Daily News Channel
Police officers and soldiers held captive by the leftist guerrilla group known as FARC pleaded to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to negotiate their release in a series of nine proof-of-life videos released Monday. Pyongyang limited access to the North Korean border city of Kaesong in December as relations worsened between the nations. The decision restricted traffic to and from a jointly run industrial complex there.
North and South Korea reached an agreement Friday on reunions for families separated for decades by the Korean War, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. Reunions will be held from September 26 to October 1, Yonhap said.
South Korea bade farewell to former President Kim Dae-jung Sunday in a ceremony attended by thousands of citizens, dignitaries and politicians. The solemn Sunday afternoon ceremony was held outside parliament, with a large portrait of Kim placed on a shrine surrounded by flowers. The funeral followed six days of mourning for Kim, who died Tuesday of a heart failure
North Korea will send a delegation to the funeral of former South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung, who is best remembered for trying to foster better relations between the two neighbors.
And now a public service announcement from the British foreign office: “The government views Hyundai Group’s joint statement with North Korea in a positive way, but it is at the nongovernmental level,” Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said. “For this agreement to be realized, the governments of South and North Korea need to reach a concrete agreement through dialogue.” A Hyundai subsidiary handles all tourism and business projects between the Koreas
South Korea responded positively, but cautiously, to a joint agreement announced Monday between North Korea and the South’s Hyundai Group to resume cross-border tourism, ease border controls and facilitate cross-border family reunions. “The government views Hyundai Group’s joint statement with North Korea in a positive way, but it is at the nongovernmental level,” Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said
By 2010, Seoul’s women should officially be happy — at least the ones with driver’s licenses. In May, the city government started to paint 4,929 public and private parking places pink throughout the city, with thousands more slated to go under the brush next year.
A report in South Korean media is fueling the ongoing speculation about the deteriorating health of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. YTN News, citing unidentified intelligence sources in South Korea and China, reported Monday that the 67-year-old leader has pancreatic cancer. South Korea’s Unification Ministry flatly denied the report, which comes a week after a frail-looking Kim appeared in public for the first time in months.
Donating to charity itself is a relatively new phenomenon in a society that traditionally values family units. So the announcement that South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak will be donating $26 million, the bulk of his wealth, to charity, is considered highly unusual. The president’s office said the money will be used to set up a new youth scholarship program
The United Nations should "urge" Iran to release political prisoners rounded up during the recent unrest following last month’s disputed presidential elections, a group of Nobel Peace Prize winners have declared.