The "shared understanding" between South Korea and Iran in support of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula sent a strong warning to North Korea, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, urging Pyongyang to renounce its nuclear ambitions.In a press conference after his summit with President Park Geun-hye in Tehran on Monday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the Islamic republic is "in principle opposed to any nuclear development." His remarks were seen as indicating Tehran's stance against Pyongya

Leading business groups of South Korea and Iran agreed Tuesday to promote commercial and industrial partnerships by establishing consultative bodies.The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry  said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.The KCCI will establish an Iran desk and the ICCIMA will operate a Korea desk under the deal inked on the occasion of President Park Geun-hye's landmark trip to Tehran.The offices will provid

The number of illegal immigrants in South Korea surpassed the 210,000 mark last year, three times the total reported for neighboring Japan, government data showed Tuesday.Illegal immigrants living in South Korea reached 214,187 last year, according to the Ministry of Justice. Corresponding figures for Japan stood at 62,818. The number of illegal immigrants has been increasing steadily from 183,106 in 2013 to 208,778 in 2014, along with the number of tourists who visit the country using the no-vi

Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho offered to resign as the chief organizer of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Tuesday, citing the need to tend to his corporate responsibilities.Cho announced his resignation in a statement released by the organizing committee, which will lose its leader with less than two years left until the first Winter Games in South Korea.The committee explained that Cho wanted to handle "urgent matters" within his business group, including rescuing Hanjin Shipping, t

Prosecutors said Tuesday they have indicted a 26-year-old South Korean man on charges of breaking into a government complex to tamper with exam results. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said the man, identified only by his surname Song, is accused of unauthorized entry into the government complex in central Seoul and manipulating the results of the civil service examination he took.According to prosecutors, Song illegally entered the building a total of five times after he stole th

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has called on the U.S. State Department to re-designate North Korea as a "country for particular concern" for religious freedom violations, a media report said Tuesday.The independent organization under the U.S. federal government made the recommendation in its annual report on religious freedom, in which North Korea is one of 17 countries named CPCs under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, according to the Washington-based Voi

North Korea has beefed up its surveillance near Pyongyang and along its border with China ahead of its key party congress slated for late this week, a source familiar with North Korean affairs said Tuesday.On Monday, North Korea announced a special surveillance week to monitor people in the capital city and border areas as the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) plans to hold the first party congress in more than 30 years on Friday, according to the source.It said that the North provided special compe

The parents of 12 female North Korean staff who defected to South Korea last month while working at a restaurant run by the North in China have sent a letter to the United Nations asking the international body to mediate their return, a Chinese state-run media reported on Tuesday. South Korea said on April 8 that the North Korean workers and their male North Korean manager defected to the South, in the biggest group defection since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took power in late 2011. North K

North Korea said Tuesday that a South Korean civic group has proposed holding friendly football matches between workers from the two Koreas in Seoul in August to promote cross-border civilian exchanges.The South Korean Committee for the Joint Implementation of the June 15 Summit Declaration has offered to hold the games in Seoul on Aug. 15, the anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule, according to the North's main propaganda website Uriminzokkiri.North Korea said tha