A Japanese coal mine built a 2-meter-high barbed wire fence at the dormitory of its Korean forced laborers to prevent them from escaping during World War II, a South Korean expert on the country's relationship with Japan said Sunday, citing a company document.Yonhap News Agency exclusively obtained the document authored by the Yamano Coal Mine near Fukuoka from Kim Moon-gil, an honorary professor of Busan University of Foreign Studies. The mine is known to have been operated by the Japanese indu

Chinese police have extradited a 53-year-old woman suspected of financial crimes from South Korea, as part of the government's intensifying crackdown against "economic fugitives" who have fled abroad, a local media report said Friday.    The Chinese suspect, only identified by her surname Li, was reportedly involved in an investment scam worth one million yuan (US$160,919) and had been hiding in South Korea since 2007. She was arrested on July 1, the Beijing News reported, citing Chinese authori

An experts panel of the International Labor Organization called Japan's conscription of Korean and other workers during World War II a violation of a convention banning forced labor, a report published in 1993 and obtained by Yonhap News Agency on Friday showed.   On Sunday, Japan inscribed a set of early industrial facilities on the UNESCO World Heritage list after accepting South Korea's demand that it acknowledge the forced labor of some 57,000 Korean workers at seven of the sites during the

The nominee to be the next chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday North Korea's ballistic missile capability makes the communist nation one of the greatest threats to the United States.   Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford made the remark during his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing, putting Pyongyang into the category of the four biggest threats to the U.S., along with Russia, China and the militant group Islamic State.   "Clearly, North Korea with ballistic missile

The wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will visit South Korea next week for meetings on women's education and economic empowerment issues, the White House announced Thursday.   Jill Biden will be accompanied by Catherine Russell, ambassador-at-large for global women's issues, on the trip to Korea, Vietnam and Laos July 16-22, the top office said in a statement.   She will "engage government and civil society partners" on issues related to economic empowerment and educational opportunity for w

South Korea expressed hope Thursday for a final deal between Iran and six global powers on Tehran's nuclear program, saying it could positively affect efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue."A peaceful resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue is expected to bring regional peace and the strengthening of the global nonproliferation regime," Foreign Ministry's spokesman Noh Kwang-il said at a press briefing.Based on a framework agreement made in April, the U.S.-led P5+1 group, including R

South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun and Chinese Executive Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui discussed bilateral ties and issues of mutual concern, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday. Kim and Zhang met in Beijing on Wednesday, after the two nations held the first round of talks earlier this week to discuss a broad range of regional and bilateral issues, the brief statement said.Kim and his Chinese counterpart, Liu Jianchao, led the two-day talks

The operator of Canada's public pension fund plans to vote against the planned merger of two Samsung Group units, sources said Thursday, joining the ranks of investors challenging the conglomerate's latest restructuring move.The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which manages Canada's pension fund, holds around a 0.2 percent stake in Samsung C&T Co. The South Korean firm aims to win approval for its merger plan with Cheil Industries Co., the de facto holding firm of Samsung Group, at the sha

A senior U.S. official will visit Seoul on Thursday for talks on missile defense and other security issues, officials said.Frank A. Rose, assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification and compliance, is scheduled to arrive here later in the day for a two-day stay.He will hold separate meetings with the director generals of the Foreign Ministry's international organizations bureau and North American affairs bureau to discuss space security and various issues related to arms reductio

A South Korean man was found dead Wednesday on a Filipino island, three days after he went missing, the Foreign Ministry said.The 45-year-old, only identified by his surname Heo, was on a dive tour to Cebu along with two other South Koreans.The two, a 37-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, were rescued near Camotes Island on Tuesday, according to the ministry."The body was found on the beach of Camotes Island early Wednesday morning," the ministry said.A ministry official said it was apparentl

A vice speaker of South Korea's National Assembly, Jeong Kab-yoon, met with China's top legislator Zhang Dejiang during his visit aimed at cementing bilateral relations, officials said Wednesday. Jeong met Zhang, who ranks third in China's ruling Communist Party hierarchy, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday, the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament, said in a statement posted on its website. During the meeting, Jeong and Zhang discussed ways to improve l

China denounced Japan on Tuesday for playing a "word game" with its history of forced labor after Japan's foreign minister sought to water down the acknowledgement of its forced labor practices. Japan won the U.N. cultural body's approval on Sunday to have some of its early industrial sites be granted UNESCO's World Heritage status. The approval came after South Korea lifted its opposition against the bid by Japan, which acknowledged at the Sunday meeting that many Korean and other people "were

President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday that she is pleased over the U.N. cultural agency's recent decision to designate several of South Korea's historic sites as world heritage sites.Her comment at a Cabinet meeting came three days after UNESCO added eight historic sites of South Korea's ancient Kingdom of Baekje to its world cultural heritage list.The newly registered sites include Gongsan-Seong Fortress of the Baekje Dynasty (18 B.C.-660 A.D.), located in what is now the city of Gongju, 160 kil