Most Popular
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40 flights canceled on Jeju Island due to bad weather
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Korean labor force to shrink by 10 million by 2044: report
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Pandemic left Korea more depressed than before: report
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[AtoZ Korean Mind] Does your job define who you are? Should it?
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Allegations surrounding BTS resurface, enraged fans demand apology
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Students with history of violence will be barred from becoming teachers
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Samsung mocks Apple over iPhone alarm glitch
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Govt. asks hospitals to mitigate impact of medical professors' absence
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Medical feud leaves hospitals in financial crisis
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Chip up cycle won’t stay long: SK chief
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Fulfilling the ‘vocation to be human’
“Welcome to our happy house!” A warm message written in a child’s handwriting on a door greets guests entering the apartment in central Seoul. Opening the door is Alexandre Jollien, a best-selling Swiss author and philosopher. His easygoing smile further comforts the visitor.Jollien speaks and walks slowly due to his cerebral palsy, but it does not deter him from pursuing intellectual work. Instead, it motivates him to create his renowned literature pieces.Since 1999, he has written six French b
Sept. 18, 2015
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Security cameras to be mandatory at day cares in S. Korea
New day care centers are required to set up security cameras, the welfare ministry said Friday, as part of South Korea's efforts to curb child abuse. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said security cameras should be installed in places where babies and kids spend most of their time, and store footage for more than 60 days. The move is mandatory for new day care centers to win approval from the ministry, and is set to take effect Saturday. Existing centers were given a three-month grace pe
Sept. 18, 2015
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Evidence suggests possibility of hate crime
With the probe into a South Korean man suspected of killing a woman and burning her body inside her car underway, police said Friday that they discovered notes with a list of 28 names that the suspect may have accused of treating him badly. Kim Il-gon, the 48-year-old murder suspect, had two pieces of paper in his pocket that listed the names and occupations of 28 people, which included female restaurant owners, judges, police officers, doctors and nurses he once came across or worked with. (Yo
Sept. 18, 2015
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2 S. Koreans indicted for protesting near U.S. Embassy
Prosecutors said Friday that they have indicted two South Koreans for holding a protest rally in front of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. The two members of the Corean Alliance are accused of holding the rally in June, denouncing the U.S. military's erroneous shipment of live anthrax samples to a U.S. military base in South Korea a few months ago. Corean Alliance is a civic group suspected of being sympathetic to North Korea. In April, the Pentagon said a U.S. military laboratory in Utah sent samp
Sept. 18, 2015
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Body of another victim from capsized boat found
The body of another passenger missing from a capsized fishing boat was recovered in the waters off South Korea's southern coast near the site of the accident, raising the death toll to 14, Coast Guard officials said Friday. The body, which was found 7 kilometers southeast of Chuja Island at around 6 p.m. on Wednesday, was identified as that of a 47-year-old man surnamed Lee, according to the Korea Coast Guard.The island is located about halfway between the mainland and the southern resort isla
Sept. 18, 2015
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Police officer arrested over bribery charges
A Seoul court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for a police officer accused of receiving some hundreds of millions of won in kickbacks from a helicopter maintenance company. The police officer, identified only by his surname Kim, was taken into custody after the Seoul Central District Court issued the warrant, noting there were enough reasons and necessity for the arrest. The 35-year-old is suspected of receiving bribes from the head of the company, identified only by his surname Bae, 37,
Sept. 18, 2015
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‘Confusing’ state body names revised
The South Korean government said Thursday it will amend English names for 141 government organizations that have been deemed incorrect, unspecific, incongruous or just plain awkward for native speakers.The Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs announced the guidelines for changing or setting English names of the state bodies, along with the new names of four ministries and agencies and 137 subsidiary organizations. It marks the first time the Korean government has ever rolled ou
Sept. 17, 2015
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Man nabbed for murdering woman, abandoning body in car trunk
A man suspected of murdering a woman and abandoning the body in the trunk of her car was arrested on Thursday, police said. The suspect, surnamed Kim, is accused of driving the car of the 35-year-old woman after kidnapping the victim at an underground parking lot of a big supermarket in the southwestern city of Asan on Sept. 9.Kim was apprehended around 11 a.m. on a street in eastern Seoul, about one kilometer away from a veterinary clinic where he threatened a nurse for a drug used to euthanize
Sept. 17, 2015
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S. Korea issues bird flu alert following suspected cases at 2 duck farms
South Korea issued a bird flu alert Thursday after finding that birds at two duck farms in the southwestern part of the country may have contracted the contagious airborne disease, the government said. The Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said preliminary tests conducted on birds at the farms in Naju and Gangji showed they probably were infected with a strain of the avian influenza. While definitive test results will come out as early as Friday, the government issued a "yellow"
Sept. 17, 2015
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Chinese people visiting S. Korea rebound to pre-MERS levels
The number of Chinese people visiting South Korea is returning to levels seen before the MERS outbreak in May, data showed Thursday. About 303,000 Chinese people traveled to South Korea in the first 14 days of this month, up 4.8 percent from the same period last year, according to the data by the Korea Tourism Organization.South Korea's tourism industry has been reeling from the aftermath of the MERS outbreak, with many foreign tourists, mostly Chinese, cancelling their trips to South Korea.In J
Sept. 17, 2015
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Illegal trade cases top 9 tln won in 2014: report
Illegal trade detected by customs authorities surpassed the 9 trillion-won ($7.66 billion) mark in 2014, fueled mainly by money laundering schemes and transactions aimed at hiding assets abroad, a report showed Thursday.According to the report by the Korea Customs Service provided to Rep. Park Myung-jae's office ahead of the annual parliamentary audit of the government, the total sum of uncovered illegal trade reached 9.24 trillion won last year, up 5.7 percent from 2013.Data showed that there h
Sept. 17, 2015
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Low-income households cut education spending in Korea
Education is slipping down the list of spending priorities for low-income households in South Korea, while high-earning households are spending the largest share of their income to educate thier children, a study showed on Wednesday. According to the study by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Korean households that belonged to the wealthiest 20 percent of the population spent an average of 616,965 won ($523) a month to educate their children last year. Households that belonged
Sept. 16, 2015
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[News Focus] Saenuri pushes forward with labor bills
The ruling Saenuri Party on Wednesday decided to push ahead with five labor law amendments -- including measures to ease restriction on layoffs and extending the maximum employment period for temporary workers -- as its party platform, showing its resolve to see through the key elements of the labor reform drive within this year. The tripartite committee of labor, management and the government on Sunday struck a deal on reforming the labor market. The deal was endorsed by the Federation of Korea
Sept. 16, 2015
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Ssangyong labor union ordered to pay compensation for strikes
An appeals court on Wednesday upheld a ruling against the labor union of Ssangyong Motor Co., the local unit of Indian auto conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., for holding unauthorized strikes that damaged the company's production.The Seoul High Court ordered 139 unionized workers to pay a total of 3.3 billion won ($2.8 million) to the company for holding unauthorized strikes from May to August in 2009.The strikes took place after Ssangyong Motor cut over 2,000 jobs through a voluntary retire
Sept. 16, 2015
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More professors oppose gov't plan to standardize history textbooks
Another group of professors urged the government to stop its plan to standardize history textbooks Wednesday, saying it is an act of weakening the country's democracy.The call came in a statement released by 160 professors from Korea University opposing the plan being pushed by the government to change the system. The government has been raising the need to forge a common understanding of history in a country where people are divided ideologically.Currently, eight private publishing companies pr
Sept. 16, 2015
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Labor reform aims to create full-time jobs for youth: minister
Creating full-time jobs for young people is the main goal of an ongoing push to reform South Korea's labor market, the top economic policymaker said Wednesday.Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said that the landmark agreement reached over the weekend by the tripartite committee made up of representatives from labor, management and government, should not be seen as the end of a long, arduous journey."What has to be done in the future is more important," Choi said in a speech at a job fair in the p
Sept. 16, 2015
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Body found near site of capsized boat
A body presumed to be one of those missing from a capsized fishing boat was recovered Wednesday on South Korea's southern coast near the site of the accident, officials said, in the latest recovery since Monday.The male body was found on the coast of Chuja Island at around 7:20 a.m. by a local resident. The island is located about halfway between the mainland and the southern resort island of Jeju.The body will be transferred to a hospital on Jeju Island and go through a process of identity conf
Sept. 16, 2015
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Ex-senior police officer arrested over bribery charges
A former senior member of the national police force was arrested Tuesday on suspicions of receiving hundreds of millions of won in bribes from one of the country's most famous swindlers.The former police superintendent, identified only by his surname Kwon, was taken into custody after the Daegu District Court issued a warrant for his arrest, noting there were enough reasons to believe that Kwon may have committed the crime and that destruction of evidence was a possibility.The 51-year-old is sus
Sept. 15, 2015
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Curved grading fuels Arabic’s popularity in college exam
Over half of all students taking the “second foreign language” option in this year’s college entrance exam have opted for Arabic, which appears to be fueled by the widespread belief that the curved grading system makes it easier to get high grades in the subject, a local private education firm said Tuesday.According to Haneul Education, 51.6 percent of students who chose the second foreign language for the exam -- known here as Suneung -- will take Arabic test while another 18.5 percent of the a
Sept. 15, 2015
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Birth registration to be available through post, online
The government said Tuesday it plans to allow new parents to register their child's birth via mail by the end of this year, in the latest move to boost public convenience.Parents will be able to register a birth by simply mailing in a birth certificate issued by the hospital where the baby was born, as well as other relevant documents, to local authorities. The government also plans to upgrade the service next year so that parents can register their newborn at the click of a mouse.South Korea sa
Sept. 15, 2015