(ATTN: CHANGES slug, RECASTS headline, lead paras to highlight official appointment;
UPDATES with minor changes throughout)

SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world's largest
shipbuilder, said Friday that its January orders tumbled 54 percent from a year

SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean currency fell to an 11-year low
against the U.S. dollar Friday as offshore investors snapped up the greenback

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's outgoing nuclear envoy Kim Sook on
Friday lamented leaving the job with the disabling of North Korea's nuclear

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is straining cross-border ties and
threatening regional peace by escalating tensions, South Korea's top defense

(ATTN: UPDATES with blockade of Assembly halls in last six paras)
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- National Assembly Speaker Kim Hyung-o on Friday said

SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il made more than three
times the number of public visits this month than the same month last year, the

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will dispatch a team of working-level
officials to Afghanistan in March or April before setting a timetable for

SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- Two American players in Korea's professional
basketball league indicted for allegedly smoking marijuana have been ousted from

(ATTN: CHANGES slug; RECASTS lead, headline; ADDS statement about thruster test in
para 5, background throughout)
By Sam Kim