They are strangers, but they already know one another's stories. So when Mona Rahman, 24, tells the other five people at a New York City dinner table about how her superstrict parents never let her sleep over at friends' houses, there are chuckles of recognition. There are equally empathetic, if more sober, nods when Grace Chang Lucarelli, 32, speaking in a soft Texan drawl, recalls "people making fun of me" because she was one of the few Asian Americans in ...

"A symphony of death." That's the chilling phrase that Kurt Campbell, who is now Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Obama Administration, once used to describe the likely outcome of any military encounter on the Korean peninsula between the U.S., its ally South Korea and their mutual enemy across the 38th parallel in the North. The possibility of war breaking out once again in Korea is so unthinkable that a lot ...

In 1965, U.S. Army Sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins deserted his post in South Korea and fled to the communist Northa move he now calls "the stupidest thing I have ever done." He spent nearly four decades inside the Hermit Kingdom, as a lingering mystery of the cold war. In July, Pyongyang finally let Jenkins leave. He turned himself in to the U.S. Army in Japan and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. He left prison two weeks ago. In ...

Just a few years ago, Samsung was the brand you bought if you couldn't afford Sony or Toshiba. Suddenly it's the name that consumers all over the world--especially young ones--seek out for the most fun and stylish models of everything from cell phones to flat-panel plasma TVs. One of the driving forces behind that transformation is Eric Kim, who was reared by Korean parents in Southern California and returned to his homeland to work as head of global marketing for ...

A nuclear test and the resulting international outcry, the detention of two U.S. journalists for illegal entry, a spat with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton , serious food shortages. On the face of it, 2009 appears an unlikely year for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to woo more visitors. But according to British-run, Beijing-based Koryo Tours, a company that has been escorting groups of visitors to North Korea for 16 years, such a push is under ...

China has invited reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to visit at his convenience, state media in both countries reported.

The group that controls top-level domain codes for Internet addresses is poised to permit non-Latin language codes for the first time in its history. And if, as expected, it does move forward, it means that Web surfing is about to get easier for about half of the world's 1.6 billion Internet users. "There are over 40 million users in the Arab world," said Wael Ghanim, Google's product and marketing manager for the Middle East and Africa, "and this number ...

Rising Chinese demand helped drive South Korea's economy to its fastest growth in seven years in the third quarter, underscoring how Asia is leading the global economy and trade out of the worldwide downturn.

The Rev. Franklin Graham has arrived in North Korea bearing a gift for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the country's official news agency reported Wednesday. Graham handed the present, which was not identified, to a high-ranking official Wednesday to give to Kim, the Korean Central News Agency reported. Graham, the son of the Rev. Billy Graham and the president of Samaritan's Purse, arrived Tuesday in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, KCNA said. On its Web site, Samaritan's Purse said Franklin ...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has again indicated willingness to participate in bilateral talks with the United States and return to six-party talks over its nuclear program, China's Xinhua news agency reported. The attitude shift by North Korea -- which pulled out of talks in April to protest the United Nations' condemnation over its nuclear test and missile launches -- came amid Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's weekend visit to Pyongyang, Xinhua reported Monday. The reclusive communist country also expressed such ...