Fresh allegations about former National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae’s sexual assault of a woman are magnifying public anger with him, as he earlier downplayed the charges raised by investigative agencies.Park argued last week that he only displayed affection toward the complainant, a golf caddie, as he would to a granddaughter, but did not cross a line. However, the caddy stated that she was harassed by the former Assembly Speaker during “every play until the ninth hole,” according to police.F

South Korean border guards arrested an American man who they believe was attempting to swim across the border into North Korea, a South Korean defense official said Wednesday.The man was arrested Tuesday night at a river near the Korean Demilitarized Zone, part of a restricted military area, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to office policy. He said investigators are questioning the man about the purpose of his apparent attempt to enter North Korea but gave no further de

South Korea and the United States will have another round of talks on renewing a bilateral nuclear energy pact in Vienna this weekend, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Wednesday.The delegates from South Korea and the U.S. plan to hold the 11th round of negotiations in Austria on Sunday on the renewal of the accord over Seoul’s civil nuclear energy use, also known as the “123 agreement.” The meeting will be held on the sidelines of a plenary meeting for the International Atomic Energy Agency.The pac

The Daejeon District Court on Wednesday sentenced a man in his 50s to one year in jail, suspended for three years, for assaulting a female flight attendant on board a flight from Incheon to Australia last March.The man was found to have hit the attendant on the face and chest after being asked to sit down. He had been lying asleep in the aisle. He also verbally abused the flight attendant and refused to follow her instructions.Police and the aviation industry have continued to express concerns o

Three U.S. soldiers who harassed Korean women at a water park are likely to avoid prison as they were given a two-year probation, though a court in Gyeonggi Province sentenced them to jail terms between six and 10 months on Wednesday.According to the Suwon District Court, the three U.S. Forces soldiers hit employees and sexually harassed two female staff members at the Caribbean Bay water park in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, in May.The accused were found to have begun smoking inside the water park

North Korea sent a protest letter to South Korea‘s presidential office demanding measures to stop the cross-border spread of anti-Pyongyang leaflets by civic groups in the South, the Unification Ministry said Tuesday.The North’s National Defense Commission, chaired by the country’s top leader, Kim Jong-un, delivered two fax messages to Cheong Wa Dae’s National Security Council on Saturday and Monday, respectively, the ministry said.It is unusual for the North’s commission to deliver messages dir

One Marine Corps recruit was killed and two others were injured on Tuesday when a hand grenade exploded during a training session in the southeastern port city of Pohang, military officials said. The accident took place at around 10:20 a.m. at the drill camp of the South Korean Marine Corps when a hand grenade suddenly exploded, severing the hand of one Marine recruit with shrapnel while wounding another recruit and one instructor, they said.The 19-year-old who threw the grenade died in the afte

A group of bus driver unions in Gyeonggi Province said it would go on strike on Sept. 16 to demand higher wages and a reduction of working hours.Out of the 30 bus operators in the province, eight companies ― including Kyungwon Transport, Samgyoung City Bus, Boyoung City Bus and Suwon City Bus ― have faced deadlocks in negotiations with their unions over labor conditions.The eight unions declared Sunday that they would stage a strike from Tuesday in protest of the “low-quality” working conditions

One out of 8 South Korean adults said they have experienced depression at least once, but less than 10 percent of them received professional help, a survey released Sunday said.The findings by the Centers for Disease Control were derived from a nationwide poll of 3,840 households throughout 2012, focusing on adults aged 19 or older.According to the results, 12.9 percent said they had suffered from depression over the year prior to the survey. For the survey, depression was defined as grief and d

North Korea on Saturday denounced South Korea’s recent proposal to hold high-level talks, saying that Seoul should first stop all anti-Pyongyang hostile activities, including floating propaganda leaflets into its territory, before making such a “deceptive” offer.On Aug. 11, South Korea proposed high-level talks with Pyongyang for discussions on various pending issues including reunions of separated families. The North has so far ignored the offer, as it ramped up criticism about Seoul’s joint mi

North Korea said Sunday it had sentenced detained American Matthew Miller to six years of hard labor for “hostile” acts against Pyongyang.“He committed acts hostile to the (North) while entering the territory of the (North) under the guise of a tourist last April,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a statement.Miller, 24, of Bakersfield, California, was detained in April for violating his tourist status when he entered the country.He is believed to have torn up his visa at Pyongya

North Korea said Sunday it had sentenced detained American Matthew Miller to six years' hard labour for "hostile" acts against Pyongyang.The sentence came some two weeks after Miller and two other detained Americans made a highly unusual televised plea to Washington to negotiate their release.The North's Supreme Court passed the sentence on Miller in a trial earlier Sunday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a terse one-paragraph report."He committed acts hostile to the (North) whi