said, amid a lingering controversy over its legality.The agreement came during a meeting involving National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun and the floor leaders of the ruling Democratic Party, and the minor opposition People's Party and Bareun Party. The main opposition Liberty Korea Party did not join the meeting. National Assembly Speaker C

South Korea joined hands with the United States to boost cooperation in a wide range of cybersecurity areas, Seoul's ICT ministry said Monday. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research will inject a combined US$3 million over the next three years to secure core technologies in the sector, according to the ministry. (Yonhap)Among the projects are developing the next-generation code, and enhancing security of the Internet of Things (IoT) and

South Korea's foreign ministry said Monday that it has called for Japan to be more careful in making any comments on such thorny bilateral issues as how to resolve the long-running dispute over Japan's wartime sexual slavery of Korean women. This was in response to controversial remarks by Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. In his meeting with South Korean lawmakers on Saturday, he called for efforts to "eradicate" those seeking any tricks. Toshihiro N

BOLOGNA, Italy (AFP) -- The United States’ partners in the G-7 club of wealthy democracies vowed Sunday to pursue efforts to curb climate change despite a rift caused by the American withdrawal from the Paris accord.“G-7 countries have crucial roles and responsibilities to our own public opinion, to developing countries and to the planet,” Italy’s Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti said at a two-day meeting of G-7 environmental chiefs in Italy. “The international community awaits our messag