The Korea Herald

Wounded ship captain says 'thank you' after completely regaining consciousness

Mar 1, 2011

The captain of a South Korean freighter, who was shot during a rescue operation against Somali pirates, completely regained consciousness Monday and expressed thanks for the support that South Koreans have rallied for him. The health of Seok Hae-kyun, the captain of the 11,500-ton Samho Jewelry, has drawn wide national attention since South Korean naval special forces on Jan. 21 stormed the ship...
Seoul National University fires music professor accused of violence against students

Mar 1, 2011

Seoul National University decided Monday to sack a music professor accused of habitually using violence against her students and other alleged misconduct, officials said. The top South Korean university has looked into allegations raised late last year that vocal music professor Kim In-hye has habitually beat her students for not practicing enough and other reasons. Kim, 49, has also been accus...
Court to review ban on teachers’ political activity

Feb 28, 2011

A group of unionized teachers have asked the Constitutional Court to review the law that bans teachers from joining political activities, court officials said Monday, challenging the long debated law that causes any teacher who wages an anti-government campaign to face disciplinary action. The Seoul Administrative Court has accepted the appeal by three teachers, affiliated with the liberal Korea...
Korea may raise retirement age to 60: report

Feb 28, 2011

The government is reportedly considering raising the average retirement age to 60 from the current average of 57 to lessen the impact of the retirement of 7.1 million baby boomers born between 1955 and 1963. However, the plan is expected to face fierce opposition from both employers and employees. The “Baby Boomer Committee,” an affiliate of the Economic and Social Development Commission, a gro...
Seoul switches evaluation system for principals

Feb 28, 2011

Seoul’s education office plans to completely revamp the principal evaluation system, hoping that straightening out principals will lead to positive changes in schools. Officials said Monday that, once passed through review, headmasters will undergo management skill evaluations starting this school semester, monitoring their schools’ curriculum and its results, as well as 13 other criteria. A go...
Shin elected new KBA president

Feb 28, 2011

Shin Young-moo, a 67-year-old veteran lawyer, was elected the new president of the Korean Bar Association during its general assembly in Seoul on Monday. Shin ran for the post as the candidate recommended by Seoul Bar Association and won 167 votes, beating runner-up Shin Yong-do, who had stood for Busan-based lawyers but only received 49 votes. Shin began his judicial career as a judge at Daeje...
Prosecution probes BBK antagonist again

Feb 28, 2011

The sister of an alleged former business partner of Lee Myung-bak has been questioned by the prosecution over a long-dormant scandal which engulfed the 2007 presidential election. Erica Kim, sister of Kim Kyung-joon, returned to Seoul over the weekend to help the prosecution wrap up an investigation into the scandal involving stock manipulation. With her brother Kyung-joon now serving an eight-...
W34tr spent on health insurance cover in 2010

Feb 28, 2011

The government spent nearly 34 trillion won ($30 billion) on health insurance cover last year. The medical costs covered by the nation’s obligatory health insurance scheme were 33.7 trillion won last year, a 12.9 percent increase from 2009, the National Health Insurance Cooperation said Monday. When considering those shared by individuals, the total amount reached 43.6 trillion won, up 4.2 tril...
1 year on, foreigners’ prison claims success

Feb 28, 2011

Rehabilitation officer says facility has reduced language, cultural problems, marginalization Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province ― Fish cakes in broth are a common sight on Korea's streets and markets. But some fish cakes come from a place you might not expect: a foreigners’ prison. The Asian delicacies are cranked out by prisoners at Cheonan Foreigner Prison in mountainside outskirts of Che...
Number of Seoulites with advanced degrees tripled since 1990

Feb 27, 2011

The number of Seoul citizens holding master’s or doctoral degrees has tripled over the past 20 years, a study found Sunday. There were 39,538 master’s and 5,043 doctoral graduates last year, almost triple the 14,049 in 1990, according to the study conducted jointly by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Statistics Korea. Women with higher education showed a five-fold increase in two decades, ...
Korean illegal aliens in U.S. drop in 2010

Feb 27, 2011

LOS ANGELES (Yonhap News) ― The number of illegal aliens from South Korea in the U.S. dropped for the second straight year in 2010, but the number still remained over 170,000, a report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released Friday showed. The number of Korean illegal aliens in the U.S. dropped to some 200,000 in 2009 from 240,000 the previous year. The number then dropped 15 percen...
U.S. soldier detained for assaulting elderly Korean couple

Feb 27, 2011

South Korea's police have asked the local court to issue an arrest warrant for a U.S. service member accused of breaking into the home of an elderly Korean couple in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, and assaulting them, officials said Sunday. The unidentified 20-year-old American soldier stationed in Dongducheon, 70 kilometers north of the capital, is in detention on charges of intruding into the ho...
Fresh bird flu strain confirmed in southern South Korea

Feb 27, 2011

DAMYANG -- About 1,000 ducks found dead earlier this week at a farm in southern South Korea were confirmed Saturday to have been infected with a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza, raising concern that the lethal virus is spreading in the country, officials said. The H5A1 virus was found on the duck farm in Damyang county of South Jeolla Province, about 350 kilometers south of Seoul, qu...
Engine problem with KTX train forces hundreds of passengers to change trains

Feb 26, 2011

An apparent engine problem with a KTX train forced hundreds of passengers to change trains in the middle of their journeys on Saturday, officials said, the latest in a recent series of incidents involving the high-speed trains. A KTX-Sancheon train encountered an engine problem after departing from the southeastern city of Daegu on Saturday morning. The Seoul-bound train arrived in Daejeon, abo...
Disgraced stem cell scientist Hwang among S. Korean evacuees from Libya

Feb 26, 2011

Disgraced South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk had been in Libya at the invitation of a state research institute in the North African nation, sources close to him said Saturday. Hwang was seen among 198 South Koreans evacuated from Libya on a charter flight to Cairo on Friday, raising questions about why he had been in the country. Hwang's activity has drawn attention after his purported breakth...