Yonhap News Summary

The following is the second summary of major stories moved by Yonhap News Agency on Friday.

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(4th LD) Pompeo in Pyongyang to flesh out summit deal

WASHINGTON/SEOUL -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began a trip to North Korea on Friday on a mission to map out details of the communist nation's "complete" denuclearization plan agreed to in the Singapore summit last month.

Landing at a Pyongyang airport, he was greeted by Kim Yong-chol, one of leader Kim Jong-un's top aides, according to foreign news reports. Several reporters are accompanying the secretary on his first trip there since President Donald Trump's talks with the North's leader in Singapore on June 12.

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(4th LD) Samsung's operating profit up 5.19 pct in Q2

SEOUL -- Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its second-quarter operating profit advanced 5.19 percent from a year earlier, but it failed to post record-breaking earnings apparently due to weaker-than-expected smartphone sales.

Operating profit for the three-month period came to 14.8 trillion won (US$13.2 billion), compared with 14.07 trillion won reported a year earlier, the company said in its earnings guidance report.

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(LEAD) Asiana employees to hold protest rallies against no-meal chaos

SEOUL -- Employees at Asiana Airlines Inc. will gather in central Seoul late Friday to stage a candlelight vigil denouncing the firm's top management for massive in-flight meal service disruptions that resulted in the suicide of the head of a caterer's supplier.

The latest rally follows two similar demonstrations held by staff at Asiana's bigger rival Korean Air Lines Co. in early May, at which they blamed the founding Cho family for years of habitual bullying and assaults on employees and others that have led to prosecution investigations.

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Military had plans to mobilize tanks, troops to quell candlelight protests last year: civic group

SEOUL -- The Defense Security Command (DSC) drew up plans last year to mobilize hundreds of tanks and thousands of troops to quell candlelight protests against then impeached President Park Geun-hye, a civic group claimed Friday.

The Military Human Rights Center for Korea disclosed what it claimed was a DSC document drawn up in March last year to outline ways to impose wartime martial law in case the Constitutional Court rejected the National Assembly's impeachment of Park and kept her in office.

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Ex-presidential aide detained for lying about Park's handling of Sewol ferry sinking

SEOUL -- A former senior aide to ousted President Park Geun-hye has been taken into custody on charges of lying about Park's handling of the deadly 2014 sinking of the Sewol ferry, which claimed the lives of more than 300 people.

Kim Kyou-hyun, a former career diplomat who served as first deputy chief of the presidential National Security Office and then senior presidential foreign affairs secretary, was detained by prosecution investigators upon his arrival at Incheon International Airport from the United States on Thursday.

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N. Korea expects Xi's visit on Sept. 9 founding anniversary: officials

PYONGYANG/SEOUL -- North Korea has expectations for Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Pyongyang this fall on the occasion of its 70th founding anniversary, which falls on Sept. 9, officials said Friday.

North Korean officials told South Korean reporters on a visit to Pyongyang to cover inter-Korean friendly basketball games that an invitation has already been sent to Beijing to ask for Xi's visit to the North to celebrate the Sept. 9 anniversary.

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Amb. Harris to arrive in S. Korea this weekend: US embassy

SEOUL -- Harry Harris, the new United States ambassador to South Korea, is scheduled to arrive here this weekend to assume his position, his embassy said Friday.

He plans to issue a brief statement at Incheon International Airport at 6 p.m. on Saturday, which will be livestreamed on U.S. Embassy Seoul's Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/usembassyseoul, it added.

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S. Korean stocks end higher on institutional buying

SEOUL -- South Korean stocks ended higher Friday as institutions bought local shares, offsetting net selling by foreigners and individuals, amid rising concerns over the possibility of a full-fledged trade war between the United States and China. The South Korean won rose against the dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 15.32 points, or 0.68 percent, to 2,272.87. Trade volume was light at 340.89 million shares with 6.28 trillion won (US$5.6 billion) worth of shares changing hands. Winners outnumbered losers 659 to 184.
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