South Korea said Tuesday it has decided to provide about 1 billion won (US$917,850) to support the physically handicapped in North Korea, a move aimed at boosting inter-Korean cooperation.The Ministry of Unification said that it plans to tap into an inter-Korean cooperative fund to provide rehabilitation goods and nourishing food to those who are physically handicapped in the North.It marked the first time since 2009 that Seoul has used the fund to support disabled people in North Korea.The move

South Korean and Japanese defense chiefs are expected to hold bilateral talks later this month for the first time in four years despite soured ties over historical rows, government sources here said Tuesday.Defense Minister Han Min-koo plans to meet with his Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani around the end of this month in Singapore on the sidelines of the regional security forum, the Shangri-La Dialogue, according to a source. The upcoming annual security forum is slated for May 29-31.If held,

South Korean tech giants Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have been ramping up efforts to find new cash cows with their quarterly R&D expenditure-sales ratio reaching an all-time high during the January-March period this year, according to their quarterly reports released Monday.Despite a sales decrease in the first quarter this year ― from 54 trillion won in the first quarter last year to 47 trillion won ― Samsung spent 3.8 trillion won ($3.5 billion) for R&D. This only slightly down from