North Korea had tested the rocket engines for its intercontinental ballistics missile ahead of the deadly attack on Yeonpyeong Island in 2010, according to a high-ranking source on Sunday.“In October of last year North Korea tested the rockets for its intercontinental ballistics missile at its Dongchang-ri base,” said the high-ranking government official. “We believe they conducted the test as a d

A top North Korean diplomat handling nuclear negotiations with the outside world plans to make a rare trip to New York later this week for talks with U.S. officials, multiple diplomatic sources said Sunday.First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan is expected to visit New York around July 28 on a trip that includes a meeting with Stephen Bosworth, the top U.S. envoy on Korean Peninsula affairs, the

North Koreans voted in local elections Sunday as state media stepped up calls for loyalty to the ruling Workers’ Party and leader Kim Jong-il as the totalitarian leader has been trying to hand power over to his youngest son.Kim cast his ballot at a polling station in Pyongyang, along with his heir-apparent son Kim Jong-un and a senior party official, according to the official Korean Central News A

Voices calling for stricter safety standards at workplaces are growing louder after a slew of industrial accidents took several lives over the weekend. On Friday morning, a worker was killed when he suffocated while working inside a 3-meter-deep manhole in Namyeong-dong, central Seoul. Two others were immediately taken to a nearby hospital and one remains unconscious, police said. According to pol

 Aspiring singers in Southeast Asian countries will get another chance to debut in the birthplace of K-pop as the capital city of South Korea is working on a new audition program for them.Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Sunday that it will take part in a joint production of a TV audition program dubbed “K-POP Star Hunt” with Fox-affiliated channels Star World and Channel V, Korean entertai

Banks, major firms expand hiring of high school graduatesAll eyes are now trained on the corporate sector amid high expectations that South Korean companies at large would hire more high school graduates following an unprecedented move in the banking sector. Last week, Korea’s 18 banks said they would double their hiring quota for high school graduates, largely prompted by the government’s policy

The conflict between terrestrial and cable television operators over broadcast rights is expected to take a new turn as chiefs of terrestrial TV stations agreed to form a negotiation panel last Friday.In a meeting organized by Choi See-joong last week, chairman of the state media regulator, representative of five major broadcast stations ― SBS, KBS, MBC, EBS and OBS ― said a panel must be formed t

Supermarkets saw the smallest sales increase among retailers during the first quarter of the year affected by rising consumer prices and the increase in the number of other forms of retailers.According to Statistics Korea, the combined first quarter sales of supermarkets in the country rose 3.4 percent to about 5.9 trillion won ($5.6 billion), while other types of retailers saw double-digit growth

Korea’s electronics giants Samsung and LG are grappling with faltering television businesses as slack demand in wealthy countries and nose-diving display prices combined to dent their second-quarter earnings.Samsung Electronics, the world’s top TV producer, estimated its operating profit at 3.7 trillion won ($3.5 billion) in the three months to June, down nearly 27 percent year-on-year. LG Display