South Korea did not submit a bid for a multi-billion dollar high-speed rail project in Brazil, sources said Sunday, on concerns about its low profitability.A South Korean consortium did not submit a preliminary bid for the auction for building a 511-kilometer train network between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, officials said. The deadline for the bid submission closes on Tuesday.The consortium, le

A senior U.S. senator on Monday proposed a joint "mock conference" by the Senate and the House of Representatives to help resolve a deadlock over trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.President Barack Obama's push for the ratification of the free trade agreements (FTAs) has been complicated, as he has sought to link it with a controversial labor assistance program.Members of Congress l

The new commander of U.S. forces in Korea is scheduled to begin work later this week, as he has been confirmed by the Senate, a diplomatic source here said Monday.The Senate recently endorsed President Barack Obama's nomination of Gen. James Thurman as head of the 28,000 troops after last month's confirmation hearing, and a change of command ceremony will be held in Seoul Thursday, added the sourc

A consortium led by CJ Group, a South Korean food and entertainment conglomerate, said Monday that it has signed a contract to purchase a controlling 37.62 percent stake in Korea Express for 1.85 trillion won (US$1.75 billion).CJ Cheiljedang Corp. and CJ GLS Inc. will each pay 922.5 billion won to take over South Korea's largest logistics firm from two subsidiaries of cash-strapped Kumho Asiana Gr

The head coach for a local military football team has been arrested for allegedly taking cash from parents of a player involved in match fixing, the defense ministry said Monday.The bench boss for Sangju Sangmu Phoenix in the first-division K-League, named Lee, was arrested on charges of blackmail. The Sangju team is made up of professional players who have been conscripted to serve the mandatory

SEOUL (AFP) -- North Korea has agreed to hold talks with South Korea to settle a dispute over Seoul-owned buildings at a jointly run resort which have been seized by the communist country, officials said Monday.The communist North had set a deadline of Wednesday for final discussions about the properties at the Mount Kumgang resort, which is in North Korea and was supposed to have been a symbol of

The Culture Ministry and International Korean Language Foundation jointly plan to open 10 more Korean language school branches in nine different countries starting this September, the ministry announced on Monday.Sejong Hakdang (The King Sejong Institute), the government-run Korean language program located in foreign schools and institutions, currently has 28 branches in 16 different countries. La

North Korea has agreed to hold talks with the South on Wednesday to settle a dispute over South Korean-owned buildings in a tourist resort in the isolated state, officials said.Korea is thus to send a team of government officials and business representatitives to the corresponding resort, according to the Unification Ministry spokesperson Chun Hae-sung.Monday, just two days before the date Pyongya

Exports of Korean cars reached a record high in the first half of the year, benefiting from the demand drop for Japanese vehicles along with improving consumer sentiment abroad, data said Monday.A report by the Korea Customs Service said Asia’s fourth-largest economy exported $19.1 billion worth of cars in the January-June period, bagging 30.4 percent more revenue than a year earlier. In terms of

The ruling Grand National Party, led by newly elected chairman Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, has announced a reformative, “people-friendly” stance.In the party workshop at the National Assembly on Sunday, the Supreme Council and the policy committee agreed almost unanimously to slash university tuition fees and reinforce regulations over conglomerates.The plan also included overturning additional corporate

President Lee Myung-bak, who returned from his African tour Monday, is expected to replace the justice minister, prosecutor-general and senior presidential secretary for civil affairs later this month.In protest over a bill which state prosecutors believe restricts their investigative rights, Prosecutor General Kim Joon-kyu offered to resign last week while Lee was in South Africa. Lee is likely t

Red Cross officials from the two Koreas held informal talks on the sidelines of an international conference in China last week, a South Korean Red Cross official said Monday.Kim Yong-hyun, secretary-general of the South’s Red Cross, and Paek Yong-ho, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Red Cross Society of North Korea, met during breaks at the East Asian regional Red Cross leadership mee

South Korean and U.S. Air Forces have recently reached an agreement to stage an aerial refueling exercise on a regular basis here, using a U.S. in-flight tanker, a military source said Monday.The first joint refueling exercise in which the U.S. is to mobilize its KC-135 tanker currently based in Okinawa, Japan, is expected to take place in the latter half of this year, the source said.“Although ou