Two South Korean religious groups were this week given approval for plans to visit North Korea to promote cooperation with their counterparts in the North, Seoul‘s Unification Ministry said Tuesday.The ministry said it approved the visits of the two group whose religions originated locally, one of which follows the Dangun beliefs and the other a Cheondogyo group, to visit Kaesong on Thursday and Friday, respectively.A total of 10 officials from the groups will travel to the North during the sepa

The board of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology on Thursday accepted its president Suh Nam-pyo’s offer to resign on Feb. 23.Suh recently announced that he would step down in March after years of protests from professors and students against his reform measures. His term originally was to expire in July 2014.Instead of dismissing him immediately, the 16-member board decided to respect his position.“We agreed to allow him finish his term honorably and attend the school’s gradua

Six South Koreans have been indicted after they allegedly bought and resold U.S. military equipment banned from circulation, police said Monday.The group, including a man surnamed Kim, is suspected of purchasing seven U.S. military items, such as night vision goggles and laser target designators, from an unidentified soldier stationed at a U.S. military base in Dongducheon, 40 km north of Seoul, in May of last year, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said. Kim then allegedly smuggled the piece

A Seoul court on Monday posthumously cleared a local man of espionage charges and apologized to his bereaved family a half century after he was executed for being a “double agent” for both Koreas.Shim Moon-kyu was sent to North Korea to carry out espionage activities in 1955, two years after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce. Shim, however, was detected by the North and trained for one year and seven months to become a North Korean spy. Upon returning home, Shim immediately turned himself

South Korea plans to submit a formal claim to an extended portion of its continental shelf to a U.N. agency within a month or two, a government official said Monday, adding heat to already heightened territorial tension across East Asia. The Foreign Ministry has been readying official documents to present to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf scheduled to convene a seven-week session on Jan. 21, 2013. A member country should file its reports three months beforeh

Korea has slightly improved its scores in an index of the rich world’s contributions to developing countries this year but still ranked the lowest among 27 donor countries due to its small funding scale, high trade barriers and limited acceptance of immigrants, a U.S. think tank said Friday.The Washington-based Center for Global Development, specialized in poverty and inequality research, has been compiling the annual Commitment to Development Index since 2003. It gauges donor countries’ commitm