Seoul City said Sunday that it would hold working-level talks with the United States Forces Korea later this month to discuss the alleged contamination in Koreans’ residential districts around Yongsan Garrison (south post) and Camp Kim (main post).While the two parties have already held several rounds of preliminary talks to take countermeasures against the residential area around the U.S. military bases in central Seoul since the first half of 2013, the coming meeting would mark the first in wh

South Korea said Sunday it will dispatch medical personnel to a British-led Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone to help West African countries that have been hit by the deadly disease.A group made up of volunteering doctors, nurses and military officers will be stationed at the Ebola Treatment Center under construction in the capital city of Freetown, the Foreign Ministry said.South Korea previously had said it would send a medical team to Sierra Leone or Liberia to participate in the global

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia opened polling stations on Sunday to hold an informal vote on independence that the central government has called illegal.The regional Catalan government pushed forward with the vote despite Spain's Constitutional Court ordering its suspension on Tuesday after it agreed to hear the Spanish government's challenge that the poll is unconstitutional.“`Despite the enormous impediments, we have been able to get out the ballot boxes and v

HONG KONG (AFP) - Hundreds of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters marched on Sunday to the Chinese government's offices in the semi-autonomous city, demanding direct talks with Beijing officials after six weeks of mass street rallies.Demonstrators have been camped out on three major road junctions across the financial hub since September 28, calling for free leadership elections in 2017.China insists that candidates for the city's top post must be vetted by a loyalist committee, which protesters

BEIJING (AFP) - China's president on Sunday reminded a senior Taiwanese envoy of Beijing's opposition to independence for the island, state media reported, after several recent disputes which have overshadowed improved ties.Xi Jinping met former Taiwanese vice president Vincent Siew on the sidelines of an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing.Xi told Siew that relations should be based on "the common political commitment to upholding the 1992 Consensus and opposing 'Taiwan indepen

Samsung Group said Sunday its chairman Lee Kun-hee is in stable recovery and undergoing rehabilitation six months into his hospitalization."(The chairman's) bodily functions, including cardiac function, have recovered to normal and are in stable condition. (He is) awake 15-19 hours a day and is receiving rehabilitation such as wheelchair exercise," the group said.Samsung's remark is the latest update from a month earlier, when group chief of communications Lee Jun confirmed that an elevator was

An internal sexual abuse case at the National Human Rights Commission has come under the spotlight after the state agency allegedly sought to gloss over the misconduct of two male officials.The two officials were found to have sexually harassed a female junior staff member. The woman officially notified the commission of the two senior staff members’ irregular practices in a petition, but the agency dragged its feet for about a month.In her petition, the woman said that she was sexual harassed f

State forensic experts will perform an autopsy on tissue removed from late rock singer Shin Hae-chul’s small intestine to determine whether medical negligence led to his death, police said Wednesday.The Seoul Songpa Police Station said it has sent the tissue submitted from the Asan Medical Center to the National Forensic Service for an additional autopsy.The 46-year-old rock singer was pronounced dead at the general hospital in southern Seoul a week ago after being transferred from another hospi

The ruling Saenuri Party will form a task force to look into allegations of corruption in the defense industry, the party’s floor leader said Wednesday.Corruption involving military officials and defense firms became an issue during the recent parliamentary audit of the government that ended last week.President Park Geun-hye has denounced corrupt dealings in defense acquisition programs as “actions serving the interests of the enemy” and vowed to use “exemplary punishment” to root them out.One m

The state-run agency for environment-related technology has moved to increase investment in eco-friendly industries by teaming up with a group of quasi-financial firms that mostly invest in venture start-ups.The Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute will sign a business alliance with the Korean Venture Capital Association on Tuesday on finding new growth avenues by drawing more financial investors for venture start-ups with green technologies.The two parties are scheduled to hold a

Policemen and Justice Ministry officials were found to have comprised a large portion of the blacklist of civil servants who committed crimes last year, according to statistics released by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Sunday.Out of the total crimes by civil servants in 2013, the police agency topped the list with 1,202 police officers or other employees engaging in offenses, followed by the Ministry of Justice with 264 lawbreakers, including prosecutors or other staff.The National Tax Service

Citizens of Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, will hold a mass rally this week to protest a recent South Korea-U.S. deal to retain an American artillery brigade in the city, a local civic group said Sunday.Last month, Seoul and Washington agreed to retain the 210th Fires Brigade under the 2nd Infantry Division in Dongducheon, north of Seoul near the tense inter-Korean border, until “the mid-2020s” to bolster deterrence against North Korea.A 2004 bilateral deal had called for relocating the U.S. mi

Police raided the hospital on Saturday that had performed surgery on late rock singer Shin Hae-chul on suspicion that alleged medical negligence might have led to his death, officers said.A day earlier, his wife, only identified by her surname Yoon, filed a complaint with Songpa Police Station against the hospital to look into alleged medical negligence that was blamed for her husband’s death after he received an operation for intestinal adhesions. The hospital has strongly denied the allegation