Despite the ongoing diplomatic tension over Japan's territorial claim to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo, most mainstream Japanese scholars remain skeptical or cautious about the claim.In its latest provocation, Japan's government on Tuesday referred to Dokdo as Japanese territory again in

Seoul will respond strongly to Tokyo's latest claim to the South Korean islets of Dokdo included in Japan's annual defense document, officials said Tuesday, in an indication of the country's growing intolerance for Japan's territorial claims.Japan approved its 2011 defense white paper earlier in the

TOKYO (AFP) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Monday it had monitored record high radiation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami.TEPCO said radiation levels reached at least 10 sieverts per hour near the debris left between the number on

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Norway began burying the dead on Friday, a week after an anti-immigrant extremist killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage.Mourners of all ages vowed they would not let the massacre threaten their nation's openness and democracy.An 18-year-old Muslim girl was the first victim to be laid to rest since the gunman opened fire at a political youth camp and bombed the gove

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an unforgiving display of partisanship, the Republican-controlled House approved emergency legislation Friday night to avoid an unprecedented government default and Senate Democrats scuttled it less than two hours later in hopes of a better deal."We are almost out of time" for a compromise, warned President Barack Obama as U.S. financial markets trembled at the prospect of eco

South Korea and India signed an agreement Monday to cooperate in nuclear power, providing a legal basis for the South's future participation in atomic plant projects in India.The agreement was signed after a summit between President Lee Myung-Bak and his Indian counterpart Pratibha Patil, Lee's office said in a statement.South Korea operates 20 nuclear plants that generate some 35 percent of its e

South Korea and China will hold their inaugural defense strategic talks this week in Seoul, the defense ministry here said Monday.The first strategic dialogue is scheduled for Wednesday, the ministry said in a statement. Lee Yong-gul, the South's vice defense minister, and Air Force Gen. Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese Army, will lead each delegation, the ministry added."

An international team of nuclear safety experts said on Friday that South Korea has strong regulations on operating atomic energy facilities safely and preventing accidents, concluding their two-week mission here.The special review, called the Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS), by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) came at the request of the South Korean government.“This was t

South Korea and Japan will start working-level consultations early next month on the return of more than 1,200 volumes of ancient Korean royal archives that Japan took during its 1910-45 colonial rule, foreign ministry officials said Monday. The planned consultations, which will come about nine months after Japan promised to hand them over to South Korea in a goodwill gesture, are aimed at discuss

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

BEIJING (AFP) - China said Tuesday it was investigating U.S. oil giant ConocoPhillips‘ role in a spill off its eastern coast that authorities kept hidden from the public for nearly a month.ConocoPhillips’s China unit in a partnership with the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) operates the oil field in Bohai Bay, where the spill was detected on June 4 but only made public

The number of mobile phone users in North Korea has topped 500,000, according to a cell phone service provider's data disclosed Friday, in a sign of growing mobile penetration in the isolated country.Egypt's Orascom Telecom has been providing mobile services in North Korea since 2008 through Koryolink, a joint venture set up with the North.The number of subscribers in the North jumped to more than

AP -- Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released from jail Friday to house arrest in a landmark apartment building near ground zero after the luxury apartment where he had arranged to stay fell through because the neighbors objected to the media frenzy.Prosecutors said he would stay temporarily in lower Manhattan while his family and lawyers look for more permanent housing for him to awa