The Korea Herald

Hong to visit Cheong Wa Dae for reform talks

PoliticsNov 9, 2011

The ruling Grand National Party’s chairman Rep. Hong Joon-pyo seeks to meet with President Lee Myung-bak to suggest reforms to Cheong Wa Dae. “I shall talk directly with the president to discuss measures to innovate the administration,” said Rep. Hong in the party’s key officials’ meeting on Wednesday. “If the government-ruling party consensus is a priority in achieving reforms, that is what I ...
Park foregoes formalities

Social affairsNov 9, 2011

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon will forego the traditional inauguration ceremonies, opting to make his pledge online, city official said Wednesday. According to a Seoul Metropolitan Government source, Park will hold his inauguration in his office and broadcast it live for an hour next Wednesday. “The Seoul city hall homepage will be revamped to feature the inauguration in a live streaming broadcast,...
College admission in N.K. as tough as in South

North KoreaNov 9, 2011

North Korean students undergo grueling preparations and tough competition to enter prestigious universities just like those in South Korea, according to North Korea experts and defectors. Around this time, students in the North have a hectic schedule in preparation for a set of college entrance exams, just as South Korean students do, they said. Children in the communist state enter four years ...
N.K. preparing to impact S. Korean elections

North KoreaNov 9, 2011

Shortly after the Oct. 26 Seoul mayoral elections, Pyongyang’s state media trumpeted it as “victory of the up-and-coming forces” in South Korea. Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, analyzed that South Koreans “are eager for new politics, new life” free from the “old right wing party,” referring to President Lee Myung-bak’s Grand National Party. “A victory of ...
Breakthrough may be in sight on FTA impasse

PoliticsNov 9, 2011

DP faces calls from within to compromise Prospects brightened for an end to parliamentary deadlock over the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement Wednesday, after the main opposition Democratic Party faced growing calls from within the party to drop its demand for the deal’s renegotiation. About half of the DP’s 87 lawmakers were reported to be supporting a concession plan, which calls on party leade...
Education minister says will unveil 5 percent tuition cut plan

PoliticsNov 9, 2011

SEOUL, Nov. 9 (Yonhap) -- The government is consulting with an association of university presidents about ways to curb expensive tuition costs and will soon unveil a plan to cut fees by 5 percent on average next year, the education minister said Wednesday. South Korean universities are under public scrutiny over annual fee hikes over the past decade, since higher education costs emerged as a hot...
Hanjin Heavy reaches tentative settlement of labor dispute over layoffs

Social affairsNov 9, 2011

BUSAN, Nov. 9 (Yonhap) -- Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction hammered out a tentative agreement with its unionized workers on Wednesday to end an 11-month-long labor dispute sparked by the shipmaker's massive layoffs. The provisional deal calls for the shipmaker to reinstate within one year 94 former employees who were laid off in the scheme to downsize the workforce, according to people wit...
Father gets suspended term for beating daughter with bamboo stick, physical workouts

Social affairsNov 9, 2011

A Seoul appellate court on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling and sentenced the father of a teenage girl to a suspended prison term for beating her with a bamboo stick and forcing her to do long physical workouts. The father, identified as Choi, 48, was indicted last year on charges of harsh treatment of his 15-year-old daughter. In addition to beating her with a bamboo stick, he was accused ...
Senior actor found dead in apparent suicide

Social affairsNov 8, 2011

A senior South Korean actor was found dead in his small rented room on Tuesday of an apparent suicide, police said. Kim Choo-ryun, a 64-year-old actor who had his heyday in the 1970s, was found hanging in his studio in Gimhae, 449 kilometers southeast of Seoul, the police said. He seemed to have killed himself the previous day after months of depression, they noted. According to police, a suic...
Cheonggyecheon teems with hazardous bacteria

Social affairsNov 8, 2011

A popular stream running through downtown Seoul, which is visited by millions of people annually, has been severely polluted by bacteria, a report by the city government showed Tuesday. According to the report, submitted to Seoul council member Jang Hwan-jin of the Democratic Party, parts of the Cheonggyecheon stream contain as many as 53 times the legal limit of colon bacillus. The standard for...
S. Korean diplomat in Japan returns home to prepare for elections

Foreign affairsNov 8, 2011

A senior South Korean diplomat in Japan has resigned only nine months after taking office, citing preparations to run for next year’s parliamentary elections, an official said Tuesday. Kim Seok-ki, the consul general in Osaka, recently submitted his resignation to the presidential office and returned home on Monday, the Foreign Ministry official said. Kim has reportedly cited his plan to run in...
Park shifts focus from growth to employment

PoliticsNov 8, 2011

A growing sense of deprivation among people in their 20-40s, which saw them vote en masse for a nonpartisan contender in the Oct. 26 Seoul mayoral by-election, has pushed the presidential front-runner of the conservative ruling party to shift focus on economic policy from growth to employment. “From now on, the employment rate should be the main indicator for economic policies,” said Rep. Park G...
Maximum penalty for match-fixing rises to W50m

Social affairsNov 8, 2011

The government on Tuesday toughened punishments for match fixing in local professionals sports, in light of a major match-rigging scandal that shook the nation’s top division football league earlier this year. During a Cabinet meeting held at Cheong Wa Dae, the government passed a bill on revising the national sports promotion law, which governs sales of Sports Toto, the only licensed sports lot...
Foreign wife a voice for multicultural families

Social affairsNov 8, 2011

First Mongolian native employed by central government ministry Jeong Su-rim is an exceptional housewife, mother and public servant who still finds time to pursue further education. The 36-year-old mother cares for her two sons, who are nine and 11-years-old, while working a nine-to-six job at the Ministry of Gender Equality & Family, in the Multicultural Family Division. At night Jeong also at...
Generational fault line divides Korean society

PoliticsNov 8, 2011

Voters in their 20-40s, bound by anger and angst, changing political landscape They have made it a tacit rule not to argue or even talk about politics for years. Lee, a 36-year-old researcher on information industry, and his father-in-law surnamed Yoo, 60, remain poles apart in their political views. Lee has advocated liberal policies and values pursued by President Roh Moo-hyun while Yoo, a re...