The Korea Herald

Saenuri to start preparing for national convention

PoliticsApr 16, 2012

The ruling Saenuri Party will kick off preparations for the national convention this week in order to form its new leadership before mid-May, party officials said on Monday. “We will try to prevent the national convention from becoming exhaustive and overheated,” Saenuri spokesman Hwang Young-cheul told reporters after a plenary session of the emergency committee at the party’s headquarters in Y...
N.K. shows off new long-range missile

DefenseApr 16, 2012

As widely expected, North Korea unveiled an advanced long-range ballistic missile on Sunday, confirming that it has continued developing its warhead delivery capabilities at the expense of its starving people. During the ceremony marking the centenary of the birth of the communist state’s founding father Kim Il-sung, it revealed an intercontinental ballistic missile that measures 18 meters in le...
UNSC statement to condemn N. Korea

North KoreaApr 16, 2012

China, Russia oppose additional sanctions on Pyongyang: reports The U.N. Security Council was set to issue a presidential statement in Washington D.C. on Monday to condemn North Korea’s rocket launch and discourage further provocations, a South Korean government official said in Seoul. The presidential statement was expected to condemn the launch, reiterate that it violated U.N. Security Counci...
Green exports jump 5-fold

Social affairsApr 16, 2012

Korea’s exports of eco-friendly products and technologies have increased fivefold over the past three years, data showed Monday. According to data from the state-run Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute, exports by the local environmental industry totaled 322 billion won ($283 million) in 2011. It represents a 522 percent increase from 2008, when the export amount stood at 51.8 b...
Sung Il-hwan nominated as new Air Force chief of staff

DefenseApr 16, 2012

The Ministry of National Defense nominated Lt. Gen. Sung Il-hwan as the new Air Force chief of staff on Monday, Sung has served as commander of the Air Force Education and Training Command and superintendent of the Air Force Academy. Ministry officials said that President Lee Myung-bak will appoint him the new Air Force chief of staff after Cabinet approval on Tuesday. Outgoing chief of staff ...
Seoul City, subway operator feud over fares

Social affairsApr 16, 2012

Line operator complains of deficit; municipality threatens to revoke license The Seoul city government and the operator of Subway Line 9 are at odds over the latter’s unilateral decision to raise fares by 500 won, a 47 percent hike from the current 1,050 won. The government has threatened to penalize the subway operator should it enforce the plan. The fued erupted on Saturday when Seoul Metro ...
Gene links to memory, brain size found

ScienceApr 16, 2012

An international effort to understand the genetic building blocks of the human brain and its functions found patterns of DNA that may be linked to memory and intelligence. The research for the first time tracked genes that affect the size of infants’ heads, and the volume of the cranium and the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped organ crucial for memory. More than 200 researchers at 100 medical cent...
Podcast hosts probed over campaigning

PoliticsApr 16, 2012

The prosecution will investigate allegations that two members of a podcast critical of President Lee Myung-bak violated the election campaign law. The Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office said Monday that Seoul City’s election watchdog had filed complaints to the prosecution against Kim Eo-jun and Ju Jin-woo, co-hosts of “Naneun Ggomsuda,” citing legal clauses forbidding journalists from e...
Medical Korea conference to kick off today

Social affairsApr 16, 2012

A conference intended to spur patient referrals from abroad and international exchanges of medical technology will be held at the COEX Grand Ballroom in Seoul from Tuesday through Thursday. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday that it would host the Medical Korea 2012 Third Global Healthcare & Medical Tourism Conference to better meet the increasing demand for global exchange and refer...
U.S. senior official in Seoul over N.K. rocket launch

Foreign affairsApr 16, 2012

U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell visited Seoul on Monday to discuss how the two allies should deal with North Korea, which launched a rocket Friday. Campbell met with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and South Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator Lim Sung-nam. Lim plans to visit Washington to meet with his U.S. counterpart Glyn Davies and other officials from Tuesda...
Seoul doubles budget for overseas training of civil servants

Social affairsApr 16, 2012

Seoul Metropolitan Government is sending more officials overseas under the mayor’s pledge to expand overseas training of civil servants Officials said Monday that the city government plans to send about 780 officials abroad for the maximum two weeks of training from May to December, this year. Last year, 350 officials were dispatched to overseas training courses. The budget for overseas trainin...
N. Korea’s missiles, nuclear arms put itself greater danger: Lee

North KoreaApr 16, 2012

U.S., China agree on draft presidential statement condemning rocket launch: report President Lee Myung-bak urged North Korea to drop its pursuit of missiles and nuclear weapons, and open up to the outside world, saying Monday that ending its bad behavior would guarantee a better future for the impoverished communist nation. The appeal came days after North Korea launched a long-range rocket Fri...
DUP to form emergency leadership next month

PoliticsApr 16, 2012

Putting its factional dispute on hold, the main opposition Democratic United Party has agreed to continue under acting chairman Moon Sung-keun and elect a new emergency leadership next month. The DUP’s supreme council members agreed early Monday morning to elect a new floor leader by May 4, who will run the party temporarily until a new formal leadership is elected at the national convention on ...
Defector urges N.K. leader to dismantle prison camps

North KoreaApr 16, 2012

PARIS (Yonhap News) ― A North Korean defector has sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un urging him to dismantle the country’s prison camps and free its inmates. Kim Tae-jin, a human rights activist in Seoul who defected from the North, conveyed the letter to the North Korean representative office in Paris Sunday through the office’s mail box. Kim is in Paris at the invitation of the F...
Comedian Kim blasted for derogatory “prostitute” remarks

Social affairsApr 16, 2012

Korean comedian Kim Gu-Ra has found himself facing criticism after an audio file containing his comments degrading comfort women on an Internet broadcast program was disclosed Monday. In the audio file which lasts around thirty seconds, Kim compares comfort women to the eighty or so prostitutes who resisted an indiscriminate police crackdown in January 2002. It is understood that two buses were...