• Kim Jong-un keeps job

    North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was re-elected as the first chairman of the country’s powerful National Defense Commission (NDC), Wednesday. His re-election came during the first session of the North’s newly-elected Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), said the state-run North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Kim was initially chosen for the…

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  • US President likely to pass on sex slave issue

    Korea visit will follow Japan trip U.S. President Barack Obama will face a couple of issues that Koreans want to see addressed during his visit here later this month. First among these is the issue of Korean women forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War…

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  • Kang to receive German order of merit

    Kang Sue-jin, the Korea National Ballet (KNB) director, will be honored by the state of Baden-Wurttemberg in Germany on May 3rd for her contributions to art and culture, according to KNB on Monday. Kang is widely regarded as the greatest Korean ballerina of her generation. She has been with the…

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  • Streak interrupted

    Hollywood blockbusters halt Korean films’ local dominance After dominating the local box office for most of 2012 and 2013, Korean films are off to a slower start this year with moviegoers showing more love for Hollywood films. According to the Korean Film Council, Korean movies combined for a 48 percent…

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  • Korean authors arrive for London Book Fair

    The “Korea Market Focus” of the London Book Fair, a major publishing trade event, opened Tuesday with the attendance of several major Korean literary figures. The Korea-centric event, which aims to highlight the Korean publishing industry, is being held under the theme, “Books opening the mind, doors opening the future.”…

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  • Yuhan-Kimberly leads green innovation

    Tree-planting campaign marks 30th anniversary Yuhan-Kimberly leads environmental conservation efforts in the country through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) program Keep Korea Green. The program, launched in 1984 by a joint venture between Korean pharmaceutical firm Yuhan Corp. and global personal care company Kimberly-Clark, plans to reach the mark of…

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  • Carmakers to benefit most from FTA

    Car and machinery manufacturers are expected to benefit most from the Korea-Australia free trade agreement (FTA), which was signed Tuesday, while hardest hit will be agricultural sector, according to experts. “Like Korea’s FTAs with the U.S. and Canada, the FTA with Australia will benefit export-oriented goods, such as cars, components,…

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  • Gov’t debt tops W1.1 quadrillion

    The government’s debt, including liabilities of state pension funds, rose sharply last year to 1.117 quadrillion won, according to the government’s settlement report for last year’s budget, released Tuesday. This is up some 215 trillion won from the previous year’s 902 trillion won, and represents 78.2 percent of the country’s…

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  • Save the whales, 2014

    It was widely known for many years that Japan’s “scientific whaling” program was a sham, designed to get around the international moratorium on hunting whales. Almost no research on the animals came from Japanese scientists; instead, whale meat kept showing up in restaurants and school lunches. Finally, Australia, a whaling…

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  • Disrupted by drones

    It’s time to calm down, check defense preparedness Three small, crashed drones presumably sent by North Korea have touched off a noisy but inconclusive controversy in the South. Tracing back the course of debate over recently found unmanned aerial vehicles, however, reveals big holes in the nation’s defense posture and…

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