WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- North Korea will be on the agenda next week when U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Chinese President Hu Jintao at the White House, Obama's spokesman said Thursday.   "There will be discussion on global economic issues as well as security issues like North Korea and Iran and important issues of political reform and human rights," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

About 110 young South Korean students have been held in the capital of the Philippine for allegedly studying English at a language school there without permits, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday. Immigration officials rounded up the Korean students, who are all minors, at an English-language learning center in Manila on Jan. 7 for violating the Philippine immigration law, an official at Seoul

ULLEUNG ISLAND/SEOUL -- South Korean and Japanese maritime police were jointly investigating whether a South Korean fishing boat violated Japanese waters near the South Korean islets of Dokdo, officials said Thursday.    The two sides began the joint probe around 2 p.m. in waters about 69 kilometers southwest of Dokdo in the East Sea off the Korean Peninsula after the 29-ton South Korean fishing b

   ULLEUNG ISLAND -- A South Korean coast guard ship is in confrontation with a Japanese patrol ship in waters near the South Korean islets of Dokdo over an issue of violating an exclusive economic zone, an official said Thursday.(Yonhap News)

Expert warns of Pyongyang’s possible missile test-firing, more provocations this yearAs regional powers coordinate terms under which they can resume peace talks with North Korea, Washington appears to be growing more cautious about what impatience and instability could push the nuclear-armed state to do. Nuclear and missiles threats by the impoverished communist state go “beyond the region to the

Blocking defects in weapons and military equipment is to be a key goal of South Korea’s military acquisition agency this year, the agency said on Thursday.This goal is apparently aimed at addressing public concerns over several military accidents due to flaws in military supplies and equipment in recent years.The Defense Acquisition Program Administration also said that it would seek this year to

K-21 armored vehicles will return to military use in April after defects that sank two of them in 2009 and last year were fixed, an official at the military acquisition agency said Thursday.After it sank during a river-crossing training session in July, killing one solider, the domestically-built K-21, which was touted as a high-tech amphibious infantry fighting vehicle, was found to have a series

Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara will make a one-day trip to South Korea on Saturday for talks with his counterpart, instead of staying overnight from Friday as originally planned, an official said.Maehara called South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan on Thursday to ask if he could change the travel schedule, citing “various circumstances,” a ministry official said on condition of anon

General-level officers from the Army, Navy and Air Force are expected to equally share key decision-making posts at the Defense Ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff by the end of next year, a government source said Wednesday.The move is aimed at enhancing interoperability among the three armed services and addressing the Army’s dominance in the military’s decision-making processes, which has lon

A ruling party lawmaker is planning to submit to parliament three revision bills this week that would offer more independence to the Marine Corps, which was merged into the Navy in 1973.The move comes as the need for the Marines’ independence from the Navy has been voiced following North Korea’s artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island in November that killed two marines and two civilians. Rep. Chung