South Korea will pledge more than $5 million to help millions of Syrians who were displaced by the four-year-long civil war, a senior official said Monday.South Korea will make an official announcement at a donors conference in Kuwait later this month, Ju Chul-ki, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs, said in a brief comment to Yonhap News Agency.He said South Korea's pledge will exceed $5 million -- an amount pledged by Seoul during the second donors conference in 2014, though he d

South Korea's top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. said Monday it is recalling some 263,000 units of its Elantra compact in the United States and in Canada for a programming error in the model's electronic power steering function. "The current setting for the cars may have turned off the power steering in some of the vehicles, resulting in increased heaviness in the steering wheel," a Hyundai official said, adding that the flaw has not led to any accidents or injuries so far. "Although the problem see

South Korean President Park Geun-hye left for Kuwait on Sunday on a nine-day, four-nation trip to the Middle East expected to focus on wide-ranging economic cooperation beyond energy and construction.The trip, which will also take Park to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, comes as Seoul is pushing to capitalize on the "second Middle East boom" as a new growth engine for South Korea's export-dependent economy.South Korea hopes that its companies can participate in big industrial a

South Korea, China and Japan have agreed to hold a meeting of high-ranking diplomats in Seoul ahead of the three nations' foreign ministerial meeting, multiple government sources here said Sunday.The sources said Lee Kyung-soo, South Korea's deputy foreign minister for political affairs, will meet with Liu Zhenmin, the Chinese vice foreign minister handling Asian affairs, and Shinsuke Sugiyama, Japan's deputy foreign minister. Their talks will be held around March 10 or 11, according to the sour

South Korea's vice foreign minister plans to make a speech at a United Nations meeting on human rights in Geneva next week to raise awareness of North Korea's dismal human rights conditions and Japan's wartime sex slaves, officials said Thursday.  South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul is expected on Tuesday to address Pyongyang's human rights issue and the promotion of women's rights at the high-level segment of the 28th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council that will run from March

South Korea and the Czech Republic agreed Thursday to upgrade their relations to a strategic partnership to deepen cooperation in political, economic and other issues.  "I am confident that bilateral relations will be further expanded and deepened" on the occasion of (my) trip to South Korea, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said at a joint news conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye after their summit in Seoul.  The summit came as Seoul and Prague commemorate the 25th anniver

China is soon expected to ease its regulations on pickled foods that have long worked against imports of South Korea's traditional side dish kimchi, officials said Thursday.  China's national council on health and family planning has posted an administrative notice that will significantly ease inspection standards for pickled foods in terms of the allowed level of coliform bacteria.  While coliform bacteria count often serves as an indicator of sanitary quality of foods and water, fermented food

South Korea is seeking to dispatch government officials to Syria's neighboring countries in the coming months to assess the situation in a bid to prevent its citizens from illegally entering the Middle Eastern country, government sources said Wednesday.  The government is considering sending officials to countries bordering Syria, such as Turkey, as early as March to seek cooperation on border control as extreme militant group the Islamic State has become violent, they added.  "The government is

South Korea will work to increase its exports of rice, the government said Tuesday, as a way of developing the local industry while also protecting the sector that's now facing a possible oversupply.  To help assist local producers and exporters, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has published an exporters handbook that outlines the names and other information of major buyers in key importing countries, including Australia and Japan.  The handbook also contains customs and othe

North Korea's economy minister left Monday for Russia, according to Pyongyang's media, amid signs of improved ties between the neighboring countries.  Ri Yong-nam, minister of external economic relations, is leading a government delegation, the Korean Central News Agency said in a brief report. It did not provide details, including his itinerary and the purpose of the trip.  A source here said Ri is expected to arrive in Moscow on Wednesday after traveling to Vladivostok and Khabarovsk in Russia

South Korea summoned a senior Japanese diplomat here Monday to protest a Japanese prefecture's hosting of an annual event to promote its territorial claim to Seoul's easternmost islets of Dokdo.   Japan's Shimane Prefecture, which claims administrative sovereignty over the rocky islets, observed the so-called Takeshima Day event on Sunday. A Japanese vice-minister-level official was sent to this year's ceremony, prompting a strong protest from South Korea.   The prefecture has held the event on

The second batch of South Korea's Ebola response team returned home Monday after completing their one-month relief mission in Sierra Leone, the foreign ministry said.  The team of four doctors and five nurses was sent to the African country late last month to replace the country's first Ebola relief team, which had completed their one-month mission.  The medical workers were in charge of examining and treating Ebola patients at a treatment center in Goderich, near Sierra Leone's capital of Freet

A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a new bill calling for granting non-immigrant U.S. visas for highly-skilled workers from South Korea, Congressional records showed Sunday.  The 20 lawmakers, led by Rep. Peter J. Roskam (R-IL), submitted the bill (H.R.1019) on Friday, according to the records. The legislation is titled, "To provide high-skilled visas for nationals of the Republic of Korea, and for other purposes."  Details of the legislation wer

South Korean President Park Geun-hye plans to visit Saudi Arabia and three other Middle Eastern countries next month to discuss energy and security issues with their heads of state, the presidential office said Sunday.The nine-day trip to the Middle East, starting on March 1, will take Park first to Kuwait and then Saudi Arabia as well as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, according to the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae. It will be Park's first visit abroad this year. "During the Middl

Scores of South Koreans assembled in central Seoul on Sunday to denounce Japan for holding a ceremony that promotes Tokyo's territorial claim over South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo.In 2005, Japan's Shimane Prefecture, which claims administrative sovereignty over the islets, designated Feb. 22 as a day to promote Takeshima, the Japanese name for Dokdo. Since then, Shimane has hosted various programs to strengthen its territorial claims to the islets on this day.Tokyo sent a vice-minister-