Popular South Korean software mogul and former presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo has finally won elected office with a thumping by-election victory in Seoul.

South Korea said on Thursday it was proposing formal talks with North Korea to discuss restarting work at a joint factory zone located just north of the rivals' heavily armed border that was suspended in early April amid growing security tensions.

South Korea and the United States have agreed on a two-year extension to a civilian nuclear pact that Seoul wants amended to allow it to produce its own nuclear fuel, officials said Wednesday.

South Korean software mogul Ahn Cheol-soo, whose independent candidacy enlivened last year's presidential campaign, made his ballot-box debut Wednesday as polls opened in a Seoul by-election.

South Korea announced Wednesday a set of measures, including tax relief and special loans, to help firms hit by North Korea's closure of the Kaesong joint industrial zone.

Dealing with monetary policy and interest rates is the Bank of Korea's main role, but in May it will start hosting weddings — in an auditorium hung with the portraits of former central bank governors.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates' casual style was the subject of criticism in some South Korean media Tuesday after he shook hands with President Park Geun-hye, with one hand in his pocket.

North Korea has moved two more missile launchers to its east coast, where preparations are apparently under way for a missile test as tensions simmer on the peninsula, a report said Sunday.

North Korea has dismissed a claim by a right-wing U.S. website that it might have been behind the deadly bombings in Boston, decrying the report as “false propaganda” and insisting that it is against all terrorism.

North Korea has moved two short-range missile launchers to its east coast, apparently indicating it is pushing ahead with preparations for a test launch, a South Korean news agency reported on Sunday.