South Korea's football governing body on Tuesday held a meeting to discuss its bid plans for the top continental football tournament in 2023.The Korea Football Association President Chung Mong-gyu chaired the senior delegation meeting at its headquarters in Seoul with 37 members to talk about various issues, including South Korea's bid for the 2023 Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup. South Korea last hosted the quadrennial competition in 1960.The AFC last month announced that South Korea, Ch

The United States does not seek a regime change in North Korea, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday, as tensions renewed over the country's nuclear and missile programs.North Korea conducted its second test of an intercontinental ballistic missile last week, fueling concerns that the communist nation may be close to delivering a nuclear weapon to the US mainland.Pyongyang said the test was aimed at giving a "stern" warning to the US, which is bent on employing sanctions and pressure on

Samsung Engineering Co. said Friday its second-quarter net profit improved marginally, helped by companywide cost-cutting efforts. In the three months ending June 30, the plant builder posted a net profit of 31.4 billion won ($28 million), up from 2.3 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement. (Yonhap)"The plant industry is still struggling due to unfriendly business environments. Low oil prices were a major drag in the second-quarter results," a company spokesman said by phone

The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae has handed over additional documents from the former government to the state archives, its spokesman said Friday.Park Soo-hyun told reporters that Cheong Wa Dae sent the Presidential Archives 17 boxes of documents, photos, DVDs, CDs and mobile phones which were found last week in the National Security Office and other rooms used by former presidential secretaries.(Yonhap)On July 14 and last Friday, Cheong Wa Dae handed over to the archives various materials

A Sri Lankan national, whose robbery and rape charges have finally been cleared by a top court, was forcibly sent back to his country earlier this week, the Justice Ministry said Friday. Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld not guilty rulings by the lower courts on the 51-year-old man after two years of a review on the unsolved case, citing insufficient evidence. (Yonhap)The man, along with two other Sri Lankan accomplices, was indicted in 2013 on charges of robbing and raping an 18-year-old S

Hyundai Steel Co., South Korea's second-largest steelmaker by sales, said Friday its net profits plunged 46 percent on-year in the second quarter on lower demand in China.In the three months that ended June 30, the company's net slumped to 341.1 billion won ($304 million) from 254.6 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement.(Yonhap)"As the company's supply of automotive steel to Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp.'s plants (in China) has fallen sharply, it deeply cut into th

South Korean shares dropped to their lowest level in over two weeks Friday, as foreign investors heavily sold off market heavyweights, mostly tech stocks, a move seen as cashing in recent gains, analysts said. The local currency fell sharply against the US dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index plunged 42.25 points, or 1.73 percent, to close at 2,400.99, after dipping to as low as 2,399.06 at one point. The closing price marks the lowest since July 13, when the comparable fi

A widely used US history textbook will carry more pages on the unique ancient culture and modern economic development of South Korea starting next year, Seoul's education ministry said Friday. The revised content will be published in the Ways of the World, co-written by professors Robert Strayer and Eric Nelson, according to the Ministry of Education. It is designed for high school students and sold by Bedford-St. Martins, an affiliate of a major US textbook publisher Macmillan. The renewed vers

South Korea's pro football league on Friday agreed to release its players ahead of schedule for the national team for key World Cup qualifying matches. The K League, operator of the pro football competition, said it decided to accept a request by the Korea Football Association to release the players early for the national team preparing for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The clubs are not obligated to make their players available until three days prior to international match day, but to give the natio

Rising South Korean swimming star An Se-hyeon has set a national record and achieved the best result by a South Korean woman at the ongoing world championships.An finished fourth with a time of 2:06.67 in the women's 200-meter butterfly final at the FINA World Aquatics Championships at Danube Arena in Budapest, Hungary, on Thursday (local time).(Yonhap)This was the highest finish by a South Korean female swimmer at a major international competition. An, 21, also broke the previous national recor

World Taekwondo, the official world governing body of taekwondo based in Seoul, said Thursday it plans to invite North Korean officials to its event in South Korea this fall.WT, led by South Korean president Choue Chung-won, said it plans to send invitations to International Taekwondo Federation President Ri Yong-son and Secretary General Kim Sung-hwan -- both North Korean -- for the 2017 Taekwondo Peace Festival in Seoul. The festival, commemorating Taekwondo Day on Sept. 4, was founded last ye

It's all about overcoming adversity for South Korean figure skaters trying to qualify for next year's Winter Olympics on home ice.The national team trials for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games will begin with the Figure Skating Korea Challenge at Mokdong Ice Rink Seoul. The juniors will vie for spots in the upcoming International Skating Union Junior Grand Prix season starting Friday, while the seniors' competition starts Saturday.The Korea Skating Union will hold another qualifying competition

Rising South Korean figure skating star Cha Jun-hwan on Thursday unveiled an ambitious plan to add a difficult element to an already challenging program before next year's Winter Olympics at home.Starting Saturday at Mokdong Ice Rink in Seoul, Cha is scheduled to compete in the Figure Skating Korea Challenge, which will double as the first round of the national team trials for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. The winner of this event will compete at the Nebelhorn Trophy in Germany in Septem

Three up-and-coming South Korean figure skaters, Lim Eun-soo, Kim Ye-lim and You Young, have grown by leaps and bounds of late, an encouraging development for a nation always hungry for new stars on the ice.And it turns out the three young ladies have also grown up quite a bit physically, too.They attended a press conference on Thursday ahead of the Figure Skating Korea Challenge at Mokdong Ice Rink in Seoul. The competition, taking place on Friday and Saturday, will double as a qualifying event

South Korean football club Incheon United said Thursday they've signed Argentine forward Enzo Damian Maidana.The K League Classic club said they've acquired Enzo from Bolivian side Petrolero de Yacuiba, without revealing the terms of the contract. Incheon said they hope the 29-year-old striker can boost their struggling offense.Incheon, currently 11th in the 12-team league, have scored only 20 goals in 23 matches so far, second worst behind cellar dwellers Gwangju FC. Following the departure of