Most Popular
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Contentious grain bill put directly to plenary meeting for vote
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Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
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Will tug-of-war between doctors, government end soon?
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Climate impacts set to cut 2050 global GDP by nearly a fifth
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Trilateral talks acknowledge ‘serious’ slumps of won, yen
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[KH Explains] Hyundai's full hybrid edge to pay off amid slow transition to pure EVs
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North Korea removes streetlights along cross-border roads with South
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Russia's denial of entry of S. Korean national unrelated to bilateral ties: Seoul official
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Farming households dip below 1m for first time in 2023
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S. Korea votes in favor of Palestinian bid for UN membership
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Parents protest ban on student exchange programs
More than 10 parents occupied the president’s office at Chung-Ang University for a second consecutive day on Tuesday in protest of the school’s plan to close a recently outlawed program through which their children were admitted. More than 240 students were admitted through the so-called “1+3” student exchange program, in which they study at the university for one year and at another university abroad for three years. Late last year, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced th
Jan. 15, 2013
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Ministry to step up support for Korean studies
The government announced Tuesday it would invest 28.8 billion won ($27 million) this year to promote Korean studies at home and abroad.The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Academy of Korean Studies, a state-run research and educational institution, started the project in 2007 with the aim of broadening Korean studies with a budget of 4.5 billion won.The budget has increased significantly since then thanks to growing interest in Korean culture and entertainment, breaking the
Jan. 15, 2013
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Language institute chief gets suspended term for leaking content of TOEIC, TEPS
The chief of a local English education institute received a suspended prison term on Tuesday for instructing his employees to illegally record questions of official English proficiency tests, according to court officials. The Seoul Central District Court sentenced the Hackers Group chairman, surnamed Cho, to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, for violating the copyright law, they said. His brother also received a suspended prison term for the same charge."(The two) used elaborate an
Jan. 15, 2013
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Education ministry aims to make high school education free by 2017
The education ministry will aim to make high school education free for everyone by 2017 as part of efforts to implement President-elect Park Geun-hye's campaign pledges on education policy, officials said Tuesday.Officials from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology reported the plan to the presidential transition committee during a policy briefing earlier in the day, saying that it would expand the current program that provides free education only to students in vocational schools or
Jan. 15, 2013
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FDI in Seoul shows modest improvement
Foreign direct investment in Seoul showed a moderate but meaningful improvement in 2012. The city attracted $5.8 billion last year, which accounts for 36 percent of Korea’s foreign direct investment. The figure is a 41 percent increase from the year before, when $4.1 billion was invested in the city. FDI has been rising since bottoming out in 2010.Around $2.3 billion, the largest amount, or 40 percent of the total FDI was made by Japanese investors, who still struggle with the strong yen and pow
Jan. 14, 2013
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Seoul district offices, garbage firms in dispute over fees
Unpleasant odors and piles of plastic bags containing rotting food waste littered the streets of Seoul as garbage disposers refused to make their rounds in a simmering dispute with city authorities.Seoul’s district offices including Seongbuk, Yeongdeungpo, and Yangcheon are butting heads with private food waste management firms over a price increase in food waste treatment services. The firms are demanding an increase in fees as food waste treatment has become more expensive due to a new law tha
Jan. 14, 2013
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Education, creativity Park’s key goals
The following is the fourth in a series of articles on the major tasks and key members of President-elect Park Geun-hye’s transition team. ― Ed.Improving the education system, enhancing science and technology research and building an innovation-driven economy form a key part of President-elect Park Geun-hye’s economic strategy. Kwak Byong-sun, key architect of her educational reform, and Chang Soon-heung, Korea’s top nuclear power scientist, are in charge of laying the groundwork for the vision
Jan. 14, 2013
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HUFS dedicates auditorium to Obama
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies renamed its main auditorium “Barack Obama Hall” Monday to mark the U.S. president’s reelection.At the hall, then called the Minerva Auditorium, Obama delivered a speech in March 2012. In a congratulatory letter to the White House last November, HUFS president Park Chul said the school would rename the hall after the U.S. president and honorary HUFS alumnus to remember the landmark event.On behalf of U.S. Ambassador to Korea Sung Kim, Minister Counselor for Pu
Jan. 14, 2013
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People in 40s, 50s, main consumers of movies
It‘s a trend that began a few years ago that movie theaters are visited by broader age groups, but now middle-aged people in their 40s and 50s are the main consumer group of cinemas.The advance ticket reservation rates of the three local box-office hits -- “Tower,” “Les Miserable” and “Life of Pi” -- were the highest among viewers aged 40 or over, Maxmovie, a leading online movie ticket reservation site, said Monday. For the Korean disaster film “Tower,” which exceeded 4 million in attendance as
Jan. 14, 2013
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Deaths of seniors living alone led to calls for action
A number of cases of elderly people living alone being found dead in the south of the country have led to calls for the government to come up with measures to tackle the problem. A police officer from Suncheon police department found an unidentified 89-year-old woman’s body in an electric pad in her home. The police assume that the woman died from hypothermia three to four days previously. It was revealed that the woman had lived off of a 95,000-won ($90) old-age pension and didn’t qualify for b
Jan. 14, 2013
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Daegu may get women-only subway cars
Daegu Metropolitan Transit Corporation said it was considering limiting one in six subway cars to women as a measure to prevent crime. The plan has been suggested as a measure to stop the increasing number of sexual harassment incidents on the subway. The number of reported incidents almost tripled to 1,313 in 2011 compared to 466 in 2008, according to the National Police Agency.Several Japanese subway lines run women-only subway cars. Since 2000, Keihan Railway has operated them during morning
Jan. 14, 2013
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Organ donations from brain-dead patients surpass 400
Organ donations from brain-dead patients have increased significantly in recent years, with a record 400 donors last year, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Sunday. According to the Korean Network for Organ Sharing, a total of 409 patients declared brain-dead donated organs in 2012, up 11 percent from a year ago.The figure is up more than 10-fold from that of 2002, with 36 people. There were 86 organ donors after brain death in 2004, and the number jumped to 256 in 2
Jan. 13, 2013
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Korea has highest rate of old-age workers in OECD
More older people are working in Korea than in other advanced countries, reflecting the country’s older retirement age but also greater worries over lack of benefits after their retreat from the workforce, recent data by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed.According to OECD’s report on aging and employment policies, the employment rate for the population aged 65 to 69 in Korea was 41 percent, more than twice the OECD average of 18.5 percent. Korea’s rate was second o
Jan. 13, 2013
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Concerns rise over leak...of chemicals in Sangju
Environment authorities conducted overnight operations during the weekend to plug and clean up chemical leaks at a factory where 200 tons of hydrochloric acid escaped.An evacuation order for 760 residents within a radius of 1.5 kilometers was removed as of Sunday morning after it was issued on Saturday upon the report of the accident. Hydrochloric acid leaked out of a factory in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province, 280 kilometers south of Seoul. The toxic chemical is an aqueous solution of hydroge
Jan. 13, 2013
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One third of foreign manual workers overstay: Justice Ministry
More than one third of foreign manual workers staying in South Korea under a work permit system overstay their visas, the Justice Ministry said Sunday. Statistics by the ministry showed that 15,804 foreigner workers, or 37.3 percent of the 42,379 whose E-9 non-professional work visa expired in the first 10 months of 2012, failed to get out of the country. South Korea introduced a work permit system in 2004 in which laborers from 15 countries are allowed to work here for up to three years wi
Jan. 13, 2013
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Hundreds of residents evacuated due to hydrochloric acid leak
Hundreds of residents around a polysilicon plant here were evacuated to safety after hydrochloric acid was found to have been leaked, police said Saturday.The leak occurred at around 11 a.m. from a 200-ton tank of the Woongjin Polysilicon plant located in this city, some 270 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to police.Police said that when the accident happened, some workers were staying inside the plant, but no injuries have been reported.It is yet to be known how much acid leaked from t
Jan. 12, 2013
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Lee’s long-time aide gets 15 months in jail for bribery
A long-time aide to President Lee Myung-bak was sentenced to 15 months in prison for accepting bribes from the chairman of a now-suspended savings bank in return for influence peddling, court officials said Friday. Kim Hee-jung, who worked as a presidential secretary for personal affairs, was indicted last August on charges of receiving 180 million won ($170,502) in kickbacks from Solomon Savings Bank Chairman Lim Suk on three occasions from August 2011 to January 2012 in exchange for helping th
Jan. 11, 2013
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Presidential office positively considers vetoing taxi law
The office of President Lee Myung-bak is positively considering vetoing a recently passed law on providing state subsidies to the taxi industry, an official said Friday, amid criticism the measure is a populist bill that would cost the nation too much.The ruling and opposition parties passed the taxi bill through parliament last week. It calls for including taxis in the category of mass transportation, along with buses, subways and trains, a designation that makes the industry eligible for gover
Jan. 11, 2013
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Transition team considers shortening working hours
The presidential transition team will consider shortening working hours by stretching the weekly limit across all seven days of the week, not five, an official said Friday.Working hours in South Korea are notoriously long, despite a legal limit of eight hours per day and 40 hours per week. A government report published last September showed that the country's average weekly working hours ranked the highest among the member states of the rich nations' club -- the Organization for Economic Coopera
Jan. 11, 2013
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U.S. soldier indicted for massive drug smuggling
A U.S. soldier has been indicted Thursday on charges of smuggling a massive amount of marijuana into the country, South Korean prosecutors said Thursday.The 23-year-old corporal from the U.S. Air Force base in Osan, identified only by his initial M, is accused of smuggling 944 grams of marijuana with coffee beans via international air mail in September, prosecutors said.That quantity is enough for approximately 1,800 doses, they added.The prosecutors said they have indicted the soldier after the
Jan. 10, 2013