South Korean and U.S. troops sprayed toxic defoliant Agent Orange and other herbicides over 6,840 hectares of the Demilitarized Zone between 1968 and 1969, in an effort to thwart North Korean infiltrations, a report said Friday.The estimated size of the areas on which Agent Orange was sprayed was about 14 percent of the southern side of the DMZ, the 4-kilometer-wide, 249-kilometer-long buffer zone

The government approved an updated ratification bill for the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement after fixing translation errors and submitted it to the National Assembly to seek parliamentary approval.The agreement had been retracted in April over multiple translation errors in the Korean version. Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik urged the early parliamentary approval of the deal.“The KORUS FTA is an ine

Debate is raging over whether trimming telecom fees by a small margin was the best move by a government desperate to show action on previous pledges to rein in soaring communication expenses. On Thursday, the Korea Communications Commission, the state telecom regulator, announced a discount plan for telecom fees that included a 1,000 won discount in basic service fees and 50 free text messages a m

 

SK Telecom, the nation’s largest mobile carrier, is set to cut its service charges from September. According to one estimate, the rate cuts, which include a 1,000 won discount on the basic service charge and 50 free text messages each month, amount to an average of 28,000 won a year per customer.The rate cuts should please consumers. But not too much. Consumer organizations and advocacy groups com

Before leaving the post of finance minister on Thursday, Yoon Jeung-hyun called on his ministry to serve as the last line of defense against onrushing demands for general welfare. His advice could not have been timelier, given that political parties and politicians, those with presidential ambitions in particular, are shifting their focus from selective welfare to general welfare with little regar

For a man who billed himself as the CEO president, Lee Myung-bak of South Korea sure seems to lack business sense. In February 2008, voters turned to Lee, the former chief executive officer of several Hyundai Group businesses, to see through the reforms needed to break the economic gridlock. Who better to drive change than a guy famed for bulldozing the competition? Buyer’s remorse is setting in a

Now that Beijing has decided to send 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects back to Taiwan, the issue of the sovereignty of our country in handling their case is being raised again. Democratic Progressive Party leaders from their chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen on down have accused the administration of selling out our sovereignty by letting the Philippines deport the suspects to the People’s Republic of China earli

Education equality is the foundation for more development opportunities for rural children in underdeveloped rural areas. It is an area that requires more attention from the government and society. State Councilor Liu Yandong called for more educational resources for the underdeveloped central and western regions to realize education equality when she visited the poverty-stricken rural areas in No

Leaders of the Group of Eight wealthiest industrialized nations pledged over the last weekend to help Egypt and Tunisia with billions of dollars in aid, fearing that economic stagnation could undermine the transition to democracy. A joint communique produced by the G8 meeting promised $20 billion, but the breakdown on how much each of the eight countries will provide is not yet known. The G8 compr