U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law a spending bill which includes a highly symbolic provision on Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean and other Asian women.The signing of the bill came a day after Congress passed it in order to keep government spending going for the fiscal year 2014.The legislation includes language calling for Secretary of State John Kerry to encourage the Japanese government to address the issue of the "comfort women."They refer to as many as 200,000

전주 상산고등학교가 결국 교학사 한국사 교과서 채택을 철회했다.상산고의 박삼옥 교장은 7일 오전 전북도의회에서 기자회견을 통해 교학사 교과서를 다음학기에 사용하겠다는 결정을 철회하고 지학사 교과서 1종만을 선정했다고 밝혔다. 박 교장은 “균형잡힌 역사교육을 위해 복수 교과서 (교학사와 지학사)을 선정한 취지와 달리 불신과 분열을 초래해 학생들이 매우 심각한 피해를 볼 상황이 발생해서“라며 설명했다.박 교장은 “외부의 강압에 의한 철회는 아니다”라면서 “학생들이 양분되는 등 바람직하지 못한 사태가 일어나 교육적인 차원에서 문제를 해결하자는 취지로 이번 결정을 내린 것”이라고 설명했다.애당초 논란이 많았던 교학사 교과서를 선택한 이유에 대해서는 “역사 왜곡에 대한 논란이 교학사 교과서에 충분히 수정됐으리라 생각했고, 충분히 검토할 시간이 없어 자세한 내용을 보지 못한 면이 있다”면서 채택과정에서의 실수를 사실상 인정했다.또한 철회를 촉구하는 내용이 담긴 홈페이지 게시판을 폐쇄한 것에 대

GM Korea Co., the local unit of U.S. automaker General Motors Co., said Monday that it aims to secure a double digit market share in South Korea this year.The company sold a total of 151,040 vehicles in 2013, including imported vehicles, for a market share of 9.8 percent. This represents a 0.3 percentage point gain from the year before and the best figures by the company so far.To reach the new target, the carmaker outlined five major goals, which include improving profitability, greater success

China brushed aside on offer Monday by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to meet the leaders of Seoul and Beijing to explain his visit to a controversial war shrine that has draw scathing criticism from both South Korea and China.China's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, made the remarks shortly after Abe expressed the intention during a press conference in Tokyo earlier in the day. On Dec. 26, Abe paid homage at the Yasukuni shrine honoring 14 Class-A war criminals convicted by an Al

German Chancellor Angela Merkel cracked her pelvis during a skiing accident in the Swiss Alps and will have to cut back on her work schedule for the next three weeks, her spokesman said Monday.Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters the chancellor suffered what she first thought was just a bruise to her left rear pelvic area while cross-country skiing but doctors later determined it was an “incomplete'' bone fracture that will require her to rest for three weeks. As a result, Seibert s

South Korea's trade surplus widened to a new high of $44.19 billion in 2013 as its exports grew at a steady rate while imports dwindled, the government said Wednesday.In 2013, the country's outbound shipments came to US$559.72 billion, up 2.2 percent from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Imports slipped 0.8 percent on-year to $515.53 billion over the cited period.Exports in 2013 also marked the highest in the country's history. The previous record of $5

Korea Communications Commission said Friday that it would impose a combined fine of 106 billion won ($101 million) on the nation’s three telecom operators, the largest amount of its kind in the telecommunication sector. SK Telecom, the nation’s largest mobile carrier, was slapped with 56 billion won, KT with 29.7 billion won and LG Uplus with 20.7 billion won in fines for providing undue subsidies to attract customers from May to October, according to the telecom regulator. According to the surv

South Korean stocks ended 0.15 percent higher on Friday as overnight gains on Wall Street boosted market sentiment here, offsetting falls in high-dividend stocks, analysts said. The local currency rose against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 2.98 points to 2,002.28. Trading volume was light at 203 million shares worth 2.89 trillion won (US$2.75 billion), with gainers outnumbering decliners 425 to 374.Analysts said another strong performance of the U.S

South Korea's male job seekers are most interested in Samsung Electronics Co., while women are looking mostly at Nexon Co., the country's No. 1 gamemaker, for a career, a poll showed Friday.According to the data by the leading online job search portal JobKorea, 12 percent of its male members included the world's largest smartphone maker in their job basket, while 7.8 percent of its female members chose Nexon.Around 29,000 men and 31,900 women participated in the poll, the company said.Nexon came

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's No. 1 smartphone maker, said Friday it filed an appeal with a local court on a patent case it lost against Apple Inc. earlier this month.Samsung had filed a lawsuit against the U.S. rival in March last year claiming that Apple's devices copied three of its patents, including one related to text message display technology.The Seoul Central District Court ruled earlier this month in favor of Apple, concluding that two of the three patented technologies by Samsu