South Korean director Na Hong-jin was called a "heavyweight talent" on a list of "20 Directors to Watch" in the Friday edition of The New York Times.The critics gave the 39-year-old South Korean high points for keeping the viewers' attention with his second feature "The Yellow Sea," despite the unfavorable 10 p.m. screening slot at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival."Before it was over, this thrillingly visceral movie confirmed Mr. Na as a heavyweight talent," the critics wrote. The daily's film crit

South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev agreed Friday to build on massive construction projects already underway between the two countries to further expand economic cooperation, an official said.   South Korean companies are working on large-scale projects worth a combined $8 billion. They include building a coal-fired power plant in the southern Kazakh city of Balkhash and a petrochemical complex in Atyrau on the northern banks of the Caspian Sea.During t

Philippine rescuers searched Saturday for more than 200 people missing after a crowded ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank almost instantly in thick darkness, with 26 already confirmed dead. The St Thomas Aquinas ferry was carrying 870 passengers and crew when the accident occurred late on Friday night in a dangerous choke point near the port of Cebu, the Philippines' second biggest city, authorities said.Coastguard and military vessels, as well as local fishermen in their own small boats

An independent U.S. trade panel said Friday that there is evidence that South Korean manufacturers are selling steel pipe used by oil and natural gas producers at unfairly low prices in the U.S. market. The U.S. International Trade Commission said it determined that "there is a reasonable indication that a U.S. industry is materially injured by reason of imports of certain oil country tubular goods" from South Korea, India, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Vie

A delegation of 30 South Korean officials made a cross-border trip to inspect facilities at a shuttered inter-Korean industrial park on Saturday, following a recent agreement between the two Koreas to resume its operations.The officials' trip to the Kaesong Industrial Complex comes three days after the Koreas agreed to reopen the troubled factory park that had been closed since early April. According to the unification ministry here, the 30-person delegation is made of up officials from the Kaes

China has submitted a claim to a U.N. commission stating that its naturally extended continental shelf stretches to the Okinawa Trough in the East China Sea, state media reported Saturday, a move that could rekindle territorial spats with South Korea and Japan.South Korea, China and Japan have separately claimed the Okinawa Trough, with part of Seoul's recent claim overlapping with China's. Seoul and Beijing, however, share a largely similar stance on defining the limits while being in discord w

U.S. developers started work on new homes at a faster pace in July, partly reversing a sharp drop the previous month. The figures suggest that housing construction is maintaining its recovery.The Commerce Department says builders began work last month on houses and apartments at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 896,000. That was up 6 percent from June, though below a recent peak of just over 1 million in March. Construction began on 26 percent more apartments, a volatile category, but 2.2 pe

A senior Chinese official on Friday touted his country's diplomatic efforts to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, while reaffirming its pledge to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program.State Councilor Yang Jiechi, a senior foreign policy adviser to Chinese President Xi Jinping, also hailed the June summit talks between South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Xi as having "consolidated our good-neighborly friendship and cooperation."Yang made the remarks in his eight-page a

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will hold summit talks early next month on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in St.Petersburg, officials said Friday.Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday in Moscow and agreed on the Xi-Putin talks during the upcoming G20 summit, set for Sept. 5-6, China's foreign ministry said in a statement.During Thursday's meeting, Yang and Lavrov "also exchanged view

A group of Korean-American environmental activists will visit the International Garden Exposition Suncheon Bay Korea 2013 Saturday to forge deeper ties with the city, the event organizers said Tuesday.The Suncheon Bay Garden exposition plans to welcome 220 visitors from California-based environmental organization PAVA World, including 160 Korean-American students.The visit came after Cho Chung-hoon, the mayor of Suncheon, visited the United States in January and clinched an agreement with PAVA W

South Korea and Russia agreed Tuesday to cooperate on developing harbors in the Russian Far East and the Arctic Sea as well as on other projects as part of efforts to boost bilateral ties, Seoul's finance ministry said.The two countries also agreed to improve cooperation in such fields as trade, investment, resource development and agriculture, according to the ministry.The agreements were reached at a South Korea-Russia joint committee meeting on the economy, science and technology held in Seou

The Green Climate Fund (GCF), a United Nations environment body, opened a board meeting Tuesday to work out details of the fund's operations, fund officials said.During the four-day meeting, co-hosted by the finance ministry and Incheon City, the board will pick the fund's secretary general and discuss details of the operation, they said.South Korea signed a deal with the GCF board on June 10 to help the new U.N. fund establish its headquarters at the Songdo International Business District in In

The state-run nuclear watchdog on Tuesday approved the resumption of a nuclear power plant which has been suspended since late April for maintenance.The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said the Wolseong No. 2 reactor met the performance standards for operation in its regular inspection that started on April 24.   The 700-megawatt nuclear power plant located in Wolseong, some 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul, is expected to provide some relief to the nation battling power shortages.South

China on Thursday called for an early resumption of the long-stalled six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea, one day after China expressed its willingness to help the North open dialogue with its neighbors."The pressing issue is to improve mutual trust and relations through talks and contacts and to resolve the problem through negotiations," China's foreign ministry spokesman, Hua Chunying, said in a press conference, referring to the nuclear row with the North.The multilateral dial

Norway's Parliament has opened up a new area on the fringe of the Arctic Ocean to offshore oil drilling despite protests from opponents who fear catastrophic oil spills in the remote and icy region.Most of the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea, which the Nordic country shares with Russia, is already open to petroleum activities.But environmentalists and some opposition lawmakers say the risk to Arctic sea ice is higher in a Switzerland-sized area straddling the Russian maritime border, and wan