Satellite images of one of North Korea's largest political prison camps suggests its inmate population is expanding, Amnesty International said Thursday in a report detailing rape and torture in the North's notorious gulag.The report by the London-based rights watchdog included rare testimony from a former camp guard, as well as from former inmates about the brutality prevalent in the prison system."For Amnesty International, which has been investigating human rights violations for the last 50 y

지난해 태어난 아이는 앞으로 81.4년을 살 것으로 나타났다.지난해 기준으로 45세인 남성이 더 살 수 있는 기대여명은 34.5년이지만 암•심장병•당뇨병 등 주요 사망원인을 피하면 기대 여명이 10년가량 늘어난다.◇男女 건강한 생존기간 66년…韓여성 기대수명 OECD 6위통계청이 5일 발표한 '2012년 생명표'를 보면 지난해 태어난 아이의 기대수명은 81.4년으로 10년 전보다 4.4년 연장됐다. 남녀 간 기대 수명 차이는 6.7년에 달하지만 아픈 기간을 제외하면 기대 여명 차이는 1.5년으로 줄어든다. 지난해 출생아의 기대수명을 보면 남자는 77.9년, 여자는 84.6년이다. 이 중 유병기간을 제외한 기대여명은 남자가 65.2년, 여자는 66.7년이다. 남자는 12.7년을, 여자는 17.9년을 질병이나 사고에 따라 아픈 상태로 생존한다. 즉 생존 시간은 여성이 훨씬 길지만 건강하게 사는 기간은 큰 차이 없다는 의미다. 각자가 주관적으로 건강하다고 생각하는 기대여명은 남자가 66.

Top U.S. officials expressed concern Tuesday at reports that Chinese telecoms giant Huawei is set to build a new broadband network in South Korea that Washington sees as a possible spying risk.Huawei, barred from projects in the United States and Australia over national security concerns, was reportedly selected as a subcontractor for LGU+, a subsidiary of South Korea's LG Corp, to build a Long Term LGU+Evolution (LTE) network.But U.S. defense and intelligence officials and key lawmakers on Capi

Pohang Steelers captured the South Korean professional football championship with a nail-biting victory in the season finale on Sunday.Pohang defeated Ulsan Hyundai 1-0 with a last-second goal by Kim Won-il on the road at Munsu Football Stadium in Ulsan, about 410 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to take the 2013 K League Classic title.With the riveting victory, Pohang ended the season with 74 points, one ahead of Ulsan, for their first K League championship since 2007.Ulsan entered the match in f

Samsung Electronics will reportedly roll out two variants of the Galaxy S5 early next year, equipped with a 64-bit ARM chip.A premium Galaxy lineup will likely sport a 5-inch flexible OLED display and a metal chassis, while a stripped-down model will come in a plastic body, according to a news report.It is expected that the new models will run on the 64-bit Exynos chipset and a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip.  The smartphones will be equipped with 3 GB of RAM, a 16-megapixel camera, and a 4000mAh batt

China on Thursday rejected South Korea’s demand to adjust its recent demarcation of an air defense zone in the East China Sea, which has raised tension by covering an area over Korea’s southwestern submerged rock of Ieodo.Vice Defense Minister Baek Seung-joo made the demand during his talks in Seoul with Wang Guanzhong, the deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.Wang came here to attend the regular bilateral strategic defense dialogue, where China’s unilateral draw

Pope Francis issued the mission statement for his papacy Tuesday, outlining how the Catholic Church and the papacy itself must be reformed to create a more missionary and merciful church that gets its hands dirty as it seeks out the poor and oppressed.In the document, Francis pulled together the priorities he has laid out in eight months of homilies, speeches and interviews and put them in the broader context of how to reinvigorate the church's evangelical zeal in a world marked by indifference,

South Korea on Tuesday expressed its displeasure with the European Union's preliminary designation of the country as an illegal fishing nation, noting it has already revised law to intensify fishing regulation set to go into effect early next year, according to a ministry official."South Korea has consistently sought to react to various issues raised by the European Union since last year, and the result of such efforts was the revision to the law on deep-sea fishing, which was legislated in late

In the early years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the CIA turned some Guantanamo Bay prisoners into double agents then sent them home to help the U.S. kill terrorists, current and former U.S. officials said.The CIA promised the prisoners freedom, safety for their families and millions of dollars from the agency's secret accounts.It was a risky gamble. Officials knew there was a chance that some prisoners might quickly spurn their deal and kill Americans.For the CIA, that was an acceptable ris

A fatal gas leak at a local power plant left one dead and three others in critical condition on Tuesday, local authorities said.Police here in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, about 120 kilometers south of Seoul, said the leak at Hyundai Greenpower's plant at around 7 p.m. Tuesday killed a worker surnamed Yang. Eight others were transferred to Dangjin Hospital, with three of them said to be in critical condition.Police believe that one worker was doing maintenance work on the plant's boiler

North Korea on Tuesday blasted the United States for laying out "absurd preconditions" for the resumption of long-stalled nuclear disarmament talks, saying it will never accept them.In an interview with the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the spokesman for the North's foreign ministry accused Glyn Davies, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, of unreasonably demanding Pyongyang meet its commitments to denuclearize before the six-party talks can resume, while Washin

Japan's lower house of parliament passed a controversial new state secrets bill Tuesday, which critics say is draconian and will impinge on press freedom and the public's right to know.After a morning of debate, the ruling bloc with support from one opposition party voted for the bill, which would give Tokyo far broader powers in deciding what constitutes a state secret, and severely punish those who leak the information.The legislation was sent to the upper house for more debate. That chamber i

One of South Korea's most wanted fugitives and former gang boss, Cho Yang-eun, has been arrested in the Philippines and is set to be handed over to the South Korean authorities, Seoul police said on Tuesday, confirming an earlier media report from China.Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said the 63-year-old Cho, wanted for charges of fraud, was arrested inside a casino in the northern Philippine city of Angeles.Earlier on Tuesday, China's Xinhua news agency, from Manila, reported the arrest of Ch

China's aircraft carrier was set to depart for the South China Sea on Tuesday for a training mission, state media said, amid growing concerns over Beijing's newly declared air defense zone that sparked a war of words with Japan.It is the first time that China sent its sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, to the South China Sea since it was commissioned last year, Xinhua news agency reported.The Liaoning was escorted by two missile destroyers, the Shenyang and Shijiazhuang, and two missile frigat