South Korea will be spending $500 million within the next five-year period to increase its contribution to ongoing international peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry announced Friday following the meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin. Revamping its Afghan strategy, Washington has been broadening the mission to include pressure on neighboring Pakistan in a bid to roo

A line of people carrying armfuls of symbolic red flowers was formed in front of a giant statue of North Korean President Kim Il-sung, official media in the isolated country said Thursday, a day before the 99th birthday of the communist state’s late founder. Following the series of performances and events prepared to greet the “Day of the Sun,” referring to the April 15 birth date of the late Kim,

Democrats in the Seoul City Council proposed that parents of elementary school children vote on whether schools should provide free meals to all students, reigniting a two-year-old political controversy.The suggestion came as civic groups opposing the across-the-board complimentary meals staged a signing campaign for a referendum on the issue.Forty-two Democrats in the city council submitted a pro

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Thursday declared a “paradigm shift” in the city’s housing development strategy, which has seen standardized apartment complexes dominate the city over the past 40 years.“Seoul City will discontinue its ‘new town projects,’ in which existing buildings are demolished to build new apartment complexes. Instead, we will adopt a new development style that puts more emphasis on

Sales of luxury fashion goods at leading department stores jumped 27 percent on-year in March on retailers’ aggressive expansion and boosted marketing, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Thursday. Foods sales at major discount outlets and department stores also rose due to their increased demand and inflation, the ministry said. The proportion of luxury products sales at top department store c

Korean stocks rose 0.9 percent to a fresh high on Thursday as auto and chemical shares got a boost from optimism over their first-quarter earnings, analysts said. The local currency edged up against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) advanced 19.14 points to a new record-high close of 2,141.06. The previous record was 2,130.43 set on April 5. Trading volume was

The government will recruit more tech experts and personnel in a bid to beef up the safety of its high-speed train service that has suffered a series of accidents over the past few months, the Transportation Ministry said.The ministry added that the government will operate a safety-management unit independently for the KTX high-speed train service. It will also shorten the period of replacing majo

Korean financial companies’ derivatives trading jumped 36.2 percent on-year in 2010 on increased transactions of stock-linked investment products, the financial regulator said Thursday.The total trading volume of such derivatives as bond and stock futures and options at home and abroad came to 6.7 quadrillion won ($6.1 trillion) in 2010, compared with 4.9 quadrillion won in the previous year, the