Lee Jong-Ho, the director of the national climate change adaptation center owned by Korea Environment Institute (KEI) said he was a Japanophile in a workshop in Sejong City. And he cried, "Long live the (Japanese) Emperor!" three times.

The participants in the workshop were surprised very much and said "We were shocked to hear that from the mouth of the person concerned with government".

The director explained for coverage of the Korean media, "It was a joke during a meal".

About this, a lot of critical comments were put from the Korean net users.

KEI denied the news of Asia Economy, "The news is not the fact at all. He did not say such words".

It is said that the Old Seoul Station was designed by Tsukamoto Yasushi of Tokyo Imperial University and was completed in 1925. However, the grounds that Tsukamoto is the designer are only that he left two pieces of design drawings, so there are many questions.

In addition, the true model is not Tokyo Station, but Swiss Lucerne Station completed in 1896. Lucerne Station was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. If you compare the appearances, you see the old Seoul station is not Japanese style and it resembles Lucerne Station closely. Tokyo Station completed in 1914 was designed taking Amsterdam Station, Netherlands for the model.

Old Seoul Station (1925)	Tokyo Station (1914)	Lucerne Station (1896)

On July 5 Nafjay Panama of Niigata prefecture received arbitration over the trouble about the sales contract of the ferry from the Japan Shipping Exchange, Inc. (Tokyo) to pay approximately 1,570,000 dollars (approximately 157 million yen) to the Korean company. The loss are expected to exceed 230 million yen with 620,000 dollars paid in advance last year

The trouble occurred because the ferry "Ohamana" that was assumed to be used in "Business across Sea of Japan", but the performance of the ferry was inferior to the supposed performance.

The sales contract with the Korean company was made in the last August. However, it became clear that ferry had not a necessary speed of 18 knots when it made a cruise in Japan in October. It had a speed of only 11-12 knots. Nafjay Panama refused the receiving of the ferry, and the Korean company demanded payment.

The Japanese company was able to prevent the trouble if it could confirm performance beforehand, but the president Igarashi explained saying "I demanded the examination cruise to the Korean company many times, but it was not realized".

Chicago police are investigating a sexual assault allegation against Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang over an incident that allegedly took place when his team was in town last month, a police spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

The Pirates said Tuesday that they were aware of the investigation.

We have been made aware of the allegation that has been made against Jung Ho Kang, Pirates President Frank Coonelly said in a statement in response to questions from the Tribune about the sexual assault investigation. "We take allegations of this type extremely seriously. Pursuant to the Joint MLB/MLBPA Policy on such matters, this matter is exclusively before the Commissioner's Office at this time. We have and will continue to cooperate fully with the Commissioner's Office. As a result of the ongoing police investigation, we cannot comment further at this time. We all need to be respectful to the police investigation of a very serious allegation."

According to police, the Chicago woman met Kang through Bumble, a location-based dating app that allows only women to initiate conversations. Kang invited the woman to his Magnificent Mile hotel room on June 17, hours after the Pirates had lost a day game to the Cubs.

The woman told investigators she arrived at Kang's room at the Westin Hotel around 10 p.m. and he served her an alcoholic drink, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. She said she blacked out about 15 to 20 minutes later, then drifted in and out of consciousness as he sexually assaulted her.

She told police she did not fully awaken until she was in a taxi and on her way home, according to Guglielmi.

The 23-year-old woman, who is not being identified because she is an alleged victim of a sex crime, went to Northwestern Memorial Hospital to have a rape kit done on June 19, Guglielmi said. She filed a formal complaint with police 10 days later, sources said.

The league released a statement saying it recently learned of the allegation.

Our understanding is that police in Chicago are investigating this very serious matter, the statement said. "Major League Baseball will monitor the progress of this investigation closely and will respond fully as additional facts emerge."

Kang, who is from South Korea, signed a 4-year, $11 million deal with the Pirates in 2015. He finished third in Rookie of the Year voting last season and missed the final month of the season with a broken leg after the Cubs' Chris Coghlan slid hard into second base trying to break up a double play.

He has been in a batting slump since mid-June and was not in the Pirates' starting lineup Monday.

Li Jun-gi, new Korean ambassador said to Japanese media, "It's better that we conclude Japan-Korea currency swap agreement again".

On July 2 the ambassador said in the interview by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, "Because nobody knows when and whom the crisis visits, the agreement will help two countries as crisis response". He also showed Korean will for participation in TPP (Pacific Partnership agreement)

"I thought that I was happy to attract attention. I don't have anti-Japan sentiment and the negative feelings to Yasukuni shrine, but I thought that I would be praised by Korean media and I decided to set an explosion device in Yasukuni shrine."

Jeon Chang-Han (South Korean) said so in the trial open in Tokyo District Court on June 22, 2016. He set an ignition device with gunpowder in the restroom of Yasukuni shrine and he was accused of the building invasion and the violation of the Explosives Control Act etc..

According to the survey by the Korean subsidiary of Irish pharmaceutical company, 61% of Korean women have dissatisfaction in their figures.

42% of Korean women performed a plastic surgery. 42% plan to have the operation. 16% have not had the operation, and they do not have the plan of that too.

64.5% of girl students at junior and senior high school learn a technique to make up mainly through Internet and YouTube.

The Korean schools have "the principle of the appearance supremacy", and the appearance of a person expresses the class for Korean girl students at junior and senior high school.

A Korean uniform brand maker did questionary survey about the makeup for Korean girl students at junior and senior high school. 79.1% of surveyed students replied, "I make up at school".

One of the surveyed student said, "In the Korean schools the academic performances are more important than money, and appearance is more important than the performances".

※Explanation of the image
questionary survey about the makeup for Korean girl students at junior and senior high school.
I have made up ･･･ 88％. 71.9% in these replied they made up at the time of school attendance.
Time to start makeup　elementary school upper grades (21.8%)　 Junior high school second grader (24.5%) 　Junior high school first grader （34.5％）
Where they learned ･･･ YouTube （31.8％）　Internet（32.7％）
With 158 girl students at junior and senior high school as a target

Nissan Motor Co Ltd's South Korean unit said it has filed a lawsuit over claims by the government that the automaker had cheated on emissions with its Qashqai diesel sport utility vehicle.

The environment ministry this month fined Nissan 340 million won ($290,000) and ordered the recall of more than 800 Qashqai vehicles sold, accusing the Japanese automaker of using a so-called defeat device in its Qashqai model.

We have filed the lawsuit to dispute the ministry's accusations, a spokesman at Nissan Korea said.

The ministry has also filed a complaint with prosecutors against Nissan Korea and its president Takehiko Kikuchi, charging them of violating an environment law.

We believe that we have taken appropriate legal action, a ministry official said on Friday.

South Korea conducted tests on 20 diesel vehicles made by various automakers after it had found Volkswagen AG manipulated emissions of some vehicles sold in the country.

A South Korean court on Friday issued the first warrant for the arrest of a Volkswagen official in connection with its cheating of vehicle emissions tests.

A widely circulated 2005 survey, conducted by a British market-research group, placed Korea last among thirty global powers in hours spent reading per person. “If you were reading a novel, it was ‘Oh, you’re wasting your time. You should be solving math problems; you should be taking another mock exam for the Korean SAT.’ ”

With a budget of ten million dollars and eighty employees, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (L.T.I. Korea)?a subsidiary of Korea’s Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Sport?is dedicated to increasing the circulation of Korean literature in translation around the world.

L.T.I. Korea hosts free translation courses, puts out a quarterly prospectus of new titles in translation, subsidizes the translation and publication of Korean titles abroad, and frequently sends South Korean writers to literary events around the world. The agency has grand ambitions. “Both Chinese and Japanese writers have already received the Nobel Prize,” its president, Kim Seong-kon, wrote in the Korea Herald, in 2012.

With a G.D.P. of $1.4 trillion, South Korea has the world’s thirteenth-largest economy, trailing Australia and Canada. But while Canada and Australia have had twenty-two and thirteen Nobel laureates, respectively, South Korea has had just one (President Kim Dae-jung, who won the 2000 Peace Prize).

Today, just one Korean name surfaces frequently in discussion of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Ko Un, the octogenarian Buddhist monk, activist, and poet. Though the country’s Nobel hopes have been pinned on him, Ko Un is not particularly popular among Korean readers.

Charles La Shure, a professor at Seoul National University and a translator who has worked with the L.T.I., said, “Nobel Prizes aren’t generally?at least in literature?manufactured.”

“Before you wish for Korean authors to get the Nobel Prize, you have to show interest in Korean literature,” Joseph Lee, of the KL Management agency said. “It’s regrettable that many people don’t read books but still wish for the Nobel Prize.”

On June 15, a report by the United Nations human rights Council was published in Geneva, Switzerland. It says the Korean government suppresses the freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.

Soon after the report was published, the police searched ten places including the office of the citizen's group by reason that they worked on the illegal campaign. This means that the government admits that it is a country of suppression of human rights by itself.

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A Korean TV program argued the Korea-related article that came out to a Japanese economic magazine.

The magazine wrote, "Korean tells a lie like breathing out." and "The number of the persons who were prosecuted for perjury is 66 times as large as Japan. It is 165 times by the population ratio."

There were a lot of comments about the article that introduced the magazine in Korea. Most of them were, "I thought it was difficult to make a countercharge when I checked the analyzed contents." or "I have to admit that."

However, we checked whether the numbers the magazine wrote were really right.

The fraud crimes in 2013 were 274,000 in Korea and 38,000 in Japan. ･･････ There is the difference obviously, but it was not to dozens of times and was around 7 times.

Interrogations records of by Korean captives who shared an action with the Japanese military in the end period of the Pacific War, were found in U. S. National Archives and Records Administration. The records write about Korean comfort women and the damage of the forced labor.

The U. S. inquisitors asked three Korean captives about the comfort women, "Did you know the recruitment by Japanese militaries? How was the attitude of the Korean about this system? Do you know turmoil or the collision that occurred by the system of the comfort women?"

Three Korean captives answered, "The Korean comfort women that we saw in the Pacific ocean had become voluntary or had been sold by their parents. If the Japanese military had levied them directly, the Korean would have considered it as a reckless action and they would have risen in revolt regardless of the young and the old.

Ajinomoto (Tokyo), together with its consolidated subsidiaries Ajinomoto Heartland (Chicago, IL) and Ajinomoto Eurolysine (Paris), has filed patent infringement suits against CJ CheilJedang Corp. of South Korea and three of its subsidiaries regarding its tryptophan manufacturing process.

The suits were filed with the United States International Trade Commission, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and the District Court of Dusseldorf in Germany.

CJ CheilJedang Corp. manufactures tryptophan at its subsidiary in Indonesia...

AJINOMOTO (Japan)

CJ CheilJedang (Korea)

※　On June 9, the U. S. International Trade Commission (ITC) announced that it would investigate Korean food maker CJ CheilJedang Corp., because Korean maker might infringe a patent of Ajinomoto.

At the first, "the rule by Japan" was the groundwork that Korea accomplished economic development.

The literacy rate of the Korean nation in the 1940s greatly exceeded average of Asia, and this is related to the history of the occupation by Japan.

Japan destroyed Korean democracy and human rights, but it cannot be denied that Japan achieved contribution to the improved infrastructures in Korea.

After the rule by Japan, the education by Korean government also improved the literacy rate of the nation.

In other words the reason why Korea became the developed country is that there was the foundation of the country, the excellent human capital.

Seolhyun and Jimin from K-pop girl band AOA have apologized after sparking a national controversy over their poor history knowledge.

The controversial moment came during Tuesday's episode of variety show "Channel AOA" on cable network Onstyle. The two stars failed to recognize a picture of Ahn Jung-geun, a freedom fighter who assassinated Hirobumi Ito, the Japanese resident-general of Korea, in 1909, before Japan's colonization.

The event sparked massive criticism from the public with numerous netizens pointing out the two stars' immature historical consciousness.

The controversy still rages, despite the stars' apologies on Instagram Friday.

I regret not showing a sincere attitude towards our history as a Korean citizen, even though I should have, Seolhyun wrote. "I am ashamed of the incident and apologize from the bottom of my heart to all the viewers who felt uncomfortable."

Jimin said: "I apologize to all viewers who felt discomforted by my light attitude. As a public figure, I should have forgone such an attitude on the media."

Onstyle has erased all footage of the episode after fierce public criticism.

South Korea is spending heavily to achieve its goal. In 1999, the country's investment in research and development (R&D) totalled 2.07% of its gross domestic product (GDP), just below the average for nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In the latest figures, the country has stretched out a clear lead at the top. The 4.29% that South Korea invested in R&D in 2014 outstrips runner-up Israel (at 4.11%), as well as regional competitor Japan and the United States. The biggest chunk of the money goes towards applied research and development in industry, but the government has made major investments in basic science, too. South Korea aims to increase its investment to 5% of GDP by 2017, and last month, President Park Geun-hye's government announced that it would boost annual basic-science funding levels by 36% by 2018, to 1.5 trillion won.

Last October's Nobel-prize announcements triggered a wave of disappointment ? again. There were no awards for South Korean researchers, but scientists in Japan, the nation's most bitter regional rival, collected shares in two: Satoshi ?mura for developing a therapy for roundworm, and Takaaki Kajita for showing that neutrinos have mass. “Why no Korean Nobel laureates?” asked a headline in The Korea Times.

The question came up again at an oversight hearing of South Korea's parliamentary science committee, held that week. One member of parliament compared the full list of the two countries' Nobel laureates in science to a dismal football result: Japan 21, South Korea 0. “When will IBS score a goal?” he asked physicist Doochul Kim.

In some political quarters, IBS was originally hailed as a way to level the Nobel score, but Kim has pushed back against that, arguing that the 'Nobel complex' leads to shortsighted policies that chase hot topics and demand instant results. “We are only four years old,” he told the committee. He noted that it took decades to develop the infrastructure at Japan's Kamiokande Observatory near Hida, where the neutrino breakthrough was made. “So you shouldn't ask that question,” he said.

Some scientists see deeper problems with the academic culture, rooted in Korean society at large. Secondary and undergraduate education focus on test-taking and emphasize deference to teachers ? tendencies that academics bemoan as discouraging the creativity and debate necessary in a lab. “When new students come, they are quiet ? that is the Korean culture,” says Jin-Soo Kim, who counters this by requiring his students to ask questions before they can leave group meetings.

Cultural barriers can have a disproportionate impact on female scientists. One example, says Young-Im Kim, is Korean drinking culture, in which men often stay out late with their male co-workers. Important workplace decisions are often made at such events, effectively excluding women. Such problems could go some way towards explaining why Korea has a wide gender gap in its scientific workforce.

“There is some excellent science done in Korea, but still, in general, the average is not as good as the advanced countries like the US, UK and Germany,” says Jinwoo Cheon, director of the IBS Center for Nanomedicine at Yonsei University in Seoul. To spur investment in basic research, he adds, scientists have to convince the public and government officials of its intangible benefits. “Excellence in basic science is not easy to have, and it has to be rooted in our society ? curiosity-driven research, and knowing different ways of thinking.”

Italian popular fashion brand "Salvatore Ferragamo" demanded compensation for damages against S International, Inc.. "Salvatore Ferragamo" said S International, Inc. produced the shoes of similar design and sold them and infringed the trademark". Seoul central district court civil affairs handed down the decision that the defendant had to pay 100 million won to the plaintiff.

The court added a judgment reason that "It is difficult to distinguish both shoes, when you remove the decorations of them. So they might be confused."

Ferragamo (Italy)	DAKS (Korea)

Airdre Mattner, who waived her right to anonymity, says she was attacked after an organised pub crawl last September. She says police were dismissive and did not perform essential tests. She is now raising funds for further legal action. Police in Seoul defended their actions, rejecting her story as "one-sided". The officer in charge of the investigation made the comments directly to South Korean media. Ms Mattner said the information provided to reporters differed from what she had previously been told. Ms Mattner said she attended a hospital with an attached police unit that specialised in sexual violence cases on the day after the alleged incident. She felt officers from Seoul Metropolitan Police's Yongsan Police Station placed undue emphasis on the amount of alcohol she had consumed. She said they also emphasised that she had gone out alone, despite the fact that the pub crawl was an organised event. Ms Mattner said she had only consumed three drinks and was not drunk when she started feeling strange. She believes her drink was spiked. She said she had a recollection of travelling in a taxi with a man and woke up naked in a hotel room.

Procedures 'not followed'

After the attack the man, who Ms Mattner believed was responsible, tried to add her as a friend on Facebook. Ms Mattner said she forwarded the man's photograph to police, but was told he was not a suspect as records showed he was not in South Korea at the time. Upon returning to her home in Japan, where she works as an English teacher, Ms Mattner made multiple requests for copies of her medical records and the police interview. Translations that were provided months later through the Australian embassy in Seoul appeared to show medical staff had not followed procedures designated in the hospital's "rape kit". Rape kits are distributed to South Korean hospitals for use in sexual assault cases and contain medical supplies, tests and paperwork. The documents, seen by the BBC, suggested DNA evidence was not collected and preventative medicine for sexually transmitted diseases was not administered.

Police deny wrongdoing

But the police officer who investigated the case told Korean news agency News1 any allegation police were unwilling to act on the case was false. "The doctor at the hospital used the emergency kits to collect DNA and other evidence. It was sent it to the national forensics lab and as a result male DNA was found," he was quoted as saying. He added that the victim was unable to remember details of the attack and that a drug test came out as negative. A trusted friend of Ms Mattner's was present at the questioning and that meant "there cannot have been an atmosphere of intimidation", the officer reportedly said. The report also said police had investigated the man who Ms Mattner identified, but did not believe he was the attacker, based on CCTV footage. The alleged attacker is not a South Korean citizen. The BBC attempted to contact police multiple times to clarify their statement.

Negligence claims

Ms Mattner said the comments were "misleading" and had put her in danger by revealing details about her alleged attacker. "They told me the case was closed," she said. "They never told me they knew he was in Busan, they never told me they had been asking shopkeepers about this man, they told me he wasn't considered a suspect, they told me he wasn't in the country at the time and they did not tell me they collected my DNA evidence. "Ms Mattner described the conduct of police and medical staff since the attack as "negligent". She is now attempting to take the matter to Britain, where she believes her alleged attacker may live, and is raising money to help cover her legal costs through the GoFundMe crowdfunding website. South Korean police's treatment of rape victims has been a source of controversy in recent years, leading the National Police Agency to set up a special sex crimes task force. Since the story went public, Ms Mattner said 16 other women had contacted her to share similar experiences in South Korea. She has also received hate mail blaming the rape on her decision to go out drinking alone and accusing her of wasting police time. Dr Wonyun Lee, who is familiar with Ms Mattner's case, told the BBC that reporting of rape remains a problem for many women, with non-Korean victims facing additional difficulties. Dr Lee, who has worked on anti-rape campaigns, said this was partly due to a "problematic" cultural attitude towards victims where only violent rapes were recognised. South Korea is not the only country dealing with this issue. The World Health Organization estimates that 35% of the world's female population has experienced some kind of sexual violence.

The suspect Han Manho who was the ex-president of the construction company testified that he handed cash of 900 million won including the U. S. dollar to Korean Former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook at the time of interview in the prosecution at first and he explained the concrete method of the cash giving and receiving in detail. However, when he appeared in court of the first trial of the ex-Prime Minister of Korea performed in December, 2010 as a witness, he said, "what I explained in prosecution was an all made-up story" and he overturned testimony. Though there was the evidence that a check of 100 million won that the suspect Han gave was used for as a deposit when a younger sister of the ex-Prime Minister borrowed an apartment, he kept on telling a lie at the trial unashamedly.

Therefore the judgment against the ex-Prime Minister changed from innocence at the first trial to guilty at the second trial, and the Supreme Court made the final decision of two years penal servitude in last August. It took time of five years until final judgment of the Supreme Court was made by false evidence of Mr. Han.

The number of suspects charged with a crime of the false evidence in Korea is 1, 688 last year. The most are criminal cases, but the numbers increase far when you add the false evidences in the civil affairs that are made fun of with "tournament of false". The number of suspects under the accusation of false evidence cannot possibly compare with that of Japan where it is about ten a year.

Of course one of reasons that false evidences go unchallenged is the influence of the cultural background such as the nepotism and the paternalism, but it is big that people recognize "the punishment is light anyway even if disclosed".

While some U. S. media show anxiety that "many Japanese would interpret it as 'apology'" about President Obama's visiting Hiroshima, Koreans who were damaged by A-bomb throwing down to Japan in 1945 demand apology and compensation to the United States.

On the same day, Mr. Sung, the chairperson of association of Korean A-bomb victims said, "We will hold the board of directors and talk about the situation of the church to require to President Obama. We are planning to demand the compensation to him in addition to offering flowers to the Korean memorial service monument at Hiroshima Park and apologizing to Koreans."

The joy and sorrow of the strikers on behalf of the two countries Japan and Korea mixed.

On January 11, Son Heung-min played full-time in the home game vs. Leicester city. That was a game of the England Football Association (FA) cup. He could not shoot a ball and utilize the opportunity that he got with much effort.

Japanese striker Shinji Okazaki (Leicester city) succeeded in making a score in comparison with Son Heung-min. Okazaki who was sent with a start in the latter half made a goal in three minutes in the latter half. The chute that he hit after he skipped defense was flipped by the goal keeper, but he shot it again and decided a goal. It was the season 4th goal. Okazaki showed sharp movement from beginning to end and brought Son Heung-min bitter taste.

They left Germany in this season, and both players transferred to England. At first, Son Heung-min who had recorded the Asian best annual salary was spotlighted largely. However, it is not so now. Okazaki is overwhelmed by the play of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, but he plays his part by devoted play. It is what Son Heung-min must learn.

A local daily reported Friday that poor life vest design caused the deaths of four soldiers six years ago.

According to the report, the life vest used by soldiers during a boat drill in Hangang River was designed to have higher buoyance on the back than the front, which led to the device forcing the soldiers’ face under water.

The daily claimed that investigation report obtained from the Army headquarters said that the November 2010 accident of four drownings at the Ipo irrigation pool in Yeoju-si, Gyeonggi Province, was due to the faulty design of the life jacket the soldiers wore at the time.

The report read, “If the soldiers lost consciousness while being swept in the current, it can be presumed their centroid was tilted to their torso, which could have submerged their heads under water.”

“There appears to be a need for a thorough research to improve the life jackets.”

When the boat capsized during the military drill, the soldiers were swept away in the current and were later found drowned with their backs turned up facing the sky. The floatable jackets they wore had 55 percent buoyancy on the back and 45 percent on the chest.

The military is being accused of allegedly covering up the faulty life jackets to avoid taking responsibility for the death of the four soldiers.

A military insider, whose identity was withheld to protect the source, said in an interview with the local daily that the reason the life jackets were designed in such a manner was due to misconstrued notion that it would allow the soldiers to always maintain a front-facing posture.

Unlike the army life jackets, the navy’s kapok life jackets have extra buoyancy at the front, with only one-third of chest buoyancy at the back.

The insider claimed the jackets were not the direct cause of soldiers’ drowning, however the incident has served as a trigger to run a check on safety gears and improve on them.

“The buoyancy was corrected so that the chest would have 10 percent higher buoyancy than the back.”

The military will distribute the new life jackets to each military unit by the end of this year. A budget of 1.7 billion won ($1.5 million) was allocated to the military for this.

An influential U.S. senator accused United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of ineptitude on Wednesday for failing to halt sexual exploitation and abuse by blue-helmeted peacekeepers.

The criticism from Senator Bob Corker, a Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, comes as candidates to replace Ban when he leaves the post at the end of the year after 10 years have been holding town hall meetings with diplomats from U.N. member states this week.

Ending U.N. peacekeeper abuse has been a major topic of discussion during the meetings at U.N. headquarters in light of a slew of rape allegations leveled against international peacekeepers in Central African Republic.

Corker asked a committee hearing on ending sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers why some recommendations included in a 2005 report on the problem to the U.N. General Assembly were only now being implemented.

What is wrong with the secretary-general of the U.N.? Corker asked at the hearing, which was broadcast live. "This report ... the one that you refer to, is 10 years old."

How do we put up with such inept leadership at the United Nations? he said, adding that he was "disgusted" by the abuse.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Ban was "determined to continue to shine a spotlight on the scourge of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers and hold those responsible accountable."

However, this is a fight that no one person can lead alone, Dujarric added. "Member states are the only ones who have the power to swiftly bring to justice those who have committed crimes and to impose the strongest possible disciplinary and criminal sanctions."

Ambassador Isobel Coleman, who oversees U.N. management and reform issues at the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said countries that contribute U.N. troops were often unwilling to hold those who commit abuses accountable.

I don't think it's ineptitude, Coleman said. "I think it is a reluctance to take on the opposition of troop contributing countries that don't want to deal with this issue in the transparent way that it must be dealt with."

She added that the United States was monitoring follow-up actions in troop-contributing countries to ensure people accused of sexual abuse are prosecuted.

Republicans are traditionally more critical of the United Nations than Democrats. The United States contributes 27 percent of the U.N.'s $8.3 billion peacekeeping budget.

Ban has pushed the U.N. to "name and shame" countries whose troops are accused of sexual abuse. Some 800 Congolese peacekeepers were repatriated earlier this year over alleged sex crimes.

In December, an independent review panel accused the United Nations and its agencies of grossly mishandling allegations of child sexual abuse by international peacekeepers in Central African Republic in 2013 and 2014.

British-based firm Reckitt Benckiser has admitted for the first time selling a humidifier disinfectant that killed about 100 people in South Korea.

The head of its South Korean division was attacked by angry relatives as he apologised at a Seoul hotel.

Reckitt Benckiser is among several firms whose products are blamed for the deaths.

It has offered compensation to the families of those who died, as well as the hundreds more who were injured.

Reckitt Benckiser withdrew its product from the market after South Korean authorities suggested a link between chemicals to sterilise humidifiers and lung conditions in 2011.

"This is the first time we are accepting the fullest responsibility, and we are offering a complete and full apology. We were late, five years have passed," Ataur Safdar said.

He added that the company was setting up a multi-million dollar humanitarian fund for the victims and their families.

Many are said to be children or pregnant women.

His apology was rejected by relatives at the news conference, at least one of whom hit him shortly after he took to the stage, and he was jostled and heckled.

About 500 people are reported to have died or been injured after inhaling poisonous chemicals used in humidifier disinfectants manufactured and sold by several companies in South Korea from 2001 to 2011.

South Korea's government has approved a "temporary holiday" next week to give the country a long weekend, but the last-minute decision hasn't pleased everybody.

The holiday will fall on Friday 6 May, meaning South Koreans will get a four-day weekend after celebrating Children's Day the day before, the Korea Times reports. It's intended to coax citizens to go out and spend money in an effort to stimulate the country's economy, and highway tolls and entry fees for tourist sites will be waived. A previous temporary holiday in August last year brought in 1.31 trillion won ($1.1bn; ￡790m) according to the country's Chamber of Commerce.

One travel agent gleefully tells the JoongAng Daily that he took 500 new bookings in a single day after news that the government was considering the extra holiday got out - two to three times the normal number. Elsewhere, retailers say they're ordering extra goods to cater for an anticipated increase in picnics and family outings.

But while some welcome the long weekend, others aren't so keen. Workers at small and medium size businesses are unlikely to get the day off, JoongAng Daily says, and it's causing childcare headaches for some parents. One woman says that both she and her husband will have to work, and their daughter's day care centre closes on public holidays. Another mother tells the paper: "I wish the government had decided on this earlier on."

Self-employed Seoul restaurant owner Kim Kyung-sook isn't looking forward to it either, and predicts lots of empty tables as customers head out of the city. "I expect there to be no customers from as early as Wednesday night next week," he laments.

A district court ordered a local fried chicken restaurant owner to pay 14.5 million won ($12,500) for failing to follow an earlier court ruling that banned him from operating his business under a name that parodied luxury brand "Louis Vuitton," Monday.

The owner, surnamed Kim, named his restaurant "LOUISVUI TON DAK," adapting the idea from the luxury brand. "Tongdak" means whole chicken in Korean. He created a logo similar to Louis Vuitton's, and had it printed on the napkins and wrappers.

In September last year, Louis Vuitton asked the district court to ban the restaurant from using the name. The company claimed Kim damaged the originality and value of the French brand by using it for his chicken restaurant.

The Seoul Central District Court accepted this in October, banned Kim from using the name and logo, adding that he should pay 500,000 won per day to Louis Vuitton if he did not follow the terms of this order.

However, Kim came up with the second parodied name, "cha LOUISVUI TONDAK," and the luxury brand company requested that the court order Kim to pay 14.5 million won for using the name for 29 days.

Kim claimed the second name was different from the first one banned by the court, but the court ruled against Kim. "Although he changed the name with different spacing, the two names sound almost the same. So he violated the court order and should pay the money," the court said.

Kim said he would appeal to the upper court.

On 13th, the regulations against the prostitution suppliers began in U. S. New York and New Jersey. It was the first joint investigation operation that the American police cooperated with Korea. 250 American police officers and three Korean police officer participated and made the joint team. The team investigated 12 companies including prostitution suppliers and the intermediators' offices at the same time.

The women in their 20-30s with the Korean nationality had been employed to the prostitution suppliers the police raided. The suppliers put phrases such as "Asian dream girl" or "Asian flower" on the Internet to show Korean women worked and they gathered men. Korean prostitution suppliers were able to spread business because of Korean white slavers. A suspect Kim (38), the person in charge of white slavers placed the profile photographs of the prostitution women through Internet site in Korea.

The U. S. police arrested 48 people including 40 Korean prostitution women through the joint investigation on this day. At the same time the suspect Kim was arrested in Korea, too.

• It was at a convenience store in Chuo-ku, Kumamoto, Kyushu, Japan at 6:00 a.m. on 18th April. Despite before dawn, about ten inhabitants lined up in a shop. This was because they wanted to buy drinking water and the foods such as bread and the rice ball.
  
  Ms. Yuko Tanaka (38) who was a housewife said, "Without electricity, water and the gas we can not get ready for the meal in my house, and I bought four bottles of mineral water and eight rice balls for four members".
  
  "Why did you not purchase more foods?" I asked her. "If I bought a lot, other people would not be able to eat breakfast.", she answered. "We were in big trouble until two days ago, because convenience stores and the restaurants closed, but now we are happy." She smiled.
  
  
• In front of Tokai University gymnasium in Minamiaso-mura that suffered big damage, Ichiko Takehara in her 50s was in charge of distribution. She said, "It was very hard to distribute limited foods to 1, 000 people. It was very hard to distribute limited foods to 1,000 people, but we can endure serious time because university students made over their foods to the elderly persons and children".
  
  
• At the junior high school refuge, the inhabitants distributed foods little by little each other and they soothed hunger with rice balls and soba made with the foods. A man in his 70s whose house was destroyed said, "I got a little food, but I am really happy."

5.6 million of self-employed persons in South Korea shake with fear every day for "No-show" (reservation cancellation without notice).

The Fair Trade Commission and Korean consumer information center made this video for No-show extermination campaign that was promoted as one of the priority subjects of this year.

Mr. Baek who runs the rotisserie said, "I hear our culture to keep the promise is the lowest level in the world. It is really shameful."

According to our investigation in last October for 100 places of five services including restaurants, hair salons, hospitals, express buses, etc., the rate of reservation cancellation without notice reached 15%. That in restaurants is 20%. It has increased by double than the survey by the consumer information center 15 years ago (11.2%).

Hyun-soo Kim signed with the Orioles from Korea this past winter. His deal is weird: it’s a two-year, $7 million contract with the proviso that, if the Orioles don’t keep him on the major league roster, they must release him but still pay him the entire $7 million. Basically, a fancy Rule 5 pick. A guy who agreed to come to the U.S. to play in the bigs, not the minors.

The problem: the Orioles don’t want him on the big league roster. The 27-year-old outfielder hasn’t hit a lick this spring, going 8-for-44 in 48 plate appearances. They told him that they’d like him to consider a demotion to the minors. Earlier today there was a report out of Baltimore that he was considering it ? remember, he doesn’t have to.

Ken Rosenthal reports now, however, that Kim is resisting a demotion to Triple-A Norfolk. Maybe thinking that $7 million in his pocket and a plane ticket home is a more inviting proposition than an indefinite stint in the International League.

Can’t say I wouldn’t be considering exercising that right myself if I was in his shoes. It all likely comes down to whether he thinks the O’s have given up on him, I suppose.