The Korea Herald

Report: Bomb kills official at Iran nuke facility

PodcastJan 11, 2012

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) _ Two assailants on a motorcycle attached magnetic bombs on Wednesday to the car of an Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility, killing him and wounding two others, a semiofficial news agency reported. The attack in Tehran strongly resembles earlier killings of scientists working on the country's controversial nuclear program. The bomb explosion killed M...
Film’s Mr. Serious turns to comedy

FilmJan 11, 2012

Hwang’s character inevitably conjures up the real-life story of the current Seoul mayor and lawyer Park Won-soon, who was elected as an independent candidate last year. “Well, it was just a coincidence,” says Hwang. “The real election took place out of the blue after we finished our shooting. So we were just shocked by what was happening and how it connects to some parts of our film. But that wa...
More than 23,000 N. Koreans enter S. Korea

North KoreaJan 11, 2012

The number of North Korean defectors who have entered South Korea has surpassed the 23,000 mark as of the end of 2011, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday. Last year, 2,737 North Koreans entered the South, a 15 percent increase from a year earlier, the ministry said. Seventy percent of them were female. The annual number of North Koreans choosing to live in the South has continually increas...
Speaker’s ex-aide detained in GNP vote-buying case

Social affairsJan 11, 2012

Prosecutors investigating alleged bribery in a Grand National Party leadership election raided the home of Parliamentary Speaker Park Hee-tae’s former secretary Koh Myung-jin on Wednesday. Koh is suspected of having been involved in the alleged bribery case. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office executed a search and seizure warrant on Koh’s home in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province early Wedn...
Park initiates new centrist political party

PoliticsJan 11, 2012

Park Se-il, former lawmaker of the ruling Grand National Party and president of non-profit think tank Hansun Foundation, initiated a new political party aiming to include both conservatives and moderate liberals. The preparatory committee for the party, provisionally named People’s Thoughts, was launched Wednesday in Yeouido and pledged to register the party next month, officials said. The list...
GNP feuds over ‘conservative’ label

PoliticsJan 11, 2012

Leadership claims the term has negative connotations for young voters The ruling Grand National Party, already struggling with vote-buying allegations, is facing internal feuding over whether to eliminate the term “conservatism” from the party platform. Though the party’s emergency leadership council largely agreed the term delivered a negative image to voters, the proposal to remove it trigger...
Antitrust regulator to probe beef prices

IndustryJan 11, 2012

Fair Trade Commission Chairman Kim Dong-soo vowed on Tuesday to streamline the complicated distribution systems of consumer products this year, with beef the first target. The state-run antitrust regulator said it plans to reveal next week the result of its investigation into the whole distribution process of beef cattle and the selling prices at major retailers and restaurants. The nation’s ca...
Shares end lower on tech losses, China woes

Jan 11, 2012

Korean stocks closed 0.41 percent lower Wednesday, as investors unloaded shares in large-cap tech issues amid worries over signs of a slowing economy in China, analysts said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar. After bobbing in and out of negative territory, the benchmark KOSPI lost 7.67 points to 1,845.55. Trading volume was light at 235.1 million shares worth 2.20 trillion won ($1...
Korea’s yearly aid to emerging countries tops $1 billion

Jan 11, 2012

Korea’s financial aid to underdeveloped and developing countries has surpassed $1 billion per annum. The Export-Import Bank of Korea said Wednesday that the yearly amount of “official development assistance” has reached $1.17 billion. This means each Korean offered an average of 27,730 won to underdeveloped and developing countries, according to the state-run bank. Asia was the main target of ...
Korean companies suffer more credit downgrades in 2011: report

IndustryJan 11, 2012

Korean companies suffered a series of credit downgrades last year, while three global rating agencies maintained their credit outlook for the nation at stable, the Korea Center for International Finance found Wednesday. According to a KCIF report, the world’s top three credit ratings agencies Fitch, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s lowered the credit ratings of Korean companies 10 times last year. ...
Silver industry, Arab world, Asia: keywords for next decade

IndustryJan 11, 2012

Korea should swiftly draft measures to meet surging demand from the aging population and deep-pocketed Arab and Asian consumers to sustain growth for the next 10 years, a trade association urged Wednesday. Over the next decade, the growing elderly population will be a significant factor driving the market around the world and create niche products, the Korea International Trade Association said ...
Man arrested for holding pregnant woman hostage

Social affairsJan 11, 2012

Police apprehended a man who held a pregnant woman at knifepoint in a Seoul department store on Wednesday. According to Gangnam Police Station, 35-year-old Lee grabbed the woman by her hair and held her hostage while brandishing a kitchen knife at the Hyundai Department Store COEX branch. “Around 10 a.m. right after the store opened its doors, there was a young man who was hanging around and la...
Korea to run integrated hotline on school violence

Social affairsJan 11, 2012

The government and the ruling party agreed to open a school violence hotline as one major step to responding to school violence, Education Ministry officials said Wednesday. A high-level meeting of Grand National Party members and ministers of related agencies agreed to unify separate school violence hotlines into “117,” which will be operational 24 hours a day nationwide. “As we remember 112 a...
Korean-initiated int‘l art fair to launch in Hong Kong in May

TheaterJan 11, 2012

HONG KONG (Yonhap) -- A South Korean-led international art fair will open in Hong Kong in May, in a bid to provide a platform where participants in the art industry can meet and exchange views, organizers said Wednesday. The Hong Kong Contemporary art fair, arranged by Moon Eun-myung, a South Korean art dealer operating in the special administrative region, will run from May 17 through 20. The ...
Nine Korean sites on UNESCO’s temporary heritage list

CultureJan 11, 2012

Nine ancient sites for private Confucian academies in South Korea have been included in a temporary list of potential UNESCO World Heritage locations on Tuesday, the government said. The nine included Dosan Seowon and Byeongsan Seowon, private Korean Confucian academies offering instruction in the classics and honoring prominent scholars with regular memorial rites during the Joseon Dynasty (139...