North Korea fired off 25 short-range rockets toward the East Sea late Sunday, Seoul's military said, the latest show of force in response to the ongoing joint South Korea-U.S. military drills.The North began launching 10 projectiles at 6:20 p.m. over the span of 10 minutes. The launches began again at around 8:03 p.m., and the other eight rockets were fired in the period of five minutes, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. From 9:28 p.m., the North also fired sevent rockets.The fired rockets

Russia vetoed a Western-backed resolution condemning the Crimea referendum at a UN Security Council emergency vote Saturday, but China abstained, isolating Moscow further on the Ukraine crisis.The draft resolution, which says Sunday's referendum would have no validity, got 13 votes in the 15-member council. But it was rejected when permanent member Russia exercised its veto.The resolution declares that the referendum on whether the semi-autonomous region should come under Kremlin rule "cannot fo

South Korea's central bank froze the key interest rate for the 10th-straight month on Thursday at the last rate-setting meeting for its outgoing chief as the local economy is improving amid tame inflation.Bank of Korea Gov. Kim Choong-soo and his six fellow policymakers held the benchmark seven-day repo rate, called the base rate, at 2.5 percent as widely expected.The March meeting marked the last rate-setting session for Gov. Kim as his four-year term expires at the end of this month. Lee Ju-ye

North Korea has denounced the South for failing to comply with a deal to stop slandering each other, claiming officials and media here alike are putting the deal's implementation at a "critical crossroads."After holding two rounds of rare high-level talks last month, the two Koreas agreed to stop making insulting remarks against each other to improve their relations."However, they have gone the lengths of daring slander ... in gross violation of the agreement," the North's Korean Central News Ag

외국의 면세점이나 백화점에서 분기당 500만원을 넘는 고가 명품 등을 사서 몰래 들여오면 추후 관세청의 추적을 받게 된다.고액의 물품을 여러 차례로 나눠 결제해도 관세청으로부터 관세 포탈 여부 등에 대한 조사를 받을 수 있다.10일 관세청에 따르면 그동안 외국에서 연간 1만달러 이상 신용카드를 사용한 여행자들의 명단•사용내역을 여신금융협회로부터 통보 받았으나 올해부터는 분기별 사용액 5천달러(약 530만원) 이상 사용자에 대한 정보를 받게 된다.지난 1월 관세청법 개정에 따른 것이다.이에 따라 올해 1월부터 3월까지 외국에서 5천달러 이상을 카드로 결제하거나 현지 화폐로 인출한 여행객의 명단과 결제 내역이 4월 중 관세청에 통보될 예정이다.해외 신용카드 결제 정보의 관세청 통보 방식 변경은 1년 단위의 결제정보가 외 환관리법 위반 등의 단속에서 실효성이 떨어진다는 지적 때문이다.또 국내 면세점에서 고액을 결제한 여행자는 입국시 휴대품 검사 등을 통해 개인 면세한도(400달러) 초과