North Korea has arrested about 20 land ministry officials to hold them accountable for extensive damage caused by floods that ravaged the northeastern part of the country, an activist claimed Friday.Security agents have arrested scores of officials stationed in North Hamgyong Province, which was recently hit hard by heavy rains in late August, according to North Korean defector Kim Yong-hwa, head of the NK Refugees Human Rights Associations of Korea.The North Korean regime views devastating land

South Korea's large businesses have continued to increase their direct investments in overseas tax havens, adding to concerns about possible tax evasion attempts, a lawmaker said Friday.Conglomerates here remitted a total of 441.5 trillion won to such countries as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Panama between 2011 and 2015, according to Rep. Park Kwang-on of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea.The amount is based on the won-dollar exchange rate at the end of 2015. On Thursday morning, the

South Korea had 2.2 doctors per every 1,000 people in 2014, the lowest among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, data showed Friday.According to the OECD data submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to the National Assembly, South Korea scored the lowest in physician density, along with Mexico, among 28 member states in 2014, far below the OECD average of 3.3. The data included licensed physicians practicing oriental medicine.Austria ranked top with 5.1

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Friday urged the civil rights commission and other legal bodies to come up with clear and well-defined guidelines on the anti-graft law which went into effect last month amid confusion over interpretation."As we are at the early stage, and as around 4 million people are affected by the law, it is natural that some confusion exists," Hwang said during a government meeting to discuss the anti-graft law."There are controversies about whether a certain action violates

Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday that the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone is expected to dent the company's operating profit by additional $3.1 billion over the next two quarters. Samsung already slashed its estimate for third-quarter operating profit by 2.6 trillion won ($2.3 billion), saying the revision in third-quarter earnings guidance reflected "the direct cost from the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7 sales."The latest projection for another mid-3 trillion-won (abou

Nearly two-thirds of textbooks used by international schools in South Korea solely use the name "Sea of Japan" to describe the East Sea, research showed Friday, triggering calls to get local authorities to take action. According to the research conducted by the Ministry of Education, 24 of 33 related textbooks used at international schools solely used the name "Sea of Japan," while the nine others used both terms.Ten schools adopted textbooks that stipulate both names, while 16 others used those

The top US official on East Asia has warned North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could face death if he attempts to use nuclear weapons, stressing the nuclear program undermines his security rather than strengthening it."Put yourself in Kim Jong-un's place. That is not a good place to be. Perhaps he's got an enhanced capacity to conduct a nuclear attack and then immediately die. But that can't be plan A," Russel said during a meeting Wednesday with US defense reporters, according to an AP report.Russ

South Korea's financial watchdog said Thursday it will step up efforts to early detect possible risks in the local banking sector amid a full-fledged corporate restructuring drive at home and unrelenting uncertainties abroad.Speaking to lawmakers, Zhin Woong-seob, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, reminded domestic banks of the need for stricter credit risk assessment of firms that may go insolvent anytime soon.The FSC is at work with a "higher sense of tension and alertness than an

International ratings agency Standard and Poor's said Thursday the global recall and discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone will not affect its ratings on Samsung Electronics Co. "We believe the impact on the ratings will be limited at this stage" mainly due to Samsung's significant net cash holdings of about 65 trillion won ($57.3 billion) as of June 30, the ratings agency said in a statement. Standard and Poor's said the financial impact of the Note 7 recall will be "limited," because