The Korean daily media headlines and humor

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Your Excellency:

What’s ticking in Korea and around the world today?

Here are The Korea Post notices and a roundup of important headlines from all major Korean-language dailies, TV and other news media of Korea today:

Very Respectfully Yours

/s/

Lee Kyung-sik

Publisher-Chairman

The Korea Post media

P.S.: If the Headlines are no longer desired, please advise us at: edt@koreapost.com or pub@koreapost.com.

Incheon National University

A lion guardian at near the entrance building of the INU

President Cho Dong-sung of INU with campus buildings in the backdrop

There are only 11 days to the Tour of the Incheon National Uiversity

for the VVIP Diplomats on May 28, 2018!

Please advise us at edt@koreapost.com or call Ms. Sua Kim at 010-7584-5873 for reservation.

Invitation to the VVIP Tour to Incheon National Univerfsity:

I am pleased to inform Your Excellency and Nadam that President Cho Dong-sung of Incheon National University (INU) cordially invites the Ambassadors and Madams, and also the senior education officers at the Embassies (on behalf of the Ambassadorsa unable to attend) to a tour of his University on Monday May 28, 2018. The Tour is organized by The Korea Post media, and will be fully covered by all its five media outlets mentioned the Lett of the Publisher above.

The time/schedule of the Tour is as follows:

0900 hours, Monday 28 May 2018: Meet at the Grand Hyatt Seoul (near the water fountain), and depart for INU by Limousine buses.

1020-1200 hours: Have a tour of the important facilities of the University.

1200-1400 hours: Attend a formal Luncheon with President and Madam Cho Dong-sung of INU prepared by a Super Deluxe Hotel in Incheon

1400-1700 hours: Attend a tour of the Bio-industrial Complex and Korea’s leading bio-related business companies.

1700-1810 hours: Move back by Deluxe Limousine Buses to Seoul.

(A slight change could occur to the schedule depending on situation of the day.)

Very Respectfully Yours

/s/

Lee Kyung-sik

Publisher-Chairman

The Korea Post media

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Round-up of important news stories from major Korean dailies today:

The Korea Post media (www.koreapost.com) in English, (www.koreapost.co.kr) in Korean.

U.S. continues to plan N. Korea summit: State Department

The United States said Tuesday it continues to plan for a historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un despite the regime's threat to withdraw.The State Department's response came shortly after North Korea warned the U.S. to make "careful deliberations about the fate" of the June 12 summit, citing ongoing military exercises between the South and the U.S."We will continue to plan the meeting," department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said at a regular news briefing. "We have not heard anything from that government or the government of South Korea to indicate we would not continue conducting these exercises or would not continue planning for our meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un next month."Trump has been informed of the North Korean warning, and officials from the White House, the National Security Council and the Pentagon are meeting as a result, CNN reported.

Jobless rate falls to 4.1 pct in April, job creation remains sluggish

South Korea's jobless rate fell slightly in April due to a rise in employment in the health care, financial service and public service sectors, but job creation still remained weak, government data showed Wednesday.The unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent last month, down 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier, according to the report compiled by Statistics Korea.The number of employed people reached 26.86 million in April, up 123,000 from a year earlier, according to the data.The unemployment rate for young adults -- those aged between 15 and 29 -- was 10.7 percent, down 0.5 percentage point from a year earlier.The employment rate stood at 66.6 percent in April, unchanged from a year earlier, with the corresponding figure for young people at 42 percent, down 0.1 percentage point over the cited period.The number of newly added jobs marks the third straight month that the figure has stayed slightly above the 100,000 mark. The comparable figures for February and March were 104,000 and 112,000, the data showed.

Ministry: U.S. troops in Korea are key to regional security

South Korea's foreign ministry on Tuesday stressed that U.S. troops on its soil are indispensable for the peace and stability of the region.It was responding to speculation about the future of the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) amid a rosy outlook for regional security conditions, with the leaders of North Korea and the United States set for talks in Singapore next month.Some already talk about the possibility of the U.S. scaling down its military presence here or pulling the USFK out of the peninsula.Last week, the U.S. House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would effectively ensure the number of U.S. service members in Korea will not drop below 22,000 without a guarantee that any related measure won't significantly undermine allied security in the region.

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KBS (http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/)

N. Korea Cancels High-level Talks, Threatens to Scrap US Summit

North Korea abruptly cancelled high-level talks with South Korea scheduled for Wednesday and threatened to scrap a planned summit with the U.S. over ongoing military exercises between Seoul and Washington. Seoul's Unification Ministry said it was informed of the meeting's "indefinite postponement" just after midnight in a notice sent by Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, which handles relations with the South.
The North's state media Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) cited the Max Thunder drills between the South Korean and U.S. air forces for the surprise decision. The KCNA called the two-week-long drills, which kicked off Friday and include about 100 aircraft, an "intended military provocation" and an "apparent challenge" to the Panmunjeom Declaration made at the April inter-Korean summit, where the leaders of the two countries agreed to reduce military tensions.

Top Office Trying to Figure out N. Korea's Intentions

The presidential office is trying to figure out the intentions of North Korea in relation to its abrupt cancellation of high-level inter-Korean talks set for Wednesday. Seoul's Unification Ministry was informed of the meeting's "indefinite postponement" just after midnight in a notice sent by Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, which handles relations with the South. A senior presidential official told reporters that the top office's security officials closely discussed the sudden cancellation with the related ministries of unification, foreign affairs and defense on the phone. The official added that the government is focusing its efforts on figuring out the exact meaning of the notice, adding it has no plan to change the schedule or the scope of the ongoing Max Thunder air drill between the U.S. and South Korea, which the North cited as its reason for cancelling the planned inter-Korean talks.

US to Continue Preparations for N. Korea Summit Despite Cancelled Inter-Korean Talks

The U.S. says it will continue preparations for a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un despite the North’s abrupt cancellation of high-level talks with South Korea and threat to pull out of the planned U.S. summit. The North cited the ongoing military exercises between Seoul and Washington as the reason for its sudden change of heart. Shortly after the cancellation early Wednesday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a regular news briefing that Washington has not heard anything from Seoul or Pyongyang to indicate that it should not continue conducting the military exercise or stop planning for the summit

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Yonhap (http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr)

Drug firms log big returns from equity investments

South Korean pharmaceutical companies have posted hefty returns from their equity investments in domestic and foreign bio startups, data showed Wednesday.According to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service, pharmaceutical giant Yuhan Corp. sold some 400,000 shares of Genexine, a clinical stage biotechnology company listed on the secondary stock market, for 35.9 billion won (US$33.3 million) in the first quarter of this year.The proceeds were well in excess of Yuhan's initial investment of 20 billion won made in December 2015.The equity sale reduced Yuhan's holdings of Genexine to 110,000 shares as of the end of March, but Yuhan's stake is expected to rise again as it is poised to participate in Genexine's planned rights offering.Yuhan plans to spend 30 billion won to purchase 332,000 shares of Genexine's preferred shares.Industry watchers said Yuhan will make an additional investment in Genexine because of its growth potential. Genexine has developed long-acting growth hormones and candidates of cancer immunotherapy.

N. Korea cancels high-level talks with S. Korea, threatens to nix U.S. summit

North Korea said Wednesday it is canceling high-level talks with South Korea and threatened to pull out of a summit with the United States over the allies' ongoing military exercises.The North's Korean Central News Agency said the Max Thunder drills between the South Korean and U.S. air forces are a rehearsal for invasion of the North and a provocation amid warming inter-Korean ties.It also called into question whether next month's summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump can go ahead as planned. "This exercise targeting us, which is being carried out across South Korea, is a flagrant challenge to the Panmunjom Declaration and an intentional military provocation running counter to the positive development on the Korean Peninsula," the KCNA report said. "We have no choice but to suspend the North-South high-level talks planned for the 16th amid this menacing situation where an indiscriminate ruckus to invade the North and a confrontational mayhem are occurring in the South."

Daijin mattresses contain radioactive material above standard

South Korea's nuclear commission ruled on Tuesday that some of the mattresses manufactured by Daijin Bed Co. contain radioactive material above the standard and ordered a recall.The radioactive levels, including for radon, of seven Daijin mattresses were up to 9.3 times above the national tolerance standard, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said.Radon is a radioactive, colorless and odorless gas occurring naturally as an indirect decay product of uranium or thorium. It is considered a health hazard due to its radioactivity, and exposure to radioactive gas can cause lung cancer.The finding comes just five days after the commission initially ruled that the seven Daijin models, produced in 2016, contained safe levels of radon.The new finding concluded that the annual radiation dose of the models tested came to 1.94 millisievert (mSv), outside of the safety standard for processed products of 1 mSv per year.

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The Korea Herald (http://www.koreaherald.com)

N. Korea cancels high-level talks with S. Korea, threatens to nix US summit

North Korea said Wednesday it is canceling high-level talks with South Korea and threatened to pull out of a summit with the United States over the allies' ongoing military exercises.The North's Korean Central News Agency said the Max Thunder drills between the South Korean and US air forces are a rehearsal for invasion of the North and a provocation amid warming inter-Korean ties.It also called into question whether the summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump can go ahead as planned.

S. Korea protests Japan’s Dokdo claim

South Korea on Tuesday condemned Japan’s repeated claim to the Dokdo islets in a foreign policy document presented to its cabinet, rekindling territorial and historical tensions between the two countries.The Japanese government described the islets as “indigenous Japanese territory” in this year’s foreign policy document, known as the Diplomatic Bluebook, reported to its cabinet earlier in the day. Seoul’s Foreign Ministry urged Tokyo to immediately retract its claim over the ownership of Dokdo, which is controlled by Seoul. The ministry summoned Koichi Mizushima, minister at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to lodge a complaint.

Doubts persist over NK’s denuclearization pledge despite signs of dismantlement

While North Korea appears to be dismantling its nuclear test site ahead of its first-ever summit with the US next month, doubts persist over whether Pyongyang will uphold its pledge for complete denuclearization, due to the lack of a thorough verification process.Citing satellite imagery captured May 7, US-based North Korea website 38 North said Monday that key operational support buildings have been removed at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, which North Korea said would be shut down between May 23 and 25 in the presence of journalists. Some of the rails for mining carts have also apparently been removed, the website said, adding that some carts seem to have been tipped over or disassembled. The carts had been used for linking underground tunnels to respective spoil piles. While other more substantial facilities remain intact, the satellite imagery “provided the first definitive evidence that dismantlement of the test site was already well underway,” 38 North said in its analysis.

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The Korea Times (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr)

North Korea axes talks with South, threatens Trump summit over drills

North Korea on Wednesday threw into question an unprecedented summit between its leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump scheduled for next month, denouncing military exercises between South Korea and the United States as a provocation and calling off high-level talks with Seoul.A report on North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency angrily attacked the "Max Thunder" air combat drills, which it said involved U.S. stealth fighters and B-52 bombers, and appeared to mark a break in months of warming ties between North and South Korea and between Pyongyang and Washington.Any cancellation of the June 12 summit in Singapore, the first meeting between a serving U.S. president and a North Korean leader, would deal a major blow to Trump's efforts to score the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency.Trump has raised expectations for a successful meeting even as many analysts have been skeptical of the chances of bridging the gap due to questions about North Korea's willingness to give up a nuclear arsenal that now threatens the United States.

South Koreans fear air pollution more than North Korean nukes

Fine dust is the biggest threat to Koreans, according to a local survey.The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs surveyed 3,839 people asking about their concerns on living in this country.It showed that Koreans mostly worried about air pollution _ specifically fine dust. Their concerns about the aging society, low economic growth or the North Korean nuclear threat were secondary. The survey asked them to give one to five points on certain issues.Air pollution received the highest number of 3.46, followed by slow economic growth at 3.38, the aging population at 3.31 and water pollution at 3.29.Natural disasters such as floods, typhoons, earthquakes and tsunamis held the least fear for Koreans.The survey said Koreans became highly anxious about the environment due to air pollution

Foreign companies most distressed by left-leaning labor policies

Foreign invested companies here are pressured the most by the government's pro-labor policies such as working hours and the minimum wage hike, a survey showed Tuesday.According to the survey conducted by the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), 65 percent of 120 foreign invested companies with more than 100 employees said they were burdened by these policies.Of the respondents, 16.7 percent said the government's tax policies such as hikes or cuts in incentives were burdensome, followed by 7.5 percent concerned with regulations on subcontracting and fair trade, and on restricting opening hours and branch expansions for retail outlets.The Moon Jae-in administration has promulgated a series of labor friendly policies such as shortening the country's statutory maximum working hours to 52 a week from the current 68 from July. The country's hourly minimum wage was raised by 16.4 percent to 7,530 won this year, with the government seeking to raise it to 10,000 won per hour by 2020.

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Chosun Ilbo (http://english.chosun.com)

U.S. 'Mulled Dozens of Military Options Against N.Korea'
The U.S. considered some 20 scenarios for military action against North Korea last year, when relations were at a nadir in the wake of the North's nuclear tests and missile launches, a senior government official here said Tuesday.The official told reporters he had a long talk last October with the director of the CIA's Korea Mission Center, a division that deals with the North Korean nuclear issue. "At the time, I was surprised to hear that the 'military options' Washington was talking about were not an empty threat by American hardliners but actual preparations," he said."What surprised me most was that such a thing was discussed in detail." "I previously thought of military options simply as things like the bombing of the Yongbyon nuclear facilities or a decapitation strike against North Korean leaders. But I heard that 20-odd military scenarios were under discussion over how to carry them out and how to react to each response from Pyongyang," he added.

Senior N.Korean Defector Casts Doubt on 'Cuddly' Kim Jong-un
The former No. 2 man in the North Korean Embassy in London casts doubt on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's new cuddly and approachable image in a new memoir published Monday. Thae Yong-ho said Kim has a "short and violent" temper. In the book, he recalls how he too expected a sea change when Kim first came to the power in 2012, as Kim hosted a Western-style party, took joyrides, and publicly appeared on the arm of his wife. But he points out that soon afterward Kim's reign of terror started, purging and executing officials for trifling offenses. After Kim's uncle and eminence grise Jang Song-taek's execution, "more than 10,000 people were sent to prisoners, mine fields or internal exile," Thae writes.Asked at the book launch about the reason for Jang's execution, Thae said "Kim had developed a hatred of Jang since childhood," because Jang apparently kept the boy away from his grandfather Kim Il-sung, who did not like Jong-un's mother.

New Airline to Challenge Flag Carriers on Longer-Haul Routes
A new airline is challenging flag carriers on their mainstay mid to long-haul routes. Air Premia said Monday it wants to apply for a flight license from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in July, with actual flights to start in late 2019. Air Premia claims it is not a budget carrier but will offer more comfortable seats on mid to long-haul routes than existing economy seats at a lower price. It will only offer only two types of seats -- economy and premium economy. And where economy seats on big airlines measure 32 to 34 inches and on budget carriers 28 to 30 inches, Air Premia will make them 35 inches in economy and 42 inches in premium economy. Prices will be 90 to 140 percent of those of big airlines.

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HanKyoReh Shinmun (http://english.hani.co.kr)

Swift denuclearization versus grand reciprocal measures

Since the North Korea-US summit was scheduled to take place in Singapore on June 12, the two sides have jumped into negotiations about the summit’s agenda, allowing the outline of the US’s negotiating strategy to gradually come into view. The American strategy can be summarized as the following kind of “grand bargain”: if North Korea takes bold and swift measures to denuclearize, such as by handing over its nuclear weapons, the US will also take bold and swift reciprocal measures on private-sector investment and a security guarantee for the North Korean regime.During appearances by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Fox News and CBS and by White House National Security Advisor John Bolton on ABC and CNN on May 13, the two officials described in detail the US’s position about the summit agenda.

Looking back on 30 years, resolutions for the next 30

The Hankyoreh newspaper was the child of street demonstrations. The fervent cries of democracy protesters in June 1987 were inscribed on the umbilical cord when it was born. It has been the destiny of The Hankyoreh to grow up while being jostled by the crowd and buffeted by the wind and the rain during history-making demonstrations—from the democracy movement in 1987 through the candlelit revolution in 2016.The history of South Korea over the past 30 years is also the history of The Hankyoreh. The Hankyoreh’s inaugural message in its first edition on May 15, 1988, began with the phrase, “We have created our first issue today with trembling emotion.” That trembling emotion is the lasting spirit of The Hankyoreh that cannot and must not be forgotten. And now we are passionately pondering those words in our hearts once more as we create the newspaper’s 30th anniversary edition.

Finalizing North Korea-US negotiations before summit

The approach to North Korea’s denuclearization that White House National Security Advisor John Bolton described in an interview with ABC on May 13 essentially involves complete yet rapid denuclearization and the surrender of nuclear weapons to the US for processing.Bolton explained that PVID (that is, permanent, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization) means getting rid of all nuclear weapons by disassembling them and shipping their components to Oak Ridge, Tennessee.While Bolton’s proposal for shipping nuclear devices to Oak Ridge is widely regarded in both the domestic and international press as being identical to the Libyan solution that North Korea has rejected, it is actually different. While the nuclear facility at Oak Ridge did process 16kg of highly enriched uranium and centrifuges during the process of downgrading Libya’s nuclear capability between 2003 and 2006, it is also the place that disassembled nuclear weapons when Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan dismantled their nuclear programs after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

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JoongAng Ilbo (http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/)

Pyongyang cancels talks with Seoul over joint military drill, threatens to call off summit with U.S.

North Korea called off a planned high-level meeting with South Korea early today, just hours before it was to take place at the border village of Panmunjom, blaming Seoul’s ongoing joint drill with Washington as an “undisguised challenge” to the inter-Korean declaration signed at the South-North summit last month.According to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, Pyongyang informed Seoul at 12:30 a.m. today that it would “indefinitely suspend” the high-level meeting due to South Korea’s Max Thunder air force training exercise with the United States.The joint drill, which kicked off last Friday, usually lasts two weeks and has been held annually since 2009.
North Korea also threatened to walk out of its first summit with the United States, slated for June 12 in Singapore.

U.S. knows of North’s secret uranium site

Washington is currently aware of the location of one or two of Pyongyang’s secret uranium enrichment facilities, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is expected to acknowledge their existence and allow them to be inspected in the upcoming North-U.S. summit, according to a diplomatic source. “Five years ago, the United States conveyed that the facilities are an issue,” the diplomatic source well informed on matters of the North-U.S. summit told the JoongAng Ilbo on Monday. “North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is seen to have made up his mind to reveal such facilities as one of the big actions he plans to take” during his upcoming historic meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump scheduled for June 12 in Singapore. Pinning down North Korea’s plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel for nuclear weapons is a key challenge for North Korean denuclearization, including locating the facilities producing them and estimating the size of the country’s stockpiles of fuel.

Pyongyang officials go to study China reforms

A delegation of Workers’ Party Central Committee senior officials traveled from Pyongyang to Beijing Monday to learn from China’s economic reforms. Their visit follows diplomatic warming between North Korea and China following recent back-to-back summits by their leaders The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday that Pak Thae-song, a vice chairman of the Central Committee, led the delegation to China for a friendly visit without further elaborating. The delegation was greeted by a Chinese Communist Party official and North Korea’s ambassador to China upon arrival at the Beijing International Airport Monday. They headed to Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where foreign dignitaries often stay. They also visited Zhongguancun in Beijing, known to be “China’s Silicon Valley,” which North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited in late March.

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The KyungHyang Shinmun (http://english.khan.co.kr/)

The Special Prosecutor for the D-ruking Case, In the Hands of Bareun Mirae and the Party for Democracy and Peace
The ruling and opposition parties agreed on May 14 to pass a bill on a special prosecutor for the D-ruking case in the parliamentary session on May 18. As a result, the investigation of D-ruking and his manipulation of online comments will now go into the hands of a special prosecutor. Since it will take time for the president to appoint a special prosecutor after receiving referrals of candidates and for the special prosecutor to gather an investigative team, the investigation is not likely to begin until after the June 13 local elections. The name of the bill will be the Act on the Appointment of a Special Prosecutor to Investigate the Illegal Manipulation of Online Comments by D-ruking. The lawmakers agreed to have the Korean Bar Association recommend four candidates. The three opposition parties with a bargaining voice in the National Assembly will select two from this pool and recommend them to the president. The president will appoint one of the two as the special prosecutor. In this case, the Liberty Korea Party is likely to select one of the four candidates recommended by the Bar Association and the Bareun Mirae Party and the Party for Democracy and Peace are likely to discuss and select the other from the four candidates.

U.S. Demands Long and Specific, While Compensations Brief and General
The key issue in the summit between North Korea and the United States is the complete denuclearization of North Korea and compensations by the U.S. corresponding to such action. What to include in denuclearization and compensations and in what order to place them are key. The U.S. government is slowly specifying the roadmap for denuclearization including its demands and rewards for North Korea after setting the date for the summit on June 12. The list of what they want is long and specific, but their promise of compensation is short and general. A gap remains in the two countries' position on the order of corresponding measures.U.S. demands can be summarized as complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID). White House National Security Adviser John Bolton appeared on ABC and CNN on May 13 (local time) and described this in detail. North Korea must discard all nuclear weapons that it has already produced and remove them to the U.S. mainland. As stipulated in the Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula signed in 1992, North Korea must also get rid of its capacity to enrich uranium and to reprocess plutonium, which can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons. Ballistic missiles, which can transport nuclear weapons, and biochemical weapons are also subject to disposal. He even said that the U.S. would put kidnapping incidents on the table.
설명: http://linkback.khan.co.kr/images/onebyone.gif?action_id=91b3dcac7e24572a612027b6d14f1e9

Why the Controversy over the Unusually Swift Investigation of Candid Pictures of the Hongik Univ. Nude Model?
The arrest of a female model who secretly took pictures of a male nude model during a nude croquis class at Hongik University and released the pictures on the Internet stirred controversy with people asking, "Why did the police, capable of such a quick investigation, show such a slow response to other cases involving illegal photography in the past?"

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AJU Business Daily (http://eng.ajunews.com/korea)

Prosecutors open probe into 2016 defection of N. Korean restaurant workers

State prosecutors launched a probe into allegations that intelligence officials under the government of South Korea's jailed ex-president Park Geun-hye engineered the defection of 12 waitresses and one male manager at a North Korean restaurant in China.The defectors deserted their state-controlled restaurant in the Chinese city of Ningbo in April 2016 and flew into Seoul in a secret operation. Pyongyang accused South Korean intelligence agents of abducting them, but Seoul insisted they came of their own volition to find a better life.The probe by prosecutors followed complaints filed by a group of liberal lawyers Monday against a former unification minister and Lee Byong-ho who headed the National Intelligence Service (NIS) under the previous conservative government.

N. Korea suspends inter-Korean talks in protest at air drills

In a sudden twist to rapprochement brought by a historic summit, North Korea suspended inter-Korean talks on Wednesday, blasting a joint air exercise by U.S. and South Korean war planes as an intentional provocation that hurt "positive development" on the Korean peninsula.The North warned the two-week Max Thunder exercise could affect a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12. The exercise that kicked off on Friday involved some 100 warplanes, including eight F-22 radar-evading fighters. It is one of the joint exercises which have been staged annually by the allies.The Koreas were supposed to hold high-level talks Wednesday in the truce village of Panmunjom on how to implement the so-called Panmunjom Declaration signed by their leaders in April.

Koreas agree to hold high-level talks this week

South and North Korea will hold high-level talks this week in the truce village of Panmunjom on how to implement agreements at their historic summit in April, officials said Tuesday.The meeting on Wednesday will be attended by a five-member delegation from each side, the South's unification ministry said, adding Ri Son-kwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, will lead the North's delegation involving officials handling sports and economic issues.South Korea's delegation will be led by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon. At the summit last month, the Koreas agreed to hold military talks in May and Red Cross talks on arranging the reunion of separated families in August.

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Maeil Business News Korea ( http://www.pulsenews.co.kr/)

Lotte Shopping invests $2.8 bn to ramp up e-commerce biz

South Korea’s retail giant Lotte Shopping announced a 3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) investment plan to become the country’s top e-commerce operator by 2022. Lotte Shopping said on Tuesday it would invest 3 trillion won to strengthen its e-commerce business and integrate all eight online shopping platforms operated by its affiliated companies - department store, discount store, home shopping and duty-free store operators - into one online shopping platform. To implement the plan, the company will first launch a specialized e-commerce business division that will bring online systems and research and operating staffs currently scattered across its affiliates under one roof in August. The division and newly integrated online shopping mall will be operated by Lotte Shopping, which acquired its online retail site operating affiliate Lotte.com for its stable operation, it said.

MSCI Korea index welcomes five new stocks

Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) will add shares of five new South Korea companies - Samsung Engineering Co., Celltrion Pham Inc. HLB Inc. ViroMed Co. and PearlAbyss Corp. - to its Korean equity index as of June 1, a move that is expected to further boost foreign investors’ appetite for the companies’ stocks. New York-based global equity index provider MSCI said on Tuesday that shares of Samsung Engineering, Celltrion Pham, HLB, ViroMed, and PearlAbyss will newly join the MSCI Korea Index according to its annual index rebalancing result. But Hanwha Aerospace Co., Hyundai Wia Corp., and SK Networks Co. will leave the index. The changes will be effective as of June 1, the company said.

U.S. proxy advisor Glass Lewis advises shareholders to oppose Hyundai Mobis’ spin-off plan

U.S. proxy advisor Glass Lewis on Monday advised shareholders of South Korea’s Hyundai Mobis Co. to oppose the company’s plan to spin off its module and after-service parts businesses and merge them with logistics affiliate Hyundai Glovis Co., citing “questionable business logic” and “inadequate valuation.” The recommendation comes after U.S. activist fund Elliott Management Corp. said last week it will vote against Hyundai Motor Group’s restructuring plan as it “fails to offer terms that are fair to all shareholders” and urged more significant measures “to address the long unresolved issues… that have led to significant value discounts and underperformance.” According to foreign media reports and multiple industry sources on Tuesday, Glass Lewis, one of the world’s two prominent proxy advisory firms along with Institutional Shareholder Services, released a statement on Monday, local time, and advised Hyundai Mobis shareholders to vote against the spin-off merger plan first announced in March. Glass Lewis said that the proposed arrangements are “profoundly unattractive for Mobis shareholders, yet more than reasonable for existing Glovis shareholders.”

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The Baltic Times http://www.baltictimes.comlithuania@baltictimes.com, estonia@baltictimes.com, editor@baltictimes.com

El Pais http://elpais.com/elpais/inenglish.html

Philippine Daily Inquirer https://www.inquirer.net

Daily News Hungary http://dailynewshungary.com

Budapest Times http://budapesttimes.hu

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Azerbaijan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR8CBpcQ4WM

Sri Lanka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hByX92Y2aGY&t=22s

Morocco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfFmp2sVvSE

And many other countries.

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