Seoul - South Korea's opposition Democratic Party (DP) on Tuesday ended 12 days of sit-ins at Seoul's parliament triggered by policy disagreements.

Party chairman Chung Sye Kyun promised to allow work at the assembly to normalize after parliament Speaker Kum Hyong agreed Sunday to delay votes on controversial legislation.

Kim urged the DP and the ruling conservative Grand National Party (GNP) to negotiate their differences.

Seoul - Ailing South Korean automaker SsangYong Motor Co is to receive 45 million dollars from its Chinese top shareholder Shanghai Automotive Industry (SAIC) Motor Corp, the company said Monday.

The measure showed SAIC's determination to keep the SUV maker going, SsangYong said. Also the company received an order for 2,000 cars and minivans from SAIC.

SAIC holds a 51-per-cent stake in cash-strapped SsangYong, which had been hit hard as car sales dropped at home and abroad. In 2008, sales of the smallest of South Korea's five automakers dropped by 29.9 per cent to 92,665 units.

Seoul  - Opposition lawmakers and security guards clashed in South Korea's parliament on Saturday during a sit-in by the members of parliament (MPs) and their supporters, according to media reports.

A scuffle erupted as more than 150 guards tried to clear the main meeting room of the National Assembly in Seoul of several lawmakers and their supporters.

The official Yonhap news agency said one MP and about 20 aides and guards were lightly injured.

Seoul  - Shares surged 2.9 per ce

Seoul  - South Korea on Friday posted its first trade deficit since 1997, as exports nosedived in November and December because of shrinking foreign demand, officials said.

Exports in 2008 grew 13.7 per cent to 422.4 billion dollars, the sixth year double-digit growth in a row, despite a sharp drop in the last two months of the year. Imports rose by 21.5 per cent to 435.4 billion dollars, leading to a trade deficit of 13 billion dollars, the Economy Ministry said.

Seoul - North Korea will use parliamentary in 2009 to prepare the country for the time after Kim Jong Il, South Korean analysts of the Stalinist state said Wednesday.

Pyongyang was likely to hold parliamentary elections to the Supreme People's Assembly in July or August 2009, the official Yonhap news agency and the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said, quoting a report by the Insitute for National Security Strategy.

The institute is the research arm of the South Korean intelligence service.