hankyoreh

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense named Thursday the country’s first female combatant general, promoting Army Col. Song Myung-soon to brigadier general, as a part of its shake-up.

Song, 52, currently working in the joint civilian operations department at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was one of the 111 promoted generals. There have been five female generals starting in 2001, but all were from the nurse corps.

Song has also served as a special forces commander and a battalion commander in the Women’s Army Corps after being commissioned into the Women’s Army Corps in 1981. She graduated from Yeungnam University and obtained a master’s degree in national security strategy at Kyonggi University. 　

Two South Korean construction workers were found to be rescued after being briefly kidnapped by armed militants presumed as TalIban insurgents in Afghanistan earlier this week.

The two Koreans, both supervisors at a road construction site in the northern Afghan province of Samangan, were kidnapped by four armed men at around 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 13 while traveling to their workplace in a vehicle along with one local driver and two bodyguards, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Thursday.

The five were taken to a remote mountain area but the driver escaped and reported the abductions to the local police, who rushed to the scene and exchanged gunfire with the kidnappers, the ministry officials explained. The detainees were all freed around two hours later.

The Foreign Ministry has been criticised for hiding the incident involving a serious threat to the lives of the Korean workers for three days.

Creditors are expected to scrap their deal with Hyundai Group to hand over a controlling stake in the nation’s top builder Hyundai Engineering & Construction.

The main creditors are scheduled to hold a meeting Friday to vote on whether to cancel the memorandum of understanding (MOU) reached with Hyundai Group to sell the majority stake and on approval of the share purchase agreement at the same time. If more than 75 percent of all creditors approve the cancellation, the MOU will be nullified.

Hyundai Group was selected as the prime bidder for a 34.88 percent stake in Hyundai E&C by offering to pay 5.5 trillion Won ($4.8 billion).

Disgraced South Korean cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in jail suspended for two years on charges of embezzlement of state funds based on fabricated research results and violating bioethics laws by illegal use of human ova.

The Seoul High Court upheld a ruling that found the 57-year-old scientist guilty.

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