Most Popular
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[AtoZ into Korean mind] Humor in Korea: Navigating the line between what's funny and not
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Yoon seeks rebound, taps 5-term lawmaker as chief of staff
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Medical standoff deepens as doctors reject new med school plan, talks
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[Exclusive] Korean military set to ban iPhones over 'security' concerns
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[Herald Interview] Why Toss invited hackers to penetrate its system
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[Graphic News] 77% of young Koreans still financially dependent
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S. Korean envoys convene to navigate strategy amid Middle East tensions
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Korean, Romanian leaders discuss defense tech, nuclear energy
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North Korea fires several short-range ballistic missiles into sea: JCS
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Samsung, SK hynix investors dump shares on Nvidia crash
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Man charged with breaking into girlfriend’s house for valuables
A 23-year-old man who allegedly broke into his girlfriend’s house and stole the contents of a strongbox was caught, police said on Tuesday.The man planned to steal the safe with his friend after seeing the vault in December when he visited the girlfriend’s apartment in Iksan in North Jeolla Province. After checking that no family members were in the house, the suspect and his 29-year-old friend climbed up the gas pipe to the apartment on the third floor and robbed the safe. The two fled to a mou
Feb. 26, 2013
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Dozing off a major cause of road accidents: study
Dozing off while driving was a major cause of traffic accidents over the last five years, a report from Korea Transportation Safety Authority showed. The authority conducted a telephone poll on 1,000 people in August to examine the level of public road safety awareness. Of the respondents, 22.5 percent said they had been in accidents or near misses while driving due to lack of concentration or not keeping their eyes on the road. Among them, 36.7 percent of the people who had a car accident said
Feb. 26, 2013
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Rights watchdog calls for tougher rules on layoffs
The human rights watchdog said Monday it has advised the parliament and the labor ministry to revise labor laws to tighten standards for layoffs in light of workers’ suffering caused by dismissals and the subsequent social disturbances.In its recommendation recently presented to the National Assembly speaker and the Ministry of Labor and Employment, the National Human Rights Commission called for clarifying rules on layoff conditions to prevent employers from firing their workers discretionally,
Feb. 25, 2013
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Top court rules in favor of Microsoft over tie-in sales
The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a lower court ruling that Microsoft was not liable to pay damages to a Korean firm for its tie-in sales.Digito.com, a Korean software company that mainly provides an instant messenger service, filed a lawsuit in 2007 against Microsoft and its Korean branch for abusing its market dominance and bundling its MSN Messenger, an online messenger program, with its computer operating system Windows.The Korean firm requested 10 billion won ($9.2 million) in damages. “Ev
Feb. 25, 2013
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Park Si-hoo requests his case be transferred to Gangnam police
Actor Park Si-hoo, who was accused of raping a woman earlier this month, formally requested on Monday that his case be transferred to Gangnam Police Station. He had postponed his summons for police questioning on Sunday.“After observing the progress of Park Si-hoo’s case, our law firm has come to realize that the investigative process has considerable flaws,” Purme, a law firm representing Park, said in an official statement.The law firm claimed that the actor’s reputation has bee tarnished by d
Feb. 25, 2013
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Welfare, public safety focus of Park’s agenda
The nation is anticipating the outcome of the first female president’s promise to deliver a more equal society and the empowerment of women and other minorities.Park Geun-hye, 60, has pledged to usher in “an era of people’s happiness,” and has included this principle in her key policy agenda. The new president has vowed to improve the quality of people’s lives as many Koreans complain of society being too competitive and obsessed with economic growth. Boosting social spending and creating qualit
Feb. 24, 2013
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Teachers union rejects govt. ultimatum, threatens walkouts, protests
South Korea's teachers union on Sunday rejected the labor ministry's ultimatum that called for a rewriting of its bylaws that would prevent fired educators from staying on as members.The moves comes as Seoul said last week that the union must make changes to its rules and warned that failure to do so would result in the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) losing its rights as a formal labor union that can engage in legitimate negotiations with schools. Under current labor law only
Feb. 24, 2013
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Households' school costs hit 6-year low in 2012: data
South Korean households' spending on education declined to a six-year low last year due to an economic downturn and increased government subsidies, data showed Sunday. The ratio of education expenditures to consumption spending in a household with two or more family members reached 12 percent, the lowest level since 2006 when it was 11.5 percent, according to the data by Statistics Korea. Households' education expenditure-to-consumption spending ratio rose at double-digit rates in 1997, posting
Feb. 24, 2013
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Teenager confesses to raping, beating 46-year-old woman to death
Police said Saturday they have detained a teenager on charges of raping and beating to death a 46-year-old woman he met in a nightclub in southern South Korea.The 18-year-old, identified only by his surname Suh, admitted to the crime, saying he was angry as the woman refused to have sex with him, police said. The victim's identity was withheld.According to police, Suh met and drank with her in a nightclub in the southern city of Jinju, some 285 km southeast of Seoul. He allegedly raped and beat
Feb. 23, 2013
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S. Korean man under investigation for hurling bottle of human feces into Japan Embassy
A South Korean man is under investigation for hurling a bottle of human feces into Japan's Embassy in Seoul in anger over Tokyo's claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo, police said Saturday.The 49-year-old day worker threw the 750-milliliter plastic bottle containing his own feces over the wall of the embassy in central Seoul around 8:50 p.m. Friday after Japan held an annual event claiming its sovereignty over Dokdo earlier in the day.The man from the southeastern city of Ulsan, i
Feb. 23, 2013
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7 nabbed for international organ trafficking
A total of seven people have been arrested or booked in two separate incidents for their alleged involvement in illegal overseas organ transplants, police said Monday.A suspect only identified by his surname Kim, is accused of taking 180 million won ($165,600) as a brokerage fee from a liver transplant patient surnamed Seo and coordinating an illegal transplant in Tianjin, China for him, according to the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency. Kim allegedly pocketed a total of 600 million won after o
Feb. 23, 2013
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Police arrest man after ‘Gangnam style’ binge
A South Korean man who embezzled more than $4.0 million and had plastic surgery to evade capture, has been arrested after a hostess bar spending spree in Seoul’s upmarket Gangnam district.The 33-year-old, identified as Yoon, was finally tracked down after two of his accomplices were arrested, police said Friday.The head of the accounting department at a semi-conductor manufacturer, Yoon transferred 4.7 billion won ($4.3 million) of company funds to a series of secret bank accounts, police said.F
Feb. 22, 2013
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Pastor arrested for defaming Park
A local pastor has been arrested on charges of defaming incoming South Korean President Park Geun-hye by falsely claiming that she bribed late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, prosecutors said Friday.On two video clips posted on the Internet, Reverend Cho Woong claimed that Park had handed over tens of billions of won, equivalent to tens of millions of U.S. dollars, to Kim during her visit to Pyongyang in 2002, prosecutors said. The videos spread quickly on social networking sites, topping more
Feb. 22, 2013
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Labor officials raid E-Mart headquarters again over alleged anti-union efforts
Labor Ministry officials on Friday again raided the headquarters of E-Mart Co. as they broadened their investigation into allegations the country’s biggest discount chain operator illegally monitored its employees to prevent them from joining a union.The Ministry of Employment and Labor has been looking into suspicions that the retail giant systemically attempted to undermine the organization of the union, such as by illegally using workers’ resident registration numbers to check if they had joi
Feb. 22, 2013
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Park pulling back on welfare pledges
President-elect Park Geun-hye is scaling down some of her costly welfare programs amid budgetary concerns. The presidential transition committee on Thursday announced key policy agenda for the incoming government, including pension, health care and poverty relief packages, some of which were substantially reduced after two months of discussion. Other earlier proposed schemes were left out.Differing from Park’s original plan, the transition team said the next government would differentiate the am
Feb. 22, 2013
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2 South Koreans, 1 Chinese killed in sinking of fish-transporting vessel in East Sea
A fish transportation vessel with 12 crewmembers on board sank Monday in waters between South Korea and Japan, killing three, including two South Koreans, officials said.The third crewman killed was identified as Chinese, said the South Korean Coast Guard officials.The 296-ton, Cambodian-registered vessel was on its way from the northern Japanese port of Aomori to South Korea's eastern port of Sokcho when it went down amid high waves around 7 a.m. about 548 km west of the Korean island of Ulleun
Feb. 21, 2013
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[Photo News] Miracle workers
Feb. 21, 2013
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Worsening trust in government, inequality fuel social divide
A government survey showed Thursday that Koreans harbor a deep distrust of the nation’s public institutions with the legislature rated the least trustworthy. According to the survey released by the Presidential Committee on Social Cohesion, only 5.6 percent of 2,000 adults said they trusted the National Assembly while 72.8 percent said they did not. Only 15 percent said they trusted the government while 46 percent said it did not do the right things, up nearly five percentage points from the pre
Feb. 21, 2013
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Activist teachers indicted for alleged pro-N.K. activities
Four members of a radical teachers’ association have been indicted for alleged pro-North Korean activities, said the prosecution on Thursday. The teachers were charged without detention for violating the National Security Act. The Seoul Central District Prosecution said they founded an organization called “New Era Education Movement” and taught young students with pro-North Korean materials.One elementary school teacher posted a quote by former communist leader Kim Jong-il at the back of his cla
Feb. 21, 2013
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Educational programs at forefront of sex crime prevention
In the wake of a series of high-profile sexual assaults against women and children last year, the government plans to expand education programs to prevent crimes and ensure better care of victims. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family plans to discuss the plan with experts from various fields on Feb. 22, the government-designated day for eradicating sexual violence against children.Amid public outrage about sex crimes, the government and the parliament took measures last year to increase st
Feb. 21, 2013