Most Popular
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Korean labor force to shrink by 10 million by 2044: 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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'Super Rich in Korea' will leave viewers appreciating Korea more: producers
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Top prosecutor pledges 'speedy, strict' probe into first lady's luxury bag allegations
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Probe of first lady on Dior bag allegations set to begin
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Medical feud leaves hospitals in financial crisis
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'Queen of Tears' riding high on Netflix chart
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Samsung mocks Apple over iPhone alarm glitch
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Afterschool program helps multicultural students
YWCA and Citibank Korea recently opened 20 centers across the country to run an afterschool program for multicultural students. The program called “Discover Your Multicultural Gifts” is designed to help about 200 children from multicultural marriages and expatriate families. Child refugees from North Korea and underprivileged youths can also join the program, which is now in its second year. Last year YWCA and Citibank ran the classes with some 180 students and 36 instructors participating. “Ri
May 7, 2013
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Full home address of sex offenders to be disclosed
The government will disclose the home addresses of convicted sex offenders and make them available via mobile handsets as part of efforts to effectively protect children from sex crimes, officials said Tuesday.Under a revised law set to go into effect on June 19, the government will expand the scope of sex criminals' personal information subject to disclosure to include the street name and house number, according to the officials at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.The law was part of
May 7, 2013
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Public science institutes call for greater autonomy
A group of state-funded science research institutes on Tuesday demanded greater autonomy from the government in management and raising the quota for hiring full-time researchers.The association of 25 government-affiliated institutes released a set of proposals to contribute to President Park Geun-hye’s policy for a creative economy. “Bringing forth a creative economy it is vital for expanding creative research, and it is necessary to have autonomy,” said Kang Dae-im, the president of Korea Resea
May 7, 2013
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Ministry under fire over grassroots song
The government has come under fire for its ambiguity over whether to sing in unison the “March for My Beloved,” a 1980s pro-democracy protest song, during its ceremony marking the May 18 Democratic Uprising.Opposition politicians, civic groups and the families of the victims of the military crackdown on the 1980 civilian uprising in Gwangju denounced the government, saying any decision against the song would be tantamount to disregarding the lofty spirits of the democracy fighters. Some of them
May 7, 2013
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South Korea ranks 32nd in best places for mothers
South Korea ranks 32nd on a list of the best places to be a mother, according to a report by an international children rights group. In the State of the World’s Mothers report by Save the Children, South Korea ranked just below Japan and the United States on the list of 176 countries. Finland took the top slot, followed by northern European nations including Sweden, Norway, Iceland and the Netherlands. The Democratic Republic of the Congo was named as the world’s toughest place to be a mother. T
May 7, 2013
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Officials to investigate hagwon over SAT cheating
Seoul education authorities are launching a sweeping investigation into test-prep schools after the Scholastic Aptitude Test was canceled last week due to an alleged leak of questions.The organizer called off the U.S. college admission exam for Koreans scheduled Sunday amid growing concerns that a number of private institutes had obtained the exam questions illegally.The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said it would investigate more than 60 SAT preparation institutes in the city, particul
May 7, 2013
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Seoul to build mixed-use public facility
Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to build a new type of public facility which provides life-long learning along with library services in Geumcheon-gu, southwestern Seoul. The city adopted the concept from the United Kingdom’s “Idea Store,” a one-stop location for various services including a child care center, conference room and adult education, departing from the traditional function of the public library. “The scale of the facility won’t be big as the one in London but we expect it to be h
May 6, 2013
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Namyang Dairy under fire over ‘cuss milk incident’
Namyang Dairy Products has fallen into a sweeping controversy over an audio clip revealing a compromising incident in which one of its employees used abusive language with a business partner, taking advantage of his authoritative position. The audio file portrayed a scene in which a 30-something office worker from Namyang’s headquarters shouted and hurled insults at a 50-year-old man who runs a regional distribution channel for the dairy firm on a contract basis. The verbal abuse involved the am
May 6, 2013
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Eighteen under probe over marijuana use
Two people have been arrested on charges of selling and smoking marijuana, police said Monday.The two, including a 34-year-old member of a local indie band surnamed Shin, are suspected of collecting marijuana from a mountain in Jeongsun, Gangwon Province, and using the drug twice last October before selling it to four others, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) said. That quantity is enough for approximately 100 doses, officers at the SMPA said."An investigation shows that Shin collected
May 6, 2013
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Top court upholds 10-year term for man in Philippine kidnapping cases
South Korea’s top court has upheld the conviction of a local man for kidnapping Korean tourists in the Philippines, court officials said Sunday.The 20-year-old kidnapper, only identified by his surname Kim, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiring with four Koreans to abduct nine Koreans who were on vacation in the Philippines between November 2010 and September 2011.“Kim, along with his accomplices, meticulously planned to lure the tourists. The method of his crime was cruel as he had
May 5, 2013
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Park lauds reopening of restored ancient gate
President Park Geun-hye on Saturday celebrated the reopening of the ancient gate that was destroyed in an arson attack more than five years ago, saying it will mark the path to a new era.Sungnyemun, built mainly out of wood, was severely damaged in early 2008 when an elderly man set it on fire in a grudge against the government.The gate in central Seoul, better known as Namdaemun, meaning "south gate" in Korean, and the nation's No. 1 treasure, was one of the four gates that surrounded Seoul, th
May 4, 2013
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S. Korean police stop defectors from releasing anti-Pyongyang leaflets
PAJU, Gyeonggi Province (Yonhap News) -- Hundreds of South Korean police officers stopped dozens of North Korean defectors and activists from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border via balloon on Saturday as North Korea warned of "unimaginable consequences."About 500 police officers prevented a truck carrying balloons and about 200,000 leaflets from accessing the defectors' launch site of Imjingak near the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.Police have vowed to cordon of
May 4, 2013
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Tying the knot the traditional way
Like many other women, Kim So-jeong dreamed of walking down the aisle in a pearl-white silk dress with a sparkling tiara on her head. But the 31-year-old office worker chose to do something different for her big day ― choosing hanbok over a wedding gown and jokduri, a traditional coronet, over a tiara. “I wanted to show my children, my grandchildren later in my life that I married their father not in a conventional wedding hall, but in a historic place where tradition is alive,” she said. Kim ma
May 3, 2013
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Royalty for a day
In the Joseon Dynasty, there was strict division among social classes over what clothes they would wear. But there was one day in everyone’s lifetime when even a commoner would dress up like royalty: their wedding day. Men wore samogwandae, the official government attire. This consisted of a hat, belt, boots and danryung, a dark blue robe. “Dark blue was the color of officials’ robes at the time, so many people emulated the robe in the same color,” Ahn Hee-jae, CEO of Korea Event, told The Korea
May 3, 2013
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Prosecution probing more websites in NIS scandal
The prosecution is looking into up to nine websites to investigate accusations that the nation’s main intelligence agency attempted to influence public opinion on the Internet ahead of last year’s presidential election, officials said Friday.Allegations have been raised that the National Intelligence Service extensively and systemically meddled in the presidential election by using its agents to post a slew of politically sensitive comments against the opposition candidate on the Internet to swa
May 3, 2013
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U.S. pedophile suspect arrested in S. Korea after 8 years on the run
An American man suspected of sexually abusing minors in the United States has been arrested in South Korea after an eight-year-long international manhunt, police here said Friday.The 44-year-old suspect, whose identity has been withheld, is suspected of raping minors in the U.S. state of Kentucky four times between August and October 2003, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA).The suspect entered South Korea in 2004 via Thailand, the SMPA said, adding that he has since been wo
May 3, 2013
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Bakery CEO shutters business amid outcry over wallet-slap scandal
The CEO of a well-known bread company who allegedly slapped a hotel manager with his wallet has decided to shut down his firm amid a public outcry and calls for a boycott of its products. Kang Soo-tae, the head of Prime Bakery, apologized for his behavior in a telephone interview with a local broadcast network on Wednesday. “I apologize for causing trouble,” he said. “I am reporting the closure of my business.” Established in 2008, the company’s sales reached 9.8 billion won ($8.9 million) last
May 2, 2013
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[Newsmaker] ‘Little Psy’ falls victim to racist attack
The police are set to launch an investigation into alleged racist online attacks aimed at Hwang Min-woo, a 7-year-old singer who shot to fame after appearing in the music video for Psy’s "Gangnam Style."Since appearing in the video, Hwang has gained fame as “Little Psy” and has appeared in numerous events and television shows and commercials. Buoyed by the popularity of Gangnam Style, Hwang has also launched his own career and released his first single in March. According to reports, the police
May 2, 2013
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Suicide No. 1 cause of death for younger people
Suicide was the No. 1 cause of death among the younger population in South Korea in 2011, with the suicide rate rising significantly over the past decade, a report showed Thursday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, suicide was the leading cause of death among those aged 15-24 in 2011. The suicide rate per 100,000 among the age group stood at 13, up from 7.7 tallied in 2001.Ten years ago, traffic accidents topped the list with the highest death rate of 15.6, the report showed. In 2011,
May 2, 2013
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SAT exam canceled over possible questions leak
The organizer of the U.S. Scholastic Aptitude Test canceled the college admission exam for Koreans scheduled for Saturday amid an investigation into a leak of exam questions.The College Board, which oversees the SAT, notified Korean applicants on Wednesday of the cancellation via email. The SAT is currently offered several times a year in more than 170 countries. The prosecution has been investigating more than eight private institutes since February over allegations that they leaked exam questi
May 2, 2013