Seoul - US President Barack Obama arrived on Wednesday in South Korea, the last leg of his Asia trip, with attempts to persuade North Korea to return to international nuclear disarmament talks expected to dominate discussions with his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung Bak.

Further topics in the meetings scheduled for Thursday are the security alliance between Washington and Seoul and the planned ratification of a free-trade pact. Obama is due to leave for Washington the same day.

Seoul, Nov 18 : US President Barack Obama arrived in South Korea Wednesday as part of his four-nation Asia tour.

Obama has visited Japan, Singapore and China. Seoul is the last stop for him.

During his stay in Seoul, Obama will meet his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak for a summit early Thursday in a bid to strengthen bilateral ties.

The two leaders are also expected to discuss the speedy ratification of a free trade deal between the two countries.

Seoul - South Korea has for the first time set a target for the reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions in the run up to the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, the government said on Tuesday.

The fourth-largest economy in Asia plans to reduce its emissions by 30 per cent from the predicted level of 2020.

That figure represents a reduction of 4 per cent from its 2005 figure, the President's Office in Seoul said after a cabinet meeting under the leadership of President Lee Myung Bak.

Seoul  - South Korean petrochemicals, battery, textile stand to lose from trade deals between Taiwan and China, likely to be signed in the coming year, traders said Monday.

Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-hsiang met his Chinese counterpart in Singapore Sunday, as cross-strait trade ties appear to be accelerating, and worrying to Koreans.

Seoul, Nov 15 - Ten people, including eight Japanese tourists, were killed and six others injured when a fire broke out at an indoor shooting range in Busan in South Korea, the police said.

The incident took place at about 2.00 p. m. Saturday on the second-floor of the five-storey shooting complex. The fire was put out after about an hour, police said.

An initial probe showed the fire started in a lounge, where seven bodies were found, Xinhua reported.

The Japanese, who were killed in the blaze, were part of a tour programme, police said.

Seoul - North Korea warned Friday it would use "merciless" military action to defend its sea border with South Korea.

In a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, North Korea's military demanded an apology for a naval clash earlier this week in the Yellow Sea and said it would "take merciless military measures" to defend its unilaterally drawn maritime border.

Seoul - South Korea's Hyosung Group on Thursday withdrew its offer to buy a 28-per-cent stake in chip manufacturer Hynix Semiconductor Inc.

The group's Hyosung Corp said it abandoned its bid for Hynix due to "various unfounded rumours including those suggesting government favour for our bid have made it difficult for us to seek a fair takeover," the news agency Yonhap reported.

Seoul - North and South Korea on Wednesday strengthened the monitoring of their border in the Yellow Sea, a day after engaging in a sea battle there, the South Korean government said.

South Korea's naval forces were put on heightened alert "in preparation for additional provocations by the North," South Korean Navy Chief of Staff Jung Ok Keun said in Seoul, according to the national news agency Yonhap.

A spokesman for the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea's navy had also stepped up its watch over the border off the neighbours' west coasts.

London, Nov. 10 : Navies of North and South Korea have exchanged fire in waters off the west coast of the two countries, Sky News reports.

A South Korean warship shot at a navy vessel from the North that crossed the disputed border in the Yellow Sea, a South Korean military officer said.

The North''s ship then shot back, he said.

Another officer said there were no South Korean casualties, although it was unclear whether there were any on the North Korean side.

Seoul, Nov 9 : The South Korean capital will host a Group of 20 (G20) summit in November next year, an official said Monday.

Sakong Il, former economic affairs adviser to President Lee Myung-bak, made the announcement at a press conference here Monday, Xinhua reported.

About 35 heads of state, as well as more than 10,000 other participants are expected to join in at the conference, Sakong added.(IANS)

Seoul - Gym experts warn that runners should be careful not to become obsessed with their running routines.

In South Korea for example several million people spend at least one hour a day running, walking or riding bikes. According to 2008 data from the Korea Statistics Office, about 38.3 per cent of people aged over 15 tend to exercise at least once a week.

At least 200 marathons are held in the Asian country every year and there are hundreds of bike-riding circles.

Yemen commenced exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its newly constructed LNG facility in Balhaf on the Gulf of Aden, with the first shipment intended for South Korea. The South Korean LNG carrier Ecopia will carry 147,000 cubic metres.

The sources informed that USD 4.5-billion (3-billion-euro) project, entailing a 320-kilometre (200-mile) gas pipeline from Maarib in eastern Yemen, is the country’s major ever investment.

The plant plans to accomplish a total production capacity of 6.7 million tonnes of LNG per annum, exporting to South Korea, Europe as well as North America.

Seoul (South Korea), Nov. 6 : The South Korean National Assembly has ratified a free trade deal with India, opening the way for the elimination or lowering of tariffs on trade worth 15 billion dollars with Asia''s third largest economy.

The so-called the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) would eliminate or reduce tariffs on over 4,400 South Korean export items.

During a regular parliamentary session on Friday, the trade bill was passed 192-0 with five abstentions by the 299-seat Assembly.

Seoul, Nov 6 : South Korea's parliament on Friday ratified a comprehensive economic partnership deal with India, paving the way for closer trade ties.

Seoul's ratification opens the way for eliminating or lowering import duties on goods and services.    

The pact could almost double trade volume between the India and South Korea, Asia's third- and fourth-largest economies, reports said.    

Bilateral trade is estimated around $15.6 billion anually.    

Seoul - South Korea's parliament on Friday ratified a comprehensive economic partnership deal with India, paving the way for closer trade ties.

Seoul's ratification opens the way for eliminating or lowering import duties on goods and services.

The pact could almost double trade volume between the India and South Korea, Asia's third- and fourth-largest economies, reports said.

Bilateral trade is estimated around 15.6 billion dollars anually.

According to estimates by the state-run Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, the deal could boost trade by 3.3 billion dollars. Bilateral trade was up 39 per cent in 2008.

Seoul, Nov 4 : South Korean health officials said Wednesday three more people have died of swine flu, raising to 45 the number of fatalities from the viral disease in the country, WAM news agency reported Wednesday.

A three-year-old baby and two men were the latest victims of the H1N1 virus, the health and family affairs ministry said in a statement.

"The baby had no symptoms of pneumonia, but there was a possibility that the virus might have intruded into his brain," said Kwon Joon-wook of the Korea Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

Seoul, Oct 31 - South Korea will send troops to Afghanistan to protect its civilian aid workers there, WAM news agency reported citing the Korean foreign ministry.

The decision came as Seoul plans to increase the number of its reconstruction workers to at least 130 in the war-torn country and operate an independent Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT).

Seoul  - Plans are in motion to create fully "internationalized" Web addresses - those completely in non-Latin scripts like Korean or Arabic, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, announced Friday.

"We just made the internet much more accessible to millions of people in regions such as Asia, the Middle East and Russia," Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's president and CEO, said in a statement.

ICANN's board of directors voted to approve the decision before an audience of some 200 attendees of the organization's 36th International Public Meeting in Seoul.

Seoul  - Samsung Electronics Co's profit more than tripled in the third quarter to hit a record 3.72 trillion won (3.14 billion dollars), the company said Friday.

Rising prices for memory chips and robust demand for televisions and mobile phones helped the South Korean company achieve its best quarterly net income ever.

Sales rose 29.1 per cent to 24.86 trillion won from the same period last year.

Samsung is the world's largest manufacturer of memory chips and liquid crystal display televisions and number two in the mobile phone market.

Are stealing, murder and extortion crimes? Or are they sins?

These questions might seem incongruous for a news report to begin with, but they have created ripples in rebel-controlled Christian Nagaland. They have, in fact, pitted a state baptized by American missionaries against Korean “biblical encroachers”.

Two pastors of the South Korea-based Good News Mission (GNM) – Ock Soo Park and Kim Sae Yoon – apparently rubbed the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) the wrong way prior to its four-day Bible Crusade that began in Dimapur on October 26.