Seoul - Shares

Seoul - South Korea warned North Korea Friday that it risked "countermeasures" from the United Nations if it goes ahead with a planned rocket launch.

Foreign Minister Yu Myung Hwan said in Seoul that it did not matter whether the launch was of satellite, as North Korea has claimed, or an intercontinental ballistic missile, as its neighbours and the United States fear, because either way the matter would be taken before the UN Security Council.

Seoul  - In a country like South Korea, a craze for coffee is not the only explanation for the unusual success that Starbucks Corporation is now enjoying there.

The success of Starbucks in South Korea can also be put down to the free internet access in its many outlets. People are now flocking to the chain stores not only to drink coffee, but to study and chat as well.

Seoul  - Shares surged 3.2 per ce

Seoul - Pyongyang on Tuesday reopened its border to hundreds of South Koreans stranded at a joint industrial complex, one day after it cut inter-Korean communications amid rising tension over US and South Korean military exercises.

Border traffic to and from the Kaesong industrial park in North Korea returned to normal, South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the official Yonhap news agency.

Tokyo  - A South Korean freighter and its crew went missing Tuesday off the central Japanese Izu-Oshima island after it collided with a Panama-registered vessel, Japanese media reports said.

The 4,255-ton Orchid Pia of South Korea and the 10,833-ton Cygnus Ace of Panama collided early Tuesday in the Pacific Ocean, about 120 kilometres south of Tokyo, the Japan Coast Guard said.

The search continued after the coast guard lost contact with the Orchid Pia, which has seven South Korean and nine Indonesian crew members.