BEIJING -- North Korea is still struggling with chronic malnutrition with 84 percent of households having borderline or poor food consumption, United Nations agencies said on Thursday, despite a 5 percent rise in staple food output.Overall production for this year's harvest is estimated at some 5.03 million metric tons, roughly a 5 percent increase from last year, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Program (WFP) said in a joint statement."Despite the improved harvest, the

A Seoul court on Thursday accepted state prosecutors' second request to press additional charges against a former national intelligence chief accused of meddling in last year's presidential election.Won Sei-hoon, who headed the National Intelligence Service (NIS) under former President Lee Myung-bak, was indicted in May on charges of leading an online smear campaign to sway public opinion ahead of the Dec. 19 poll in favor of President Park Geun-hye, the then ruling Saenuri Party candidate.A tea

JAKARTA -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye arrived in Indonesia's capital on Thursday for a three-day state visit aimed mainly at boosting economic cooperation with the world's fourth-populous nation rich in energy and resources.Jakarta is the last stop of Park's weeklong trip to Southeast Asia that earlier took her to Indonesia's resort island of Bali for a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and then to Brunei for a series of regional summits led by the Association of S

(AFP) The key creditor of South Korea's troubled STX shipbuilding group plans to sell the firm's European arm in an effort to reduce its massive debts, a report said Thursday.The state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) will soon pick sale managers and draw up strategies for the sale of STX Europe, Yonhap news agency said.It quoted an unnamed KDB official as saying nothing has been decided yet on the scale of the sale, or how it will be carried out.The South Korean group acquired STX Europe, previ

캐나다의 단편 소설가 앨리스 먼로가 2013년 노벨 문학상 수상자로 선정되었다.노벨 문학상 선정위원회인 스웨덴 한림원은 10일 발표하면서 먼로를 "현대 단편 소설의 대가"라고 칭하였다.이어 주최측은 금요일에 노벨평화상을, 다음 주 월요일에는 노벨경제상 수상자를 각각 발표할 예정이다.코리아헤럴드 배현정 기자 (tellme@heraldcorp.com)<관련 영문 기사>Canadian writer Alice Munro has won this year's Nobel Prize in literature.The Swedish Academy, which selects Nobel literature winners, called her a "master of the contemporary short story''.Last year's award went to Mo Yan of China.The 2013 Nobel announcements continue Friday with the Nobel Pea

일본 정부는 후쿠시마(福島) 등 8개현 수산물에 대한 한국의 수입금지 조치에 대해 세계무역기구(WTO)에서 문제제기할 방침이라고 NHK가 5일 보도했다. NHK에 따르면 일본 정부는 '한국의 수산물 수입금지 조치에 과학적 근거가 부족한 만큼 철회해야 한다'는 자신들의 주장에 대한 국제사회의 이해를 얻기 위해 오는 16∼17일 제네바 WTO 본부에서 열리는 WTO 회의때 공식적으로 입장을 설명할 방침을 굳혔다.이는 한국 정부의 수입금지 철회를 이끌어내기 위한 압박의 하나로 보인다. 지난달 일본 수산청 당국자가 한국을 방문해 금수 철회를 요구했지만 한국이 받아들이지 않자 국제사회에 호소하기로 한 셈이다. 앞서 산케이 신문은 지난달 14일자에 일본 정부가 WTO에 한국 정부를 제소하는 방안을 검토하고 있다고 보도한 바 있다. 한국 정부는 후쿠시마 제1원전 오염수 해양 유출 사태로 국민 불안이 커지자 후쿠시마, 이바라키, 군마, 미야기, 이와테, 도치기, 지바 아오모리 등 8개 현에서 나오

YEONGAM -- Two-time defending champion Sebastian Vettel took the pole at the Formula One Korean Grand Prix here on Saturday.The Red Bull star posted the fastest lap of 1 minute and 37.202 seconds in the qualifying race on the Korea International Circuit in Yeongam, about 400 kilometers south of Seoul.Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes finished 0.218 second behind the German.The final race of the only F1 stop in South Korea is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Sunday.It is the third-consecutive and the sixth-

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Republicans launched a furious counter-attack on the White House as the US government shutdown drags into a fifth day with no end in sight.With lawmakers heading into the weekend, Congress appeared no closer to resolving the impasse, even as a far more challenging fiscal hurdle -- the need to raise the US debt ceiling or suffer a catastrophic credit default -- was barely 12 days away."This isn't some damn game," boomed House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congres

Japan is to file a complaint to the World Trade Organization on Korea for placing a partial import ban on Japanese fishery products, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NKH on Saturday.The Japanese government is planning to share its disgruntlement during the WTO meeting as “Korea’s ban on fishery products from Fukushima and  neighboring prefectures is baseless and thus should be called off,” according to the broadcaster. The WTO general meeting is slated to be held in Geneva on Oct. 16-17.S

한미일 합동 해상 군사 훈련에 대해서 북한 측이 "북침핵전쟁 도발 기도" 라고 맹비난하면서 강력 대응을 다짐했다.북한의 노동당 기관지 노동신문은 토요일 사설을 통해서 미국의 초대형 항공모함 등이 참여하는 이번 훈련은 대북 대화에 찬 물을 끼얹는 일이라고 표현했다.또한 한반도이 남쪽 해안에서 진행될 군사 훈련은 남북 간의 긴장감을 고조시키고 충돌을 유발할 수 있다고도 전했다.대화와 평화를 중시하지만 대북 핵전쟁 도발 시에는 단호하게 대응하겠다는 것이 북한 측의 주장이다.한편, 유도 미사일 군함들을 동반한 미국의 초대형 항공모함 조지워싱턴호는 금요일 부산항에 도착해서 화요일부터 시작 예정인 합동 해상 훈련에 대비하고 있다.코리아헤럴드 배현정 기자 (tellme@heraldcorp.com)<관련 영문 기사>North Korea on Saturday lashed out at the planned trilateral joint naval exercise next week among South

South Korea and the United States held small group talks Saturday on how best to share the cost of maintaining American troops on the Korean Peninsula after past negotiations failed to make headway.Diplomatic sources said the closed door meeting was attended by Hwang Joon-kook, special ambassador for the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) talks, and his U.S. counterpart Eric John.The location of the talks has not been disclosed other than that it is taking place on the outskirts of Seoul. Insiders

North Korea on Saturday lashed out at the planned trilateral joint naval exercise next week among South Korea, the United States and Japan, calling it a plot to start a nuclear war.The Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), said in a commentary monitored in Seoul that the large-scale maneuver involving a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can only be seen as a move that pours cold water on dialogue efforts with the North and will lead to heightened tensions.The d

The remains of a South Korean prisoner of war (POW) who died in the Northwere returned home, the defense ministry here said Saturday.The ministry said the remains of Sohn Dong-shik arrived earlier in the day and were sent to the Agency for Killed in Action Recovery & Identification for DNA analysis to confirm his identity.The transfer of Sohn's remains, who held the rank of sergeant in South Korea's 9th Infantry Division during the Korea War (1950-53), was facilitated by local civic groups such

LOS ANGELES (AFP) -- US pop icon Madonna was raped at knifepoint when she was a young struggling artist in New York, she revealed in an article published Friday.The 55-year-old also recalled being held up at gunpoint and having her seedy apartment burgled three times, saying she was "scared shitless" at times before she started making it as a singer and dancer.In a piece for Harper's Bazaar, she also talked about her time living in Britain married to director Guy Ritchie, saying there is "nothin