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[Exclusive] Korean military set to ban iPhones over 'security' concerns
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Korean, Romanian leaders discuss defense tech, nuclear energy
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[Graphic News] 77% of young Koreans still financially dependent
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S. Korea calls on Japan to confront history amid Yasukuni Shrine visit
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Yoon’s jailed mother-in-law excluded from latest parole list
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Hybe and Min Hee-jin, CEO of Hybe sublabel Ador, lock horns
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[Pressure points] Leggings in public: Fashion statement or social faux pas?
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Yoo Jae-suk, Yoo Yeon-seok team up in 'Whenever Possible'
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Korea’s homegrown nanosatellite successfully launches into space
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Aging population to drive down Korea's housing prices from 2040: experts
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Among separated family members, more dead than alive
More than half of South Koreans with relatives in North Korea have died since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, official data showed Sunday, highlighting the growing urgency to hold reunions of the separated family members.As of the end of February, 65,922 out of 130,838, or 50.4 percent, of South Koreans who applied for reunions with their North Korean family members had died, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Unification and the Korean Red Cross.It is the first time the number
March 20, 2016
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7 of 10 new jobless people are in late 20s
A growing number of college graduates in South Korea remain jobless through their late 20s, attributing to the record high youth unemployment rate last month, data showed Sunday.Out of 114,000 people who had stayed jobless for more than four weeks in February, 80,000, or 70.2 percent, were aged between 25 and 29, according to data by Korea Statistics.The jobless rate among those in their late 20s was 11.9 percent last month, adding 2.8 percentage points from a year earlier. The unemployment rate
March 20, 2016
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Constitutional Court chief urges more review options
Constitutional Court President Park Han-chul on Friday expressed his belief that South Korea needs to introduce a system of abstract judicial review, which would enable assessment of the constitutionality of legislation even when a specific case has not been raised.“Problems are worsening each day due to consuming debates and conflicts in our society. I believe that we need to introduce abstract judicial review to solve this,” Park said during a debate held in Seoul. South Korea currently only a
March 18, 2016
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Park's visits Hyundai Motor assembly plant
President Park Geun-hye on Friday toured an assembly plant of Hyundai Motor Co., a symbolic visit that underscored her commitment to technological advance amid public interest in artificial intelligence.Cheong Wa Dae, South Korea's presidential office, did not immediately provide Park's comments during the trip to the plant in Asan, about 100 kilometers south of Seoul. Asan plant -- which has an annual capacity of about 300,000 units -- is one of the most advanced smart factories in the country.
March 18, 2016
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Park calls on police to thwart any terrorist attempts
President Park Geun-hye called on the police Friday to thwart any possible terrorist attempts by North Korea amid rising tension on the Korean Peninsula.South Korea believes that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered officials to concentrate on building capabilities for terror attacks and cyberattacks against the South.Tensions have spiked on the peninsula over North Korea's fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and long-range rocket launch on Feb. 7."I hope that the police will deal effectively w
March 18, 2016
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State launches probe into 19 missing children
The South Korean government said Friday it had launched a probe into the safety of 19 children who have not been registered for school this year with their whereabouts unknown.Since earlier this year, the government has surveyed the enrollment status of schoolchildren who were supposed to enter elementary and middle schools this year nationwide, as part of its fortified measures against child abuse. A survey of long-term absentee students is separately underway. Of nearly 7,600 children who wer
March 18, 2016
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Gov't to expand youth internship program
The government will create 50,000 new internship positions annually for young adults as part of its package of measures to boost youth employment, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said Friday."The government will increase the number of beneficiaries (of the youth internship program) from the current 35,000 to 50,000 starting this year," Hwang said during his visit to a local factory in Gwangju, a small city on the outskirts of Seoul.The program gives unemployed youths between 15 and 34 years of age
March 18, 2016
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Police officer gets suspended jail term for leaking documents
A local appeals court on Friday released a police officer, accused of leaking presidential documents, after handing down a suspended jail term.The Seoul High Court sentenced the police inspector, identified only by his surname Han, to a year in prison suspended for one year for copying documents he found in an office and leaking them to another police officer, who was later found dead in an apparent suicide.A lower court had sentenced Han to a year in prison.While finding the 46-year-old guilty
March 18, 2016
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Seoul issues protest against Tokyo's textbook authorization
South Korea issued a strong protest Friday after Japan authorized dozens of updated high school textbooks that renew territorial claims to the South's easternmost islets of Dokdo in a move sure to aggravate historical tensions between the two neighbors.The approval dampened the mood for bilateral cooperation, which has emerged in the wake of the North's latest provocations and a Dec. 28 deal to settle the decades-old issue of Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women, observers here not
March 18, 2016
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School smoking test breaches students' rights, watchdog says
Schools should refrain from the excessive survey of students who are suspected of smoking to protect the human rights of teenagers, a local watchdog said Thursday.The National Human Rights Commission of Korea’s warning came after a high-school teacher in Incheon reportedly forced his male student to fill a paper cup with the teenager’s urine in front of the teacher in October last year to detect whether the student had smoked. The student later filed a complaint with the NHRCK. He claimed that i
March 17, 2016
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Ministry fines Mercedes-Benz Korea W168m
Yonhap The Environment Ministry on Wednesday fined German automaker Mercedes-Benz Korea for selling its S350D model without approval for transmission changes.The government slapped the firm with a fine of 168 million won ($143,000), 1.5 percent of revenue from its sales of 98 S350D vehicles in January and February.“According to the Clean Air Conservation Act, all automakers must manufacture and sell a model after the ministry approves its transmission specifications,” said the ministry in a stat
March 17, 2016
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WWF Korea to stage Earth Hour on Saturday
World Wide Fund for Nature said Wednesday it will host its Earth Hour 2016 campaign in Korea this weekend, inviting people to show commitment to save the planet. Individuals can participate in the campaign by switching off their lights for an hour on Saturday at 8:30 p.m.This year’s Earth Hour will be supported by mobile carrier KT and the Union Corporate Committee. The eight members – including Tyler Rasch, Guillaume Patry and Alberto Mondi -- of JTBC’s local TV show “Non Summit” will also part
March 17, 2016
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Goyang, Changzhou boost economic cooperation
Goyang City Mayor Choi Sung visited Chinese city Changzhou on Wednesday and signed a memorandum of understanding to boost bilateral cooperation, the city government said.The memorandum calls for the two cities to strengthen their friendship by cooperating on the economic front, as well as in the areas of tourism, traffic technology and the floricultural industry.“(Through this opportunity) both cities will be able to step up as international cities by sharing policies and expanding development,”
March 17, 2016
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Court upholds suspended jail term for man who threatened to blow up plane
An appeals court on Thursday sentenced a 34-year-old man to one year in prison for threatening to blow up a plane that took South Korea's former first lady took to Pyongyang.Upholding a lower court's decision, the Seoul High Court suspended the sentence for the man, identified only by his surname Park, for two years.He was accused of sending a one-page letter to local journalists, threatening to blow up the plane of Lee Hee-ho, the widow of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, when she tr
March 17, 2016
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South Korean gender minister advocates children’s rights at U.N.
South Korea’s Gender Minister Kang Eun-hee expressed Seoul’s determination and “achievements” in eradicating violence against women and children at a United Nations meeting in New York on Tuesday, even as recent government statistics show otherwise. “The Korean government especially acknowledges that child abuse is an important social issue requiring keen social attention and thus endeavors to strengthen the legal and policy framework,” the minister said at the two-week annual session of the U.N
March 16, 2016
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[From the scene] Gaesong firms, workers desperate for help
PAJU, Gyeonggi Province -- A month after the shutdown of Gaeseong industrial park in North Korea’s border city, business owners and employees took to the street on Wednesday, calling for compensation and restarting of operations at the complex. Led by the emergency council of the Gaeseong-based factory owners and workers, some 1,000 people who lost their jobs overnight gathered at Imjingak Pavilion near the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone in the afternoon.At the rally, the participants, consi
March 16, 2016
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Museum etiquette a problem for some young visitors
Visitors viewing paintings at an art center in Jung-gu, Seoul. (Yonhap)An 11-year-old student Yang Jin-hee (not her real name) visited the Museum of Silhak in Gyeonggi Province with her friends last Saturday. But soon after they arrived at the entrance, all four students were denied access due to safety concerns.The museum said it was inevitable because its internal regulations state that children aged 13 or below must be accompanied by a guardian. More state and city museums are presenting art
March 16, 2016
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Gender minister vows to eradicate child abuse in Korea
South Korea's Gender Minister Kang Eun-hee stressed Seoul's intent to work towards eradicating child abuse in the country at a United Nations meeting, the ministry said Wednesday.Kang vowed to implement a comprehensive policy to lower incidents of violence against children, which has been a nagging issue in South Korea, in her speech before the 60th session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said.The number of child abuse incidents in the co
March 16, 2016
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Korea seen as resembling Japan in youth unemployment
South Korea's high youth unemployment could persist for a while, as Japan's did, a local think tank warned Tuesday.Asia's fourth-biggest economy seems to be following in Japan's footsteps when it comes to the growth trend and demographics, according to a report authored by Ryu Sang-yoon, a senior analyst at LG Economic Research Institute in Seoul.The current economic circumstances in South Korea are similar to those of Japan two decades ago, he noted.Unless the potential growth rate rebounds, ch
March 15, 2016
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3 out of 10 Korean households own bicycles
Three out of 10 households in South Korea owned bicycles in 2015, with the new administrative city of Sejong showing the highest ownership thanks to the bike-friendly urban environment, data showed Tuesday.The total number of bikes reached 10.22 million in 2015, up 64 percent from 2010, with 18.75 million households having 1.48 bikes on average, according to the data compiled by the Korea Transport Institute. Among them, electric bikes accounted for 1.5 percent of total, the institute said.Sejo
March 15, 2016