South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Sunday their cumulative sales in China have exceeded 9 million units in 12 years since their entry into the fast-growing market.In the first nine months of this year, Hyundai and Kia sold a combined 1.28 million units in the Chinese market, up 9.5 percent from the same period a year earlier.The January-September figure raised the two companies' cumulative sales in China to more than 9 million vehicles,

North Korea insists its leader Kim Jong-un has "no problems" with his health, South Korea's unification minister said Sunday, one day after a rare visit by North Korean high-ranking officials to the South.Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae made the remarks after he met a delegation headed by Hwang Pyong-so, believed to be the second-most powerful man in the communist regime, on Saturday in the western port city of Incheon.The delegation, which also included Choe Ryong-hae, the Workers' Party of

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest automaker, said Tuesday it has reached a tentative agreement with its labor union on this year's pay increase 119 days after the start of negotiations. On Wednesday, the labor union plans to hold a vote on whether to approve the agreement signed late Monday at the carmaker's main production plant in Ulsan, located 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Under the agreement, unionized workers and management will set up a special pay system and standard wage ref

South Korea on Tuesday formally notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday it will open its rice market starting next year with a 513 percent tariff rate."The government has submitted to the WTO secretariat its plan to revise the country's tariff rate on rice imports ahead of market opening through tarrification that will go into effect Jan. 1, 2015," the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a press release.The move comes as a special agreement with the WTO that allowed the

Hong Kong's embattled leader called Tuesday for an immediate end to street demonstrations that have drawn tens of thousands and paralysed the city, but protesters refused to move until Beijing grants the financial hub genuine democracy.In his first public comments since demonstrators were tear gassed by riot police on Sunday evening, chief executive Leung Chun-ying said protests organised by the pro-democracy Occupy Central group had got "out of control"."Occupy Central founders had said repeate

Volcanic tremors and fears over a fresh eruption forced rescuers with gas masks to halt operations to recover bodies from a Japanese mountain on Tuesday, 72 hours after its eruption.Vulcanologists warned of the possibility of another major explosion at the 3,067-metre (10,121-foot) Mount Ontake, noting tremors have become larger.At least 36 people are known to have died in the eruption, with the bodies of 24 of them still on the volcano. About 60 people suffered injuries."Ground search operation

Hong Kong's chief executive Leung Chun-ying Tuesday called on protest leaders to "immediately" withdraw their followers from the streets in his first public comments since demonstrators were tear gassed by police."Occupy Central founders had said repeatedly that if the movement is getting out of control, they would call for it to stop. I'm now asking them to fulfil the promise they made to society, and stop this campaign immediately," Leung said.Occupy Central is the main grassroots group behind

President Park Geun-hye called on officials Tuesday to make aggressive efforts to help improve the lives of North Koreans as she made clear that North Korea's human rights issue is a top priority in dealing with the communist country.The issue of the North's human rights had long been placed on the back burner in South Korea where many people, mostly liberals, have shied away from the issue out of fear that it could strain inter-Korean relations.The issue was also pushed back on the priority lis

North Korea's political instability took a turn for the worse in 2013 from a year earlier, the World Bank said Tuesday, apparently due to the execution of its leader's uncle. The bank's annual World Governance Indicators (WGI) data showed the aggregate indicator of "political stability and absence of violence (PV)" for the communist nation dropped to minus 0.53 in 2013 from minus 0.11 a year earlier.It marks the lowest PV figure for North Korea since the bank launched the WGI program in 1996. Th

South Korean paddler Cho Gwang-hee picked up gold in the K-1 (kayak single) 200-meter race in the men's sprint event on Monday at the Incheon Asian Games. The 20-year-old came home in first place in a time of 35.464 seconds, seizing the first Asiad gold medal in the discipline for the host country since its last win at the 1990 Asian Games. Uzbekistan's Ernest Irnazarov came in second place in 36.531 seconds, while Japan's Seiji Komatsu secured the bronze with a time of 36.754 seconds. The South