South Korea's former foreign ministers have come out in support of Kang Kyung-hwa, a beleaguered diplomat nominated by President Moon Jae-in to be his first foreign minister.Ten former top diplomats, who served as foreign ministers in the preceding conservative and liberal governments, issued a joint statement Saturday, saying Kang is the right person to deal actively with the nation's diplomatic challenges and pending thorny issues. Kang Kyung-hwa (Yonhap)"Foreign minister nominee Kang Kyung-hw

Japan's senior ruling party official has arrived in Seoul as a special envoy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Saturday.While meeting with reporters at Gimpo Airport, Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said, "I will cooperate with everyone to try my best to do my job as a special envoy." Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, is surrounded by reporters at Gimpo Airport, outside Seou

Princess Astrid of Belgium arrived in South Korea on Saturday along with an economic mission to promote business ties between the two countries, according to theforeign ministry.During her one-week stay, Princess Astrid is scheduled to meet with President Moon Jae-in and Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon to discuss bilateral economic cooperation, a foreign ministry spokesman said. Princess Astrid of Belgium (Yonhap)She also plans to visit the Demilitarized Zone bisecting the two Koreas, as well as hav

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Saturday that he won't let democracy falter or backtrack in honor of those who risked their lives to safeguard it.During an address to mark the 30th anniversary of the pro-democracy uprising in June, he said, "Under the Moon Jae-in government, democracy will flourish and human rights will be protected further."In June 1987, a nationwide movement against the dictatorship of the then Chun Doo-hwan government took place, triggered by the state's ruthless crac

A former defense ministry official has been sentenced to five years in jail for receiving bribes in connection with military facility construction projects, the Seoul Central District Court said Saturday.The court handed down the hefty punishment to the former head of the Ministry of Defense's Defense Installations Agency, identified only as a 64-year-old Kim, after convicting him of pocketing 80 million won ($71,000) in bribes from a special door manufacturer in return for helping it be chosen

Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to become the world's top chipmaker during the second quarter of this year, a report showed Saturday, beating its traditional rival Intel Corp."Following the rise in number of data centers and expanded demand of solid state drives (SSDs), Samsung is expected to become the No. 1 player in the global chip industry," said Lee Se-cheol, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities Co. (Yonhap)Intel took up 13 percent of the global market in the first quarter of 2016

North Korea's official newspaper claimed Saturday that a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile is not far away."The series of recent strategic weapons tests show that we are not too far away from test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile," the Rodong Sinmun said in an editorial.The claim indicates the regime has continued to advance its missile technology since its leader Kim Jong-un said during his annual address on Jan. 1 that the regime was in the final stage of develop

WASHINGTON -- US Under Secretary of State Thomas Shannon will visit South Korea next week for talks on the alliance between the two countries, North Korea and other issues, the State Department announced Friday.Shannon will be in Seoul from Tuesday to Thursday to "meet with senior Korean officials to discuss the US-Korea Alliance and our shared global priorities, including our coordinated responses to the threat posed by the DPRK," the department said in a release. (Yonhap)He will also visit the

Six in 10 South Koreans still oppose the legalization of same-sex marriages, a local poll showed Thursday. According to a survey conducted on 1,004 adults by Gallup Korea, 34 percent of the respondents supported same-sex marriages, while 58 percent of them opposed it. Some 8 percent reserved their answers. The findings showed a huge generational gap on the issue: The older they were the more likely they were to hold a negative view.(123rf)A majority of 20-something people, or 66 percent, were in

A Seoul court sentenced a former health minister to 2 1/2 years in prison Thursday for exerting undue influence to back a controversial merger of Samsung Group in connection with the scandal that removed President Park Geun-hye from power and landed Samsung’s de facto leader in jail. Moon Hyung-pyo, health minister from 2013 to 2015, was convicted of abuse of power and perjury in a ruling that is likely to deal a heavy blow to Park and Lee, who are standing trials of their own for a suspected mo

When Kislay Kumar went out with his friends in a multicultural district in Seoul to enjoy his Friday night, the 25-year-old man did not imagine that his night would be ruined just because he was Indian. In the early hours of Saturday morning, Kumar was denied entry to a bar in Itaewon because of his nationality. His other friends from Russia, Colombia, Afghanistan, Canada and France were allowed entry. “When I was in line, the bouncer asked for our identification cards. I showed him my ID card a

Mumbling “f---ing crazy” in English in front of a Korean aggressor does not constitute a criminal insult, a local court said Tuesday. The Constitutional Court said in a unanimous ruling that the prosecution should cancel its decision to acknowledge the action as a criminal offense.  (Yonhap)In South Korea, insulting an individual publicly is a criminal offense punishable by a prison term of up to one year or a fine of up to 2 million won ($1,800).“It is hard to acknowledge that the complainant h