hankyoreh

Chae Dong-ha, 30, former member of three-member boy band S.G. Wannabe, was found dead at his home in Seoul Friday morning.

Chae’s manger and the 911 rescue team entered Chae’s locked house and found he had hanged himself with a necktie from a coat rack, police said. Police said they found a large amount of antidepressants, but no suicide note.

Chae’s concert scheduled in Japan that day was cancelled.

The former S.G. Wannabe leader came back as a solo singer in 2009, but failed to gain back his old glory.

North Korea decided to release detained Korean-American missionary Jun Young-su “on humanitarian grounds,” its official Korean Central News Agency said Friday.

According to KCNA, Jun admitted his crime, but North Korea decided to free him taking into account pleas by Robert King, US envoy for North Korean human rights, having expressed regret over Jun’s alleged crime and vowed to ensure that similar incidents don’t happen again.

King arrived in the North earlier this week to assess the North’s food situation, a possible indication of the resumption of U.S. food aid to the North.

Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was greeted by his son and heir apparent Jong-un and senior officials after his special train crossed the border, the KCNA said.

Spread information to clarify any misunderstandings or distortions that North Korean people may have about the outside world.

This was the key message repeatedly emphasized by a group of foreign diplomats in Seoul on Friday at a forum hosted by the non-profit Korean Council on Foreign Relations.

And the group consisted of nine out of some 20 overseas ambassadors who currently represent their respective countries in both South and North Korea.

Expressing shock and frustration over how stagnant North Korean society is due to the regime's strict control of information, the ambassadors called on the South to further reach out and interact with the North Korean people.

Meanwhile, the general consensus seemed to be that even with the international community's support, the two Koreas should be at the forefront in dealing with issues on the Korean peninsula.

(Arirang News)