Several new steps in favour of the disabled are announced: better allowances, free schooling and publicly-funded assistants to increase mobility of people with disabilities living below the poverty line.
The Chinese government wants to stop Pyongyang from conducting missile and nuclear tests that are a violation of a UN Security Council resolution. North Korea's answer is to ban Chinese visitors from entering the Communist nation.
The first shipment includes food, clothes and medicine and it left yesterday for Nampo port. The Red Cross hopes the aid program "brings the two Koreas closer" after relations between them cooled because of the missile crisis provoked by Pyongyang in July.
The 2006 World Population Report sets off alarm bells. Birthrate drops to 1.1 per couple as the elderly component of the population grows. Government and religious leaders, who call for greater collaboration, are worried.
They were arrested because they were illegal immigrants. Now they have refugee status. Seoul is keeping a low profile not to irritate Pyongyang, but it will probably accept the refugees.
Korea is the first country in Asia to introduce a central immigration policy. The system present faults that the international community should help to fix, in view of its possible adoption by Beijing and Tokyo.
The day marking the end of Japanese imperialism saw myriad manifestations for and against North Korea, for and against the US, and all against Japan.
The South Korean government has no intention of ignoring Pyongyang's threats, while Washington is installing Patriot anti-aircraft missiles in its Japanese bases. Seoul's Foreign Affairs Minister is in China to seek a joint diplomatic solution.
Government, business and labour pledge to work together to create new jobs for pregnant women and build better childcare facilities to reverse the declining birthrate.
The proposal is made during celebrations of the historic 2000 visit. Concerns are raised about an expected North Korean missile test launch.
Lee Byeong-chun and Kang Seung-keun have been charged with faking, together with Wang Woo-suk, the results of embryonic stem cell research and of embezzling public funds for the studies.
Official sources said the first "trials" will take place on 25 May. As yet, there is no specific date for the inauguration of the cross border lines.
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