Ambassador to Australia Lee Jong-sup was set to return home Thursday amid criticism of his appointment and departure when he is subject to an investigation into a Marine’s death last year.

Lee, a former defense

South Korea and the United States agreed to launch a working-level consultative body to tackle North Korea’s illegal smuggling of refined oil, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

Lee Jun-il, South Korea’s deputy nuclear envoy, and

A Russian troupe has performed the ballet “Sleeping Beauty” in Pyongyang, North Korea’s state media reported Thursday, the latest in a series of growing exchanges between Pyongyang and Moscow following a rare summit of their

South Korean shares rallied by more than 2 percent Thursday amid growing hopes for U.S. rate cuts in the near future. The local currency also rose sharply against the U.S. dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite

Exports rose 11.2 percent on-year in the first 20 days of March, data showed Thursday.

Outbound shipments reached US$34.13 billion in the March 1-20 period, compared with $30.69 billion tallied a year earlier, according to