South Korea's main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea on Friday finalized three candidates for the leadership election slated for later this month, with Rep. Song Young-gil dropping from the contest.While four contenders earlier vowed to join the election, the party held a preliminary election on Friday to shortlist the candidates into three in accordance with its policies.The three chosen are Reps. Choo Mi-ae, Lee Jong-kul and Kim Sang-gon, who is a party personnel official. Choo and Kim are cons

South Korea is making efforts to maintain its strong alliance with the United States no matter who becomes president in the upcoming election there, a senior foreign ministry official said Friday."It is important to keep good ties both with Democratic and Republican parties to advance South Korea-U.S. relations going forward," Kim Hyoung-zhin, a deputy foreign minister, said during a forum held in Seoul. "Whoever becomes president, we will push to further improve the strategic alliance between S

The government's disciplinary body on Tuesday recommended the toughest penalty on public servants for an ex-education ministry official over controversial comments.The Central Disciplinary Committee of the Ministry of Personnel Management decided to depose Na Hyang-wook, who was relieved of his duties as the head of the ministry's policy planning bureau last week. On July 9, vernacular daily Kyunghyang Shinmun quoted Na as calling the Korean people "dogs and pigs" during his dinner with the pape

Authorities are seeking to freeze the assets of a senior prosecutor arrested on charges of taking bribes from a major online game maker.An ad hoc team investigating the case on Tuesday filed for a court order to freeze some 14 billion won ($12.3 million) worth of assets of Jin Kyung-joon. The 49-year-old was put behind bars Sunday on charges of accepting bribes from Nexon Co. and using them for shady stock transactions.The move comes a day after both Justice Minister Kim Hyun-woong and Prosecuto

Goalkeeper Kim Byung-ji, the oldest player ever in South Korean professional football, will finally hang up his boots.Kim, 46, announced his retirement via Facebook on Tuesday, saying he wants to put his 35-year playing career into his memory bank."I was really a happy player," Kim wrote. "Yes! I'm retiring. This is for another start (of my life)."Kim has been searching for a club after his contract with the Jeonnam Dragons in the top-flight K League Classic ended last year.He failed to sign wit

South Korea said Friday that it is meaningful that U.S. President Obama explicitly mentioned Korean victims in his historic speech in Hiroshima, while visiting a memorial site honoring those killed in an atomic bombing about seven decades ago.Obama paid a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, where he laid a wreath for those who lost their lives and gave a speech in which he mentioned Korean victims as well. He, however, did not visit a monument dedicated to Koreans killed in the city."Whe

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon came back in South Korea on Friday after making a short trip to Japan to attend a G7 summit.Ban, a native South Korean, landed at Gimpo International Airport, just west of Seoul, earlier in the day. After staying here for two days, he left on Thursday for Tokyo.The U.N. chief is scheduled to meet his family members, including his mother, on Saturday and have a medical check-up at a hospital in Seoul.Ban will attend the Rotary International Convention to be held

South Korea strongly condemned North Korea for its botched launch of another intermediate-range ballistic missile on Thursday, vowing to further pressure Pyongyang to give up its nuclear and missile programs.The communist state fired off the missile early Thursday, but the launch seems to have failed, according to military officials here. The launch came less than two weeks after the North's failed launch of a similar missile."We strongly condemn the launch, which is a provocative act that is a

North Korea will be "further isolated and abandoned" by the international community if it goes ahead with its threat of conducting a fifth nuclear test, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se warned Thursday.Yun said the South Korean government is closely watching the latest developments in North Korea, including the possibility of another nuclear test, and putting its diplomatic resources to work with the international community to deter North Korea from advancing its nuclear capability and

South Korean companies have signed deals worth $11.16 million to export their broadcasting content at MIPTV 2016, the world's biggest TV and digital content market, early this month, the government said Thursday.The combined sales of South Korean broadcasting content were up 16 percent from last year's event according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and its affiliate the Korea Creative Content Agency.The KBS 2TV military-romance TV series "Descendants of the Sun" was sold to Israe