The Korea Herald

Seoul, Beijing discuss resumption of six-way talks

Foreign affairsApr 26, 2011

Carter arrives in Pyongyang for possible meeting with Kim Jong-il Chief nuclear envoys of South Korea and China strove to bridge differences over how to revive the stalled peace dialogue with North Korea during their talks in Seoul on Tuesday, as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrived in Pyongyang for a possible meeting with its reclusive leader. A flurry of diplomatic events have been taki...
Fire breaks out at Incheon SK factory

Social affairsApr 26, 2011

A fire broke out at an SK Energy factory in Incheon Tuesday afternoon, but there were no casualties, the refining unit of the nation’s largest oil refiner SK Innovation said. The fire started at around 3:17 p.m. at the factory for desulfurization and was put out about an hour later, fire authorities said. The authorities and SK Energy officials are trying to find out the exact cause and assess ...
Prosecutors probe claims of N.K. role in Nonghyup cyber attack

Social affairsApr 26, 2011

South Korea’s prosecution is looking into whether North Korea was involved in the weeks-long paralysis of the South Korean farm cooperative’s banking system after finding some suspicious Internet protocol addresses originating from China, officials said Tuesday. Traces of break-ins into Nonghyup’s servers were discovered in a laptop owned by an employee of IBM Korea, the cooperative’s computer n...
S. Korea, New Zealand agree to enhance defense cooperation

PoliticsApr 26, 2011

The defense chiefs of South Korea and New Zealand held talks in Seoul and agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in defense procurement, officials at the Ministry of National Defense said Tuesday. Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and his New Zealand counterpart Wayne Mapp also exchanged their views on regional security issues and agreed to improve military cooperation in other areas, officials sai...
Digital era dominates lawsuit filings

Social affairsApr 26, 2011

As many futurists predicted, digital is dominant in many areas of our society and lawsuits are no exception. According to the Supreme Court, 79.5 percent of the suits filed with the Patent Court since April 26 last year, when the system was first adopted, were “paperless” electronic suits. About 47.9 percent were applied for online and another 20.5 percent were transferred to the digital system...
Army keeps hold on JCS leadership

PoliticsApr 26, 2011

Army, Navy, Air Force to have two vice chiefs each under reform plan The Ministry of National Defense has decided not to introduce a system to rotate the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff among four-star generals of the Army, Navy and Air Force, officials said Tuesday. The decision has triggered concerns among military experts who said that the military’s reform drive aimed at enhancing...
Sleepy husband stabs wife for waking him up

Social affairsApr 26, 2011

SELANGOR - An angry husband, who was awakened from his morning slumber, beat up and stabbed his wife, Harian Metro reported. The woman is now in a coma and fighting for her life at a hospital, the paper said. A police source told the daily that the couple in their 30s had quarrelled at their home after the wife woke him up at about 6am on Sunday and asked him to perform his dawn prayers. After ...
College students don’t invest much time on study: report

Social affairsApr 26, 2011

South Korean college students spend less time on study and are passive in class, research showed Tuesday. A report released by the Korea Educational Development Institute indicated that full-time college students don’t devote much time to studying. The institute surveyed 2,019 full-time students attending four-year universities nationwide on their study habits from June 14-July 2. The report sh...
Fire hits SK oil storage

Social affairsApr 26, 2011

A fire broke out at SK Energy’s oil storage facility in Incheon Tuesday afternoon. No casualties were reported. Fire fighters have been struggling to put out the fire.
Korean language studies popular in Vietnam

Foreign affairsApr 26, 2011

HANOI (Yonhap) -- A growing number of Vietnamese students are studying the Korean language at university, mainly to work at Korean firms operating in their country, local sources said Tuesday. More than 2,000 students are studying Korean at 10 universities nationwide, including Vietnam National University (VNU) in Hanoi and another national college in Ho Chi Minh, the sources said. About 150 pr...
Police probing online commerce fraud

Social affairsApr 26, 2011

A woman in Gwangju requested a police investigation after she received a can of butane gas from an online seller instead of the iPod she had paid for. Kim ordered an iPod from an online second-hand vendor who offered it at half the market price. After a phone call with the seller, the woman sent half of the money to the vendor’s account. But what Kim received was a can of butane gas. Kim tried ...
Seoul gov't, parliament close to removing last hurdle to EU trade bill

PoliticsApr 25, 2011

The ratification bill for South Korea's free trade agreement with the European Union is expected to pass the parliament's standing committee later this week, as the South Korean government has responded positively to rival parties' demand to offer transfer tax cuts to small livestock farms, removing the last remaining hurdle to the long-stalled free trade deal, officials and lawmakers said Monday...
S. Korea extends travel restriction to all parts of Syria

Foreign affairsApr 25, 2011

South Korea is extending its travel restriction to all parts of Syria amid escalating violence between the country's protesters and government forces, the foreign ministry said Monday. Earlier this month, Seoul restricted its people from traveling to Syria's western governorates of Daraa and Latakia after dozens of people were reported killed there in violent government crackdowns. The Level 3 ...
Defectors, rights groups urge parliament to pass N. Korean rights bill

PoliticsApr 25, 2011

A group of North Korean defectors and civic activists on Monday urged South Korea's parliament to pass a bill aimed at improving the human rights situation in the reclusive communist state. In an opening ceremony for "North Korea Freedom Week," some 100 Seoul-based defectors, human rights advocates and lawmakers gathered in the National Assembly to discuss ways to abolish gulags in the North and...
Regional powers escalate N.K. nuke discussions

Foreign affairsApr 25, 2011

A flurry of diplomatic events will take place on the Korean Peninsula this week, as regional powers are gathering efforts to lure the unpredictable North Korea back to the stalled multinational nuclear disarmament talks. The results of the scheduled consultations among senior officials from Washington, Seoul, Beijing and Pyongyang are expected to influence dialogue partners’ stance toward how be...