South Korea hosted a cooking event in Tehran over the weekend to give Iranians a rare chance to savor the taste of some of Korea's most popular foods, as the Asian country stepped up its foray into one of the world's least-tapped markets, organizers said Monday.  Hosted by the state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation on Sunday, the "K-Food Cooking Class" was attended by100 Iranians. The participants were selected among more than 350 applicants, organizers said.At the event Irani

South Korean President Park Geun-hye is to hold talks with her Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, on Monday, a historic meeting that could set the tone for relations between the two countries.It will be the first summit between the leaders of the two countries since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations in 1962.South Korea is seeking to tap into business opportunities in Iran, which has emerged as a promising market following the lifting of international sanctions earlier this ye

China appears to have not been invited to a rare congress of North Korea's ruling party, a diplomatic source said Monday, reinforcing speculation that Beijing is unlikely to send a delegation to Pyongyang. The first party congress in 36 years, which will start on Friday, is expected to display the North Korean regime's unity toward leader Kim Jong-un. "There have been no signs that the Chinese government is preparing to send its delegation to the North Korean party congress," the diplomatic sour

An appeals court has handed down a reduced jail term to a former vice-president of South Korea's largest tobacco maker for receiving kickbacks from a company subcontractor, court records showed Monday.The defendant, identified only by his surname Lee, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on charges of receiving hundreds of millions of won from a local cigarette pack maker. The court also ordered Lee, 61, to forfeit some 325 million won  he received.The former vice-president of KT&G was indicted

The latest commercial satellite imagery shows continued low-level activity at North Korea's nuclear test site, a U.S. website monitoring the communist nation said Sunday, amid concern Pyongyang could conduct its fifth nuclear test in the coming days.Based on the April 28 imagery of the North's Punggye-ri test site, however, it is not possible to determine whether these activities are related to continued maintenance or reflect that Pyongyang has completed test preparations and a detonation is im

U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is willing to strengthen relations with allies, even though he will seek to have them pay more for American defense support, a foreign policy adviser was quoted as saying Sunday.Walid Phares, an expert on terrorism and Middle Eastern affairs who served as a foreign affairs adviser for former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, made the remark in an interview with the Jiji Press, according to the Japan Times.Trump "would like to st

Park Byung-ho of the Minnesota Twins got his first hit with a runner in scoring position Sunday at home against the Detroit Tigers.Park went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a walk, as the Twins lost 6-5 at Target Field.Park drove in his one run of the game with two outs and men at first and second in the bottom of the first. Park hit a single to right off Mike Pelfrey to drive in Joe Mauer from second, giving the Twins a 1-0 lead.Park had gone 0-for-15 with men in scoring position prior to this game. He

South Korean golfer Jenny Shin captured her maiden LPGA Tour win in Texas on Sunday.Shin had a bogey-free final round of four-under 67 at the Volunteers of America Texas Shootout in Irving, Texas, for a four-round total of 14-under 270.Shin beat out two fellow South Koreans, Hur Mi-jung and Amy Yang, by two strokes to take home US$195,000 in the winner's check.Shin, who joined the tour in 2011, had gone winless in 131 starts before this one.Shin began the day trailing overnight leader Gerina Pil

The number of South Korean students studying in the United States fell about 8 percent in March on-year, U.S. government data showed.According to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, Korean students with either F-1 or M-1 visas totaled 78,489 in March, a 7.8 percent drop from last year.Korean students accounted for 6.6 percent of all foreign students in the U.S., and were the third-largest group after China's 353,069 students and India's 194,438 students, the data showed.Japanese studen