Senior diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet here this week to coordinate their policies on issues including North Korea, the State Department said Tuesday. (Yonhap)The meeting will bring together Ma Sang-yoon, director-general of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's policy planning bureau, Brian Hook, senior policy adviser to the US secretary of state and director of policy planning, and Satoshi Suzuki, Japan's deputy foreign minister for foreign policy, on Wednesday."T

South Korea and the United States have the same goal of denuclearizing North Korea, the State Department said Tuesday amid speculation the allies disagree on inter-Korean talks proposed by Seoul.South Korea wants to hold military talks with the North on Friday to discuss ways to ease tensions on their shared border. It also wants to hold Red Cross talks on Aug. 1 to resume reunions of families separated since the 1950-53 Korean War.White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Monday current cond

The United States will do everything it can to stop North Korea's nuclear and missile programs even if it means the use of military force, an influential senator said Tuesday. Sen. Cory Gardner (Yonhap)Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, made the remark during a conference hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, saying Washington remains committed to defending it allies in the region."I believe US pol

Foreigners are often charged higher prices than locals for cosmetic surgeries in Korea, a local media outlet reported Sunday.According to Ilyo Shinmun, four of 10 randomly selected plastic surgery clinics in Gangnam charged foreigners nearly twice as much as locals. (Yonhap)For breast augmentation, one clinic charged 6.6 million won ($5,870) for local patients and 12 million won for their foreign counterparts. Another clinic charged 10 million won and 17 million won for local and foreign patient

South Korean shipyards are expected to clinch a decent number of new orders during the second half of the year, with a slew of contracts to be signed soon, industry sources said Saturday. (Yonhap)Earlier data showed that local shipyards clinched 2.83 million compensated gross tons, or 79 ships, in the January-June period, which represents a twofold increase from a year earlier.Hyundai Heavy and its affiliates have secured a series of fresh contracts, with their new orders reaching $4.2 billion f

Foreign tourists in Danyang (North Chungcheong Province)North Chungcheong Province offers sponsored tour packages for foreign visitorsForeign visitors can have part of their vacation expenses sponsored for a trip to North Chungcheong Province. The North Chungcheong Provincial Office said it has earmarked 136 million won ($120,000) for its international tourism initiative.The province will work with local travel agencies to develop tour packages targeting foreign visitors. Those traveling in the

(Yonhap)Two professors are charged with defrauding international students of scholarships and research funds, a local broadcaster KBS reported on Wednesday. The National Research Foundation of Korea conducted an audit and concluded the two professors embezzled funds owed to international students.Last December, Egyptian students at an engineering college in North Jeolla Province, called for an investigation into an Egyptian professor who allegedly embezzled their wages and scholarship money.The

CJ Cheiljedang Corp., South Korea's leading maker of processed foods, said Wednesday it will sell all of its stake in Samsung's life insurer through block trading, as the company pushes to jack up investment.(Yonhap)The company will unload 2.98 million shares worth 357 billion won ($311 million), or a 1.49 percent stake, in Samsung Life Insurance Co. on Friday, it said in a regulatory filing. The selling price is a 3 percent discount from Tuesday's closing price.The affiliate of the country's fo

South Korea's financial institutions have reduced the number of rank-and-file employees while increasing the number of executives between 2016-2017, industry data showed Wednesday. (Yonhap)The number of workers at 108 financial institutions was tallied at 194,422 as of the end of March, down 3.3 percent, or 6,625 employees, from a year earlier, according to a survey conducted by corporate tracker CEO Score.The financial institutions, meanwhile, witnessed an increase of 146 executives, or 6.2 per

South Korea's shippers and shipbuilders reacted differently Wednesday to a decision by the International Maritime Organization to delay the implementation of a ballast water convention.  (Yonhap)The IMO's marine environment protection committee last week postponed the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments, or the BWM Convention, for two years. The pact will go into effect in 2024 instead of 2022.The convention requires all vessels plying in

The minor opposition People's Party on Thursday declared a boycott of all parliamentary proceedings in protest against the ruling party leader's disparaging remarks about its leaders in connection to a fake tip-off scandal. Kim Dong-cheol, the floor leader of the minor People`s Party, holds a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul on July 6, 2017. (Yonhap)Kim Dong-cheol, the party's floor leader, said that the boycott will continue unless Choo Mi-ae, the leader of the ruling Democrat

North Korea said it will commemorate its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile with fireworks in Pyongyang late on Thursday.  North Korea launches fireworks in Pyongyang on Jan. 8, 2015 to celebrate its H-bomb test conducted on Jan. 6. (Yonhap)"Fireworks will go off near Juche Tower along the Taedong River in the DPRK's revolutionary capital of Pyongyang on the night of July 6 to celebrate the success of a Hwasong-14 ICBM test-fire, which is a big historical occasion and an epochal

HANOI -- South Korea will simplify the issuance of single-entry visas and expand the scope of multi-entry ones for Vietnamese travelers next week in a bid to increase bilateral trade and investment, and attract more tourists from the Southeast Asian nation, an official at the South Korean Embassy in Hanoi said Thursday.  In this undated file photo, Vietnamese tourists dressed in traditional Korean costumes walk in front of a palace in Seoul. (Yonhap)"The lenient steps, which will be taken Monday

A Seoul appellate court on Thursday mitigated the sentence for a senior judge accused of bribery in a high-profile judiciary lobbying scandal.  (Yonhap)Kim Soo-chun, a sitting judge on the Incheon District Court, was indicted in September for receiving some 180 million won ($156,114) in kickbacks from Jung Woon-ho, then head of a local midsized cosmetics chain, to exert influence in Jung's favor on trials he had faced over illegal overseas gambling and business deals. Kim was sentenced to seven

Five North Koreans who crossed the de facto maritime border on a boat last week have expressed their wishes to defect to South Korea, a government official said Thursday. (Yonhap)The small boat carrying four men and one woman was found near the Northern Limit Line in waters off the east coast on July 1."An investigation is under way. They are believed to have crossed it for the purpose of defection," said an official at Seoul's unification ministry.The ministry said that an unidentified number o