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Tens of thousands of South Koreans rallied Saturday night against a government decision to import U.S. beef in the largest demonstration in a month of almost daily protests. ADVERTISEMENT A crowd estimated by police at 38,000 people filled a plaza in front of city hall. Protesters lit candles, waved placards and chanted slogans criticizing President Lee Myung-bak. South Korea agreed in April to reopen what was formerly the third-largest overseas market for U.S. beef. It had been shut for most of the past 4 1/2 years following the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in a Canadian-born cow in...

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's presidential office denied a Taliban claim on Saturday that it had paid a ransom of more than $20 million for the release of 19 Christian missionaries held hostage in Afghanistan. "We deny any payment for the release of South Korean hostages," said an official at the presidential Blue House.

Islamabad, Aug 5 : The Governor of Ghazni province of Afghanistan has accused Pakistani Taliban of working in tandem with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and holding South Korean nationals hostage. "In the beginning, it was the local Taliban, but after a few days, Pakistani Taliban and ISI officers disguised as Taliban arrived in the region, and they took control of the situation," Governor Merajuddin Pattan said. Afghan officials often accuse Pakistan's ISI of secretly supporting and harbouring Taliban insurgents. However, Pakistan strongly denies the charge, The News reported. Pakistani officials were not immediately available for comment on Pattan's accusation, which...

The Taleban have agreed to face-to-face talks with South Korean officials to discuss the fate of 21 Koreans, held by the militant group for two weeks. A location is yet to be agreed after the Taleban refused to meet at a venue under the control of Nato-led forces. Two of the Christian workers have already been killed. Their bodies were found in Ghazni province. The Taleban are threatening more deaths unless demands are met for the release of eight government-held prisoners. A group of senior South Korean lawmakers have travelled to Washington in a bid to urge the US to...

Seoul - A North Korean general cracked a joke about US President George W Bush at the start of military talks on Tuesday with South Korea that takes aim at president's unpopularity for being mired in the Iraq war and other issues. "I read a political joke, called 'Saving the President,' on a US internet site a while ago," Lieutenant General Kim Yong Chol told his South Korean counterpart as they opened three days of meetings at the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Koreas, according to pool reports. "US President Bush, distressed by the Iraq...

Koreans offer their apologies for shootings By Toby Harnden in Centreville Last Updated: 12:54am BST 23/04/2007 Outside a church where the parents of Cho Seung-hui, the Virginia Tech killer, worship, one member of the congregation offered tearful apologies for his actions and lamented the shame he had brought on the Korean community. "I am so sorry, I am so sorry," said Hae Kim, 50, clutching her bible and weeping as she spoke of the "nightmare" of Cho killing 32 people and himself a week ago today. "I say sorry to the families of the victims. We blame ourselves," she said....

Discontent heard among North Koreans By Richard Spencer, in Beijing Last Updated: 1:36am GMT 11/12/2006 Many North Koreans are now aware of the poverty of their country and are voicing discontent after years of near-starvation, according to the fullest study yet conducted of refugees from the Stalinist dictatorship. While the popular image of North Koreans is of a nation living in blissful ignorance of the outside world and unquestioning loyalty to the leadership of Kim Jong-il, refugees interviewed while in hiding in China reported that there were increasing signs of dissent. Eighty per cent of those questioned said North Koreans...

Monday June 26, 09:41 AM North Koreans Criticize U.S. In Massive Rally SEOUL, June 26 Asia Pulse - Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans staged a massive anti-U.S. rally in Pyongyang on Sunday, the North's state media reported, as regional tension has risen over the communist state's reported plan to launch a long-range missile. Pyongyang's Kim Il-sung Square "shook with their voices denouncing the U.S. imperialists, the sworn enemy of the Korean people," the (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an article. Sunday marks the 56th anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with...

If we've got a missile, let's fire it into George Bush's window, say N Koreans Sergey Soukhorukov in Pyongyang and Colin Freeman (Filed: 25/06/2006) In a land where anti-Western propaganda is the norm, one might have expected a triumphant state broadcast - or, perhaps, a rallying denunciation of "American lies". But last week, as North Korea created a diplomatic storm over claims that it was preparing to test fire a missile that could hit the United States, television sets in Pyongyang were tuned into a rather different drama. North Koreans have long been urged to hate the United States Instead...

I remember there was a website named www.kimsoft.com that claims to be an "independent directory for resources on Korean and Korean American history, culture, economy, politics and military." Supposedly the editor is an American of Korean descent, but I have seen lots of hardcore anti-American articles from a supposedly American-based news source and which sing praise to North Korea such that even the famously biased CNN claims that it is a biased news source towards the North Korean party line. The thing that strikes me most is that it offered nothing in sympathy to the victims of 9/11 soon after...

SPOKANE - A Korean man, wanted since November 2005 on suspicion of smuggling a dozen Korean national in to the United States near Oroville, has been arrested in Los Angeles, Calif. James A. McDevitt, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced the arrest of Jeong Ho Kim, 38. He was arrested by U.S. Immigation and Customs Enforcement agents in an apartment in Los Angeles. Kim faces federal charges in Spokane for allegedly transporting the seven women and five men over the border illegally, according to McDevitt. Federal officials allege the 12 were destined for the Los Angeles area...

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., Feb. 1, 2006 – Korean army Lt. Col. Hyunmo Lee did not fight in the Korean War. But the sacrifices U.S. troops made during that war are in the forefront of his mind as he works as a coalition partner in the global war on terror. "The U.S. has shed their blood in order to support our freedoms," Lee said. "When I look back on our history, Korea has benefited a lot with U.S. help." The Korean War began in June 1950 when North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Nearly 37,000 U.S. servicemen died in...

2005 SEOUL — Stroll into an expensive department store and walk straight past the $180 watermelon with a ribbon twirled just so around its stem. Don't bother with the tea in a butterfly-shaped tin for $153, or with the gift boxes of Belgian chocolates or French cheeses. If you're looking for a gift that bespeaks elegance and taste, you might try Spam. The luncheon meat might be the subject of satire back home in the U.S., but in South Korea, it is positively classy.

Koreans protest possible job cuts at U.S. bases By T.D. Flack and Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Saturday, May 14, 2005 T.D. Flack / S&S South Koreans riot police watch South Koreans who work on U.S. military bases in the Seoul area stage a protest Thursday near Yongsan Garrison. Seth Robson / S&S South Korean base workers protest near Uijongbu train station on Thursday. T.D. Flack / S&S South Koreans who work on U.S. military bases gather near Yongsan Garrison to protest U.S. Forces Korea's announcement that it might cut up to 1,000 jobs. T.D. Flack / S&S...

SEOUL (Reuters) - Two Koreans used weed clippers and a knife to lop off fingers on Monday outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul to protest at Tokyo's claims on a group of desolate islands that South Korea (news - web sites) insists is its territory. Reuters Photo Park Kyung-ja, a 67-year-old woman, and Cho Seung-kyu, 40, each chopped off a finger during a rally at the embassy gates. The long-simmering dispute over the islands, called Tokto in Korea and Takeshima in Japan, flared as Tokyo and Seoul were celebrating the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties. Park and Cho struggled with...

Dictator celebrates as North Koreans starve (Filed: 17/02/2005) Kim Jong-Il celebrated his birthday in exuberant fashion yesterday, despite worsening food rations among his people and international condemnation of his nuclear ambitions. Children's dance displays, synchronised swimming, fireworks and Kim's personal touch - flower shows featuring the Kimjongilia, a form of magnolia specially bred to bloom early in his honour - marked the 63 years of North Korea's "Dear Leader". An army dance ensemble performed a concert featuring numbers such as General on a Galloping White Horse and a female solo, I Do Not Know a Warmer Bosom. Pyongyang's central square...

A South Korean missionary here speaks of introducing Jesus in a "low voice and with wisdom" to Muslims, the most difficult group to convert. In Baghdad, South Koreans plan to open a seminary even after Iraqi churches have been bombed in two recent coordinated attacks. In Beijing, they defy the Chinese government to smuggle North Koreans to Seoul while turning them into Christians. South Korea has rapidly become the world's second largest source of Christian missionaries, only a couple of decades after it started deploying them. With more than 12,000 abroad, it is second only to the United States and...

Gymnastics federation: Hamm's gold the result of scoring error By EDDIE PELLS, AP Sports Writer August 21, 2004 ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Paul Hamm's gold medal just lost its luster. A scoring mistake at the all-around gymnastics final cost Yang Tae-young the gold that ended up going to Hamm, the International Gymnastics Federation ruled Saturday. The South Korean got the bronze instead. Three judges were suspended, but the results will not be changed, the federation said. The South Korean Olympic team will ask the Court of Arbitration for Sports to determine if Yang deserves a gold medal. ADVERTISEMENT ``We want...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Three Japanese and eight South Koreans were kidnapped in Iraq on Thursday, according to media reports. The Arabic TV station al-Jazeera aired video of the Japanese blindfolded. The South Koreans were detained by unidentified "armed men" in Iraq but one was later released, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed Foreign Ministry official in Seoul. The report gave no further details. The Foreign Ministry told The Associated Press it did not know who was responsible for the capture of the South Koreans. In Tokyo, lawmakers said the Japanese were kidnapped by a...

Nugent sues Muskegon officials over concert cancelation The Associated Press 8/21/2003, 7:11 p.m. ET DETROIT (AP) — Michigan rocker Ted Nugent filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday, claiming organizers who canceled a June performance wrongly accused him of making racist comments. Nugent claims that accusations made by city officials and others, and the cancelation of the June 30 concert, damaged his reputation and career, according to a statement issued by his attorney. The lawsuit names the City of Muskegon; Mayor Stephen Warmington; City Manager Bryon Mazade; Meridian Entertainment, the concert's promoter, and others as defendants. "In a world of...

North Korea on Saturday called for unity of all Koreans, accusing the United States of seeking to drive a wedge between Seoul and Pyongyang, as the two Koreas prepare to engage in a busy week of talks. South Korea has said that it will use a flurry of upcoming inter-Korean meetings, including talks involving senior cabinet ministers, to urge the North to pay heed to international calls to give up its nuclear ambitions. "It is an issue of particular importance to achieve great national unity now that the US imperialists seek to deprive the South Koreans of their sovereignty, hinder...

Seven million Koreans facing starvation By Jasper Becker in Beijing 05 January 2003 The United Nations food agency warned yesterday that supplies for some seven million people, a third of North Korea's population, will run out early next month without furtheraid. The news could worsen the crisis over North Korea's nuclear threats. "We only have firm commitments for 35,000 tons. This will be finished in early February, and then we might have to close shop," said Gerald Bourke, the spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Beijing. South Korea stopped food deliveries two months ago, after Pyongyang admitted...

SEOUL: South Korean activists on Sunday attacked the White House computer server with electronic mail bombs to protest the aquittal of two US soldiers accused of killing two schoolgirls in a road accident. Meanwhile four people were arrested breaking into a US army base and riot police were stopped 300 protestors from marching on the American embassy in Seoul. South Korean hackers and Internet users launched the bombs at the server at 0300 GMT, an activist said. But the cyber attack was "largely ineffective due to an advanced filtering system at the White House," he said, vowing to stage a...

SEOUL — A 12-minute video released on the Internet shows several confused and frenetic scenes among a South Korean crowd, South Korean police and three U.S. soldiers who say they were mobbed by protesters on Saturday. View the video at: http://voiceofpeople.org/tv/movie/020914_usarmy.wmv The sometimes jerky and fast-paced footage shows two soldiers running to the guarded entrance of a university hospital, an apologetic and clearly distressed third soldier at a hospital bedside, and South Korean riot police sparring with South Korean protesters. “I’m sorry. I’m very sorry. I’m very sorry. I’m sorry,” says Pvt. John Murphy to Suh Kyung-won, a former South...