Yonhap News Summary

The following is the first summary of major stories moved by Yonhap News Agency on Friday.
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(2nd LD) N. Korea has ballistic missiles in range of U.S. mainland: U.S. admiral
WASHINGTON -- North Korea possesses long-range ballistic missiles that can reach
the mainland United States as well as Hawaii, Admiral Timothy Keating of the U.S.
Pacific Command said Thursday.
"North Korea, I think, does have intercontinental ballistic missiles that can
reach the United States," Keating said in a news conference at the National Press
Building here. "Remember, that would include Hawaii and territories of the United
States in our area of responsibility in the Pacific. So, yes, I think they do
have that capability."
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(LEAD) Seoul denies Pyongyang's claim of assassination attempt
SEOUL -- South Korea on Friday denied North Korea's claim that it hired an agent
to assassinate Pyongyang's leaders, including Kim Jong-il, a rare announcement
from the communist country that depicts him as holding absolute power.
North Korea's Ministry of Public Security, the country's intelligence agency,
said Thursday that it has arrested a North Korean national "scheming to carry out
a terror mission given by the (South's) puppet intelligence agency to harm our
leadership."
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U.N. Assembly okays resolution against N. Korean human rights
SEOUL -- The United Nations General Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution
condemning North Korea's human rights abuses, officials here said.
It marks the fourth consecutive year the 192-member assembly has passed such a
resolution, harshly protested by Pyongyang.
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Lee proposes removing bubbles from public, private sectors
SEOUL -- President Lee Myung-bak on Friday called for the elimination of bubbles
across the public and private sectors in order for South Korea to tide over the
ongoing financial crisis and drastically overhaul its inefficient economic
structure.
During his visits to the port of Incheon, west of Seoul, and a nearby car plant
of GM Daewoo Auto and Technology, Lee said that the nation has to take the
economic crisis as an opportunity to reform its backward labor practices and
upgrade its overall corporate competitiveness.
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S. Korea's top priority is to save jobs, help smaller businesses: minister
SEOUL -- The government will place top priority on helping small and medium-sized
enterprises next year in a bid to prevent further job losses amid worsening
economic conditions, a top policymaker said Friday.
"The first half of next year will be the worst period (for the South Korean
economy)," Finance Minister Kang Man-soo told a weekly crisis management meeting.
"We have paved the way for getting over the ongoing crisis but small and
medium-sized companies will have the most difficult time."
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Seoul terminates 4-year deployment in Iraq
SEOUL -- South Korea on Friday completed its troop pullout from Iraq, ending a
four-year presence in the northern city of Irbil where troops helped in efforts
to reconstruct the war-torn nation.
The last group from the Zaytun contingent in Iraq and an air support unit in
neighboring Kuwait arrived here earlier in the day. Both Zaytun and the Kuwait
mission, Daiman, were to be disbanded in a ceremony slated for later Friday.
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U.S. court rejects appeal by ex-judge seeking compensation for lost trousers
WASHINGTON -- A U.S. court on Thursday rejected an appeal by a former judge who
asked for US$54 million in compensation for a pair of trousers lost at a dry
cleaner.
"I was just told by my lawyer that everything is fine," said Chung Jin-nam, the
Korean-American owner of the dry cleaner.
(END)
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