Prosecutors said Thursday they plan to seek international legal cooperation as part of efforts to locate concealed assets of former President Chun Doo-hwan, who owes a massive fine to the state.Chun was ordered by the nation's top court in 1997 to return to the state coffers 220 billion won ($196.8 million) that he was found to have illegally accumulated during his term from 1980 to 1988. The former dictator, however, has so far paid only a quarter of the total, with some 167.2 billion won remai

The Saenuri Party on Thursday requested the prosecution to investigate opposition lawmaker Moon Jae-in and others they hold responsible for the missing 2007 inter-Korean summit transcript. The party accused officials from the Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Myung-bak administrations involved in keeping presidential archives of violating the Act on the Management of Presidential Archives.“Moon Jae-in, who was responsible for overall state affairs as the chief of staff, and the related individuals, Bongha vi

공정거래위원회는 아이돌 그룹 JYJ의 방송출연과 가수활동을 방해한 SM엔터테인먼트(이하 SM)와 한국대중문화예술산업총연합(이하 문산연)에 사업활동 방해행위를 금지하는 시정명령을 내 렸다고 24일 밝혔다.공정위에 따르면 SM과 문산연은 SM 소속 아이돌 그룹 동방신기에서 활동하던 세 멤버가 2010년 10월 JYJ를 결성하고 독자적인 가수활동을 시작하려 하자 관련 업계에 협조를 구해 이들의 방송 프로그램 출연과 음반•음원 유통을 막기로 합의했다.문산연은 SM과의 합의를 바탕으로 같은 달 11일 JYJ의 방송출연과 음반유통의 자 제를 요청하는 협조공문을 JYJ 1집 앨범 유통사인 워너뮤직코리아를 비롯해 9개 지상파•케이블 방송사, 11개 음반 유통사, 5개 온라인음악서비스사 등 26개 사업자에 보냈다.공문은 JYJ와 관련해 '타 기획사와의 이중계약 체결' 등 확인되지 않은 SM 측의 일방 주장만을 포함한데다 방송출연과 섭외, 음반 유통 시 법률적 문제가 발생할 수 있다는 경고 내용을 담

이번 상반기에 취업의 문턱을 넘은 신입사원 평 균 스펙은 토익 730점, 학점 3.5점(만점 4.5점), 자격증 2개라는 조사결과가 나왔다.취업포털 사람인은 지난 1∼10일 올해 신입사원을 뽑은 기업 205개를 대상으로 설문조사한 결과 이같이 집계됐다고 23일 밝혔다.평균 토익 점수는 730점으로 지난해 하반기 동일한 조사를 했을 때보다 3점 올랐다. 구간별로는 750∼800점 미만(21.3%)이 가장 많았고, 700∼750점 미만(16.5%), 600∼650점 미만(15%), 800∼850점 미만(15%) 등의 순이었다.학점은 3.3∼3.6점 미만(31.7%), 3.6∼3.9점 미만(26.8%), 3.0∼3.3점 미만(23.4%), 3.9∼4.2점 미만(10.7%), 3.0점 미만(6.3%), 4.2점 이상(1%)의 분포를 나타냈다.설문에 참여한 기업의 76.6%(157개)는 신입사원이 자격증을 보유하고 있다고 답 했으며 자격증 개수는 평균 2.1개로 조사됐다. 자격증 종류는 전공

Finance chiefs of G20 states on Saturday sought to narrow differences on how to keep budget deficits in check without harming fragile growth as the world economy emerges from slowdown.The finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the top 20 advanced and emerging economies will seek in their final communique to show unity on the often divisive issue of how to promote growth without harming fiscal situations.The meeting in Moscow in an exhibition centre outside the Kremlin walls aims to set up

Candidates made final campaign pushes ahead of Sunday's upper house elections that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition is expected to easily win as the economy picks up steam.A victory would give Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and junior partner New Komeito control of both houses of parliament _ an elusive goal for the government in recent years _ making it easier to pass legislation at a time when Japan faces huge structural challenges, including a rapidly graying population and bulgin

A delegation of European Union (EU) legislators reaffirmed its commitment to help induce "sincere"changes in North Korea while under close cooperation with South Korea, the foreign ministry here said Saturday.The comment came during a meeting in Seoul between the European Parliament's six-member delegation to the Korean Peninsula and South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se.The legislators, led by Chairman Herbert Reul of Germany, arrived here a day earlier after wrapping up their five-day tri

At a century-old Detroit fire station surrounded by boarded up storefronts and weed-choked lots, the Motor City's bankruptcy filing wasn't exactly a surprise.While his union sought a court injunction Friday to stop the proceedings and protect their retirement benefits, firefighter Frank Dombrowski resigned himself to the inevitable."Basically we're screwed," Dombrowski, 48, said as he stood watch over an isolated corner of the city where thousands of abandoned buildings regularly go up in flames

South Korea's western port city of Incheon has been chosen to be the World Book Capital for 2015 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), city officials said Saturday.Incheon, just west of Seoul, assumed the title after the Selection Committee composed of experts representing the book industry and the U.N. agency met earlier this week in Paris, France.The city was chosen for the quality of its programs and the expected impact "on improving good integratio

A secret U.S. intelligence court renewed an order Friday to continue forcing Verizon Communications to turn over hundreds of millions of telephone records to the government each day in its search for foreign terror or espionage suspects.The order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has been in place for years but must be renewed every three months. It was exposed in June after former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden leaked details of two top secret U.S. surveill

One of the victims of this month's Asiana Airlines jet crash in San Francisco survived impact but was killed on the tarmac when she was run over by an emergency vehicle, officials said Friday.Results of the autopsy on 16-year-old Chinese student Ye Mengyuan, one of three people killed in the July 6 disaster, had been keenly awaited after firefighters admitted a tarmac accident was possible.The girl, who was "alive at the time," died due to "multiple blunt injuries that are consistent with being

Barack Obama, the nation's first African American president, made a surprise and emotional appearance Friday to talk about the slaying of black teen-ager Trayvon Martin and the trial that found his killer not guilty of murder. He said Americans need to do some ``soul-searching'' about the killing and the country's difficult racial history.Obama  spoke emotionally about the kind of subconscious racial profiling that blacks, especially young black men, continue to suffer in the country, telling re

South Korea's finance minister expressed concern that the rollback of stimulus measures by advanced countries could have a negative ripple effect on theglobal economy, his office said Saturday.The concerns were raised by Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok during talks with his Chinese counterpart Lou Jiwei that were held before the start of the group of 20 meeting here in Moscow, Russia. Hyun emphasized the need for global cooperation to effectively cope with the negative ripple effect and Lou shared