Most Popular
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10-man S. Korea lose to Indonesia to miss out on Paris Olympic football qualification
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Hybe-Ador feud should have limited effect on Hybe's overall performance: analysts
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Second Gimpo civil servant found dead, after apologizing for not finishing work
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DP leader says he will meet Yoon without conditions
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First-ever meeting of president, opposition chief set to finally happen
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NewJeans' singles, Japanese debut to proceed as planned, despite Hybe-Ador feud
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Experts raise concerns about Japan putting pressure on Naver over Line
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Samsung mobile chief, Google device head meet in Seoul
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Ship linked to NK arms shipments to Russia is moored in China: State Dept.
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[Kim So-hyun] The quiet taxi driver from Paris
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[Education Column] Debate on educational visions, university admissions system
In June 2013, President Park Geun-hye expressed concerns over a survey result that indicated about 70 percent of high school students in Korea believed that South Korea invaded the North and started the Korean War. Some experts doubted students denied the history; instead, many suspected that the survey participants were simply confused with semantics between “bukchim” and “namchim.” The unintended consequence of this episode came when President Park expressed some discomfort with how history is
Sept. 11, 2013
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Ministry to reexamine history textbooks
Education Minister Seo Nam-soo announced Wednesday that the ministry will reexamine all the eight recently approved history textbooks including one authored by conservative scholars. His remark came as an academic debate over the text from Kyohak Publishing Co. is quickly spiraling into a political and ideological battle. “Together with the National Institute of Korean History, the ministry will conduct an in-depth analysis of the textbooks and, if necessary, will complete revision and supplemen
Sept. 11, 2013
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Gov't to revise controversial history textbook
The education minister said Wednesday the authority will review a controversial high school textbook criticized by opposition lawmakers and left-leaning historians for containing a conservative bias, along with seven other new textbooks, and revise them if necessary."We will, by late October, modify and supplement eight types of high school history textbooks that were approved by the National Institute of Korean History on Aug. 30," Seo Nam-soo said in a press conference at the ministry in Seoul
Sept. 11, 2013
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Divorce rates up after holidays: report
The divorce rates tend to go up shortly after couples go through major holidays such as Chuseok or Lunar New Year’s Day, a report showed on Wednesday. “More people sign up for divorce counseling sessions after the holidays and many end up going their separate ways,” said Park So-hyun, a consultant of Korea Legal and Aid Center for Family Relations.The higher divorce rate suggests that Korean couples are likely to fight with each other during the holidays as they have to handle more household cho
Sept. 11, 2013
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Mother denies report of chief prosecutor's extramarital child
Days after allegations emerged that the chief prosecutor had been hiding a son born from an extramarital affair, the child's mother on Tuesday denied the report and claimed she used the influential official's name to protect her son. The Chosun Ilbo, the largest-circulation daily, reported on Friday that Prosecutor General Chae Dong-wook met a woman in 1999 and they gave birth to a son in 2002. Chae, who has a daughter and a wife, denied the report as "groundless" and demanded the daily issue a
Sept. 10, 2013
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Actor Ryu Si-won ordered to pay 7 mln won fine for assaulting wife
A local court ordered actor-singer Ryu Si-won Tuesday to pay 7 million won ($6,450) in fines for assaulting his wife and tracking her whereabouts with a GPS device.Ryu, 40, was charged with planting a GPS tracking device on his wife's car and tracking her whereabouts for eight months starting in May 2011. He was also indicted on charges of slapping his 29-year-old wife in the face several times when she protested the surveillance."Based on the sound of flesh clashing with flesh in the recording
Sept. 10, 2013
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Chun family to pay all fines
Former President Chun Doo-hwan’s family announced on Tuesday that they will pay the 167.2 billion won ($154.2 million) remaining in fines and offered a public apology for causing public concern.“I apologize on behalf of our family for causing concerns for the people over the problems with collecting unpaid fines,” eldest son Chun Jae-kook said in front of Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.“I am sorry for delaying the decision due to my inadequacy and realistic problems even though my fa
Sept. 10, 2013
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[Newsmaker] Prosecution fulfills mission impossible
It has been mission impossible for 16 years: collecting 167.2 billion won in overdue fines from a former strongman who claimed to have only 290,000 won at hand and is notoriously at home with brinkmanship. So, many observers were skeptical when the prosecution began a whirlwind investigation into former President Chun Doo-hwan’s family nearly four months ago with an aim to force him to pay the bill stemming from his misdeeds while in office in the 1980s.Chun’s family finally announced Tuesday th
Sept. 10, 2013
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[Graphic News] Foreign residents growing
The number of Seoul districts and provincial cities with more than 10,000 foreign residents stood at 44 as of Jan. 1, the Ministry of Security and Public Administration data showed Tuesday. The data also showed that foreign residents accounted for more than 5 percent of the population in 22 regions, with the figure being highest in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo-gu where 13.7 percent of the population was of non-Korean nationality.
Sept. 10, 2013
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Navy ship's engine room catches fire at sea, restoration underway
The generator room of the Navy's 14,000-ton ship caught fire while the ship was sailing off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula Tuesday, causing a duty officer to suffer second-degree burns. Restoration work is currently underway. A fire broke in the engine room of the Dokdo-class amphibious assault ship which was sailing near the western port of Gunsan around 10:45 a.m. Crew members immediately put out the fire, but a 23-year-old petty officer first class, who was on duty in the engine room,
Sept. 10, 2013
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Vice culture minister resigns over document forgery
A vice culture minister offered to resign Tuesday over suspicions of document forgery, the culture ministry said.The resignation, if accepted, comes only six months after Park Jong-gil, the vice minister in charge of sports at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, assumed the post in March.The move came after local media raised suspicions that he forged a public document in the process of handing over the ownership of a shooting range in Seoul's western residential area to his wife."I'm r
Sept. 10, 2013
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Ex-vice commerce minister indicted for nuke reactor corruption
A former vice commerce minister has been indicted on charges of accepting bribes in return for favoring a local builder in its bid to win a nuclear reactor contract, prosecutors said Tuesday.Park Young-june allegedly received 50 million won (US$46,099) in March 2010 from a broker in exchange for peddling his influence for Hankook Jungsoo Industries Co., a local water treatment firm, in its bid to take part in the government's project to build nuclear reactors in the United Arab Emirate (UAE).Sou
Sept. 10, 2013
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Chun family vows to pay all remaining fines
The family of disgraced former President Chun Doo-hwan pledged Tuesday to pay off a huge amount of unpaid fines, making a public apology for "causing public concern."In 1997, the nation's top court convicted the former president of mutiny and treason and ordered him to return to state coffers around 220 billion won ($202.15 million) he illegally received in bribes during his iron-fisted rule. Chun has yet to pay some 167.2 billion won he owes. Chun seized power through a coup in 1979 and ruled u
Sept. 10, 2013
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Youth suicides in S. Korea up 57 pct in a decade
The number of suicides among the youth in South Korea has increased by 57 percent since 2001, data showed Tuesday, growing at a faster pace than that of adults. The number of suicides per 100,000 people aged 10 to 19 rose 57.2 percent to 5.58 in 2011 from 3.19 in 2001, according to the data by the state-run Korea Health Promotion Foundation (KHPF) on the occasion of World Suicide Prevention Day, which falls on Sept. 10. The suicide rate for adults in the 20-64 age group increased 50.5 percent fr
Sept. 10, 2013
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[Newsmaker] First gay marriage stirs controversy
The first gay marriage in Korea on Saturday sharply divided the country, putting to the test its legal system and public tolerance of sexual minorities. Film director Kim-Jho Gwang-soo and film distributor Kim Seung-hwan held a symbolic wedding in central Seoul. They have been partners for nine years.The two men made their vows in front of guests reported to number about 1,000, including Kim-Jho’s mother, movie director Byun Young-joo and civil activist Paik Ki-wan.Their marriage, however, will
Sept. 9, 2013
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‘Partisan consensus crucial to long-term welfare development’
Political consensus is key to any stable and sound development of a long-term social welfare system as shown by Sweden’s successful experience, Ulf Kristersson, the country’s minister for social security, said Monday. The Swedish model was possible because the country was able to maintain the direction of its core welfare policies such as its pension scheme, regardless of the transfer of power, he said.“There is a responsibility to create a stable playing field for people, not to change everythi
Sept. 9, 2013
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Violent crime occurs every minute in S. Korea
How often are major crimes committed in South Korea? Police data shows that one violent crime occurs every 54 seconds. The National Police Agency released a report titled “Occurrence of the Five Major Crimes,” which said that the number of serious crimes -- murder, robbery, rape, theft and battery -- between January and July this year was 339,186. During the first half of the year, 545 murders were committed -- or once every nine hours, 20 minutes and 24 seconds.A robbery took place once every s
Sept. 9, 2013
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One in 10 soldiers considers suicide: report
Song Young-keun, a lawmaker in the ruling Saenuri Party, proposed a revision of health and medical laws to identify soldiers and officers at high risk of suicide based on regular monitoring of their mental health.The proposal came as a growing number of soldiers are found to be struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts. The Ministry of National Defense conducted a survey of 1,310 soldiers serving in the military from September last year through May this year; 9.3 percent said they have ex
Sept. 9, 2013
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Parents protest relocation of Seongnam’s probation office
A group of parents on Monday protested the recent relocation of the Seongnam branch of the Suwon Probation Office in front of its new office in Bundang-gu, Gyeonggi Province. They claimed that the facility’s “sneaky move” to a highly populated area exposes children to crime.The Parents’ Committee for the Relocation of the Seongnam Probation Office held a sit-in demonstration in front of the building in Seohyeon-dong where the center was relocated last Wednesday. The protest started Thursday, a d
Sept. 9, 2013
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Chae willing to take DNA test to prove love child innocence
The chief prosecutor on Monday demanded a local daily publish a correction on reports of him allegedly having a child through an extramarital affair. The Chosun Ilbo, one of the nation’s major newspaper outlets, reported last week that Prosecutor General Chae Dong-wook has a son born in 2002 from a woman whom he met in 1999. The boy left for the United States last month and had attended a private elementary school in Seoul before then, the report claimed. Chae has a daughter with his wife.Callin
Sept. 9, 2013