A base for South Korean aid workers and troops in Afghanistan was attacked by rockets again over the weekend, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday in the 11th such report in this year alone. Two rounds of rocket-propelled grenades landed on the ground near the provincial reconstruction team camp in Charika, a city in the northern Afghan province of Parwan, at around 9:08 p.m. Saturday (local time)

More than four out of every 10 South Koreans are afraid of walking outside late at night, a police poll showed Sunday, indicating a relatively high level of public anxiety over security at night.According to the poll by the National Police Agency, 43.7 percent of the total 28,103 respondents said they feel threatened when walking along streets late at night while only 28 percent responded they don

GOYANG (Yonhap News) ― Four South Korean mechanics died of apparent asphyxiation caused by refrigerant gas in an underground machine room at a major retail outlet near Seoul, officials said Saturday.The four were working to fix a refrigeration system in the machine room in E-Mart in Ilsan, northwest of Seoul, until 2:40 a.m., an E-Mart official said, adding that the ventilation system was working

A Korea-U.S. team will announce this week an interim report on the results of a ground-pollution probe into an American army base here, where U.S. veterans claim their unit buried tons of toxic chemical in 1978.The joint team said it will unveil the probe results during a Status of Forces Agreement environment committee session on this coming Wednesday or Thursday. The team has been conducting inv

South Korea’s financial watchdog plans to draw up measures to mend the practice of handling currency margin trading in a bid to prevent retail investors from inflicting heavy losses, officials said Sunday.Margin trading allows investors to place heavy bets on currency volatilities with a relatively small amount of money. Currency margin trading can yield huge profits, but it can also inflict heavy

The move by Korea Exchange Bank to offer a record interim dividend to its biggest shareholder Lone Star Funds is sparking concerns about long-term growth for South Korea‘s No. 5 lender, market watchers said Sunday.KEB’s board decided on Friday to pay out a quarterly dividend worth of 1,510 won ($1.42) per share, causing U.S. private equity fund Lone Star to rake in dividends worth 496.9 billion wo

Skepticism is growing over the performance of the Prime Minister’s Office-led task force to overhaul the nation’s financial supervisory structure.Though the task force was set up in the wake of financial regulators’ failure in oversight of savings banks, the 13-member team has not reached a consensus and has delayed unveiling its measures.The team, launched early May, said it would draw out measur

Korea’s trade deficit with Japan fell in the first half, compared with a year earlier mainly because exports by Asia’s fourth-largest economy benefited from Japan’s devastating quake in March, data showed Sunday.Korea’s exports to Japan rose 49.9 percent on-year to $17.7 billion in the January-June period while imports grew 11.3 percent to $32.1 billion, according to data compiled by the Ministry