Asia, South Korea | featured news

South Korean and U.S. forces have been placed on a higher surveillance alert level, after North Korea threatened military action following its nuclear test earlier this week, the joint forces announced on Thursday.

Pyongyang vows to attack the South if its ships are searched as part effort to stop weapons shipments.

Former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun committed suicide today by leaping to his death from a hill behind his house, the South Korean government announced. Roh, 62, left a suicide family for his family. "I am in debt to too many people," the note reads.

Urban visionaries in London and Seoul, two of the world's busiest capital cities, foresee buses gliding through their streets with speed, ease and efficiency - without emitting the exhaust fumes that scientists say are contributing to global warming. Under Mayor Boris Johnson's vision, London's iconic red double-decker Routemaster buses would be back on the streets - but powered by electricity, not gasoline.

More men and women are shopping for plastic surgery in South Korea.

Asian stock markets fell sharply Tuesday, with benchmarks in Hong Kong and South Korea down about 4 percent, as renewed financial fears sent banks across the region tumbling.

North Korea warned that the downward spiral of relations with the South has pushed the peninsula to the brink of war, two days after it said it was scrapping all pacts with its rich capitalist neighbor.

Lee Jung-hee recalls the precise moment when all hell broke loose -- the tie-yanking, headlocks and neck-wringing, the thud of sledgehammers and, ominously, the sickening whine of a chain saw.