WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Pentagon chief Jim Mattis told lawmakers Monday he was "shocked" by the state of the US military's readiness, blaming legal budget caps and the grind of 16 years of constant war.The defense secretary also warned that North Korea has become the most urgent threat to peace and security, and said -- without giving details -- that America must do things differently in Afghanistan. Pointing to Obama-era budget caps known as sequestration, Mattis said limits on military spending ha

The South Korean baseball club Hanwha Eagles said Tuesday they will keep interim manager Lee Sang-kun for the remainder of the season.The Korea Baseball Organization club has been without a full-time manager since the dismissal of Kim Sung-keun on May 23. Lee, then a pitching coach, assumed the interim role, and the Eagles at the time said they'd try to name Kim's replacement as quickly as possible to stabilize the clubhouse and the dugout.Lee Sang-kun (right), interim manager of the Hanwha Eagl

The number of endometriosis patients rose sharply in recent years due to late marriage and childbirths, stress and irregular lifestyles, with most of those affected in their 30s and 40s, data showed Tuesday.The number of those who were diagnosed as endometriosis patients by CHA Gangnam Medical Center in southern Seoul rose to 15,968 in 2016 from 3,184 in 2009, according to the hospital records. An undated file photo of an endometriosis patient surgery at a Seoul hospital. (Yonhap)Out of the 2017

MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was jailed for 30 days, and over 1,500 of his supporters were arrested after demonstrations across the nation on Monday against government corruption.The protests were the second mass action since March called by Navalny, who has announced his intention to run for president next year and has drawn a new generation to the streets through a relentless online campaign.A Moscow court, sitting late Monday, found the 41-year-old Navalny guil

Despite a 2015 deal between South Korea and Japan to end a bilateral feud over colonial-era sexual enslavement, its South Korean victims still have individual rights to sue the Japanese government for compensation, Seoul has recently concluded.The government submitted the position to the Seoul Central District Court in late April upon the court's order to define the legal effectiveness of the agreement signed in December 2015. A weekly rally is under way in front of the Japanese Embassy, which i

South Korea's unification ministry said Tuesday it is mulling over how to reopen an inter-Korean communication hotline, which was severed early last year following North Korea's nuclear and missile tests.In February 2016, North Korea cut off two inter-Korean communication channels as it expelled remaining South Koreans from a joint industrial park in response to South Korea's closure of the Kaesong complex. This photo taken on July 19, 2016, shows an inter-Korean hotline that was set up in 1971

The United States will leave "all options" on the table in responding to a threatened intercontinental ballistic missile test by North Korea, a State Department spokesperson was quoted Tuesday as saying.Katina Adams made the remark after North Korea warned Saturday that it is "not too far away" from test-firing an ICBM capable of striking the US mainland. (KCNA-Yonhap)"As we have said before, all options for responding to future provocations must remain on the table," she told Washington-based V

South Korean shares advanced late Tuesday morning, despite the overnight decline on Wall Street, as institutions' buying offset a selling binge by foreign and retail investors.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 11.08 points, or 0.47 percent, to 2,368.87 as of 11:20 a.m.Most large caps traded mixed, with market kingpin Samsung Electronics rising 0.13 percent and global chipmaker SK hynix losing 0.17 percent. Naver, the operator of the country's top Internet portal, added 0.11 pe

South Korea and the United States held a meeting on Tuesday to make preparations for their next round of high-level talks on defense and security issues, the foreign ministry said.The meeting took place in Seoul between Acting Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Anita Friedt and her South Korean counterparts, according to the ministry.  (Yonhap)The closed-door meeting was aimed at making preparations for the next Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group t

South Korea on Tuesday approved three additional requests by local aid providers to contact North Koreans despite the North's rejection of civilian inter-Korean exchanges, government officials said.The move reflects Seoul's resolve to seek civilian engagements with North Korea even as Pyongyang has turned down South Korean civic groups' offer for exchanges. (Yonhap)It raised the number of Seoul's such approvals to 18 since liberal President Moon Jae-in took office May 10."The three aid groups as

A Britain-based scholar has raised the need to tighten international sanctions on North Korean diplomats to close loopholes in the existing sanctions regime for the country's nuclear and missile programs, a news report said Tuesday.Andrea Berger, associate fellow at Britain's Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, made the argument in a recent report identifying the challenges of implementing sanctions on North Korea, according to US-based Radio Free Asia. This undated

A British relief group will make a six-day visit to North Korea next week to provide 40 tons of flour for bread to be consumed by the North's children, Voice of America reported Tuesday.George Rhee, leader of the London-based Love North Korean Children and a Briton of Korean descent, said in a recent message on his Facebook account that the group's planned visit to Pyongyang has been approved after a long wait, adding the visit is scheduled to begin next Monday. This undated photo, taken from th

The number of South Korean skin cancer patients has spiked nearly 40 percent over the past four years, flirting with the 20,000 mark, apparently due to increased sunlight exposure, data showed Tuesday.Skin cancer patients in the country numbered 19,435 at the end of last year, up 38 percent from four years earlier, according to the data from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service.People in their 70s accounted for the largest portion of the total at 28 percent, trailed by sexagenarians

Three opposition parties on Tuesday voiced their disapproval for a 11.2 trillion-won ($9.9 billion) extra budget bill aimed mainly at creating jobs in the public sector, reiterating it does not meet legal requirements.The move came a day after President Moon Jae-in made an emphatic call for parliamentary support for the bill, saying "unemployment, if left unattended, could lead to a crisis equivalent to national disaster." Reps. Lee Yong-ho, Lee Hyun-jae and Lee Jong-koo (from left), the policy

Rival parties failed Monday to adopt reports on the results of parliamentary confirmation hearings for President Moon Jae-in's top government and judicial nominees, casting clouds over his efforts to swiftly form his government.The ruling Democratic Party sought to adopt the reports on Fair Trade Commission chairman-nominee Kim Sang-jo, Constitutional Court chief-designate Kim Yi-su and Foreign Minister-nominee Kang Kyung-wha, but failed to do so due mainly to objections from the main opposition