Sana'a, Yemen  - The Yemeni coastguard thwarted a pirate attack on a South Korean cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden, killing one pirate on Monday, Yemen's Interior Ministry reported.

A coastguard unit in the southern Yemeni port of Aden answered a distress call from the Korean ship that came under attack about 40 miles off Aden, the ministry said in a statement.

Pirates were closing in on the ship pointing rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers in an attempt to force it to stop as a dispatched coastguard gunboat reached the site, the ministry said.

"Coast guards exchanged fire with the Somali pirates and fatally shot one of them," it said, adding that the pirates fled the area and the ship was able to continue its journey.

Seoul - South Korea's industry output logged its sharpest drop on record, pushing South-East Asia's fourth largest economy further towards a deep recession.

Output in the mining and manufacturing sectors fell by 25.5 per cent year-on-year in January, after dropping 18.7 per cent in December, the statistics office in Seoul said. It was the sharpest drop since 1970, when such data was first compiled.

Seoul - High-ranking officials of the North Korean army and the United Nations Command (UNC) in South Korea met Monday as tension on the Korean peninsula mounted.

North Korea asked for the meeting, held at the heavily fortified border village Panmunjom, the US-led UNC said, making it the first meeting between the two sides in almost seven years.

Over the weekend, the communist country's state-controlled media accused US troops stationed in the South of "provocations" along the demilitarized puffer zone between the two Koreas.

Seoul  - North Korea has begun to test radar and other equipment in preparation for launching what it claims to be a satellite, South Korean media reports said Friday.

Increased activity was reported from the Musudan-ri missile launch site in the north-east of the communist state as North Korea moves closer to what South Korea claims is an attempt to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Seoul - In a move to support its banking system, the South Korean government plans to provide funds from a planned 20-trillion-won (13-billion-dollar) recapitalization fund in March, an official statement said Wednesday.

The fund aims at shoring up ailing banks and kick-starting loans to medium-sized companies, the Financial Services Commission said, adding that a first tranche of 12 trillion won would be used to acquire preferred shares and subordinated debt.

Stockholm - Swedish clothing retail giant Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) plans to add South Korea to the list of countries it operates in, the group said Wednesday.

The company said it has inked a deal to open a store in the South Korean capital Seoul during the spring of 2010.

"We look forward to establishing in South Korea. We have positive experiences from our establishments in Japan, Hong Kong and China and see South Korea as a natural consecutive step," H&M chief executive Rolf Eriksen said in a statement.

This year, H&M is planning to open 225 stores worldwide, mainly in Britain, the United States, Spain, France, Germany and Italy. The company's first stores were also due to open in Moscow and Beijing.