South Korea's foreign ministry said Monday it has raised its travel warning for Gabon, amid rising tension in the African country due to controversy surrounding a reportedly fraudulent election.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it has imposed a "yellow" alert on the country, a notch higher from the previous "blue," adding its security has deteriorated significantly due to the political instability.A yellow alert is the second-highest of a four-tier travel warning system under which people are

A South Korean icebreaker exploring the Arctic discovered new gas hydrate reserves in the East Siberian Sea, the ship's operator said Monday.The Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) said the Aaron successfully extracted gas hydrates from about 500 meters under the East Siberian Sea, a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean.Gas hydrates refer to a semisolid mixture of methane gas and water molecules that are created through a combination of the water pressure and cold temperatures found in deep ocean

A South Korean baseball pitcher voluntarily reported that he had engaged in match-fixing schemes in 2014, the governing body of the country's professional baseball said Sunday.Yoo Chang-sik, a left-handed pitcher for the Kia Tigers, confessed to his team on Saturday that he had deliberately walked a batter in a game on April 1, 2014, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said. Yoo, 24, was then pitching for another KBO club, the Hanwha Eagles, and he walked the Samsung Lions No. 3 hitter, Park S

South Korea's finance minister said Sunday a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) should be further developed despite Britain's recent exit from the world's biggest economic bloc."The South Korea-EU FTA should continue to develop despite Brexit," Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho said. The free trade deal between South Korea and the EU went into effect in 2011.South Korea's top economy policy maker made the remarks during the talks with EU commissioner for economic affairs

South Korea's newly-appointed ambassador to Japan said Wednesday that the landmark December deal reached between Seoul and Tokyo to resolve the comfort women issue have provided a "breakthrough," but there is still a "long way to go" in improving their bilateral ties to a desirable level. Lee Joon-gyu, who served as ambassador to India until last year, also said that one of his priorities as the country's top diplomat in Japan would be to normalize the severely hurt dialogue channels between key

Chinese President Xi Jinping told South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Wednesday that he will not recognize North Korea's policy of simultaneously pursuing nuclear advance and economic development. Xi made the remarks during a meeting with Hwang in Beijing, according to an official at the prime minister's office who attended the meeting. Xi also repeated China's stance that Beijing "firmly opposes" North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and is faithfully implementing U.N. sanctions

The world's top sports tribunal announced Wednesday South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan has filed an appeal against an Olympic ban over doping.It's the first official declaration by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) regarding Park's legal battle against the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC). The 2008 Olympic champion in the 400m freestyle already revealed last month that he'd filed his appeal in April.A KOC rule prohibits an athlete from representing the country for three years after the end

A group of South Korean fishermen captured two Chinese fishing boats near the western inter-Korean sea border Sunday, saying they were angry at the Chinese for illegally fishing in their waters.The fishermen seized the 22-ton and 15-ton boats just south of the Northern Limit Line around 5:23 a.m., according to coast guard officials. A total of 11 Chinese fishermen were aboard, but they were sleeping when their vessels were dragged to the border island of Yeonpyeong by five South Korean fishing b

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who is known to be a heavy smoker, has held a cigarette for the first time in months in public, a photo released by the North's mouthpiece newspaper showed Saturday.A snapshot of him smoking at the remodeled Mangyongdae Children's Camp in Pyongyang was published in Rodong Sinmun. Kim was there to promote "Pyongyang Speed," a term referring to the North's rapid industrialization, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).He was last seen smoking more than