A 39-year-old man was arrested for sexual violence in a series of daybreak attacks on women over the past six months, police said Monday.The offender, only known by his surname Kim, had allegedly attempted to rape a 27 year-old woman near an apartment in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, on July

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on Monday that it will hold a referendum on Aug. 24 on whether the city should proceed with its free school lunch program.Seoul citizens will be asked to choose between providing free lunches to selected students or to all students in the vote requested by

Three Japanese lawmakers arrived at a South Korean airport on Monday, defying Seoul's repeated warnings that their entry will be banned due to their attempt to reassert Tokyo's claim to the South Korean islets of Dokdo.Yoshitaka Shindo, Domomi Inada and Masahisa Sato, all from Japan's conservative L

A top aide to President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday arrived at a South Korean island in the East Sea in an effort to thwart a planned trip by three Japanese lawmakers seen as an attempt to reassert Tokyo's claim to the Korean territory.Lee Jae-oh, a lawmaker of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) who

 The recent talks between North Korea and the U.S. in New York may not immediately resolve their differences but represent a positive "first step" toward more discussions, a South Korean official said Sunday.   The official said the meeting between North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan and Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, was "an extension" of an

South Korean and Chinese naval forces are close to agreeing on holding joint search and rescue exercises, a high-level government source said on Sunday. “China expressed the wish to hold joint SAR (search and rescue) exercises last Saturday during the inaugural South Korea-China strategic defense dialogue,” said the official. The talks were led by Air Force Gen. Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of the ge

Japanese lawmakers are expected to go ahead with their planned trip to an island near South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo on Monday, upping tensions as the Seoul government plans to ban them from entry. Despite South Korea’s official announcement that it will bar the Tokyo politicians from entering its land, three lawmakers of Japan’s opposition Liberal Democratic Party said they would go ah

Maritime police have yet to find a crashed Asiana Airlines cargo plane and its pilot and co-pilot, police officials said Sunday. Mobilizing 10 army and police vessels, three aircraft and underwater sonar, police and the navy have for three days searched the waters off Jeju, where the Boeing-747 aircraft, operated by Asiana Airlines Co., went down early Thursday. “We found nothing special yet, exce

A grenade presumed to be from the Korean War was found on a university campus in Seoul, police officials said Sunday. The explosive was found Friday afternoon in one of the flowerbeds at Ewha Womans University, in Sinchon, central Seoul, by a member of the cleaning staff. It did not have a safety pin in it.Police, who arrived on the scene with a bomb squad, determined that it had been deactivated.

Seoul’s southern ward of Seocho, hit hard by heavy rains last week, may be declared a special disaster area, the home administration ministry said Sunday. If the cost of flood and landslide damage exceeds 9.5 billion won ($9 million) in Seocho, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security will approve the designation.The Seocho Ward Office puts the estimated damage at more than 100 million w

A Korean foreign service official is to work at the U.S. Department of State for the first time as part of a personnel exchange program between Korea and the U.S. The South Korean Foreign Ministry said Sunday that Kim Hye-jin, a 29-year-old female diplomat, has been chosen for the stint. Kim currently works at the ministry’s North Korean Nuclear Affairs Bureau. She will start in August, although t

The Danish Embassy, in association with Korean Wind Energy Industry Association, is arranging a seminar on Danish competencies in the offshore wind energy area on Oct. 20.Several Danish companies are already present on the Korean wind market.“But the opportunities are there for more to enter,” said Danish Ambassador Peter Lysholt Hansen. “The Danish track record in wind power is acclaimed in Korea