The Website of South Korea's public broadcaster KBS suffered a series of malfunctions on Wednesday for an unidentified reason, officials said.The broadcaster's Website went off line from 8:00 p.m. to 8:18 p.m. for a third time on Wednesday, following two malfunctions reported earlier in the evening, according to company officials.The broadcaster said it is currently trying to find out the cause of the failures, adding that it is unlikely that hackers were behind it. KBS added that there have bee

NongHyup Bank, the banking unit of South Korean financial holding company NongHyup Financial Group Inc., said Wednesday its online and smartphone banking system was paralyzed for an unknown reason.The bank said that an error occurred at 6:20 p.m. at its operating system located in Anseong, 77 kilometers from Seoul. The online transaction system remained malfunctioning as of 7:35 p.m."No hacking activities were identified behind the failure," an official from the bank said. "We are currently maki

YEOSU -- Police raided the head office of a Seoul-based major chemical company and its plant in this provincial city on Monday as part of efforts to determine the exact cause of an explosion last week that killed six workers and wounded 11 others.All of the victims are contract workers who were doing welding work on a storage tank at Daelim Industrial's plant in Yeosu, a port city on the nation's southern coast.The exact cause of the March 14 blast has yet to be determined, with surviving worker

The U.N. chief for refugees says the number of refugees from Syria could increase by “two or three times” the present level by the end of the year if the country's conflict doesn't end. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres says the international community should work toward ending the conflict and says there is a “risk of an explosion” throughout the already volatile Middle East region if it continues much longer. Guterres was speaking in Ankara on Sunday, days after the number o

President Park Geun-hye plans to hold her first Cabinet meeting on Monday as soon as the minimum number of ministers needed for such a meeting is met following their parliamentary confirmation process, her spokeswoman said. Park has been unable to hold a Cabinet meeting since being inaugurated on Feb. 25 due to a delay in the parliamentary confirmation process for her minister nominees. The first meeting has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, and will b

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's prime minister says the world should impose tough new sanctions against North Korea if it goes ahead with plans for a nuclear test.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a television talk show Tuesday that Japan and the international community will need to impose ``quite severe measures'' against North Korea if it conducts the test. He said North Korea would not gain anything from such a provocation.     Last week, North Korea announced plans for a nuclear test after the United Nat

South Korean President-elect Park Geun-hye praised the European Union (EU)'s efforts to resolve the humanitarian crisis in North Korea, and expressed hope for closer economic ties with India and the Middle East as she held a series of meetings with their top envoys Tuesday. In her meeting with EU Ambassador Tomasz Kozlowski, Park thanked the envoy for the EU's efforts to improve the human rights situation in North Korea and for delivering "transparent" aid to the impoverished nation. "I hope to

The top U.S. diplomat on East Asian policy, Kurt Campbell, voiced hope on Tuesday that Washington wants to maintain the "strongest possible" relationship with Seoul's new government, a day before he meets with President-elect Park Geun-hye.Campbell arrived at Incheon International Airport earlier in the day with other senior officials from the White House and the Pentagon, marking the first high-profile visit by U.S. officials to Seoul since Park's election victory last month."I'd like to unders

President-elect Park Geun-hye'stransition team expressed regret on Saturday over opposition criticism that the team is filled largely with conservatives.Park finalized the lineup of her transition team on Friday, laying the groundwork for launching her five-year presidency set to begin on Feb. 25."It is deeply regrettable that some opposes the formation of the transition team for opposition's sake," Yoon Chang-jung, chief spokesman for the transition team, told a news briefing.He rejected opposi

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The suffering of a university student and her male friend who were brutally attacked aboard a bus in India's capital did not end after the woman was gang-raped and both were savagely beaten for 2 1/2 hours. Dumped naked on a roadside, the pair encountered shocking apathy as passersby offered only cursory looks and police debated jurisdiction for 30 minutes before taking them to a hospital, where the man received no treatment as he sat without clothes on the floor, the friend r

Local credit card firms have suspended interest-free installment purchases for card-accepting businesses with annual sales over 100 billion won (US$93.9 million) following a revised financial act, market sources said Saturday.According to the sources, South Korean credit card firms stopped their interest-free installment purchase services for businesses, including large discount stores, airliners, and mobile carriers.The suspension came as local credit card member stores refused to follow the re

Kim Tae-chon, former boss of South Korea's noted criminal syndicates in the 1970s and 1980s, died early Saturday at a hospital in Seoul after about a year of treatment for diseases. He was 64.The cause was said to be heart failure, according to officials at Seoul National University Hospital, where Kim had been admitted since December 2011 for treatment of a type of thyroid disease. Kim had been under intensive care since March because of difficulty in breathing.Kim "died early today after being

WASHINGTON -- Apparently, North Korea has something new to show off to Google chairman Eric Schmidt -- a renovated website for its main propaganda apparatus.The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Friday unveiled the new version of its website, http://www.kcna.kp, hosted on servers in Pyongyang.It features a much better design and many sophisticated functions, including link services among text articles, photos and video clips.It provides Korean, English, Chinese, Spanish and Japanese news serv

Running against time, two leading liberal opposition presidential hopefuls agreed on Monday to hold a TV debate as part of their efforts to merge their candidacies in December's election.The TV debate, scheduled for Wednesday, comes only six days before the Nov. 26 deadline set by the national election commission to register their candidacy. The two have earlier agreed to merge their bids before the deadline."The two candidates have moved ahead their merger negotiations by agreeing to hold a TV