Senior diplomats from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are expected to gather in Washington next week to coordinate cooperation over North Korea’s nuclear programs and other regional issues. Cho Tae-yong, the Foreign Ministry’s new special representative for Korean peninsular peace and security affairs, plans to visit the U.S. capital on June 18-20. On the way back, he will stop at Beijing for talks with officials including Wu Dawei, China’s special representative for Korean peninsular affairs. D

Turkish protest leaders went into emergency talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday after demonstrators rejected his "last warning" to evacuate an Istanbul park at the centre of mass anti-government demos.Thousands of defiant protesters spent another night under the stars in Gezi Park after rebuffing Erdogan's olive branch to clear out in return for a referendum on the park's planned redevelopment."We will stay in Gezi Park with all our demands and sleeping bags," Taksim Solid

Creditors of Ssangyong Engineering & Construction Co. on Thursday agreed to put the troubled builder under a debt-rescheduling program in a bid to rescue it from a liquidity crunch, officials said.Creditors of Ssangyong E&C, led by Woori Bank, agreed to provide fresh liquidity worth 445 billion won (US$392.8 million) next month and seek a debt-to-equity swap in July, according to bank officials.The creditors had been at odds over whether to place the builder under the debt workout program, claim

The collapse of the planned inter-Korean talks is igniting political fighting in the South over the proper approach to the communist neighbor. The two-day meeting, scheduled to open on Wednesday in Seoul, was aborted after the two sides failed to agree on the ranks of chief delegates. A senior presidential official said on Tuesday the North was trying to “force subservience and indignity (on South Korea) as it has done in the past.” His remark was also seen as a veiled criticism of the oppositio

The government unveiled a set of measures on Thursday to beef up its surveillance and punishment of conglomerates twisting the arms of smaller suppliers in order to push them to lower their product prices.The Fair Trade Commission (FTC), the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and other related agencies will work together in monitoring large businesses to prevent the forcing of price cuts of supplies without any warranted reasons.The government added that it will toughen its request for firms

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and female lawmakers from the ruling Saenuri Party on Thursday agreed to block the Defense Ministry’s latest proposal to give extra credits to male job seekers for military service.“The military duty incentive system was already ruled unconstitutional,” Rep. Kim Hyun-sook said after a government ruling party meeting held at the National Assembly.“(The Defense Ministry) should be discreet about reviving the system which would spark strong opposition from

넥센 히어로즈 소속 프로야구 선수 신현철 (26)씨가 만취상태에서 교통사고를 내고 달아난 혐의 (폭력행위등 처벌에 관한 법률 위반 등)로 불구속 기소되었다고 검찰이 13일 밝혔다.서울중앙지검 형사 1부 (권정훈 부장검사)가 밝힌 바에 따르면 신씨는 지난 4우러 8일 오전 4시 37분께 서울 강남역 부근에서 승용차로 정차해 있던 택시의 앞범퍼를 들이받는 사고를 냈다.당시 택시기사 강모 (52)씨가 차에서 내려 신씨의 차량을 가로막자 신씨는 앞범퍼로 강씨의 왼쪽 무릎을 수차례 들이받아 전치 2주의 상해를 입힌 후 도망간 것으로 조사되었다.신씨는 강씨의 신고로 곧 경찰에 붙잡혔는데 그는 사고 당시 면허취소 수치를 넘는 혈중알코올농도 0.189% 상태였던 것으로 드러났다.지난 9일 무면허 음주운전 사고를 낸 같은 넥센 소속 김민우(34) 선수는 한국야구위원회(KBO)로부터 야구활동 3개월 정지와 유소년 야구봉사활동 240시간의 징계를 받은 바 있다. 넥센은 최근 1군 엔트리에서 제외된 김씨

The union leader of Ssangyong Motor Co. has been detained pending trial on charges of interfering with officials' attempt to dismantle protest tents in central Seoul earlier this week, court officials said Thursday.The Seoul Central District Court approved the police request for an arrest warrant for Kim Jeong-woo, who leads Ssangyong's labor union affiliated with the Korea Metal Workers' Union, they said. Former employees of the country's smallest automaker and civic activists set up three tent

South Korean stocks opened lower Thursday tracking losses on Wall Street in the previous trading session, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) moved down 7.57 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,902.34 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Shares lost ground across the board, with tech giant Samsung Electronics falling 0.22 percent and top auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis losing 0.19 percent. Leading flat panel maker LG Display shed 0.64 percent.U.S. stocks closed lower We

The man who told the world about the U.S. government's gigantic data grab also talks a lot about himself.Mostly through his own words, a picture of Edward Snowden is emerging: fresh-faced computer whiz, high school dropout, wannabe Green Beret, disillusioned cog in a secret bureaucracy.He's retained an aura of secrecy despite sitting for several days of interviews with The Guardian, some posted in online video. Snowden combines an earnest, deeply serious demeanor with a flair for the dramatic.Sn

The World Bank on Wednesday lowered its growth estimate for the global economy in 2013, but said that expansion appeared better balanced than just before the 2008 financial crisis.The global economy was expected to grow at an annual rate of 2.2 percent this year, led by a 5.1 percent surge in developing countries, down from a January estimate of a 2.4 percent."The overall acceleration is not stronger because the majority of developing countries have more-or-less fully recovered from the 2008 fin