Unionized public workers and teachers vowed Saturday to fight vigorously against a proposed pension reform bill now before the National Assembly for approval, arguing that it is unfairly disadvantageous to them.After months of negotiations, rival parties agreed on a bill Friday that would require civil servants to pay more into and receive less in pension over the next two decades. Reform of the money-losing public servants' pension system is one of President Park Geun-hye's key campaign pledges

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Nepal ruled out the possibility Saturday of finding more survivors buried in the rubble from a massive earthquake that killed more than 6,700 people and devastated vast swathes of one of Asia's poorest countries.One week on from Nepal's deadliest quake in over 80 years, hopes of detecting more signs of life among the ruins of the capital Kathmandu had all but disappeared and the focus was shifting to reaching survivors in far-flung areas who have yet to receive relief supplies.

South Korean activists and victims demanded at a U.N. meeting on Friday that Japan should apologize to and compensate Koreans who were taken to Japan as forced laborers and fell victim to the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.The demand was made at the Review Conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It was the first time that the issue of Korean A-bomb victims has been raised at a U.N. meeting.Previous conferences have dealt only with the issue of Japanese victims.The Hiro

South Korea's chief nuclear envoy will visit Washington and Beijing next week for talks with his counterparts on how to restart long-stalled negotiations with North Korea, Seoul's foreign ministry said Friday.Hwang Joon-kook, special representative for Korean peninsula affairs, will meet with his U.S. counterpart, Amb. Sung Kim, in Washington on Monday before visiting Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, on Wednesday, the ministry said in a statement also released in Washing

The global economy is turning unfavorable to South Korea as four major economies ― the U.S., China, the eurozone and Japan ― are showing worse-than-expected performance indicators.Korean policymakers recently bolstered their monitoring of the global market amid the concern that a continued slowdown in the global economy could deal a blow to Korea.According to London-based financial information & services firm Markit, the four major economies saw their Purchasing Manager’s Index, an indicator of

The Korean currency has continued to gain against the dollar as more traders bet on the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee delaying the timing of interest rate increases.About a month after the possibility emerged, the dollar slid 6.4 won, or 0.57 percent, on Monday from the previous trading session to close at 1,073.0 won. It is the lowest won-dollar exchange rate so far this year.The greenback, which traded between 1,120 won and 1,130 won in March, fell to its lowest level in nearly six months

The nation’s major construction companies are expected to be slapped with significant antitrust fines for operating a cartel during a plumbing project initiated by the Korea Gas Corp.According to the Fair Trade Commission and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, some of the 23 participants have been suspected of fixing prices during construction of gas pipelines that were requested by the state-controlled KOGAS.The allegation involves the builders’ irregular practices when they re