The South Korean government said on Friday that it will take various countermeasures if Tokyo refuses Seoul’s request to revoke its boycott of Korean Air in protest of its demonstration flight over Dokdo.Japan’s foreign ministry ordered its officials not to fly with Korean Air for a month starting next Monday in an unprecedented action against the private airliner for test flying its new Airbus A3

The National Assembly was recently shaken by a series of sex scandals, most of them involving members of the Grand National Party.Earlier this month, a major daily newspaper reported that a married ruling party lawmaker sexually harassed a drunken woman in a taxi and handed over money to the driver who threatened to upload the recorded file on the Internet.The subject of the article was the illici

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) _ Somali pirates holding South Korean hostages have demanded the release of prisoners and compensation from their government for a commando raid that killed several pirates earlier this year.The demand is the second time that pirates have sought to use hostages to negotiate a prisoner exchange in addition to a ransom.One of the pirates holding 25 crew aboard the MV Gemini t

MIRYANG, South Korea, July 15 (Yonhap) -- A high-speed train from Seoul was forced to stop in the southeastern city of Miryang on Friday after passengers complained of smoke rising from the back of the train, railroad officials said.The KTX-Sancheon, the first locally made high-speed train that runs at a speed of up to 300 kilometers per hour, came to an abrupt halt Friday morning in this city 386

Senior South Korean and U.S. diplomats began a new round of negotiations here Thursday on Seoul's pursuit of expanding its peaceful nuclear technology.The two-day meeting, the third of its kind, will focus on fine-tuning the wording of a draft agreement presented in the previous round, according to officials.The existing treaty, signed in 1974, expires in March 2014.South Korea is seeking to revis

The U.S. Senate plans to hold a confirmation hearing for Sung Kim, the nominee to become ambassador to South Korea, next week, a related committee announced Thursday.The hearing will be held on Thursday at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, presided over by Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations said. He is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Aff

South Korean scientists said Friday that they have developed a highly efficient nanoporous industrial catalyst that can have a considerable impact on chemical and oil-refining sectors.The team of scientists led by Ryoo Ryong, a chemistry professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), said the solid zeolite compound developed in the laboratory has a reaction speed five

The government should have the right to remove severely obese children from their parents’ home and place them in foster care, two US doctors argued in a controversial editorial.“State intervention may serve the best interests of many children with life-threatening obesity, comprising the only realistic way to control harmful behaviors,” wrote Lindsey Murtagh of the Harvard School of Public Health

BEIJING (Yonhap News) – South Korea's Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin requested China's cooperation for the safe return of South Korean prisoners of war (POWs) who are currently in China following their defection from North Korea where they had been held since their capture during the 1950-53 Korean War.The request came at Kim's meeting with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping as the South Korean mini