SEOUL, May 24 (Yonhap) -- The chairman of Lotte Group was fined on Friday for not attending parliamentary audits over the company's alleged infringement on the business rights of small retailers. A Seoul court ordered Shin Dong-bin to pay 10 million won (US$8,870) in fines for refusing to comply with the government's call to appear at the hearings and audits of the National Assembly between October and November of last year, citing different reasons such as overseas business trips.

A special envoy from North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un told one of China's top officials Thursday that Pyongyang wants peace and is willing to pursue dialogue with key countries, state media reported. Envoy Choe Ryong-Hae met Liu Yunshan, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's highest ranking body the Politburo Standing Committee, state television reported on its evening newscast.

A secret mission to Pyongyang last fall by a close aide to then Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda led to Japan-North Korea talks in Mongolia in mid-November amid disagreements over the abduction issue, a source close to bilateral ties said Thursday. During the mission from late October to early November, the aide met with senior North Korean officials and Pyongyang indicated a willingness to set up a joint investigation panel to look into the whereabouts of Japanese abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the source.

GIMHAE/SEOUL, South Korea, May 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Thursday marked the fourth anniversary of former President Roh Moo-hyun's death as thousands of people gathered in his southern hometown to pay tribute to the late iconic liberal. About 10,000 people from around the country traveled to Roh's hometown of Bongha Village in Gimhae, about 450 kilometers south of Seoul, causing heavy traffic in the area, officials at the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation said.