Japan on Monday enlisted US help to airlift supplies to some of the 100,000 people made homeless by earthquakes in the country's south, as rescuers struggled to find those still missing in a massive landslide.Many of those evacuated after their homes were damaged or destroyed have been forced to sleep in temporary accommodation or huddle in makeshift shelters, and media have reported problems in delivering food and other emergency supplies.The disaster-prone country's worst humanitarian challeng

World News April 18, 2016

North Korea on Tuesday dismissed South Korea's demand for it to first denuclearize before holding any discussions to sign a peace treaty, accusing the South of starting a nuclear arms race on the Korean Peninsula.In a signed commentary carried by its official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang also rejected Seoul's demand to be a part of such discussions to sign a peace treaty that will replace the Korean armistice agreement signed over six decades earlier to end the 1950-53 Korean War

North Korea March 1, 2016

The main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea said Wednesday its internal committee has excluded 10 lawmakers including a high-profile activist-turn-politician from being nominated for candidacy in the upcoming general elections.With less than 50 days away from the general elections in April, the opposition party unveiled a list of the lower 20 percent of applicants who had been screened out in the outcome of its so-called cutoff.The list included Rep. Lim Su-kyung, a female activist-turn-politician

Politics Feb. 24, 2016

The U.N. Security Council has entered the final stretch in its work on adopting a fresh resolution for sanctions against North Korea's latest nuclear and missile test, diplomatic sources said Wednesday."The United States and China are believed to be doing the final reviews over the wording of a resolution draft," a government source told Yonhap News Agency.The U.N. Security Council has been working on a fresh resolution aimed at punishing the North, but progress has been slow mainly because Chin

North Korea Feb. 24, 2016

The Shanghai government has decided to temporarily suspend a plan to demolish a site used by the Japanese military for sexual slavery during World War II, according to Chinese state media reports on Wednesday. The site in the Hongkou district of Shanghai was a residence of a Chinese owner of a cotton mill, but was occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army in 1939. In 1940, about 40 women, including 10 Korean and 20 Chinese, were coerced to serve Japanese soldiers at the location, the reports said.

World News Feb. 24, 2016

Fitch Ratings said Wednesday it has downgraded the outlook on Lotte Shopping Co. from "stable" to "negative", expecting slow recovery from last year's sluggish earnings due to tougher competition at home and abroad.The key retail unit of South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group saw its operating profit fall 30 percent on-year to 688 billion won (US$541.5 million) in 2015, marking a consolidated net loss of 346 billion won.While its 2015 earnings were hampered by the outbreak of the Middle East Resp

Industry Feb. 24, 2016

South Korea's financial authorities on Wednesday referred U.S. hedge fund Elliott Associates to state prosecutors for allegedly violating local disclosure rules when it tried to prevent a merger of two Samsung Group affiliates last year.The Securities and Futures Commission said Elliott abused the total return swap (TRS) system to covertly increase its holdings. This marks the first time that the commission has taken issue with TRS and is expected to set an important precedence in the market.It

Feb. 24, 2016

The U.N. Security Council has strongly condemned North Korea's long-range rocket launch, vowing to "expeditiously adopt a new resolution" with significant measures, and calling the launch a "dangerous and serious violation.""The members of the Security Council strongly condemn this launch," Venezuelan U.N. Ambassador Rafael Dario Ramirez Carreno, the council's president for February, told reporters on Sunday while reading a press statement after the closed-door meeting."The members of the Securi

North Korea Feb. 8, 2016

South Korea's foreign minister plans to visit the headquarters of the United Nations and Germany this week to drum up international support for punishment over North Korea's nuclear test and missile launch, his ministry said Monday.Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se plans to visit the U.N. headquarters in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday, where he will ask the U.N. Security Council to slap stronger and more effective sanctions on North Korea, according to the Foreign Ministry.The U.N. Security Counc

North Korea Feb. 8, 2016