Five South Koreans have been arrested on charges of pocketing a large sum of money by routing international calls through the illegal usage of SIM cards, police said Thursday.  The suspects, including a ringleader surnamed Um, allegedly brought in 617 SIM cards from China and made a specialized device that routes international calls without the proper government approval, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.   The SMPA alleges that the equipment automatically switches international

All 14 South Korean citizens who were quarantined at hospitals in Hong Kong and China for exposure to MERS have been discharged after completing their quarantine periods, a South Korean official said Thursday.   They had been under quarantine in Hong Kong and the southern Chinese province of Guangdong since making contact with a 44-year-old South Korean man who flew to Hong Kong on May 26, a day after his father was diagnosed with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in South Korea. He subsequently

The South Korean MERS patient who traveled to China has been gradually recovering there, but his lungs have become inflamed, Chinese health authorities said Wednesday.  The 44-year-old Korean man flew to Hong Kong on May 26, a day after his father was diagnosed with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus in South Korea and subsequently went to the southern Chinese province of Guangdong by bus.   He was confirmed to be infected with the virus on May 29 and has been treated under quarantine at

South Korea said Wednesday it will hold talks with the U.N. food aid agency on promoting partnerships in the global fight against hunger.  A six-member delegation from the World Food Program is visiting here for the first round of annual consultations between the two sides. It is led by Claudia von Roehl, head of the office of government partnerships at the Rome-based organization.  She plans to hold a meeting with Oh Yeoung-ju, director-general of the Foreign Ministry's development cooperation

South Korea said Tuesday it is closely monitoring the global response to the MERS outbreak as Hong Kong issued a travel alert for the country following its seventh death from the virus.  As of Tuesday morning, the death toll from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome rose to seven while the number of confirmed patients climbed to 95.  The Foreign Ministry said it will review the travel alerts and safety notices issued by other countries and provide accurate information on the extent of MERS here.

McKINNEY, Texas (AP) -- A suburban Dallas police officer has been placed on leave after a video showed him pushing a 14-year-old girl in a bikini to the ground outside a pool and pointing his gun at other black teens.McKinney Police Chief Greg Conley said at a news conference Sunday that the incident began when officers responded Friday to a report of a disturbance involving a group of young people at a neighborhood pool. The police department has said they did not live in the area or have permi

Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun will fly to Kuala Lumpur this week for preparatory meetings ahead of key annual talks with Southeast Asian countries, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.   Kim will participate in the two-day senior officials' meetings starting Tuesday in Malaysia, the chair of this year's ASEAN meetings.   Those include the ASEAN-plus-three talks involving South Korea, China and Japan, as well as the larger East Asia Summit and the U.S., Russia, India, Australia and New Zeala

Hong Kong's health authorities said Monday they have quarantined two more people who have developed fevers after recently returning from separate trips to South Korea.   A 21-year-old woman has been treated under isolation after returning from South Korea to Hong Kong on Wednesday, Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection said in a statement.   Another 66-year-old man was found to have a fever after he arrived in Hong Kong on Saturday from a 10-day trip to South Korea.   The two people, who have

South Korea will ramp up efforts to help young people find jobs in foreign countries in an attempt to cope with stubbornly high youth unemployment, the government said Monday.  The move comes as the jobless rate among people aged between 15 to 29 stood at 10.2 percent in April, much higher than the 3.9 percent national average.  According to the finance ministry, the goal is to find at least 10,000 overseas positions for qualified people in 2017, up from 5,000 last year, with emphasis placed on

South Korea and Japan have agreed to hold a second round of talks next week to resolve a row over Tokyo's push to win world heritage status for industrial facilities linked to wartime Korean slave labor, the Seoul government said Saturday.Japan has applied to list a package of 23 coal mines, shipyards and other early industrial zones as UNESCO world heritage sites.South Korea is strongly against the bid as the facilities include seven sites where nearly 60,000 Koreans were forced to work during

Senegalese President Macky Sall plans to make a four-day visit to Seoul next week for talks with his South Korean counterpart, Park Geun-hye, Park's office said Thursday.The two leaders are set to meet on June 4 to discuss ways to boost cooperation in a wide-range of areas, including trade, investment, construction as well as science and technology.Seoul said Sall's visit could further enhance traditional friendship between the two countries and help South Korean companies make inroads into the

South Korea and Uzbekistan agreed Thursday to push for large-scale cooperative projects in the Central Asian country, a move that could further boost their economic ties.The agreement was reached in a summit between President Park Geun-hye and her Uzbek counterpart, Islam Karimov, in Seoul, the second such meeting in a year.South Korea said it can set up mutually beneficial ties with Uzbekistan by marrying Seoul's technology and know-how for economic development with Tashkent's rich natural reso

South Korea's top nuclear negotiator left for Beijing on Thursday to meet with his Chinese counterpart and discuss measures to counter North Korea's growing missile and nuclear threats.Hwang Joon-kook, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, will meet with Ambassador Wu Dawei later in the day to share the results of Wednesday's trilateral talks involving the chief nuclear negotiators of the U.S. and Japan.On Wednesday, Hwang held talks in Seoul with Sung Kim, U.S.

South Korea will next week host a meeting with member nations of the world's largest intergovernmental security bloc to discuss security affairs and cooperation among the sides, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.The two-day session will begin Monday with the participation of more than 100 officials and experts from the 57 member nations of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and its 11 partner states, the ministry said in a press release.This year's discussions will cover

Top South Korean, U.S. and Japanese nuclear envoys held talks here Wednesday on ways to put more pressure on North Korea and cajole it into returning to the negotiating table."This trilateral meeting is particularly timely, given the current North Korean situation that is uncertain and tense," Hwang Joon-kook, Seoul's senior diplomat in charge of North Korea affairs, said at the outset of the gathering with his American and Japanese counterparts -- Sung Kim and Junichi Ihara.Hwang was apparently