Most Popular
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No plan to let doctors with foreign licenses practice here anytime soon: PM
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Ador CEO's dismissal to be decided on last day of May
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[Graphic News] Beer the most favored alcoholic drink by Koreans
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Science Ministry expresses regret over Japan’s pressure on Naver
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Haeundae Beach to become sand art museum in late May
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Hostilities get out of hand as YouTuber murders another outside courthouse
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Medical professors set to take day off amid protracted walkouts by junior doctors
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Police officer jumps barefoot into drainage tunnel to save man
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Yoon interacts with public for 1st time since election defeat
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Lee Sun-kyun's posthumuous film to hit theaters in August
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Activist arrested for praising N. Korea
A 28-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly praising North Korea online in violation of an anti-North Korea law, police said Thursday.The man, identified only by his surname Nam, was apprehended near a university in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, Wednesday night, according to a spokesman for the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency.He allegedly posted dozens of articles sympathetic to the Pyongyang regime between December 2011 and April 2013.Nam is a member of Corean Alliance, a civic gr
Social AffairsMay 7, 2015
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Steelmaker head nabbed over alleged embezzlement
The head of South Korea's third-largest steelmaker was arrested Thursday over allegations he gambled abroad with embezzlement money.Chang Sae-joo, the chairman of Dongkuk Steel Mill Co., is suspected of misappropriating about 20 billion won ($18 million) from Dongkuk Steel Mill by inflating the prices of raw materials the company purchased from abroad from 2005 to March this year.Prosecutors suspect the 62-year-old used the slush fund to gamble in Las Vegas, Nevada, and made billions of won, acc
Social AffairsMay 7, 2015
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'Exploratory talks' with N.K. depend on U.S. flexibility: expert
The prospect of holding "exploratory" nuclear talks with North Korea depends on how much the United States lowers its bar for resuming formal denuclearization negotiations, a U.S. expert said Wednesday.The possibility of "exploratory talks" with Pyongyang resurfaced this week as South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, Hwang Joon-kook, said after a meeting with his U.S. counterpart, Amb. Sung Kim, that the five parties in the six-party nuclear talks would seek such talks without preconditions.The term
North KoreaMay 7, 2015
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Rival parties fail to pass pension reform bill
Rival parties on Wednesday failed to pass a pension reform bill for civil servants aimed at reducing chronic deficits in funds. The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) couldn't get the bill through the National Assembly during the plenary session. The proposal calls for raising the contribution rate from the current 7 percent to 9 percent over the next five years, with the entitlement rate to be reduced from 1.9 to 1.7 percent in stages over
PoliticsMay 6, 2015
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Assembly approves Justice nominee
Saenuri Party lawmakers unilaterally approve the nomination of Park Sang-ok to the Supreme Court on Wednesday. (Yonhap)The governing party unilaterally approved the appointment of a controversial Supreme Court Justice nominee on Wednesday using its majority, ending a weekslong partisan fight over the nomination.The National Assembly voted 151 to 6 in favor of the appointment of Park Sang-ok to the Supreme Court. One vote was counted as invalid. The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democ
PoliticsMay 6, 2015
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[News Focus] Calls grow to improve N.K. ties
Calls are growing for Seoul to improve inter-Korean ties to secure diplomatic leverage amid rising concerns over its diplomacy being challenged by a stronger U.S.-Japan alliance and escalating Sino-U.S. rivalry.Enhanced cross-border relations would allow Seoul to help ease military tensions on the peninsula and beyond, forge a mood of reconciliation and cooperation in the region and subsequently bolster its diplomatic profile, analysts said.“The Korean Peninsula is exactly where tensions between
North KoreaMay 6, 2015
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Korea to stage military drill to defend Dokdo
South Korea plans to stage a military drill to better defend its easternmost islets of Dokdo this month as Japan ratchets up its sovereignty claims, officials said Wednesday. The exercise is designed to stave off any illegal approaches and will be conducted jointly by the military and coast guard for two days late this month on and around the windswept outcrops in the East Sea, they said. Among the scheduled plans is a landing training exercise by the Navy’s Underwater Demolition and Sea, Air an
DefenseMay 6, 2015
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[Newsmaker] Prosecutor-turned-politician at nadir over graft scandal
South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Hong Joon-pyo’s stellar legal and political career is facing uncertainty as he faces a prosecutorial summons Friday as a key suspect in a burgeoning graft scandal.The prosecution said Wednesday that it would summon Hong on Friday morning at 10 a.m. to question him over allegations that he received 100 million won ($93,000) from late Keangnam chairman Sung Woan-jong in 2011. Hong is the the first of the eight political heavyweights involved in the high-profile bribe
PoliticsMay 6, 2015
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Fukuyama stands by Western liberal democracy
In 1989, witnessing the fall of the Iron Curtain, U.S. political scientist Francis Fukuyama declared that history had ended, with Western liberal democracy representing the final form of government and mankind’s ideological evolution. The next 25 years proved to be more complicated than he anticipated: a plethora of regimes and ideologies have swept across the globe toward authoritarianism, away from his optimistic outlook. The pioneering thinker at Stanford University said he still resolutely s
Foreign AffairsMay 6, 2015
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Moon’s NPAD leadership hangs in the balance
Main opposition party chief Rep. Moon Jae-in’s leadership is being put to the test with mounting pressure to reorient the opposition’s political alignment and policy disposition following last week’s electoral defeat.The beleaguered leader’s approval rating has been declining. Realmeter survey said Wednesday that his ratings stand at 24.8 percent, down by 1.9 percentage points from last week, while his rival, Rep. Kim-Moo sung, enjoyed 19.2 percent, 5.7 percentage points higher. On Wednesday las
PoliticsMay 6, 2015
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Drug firm questioned in rebate crackdown
An investigation is underway into a pharmaceutical company suspected of providing rebates worth billions of won to local doctors, police said Wednesday. Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency booked the local drug firm, whose name was not revealed, and its CEO without detention on charges of violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act. Police also booked 10 doctors without detention on charges of breaching the Medical Law in a case that allegedly involves hundreds of other medical professionals. The dru
Social AffairsMay 6, 2015
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Cabinet passes ordinance for Sewol probe
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved an ordinance to investigate last year’s sinking of the Sewol ferry, touching off protests from the opposition party and family members of the victims, citing its lack of independence.The ordinance gave legal grounds for the special investigative committee tasked with uncovering the causes behind the sinking of the 6,825-ton vessel that left more than 300 people dead. It also specifies the setup of the committee, such as its subcommittees and their respective rol
Social AffairsMay 6, 2015
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Seoul City to tear down colonial building
Seoul City will tear down a building built during Japan’s colonial period as part of its project to mark the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation in August, officials said Wednesday.Seoul Metropolitan Government said it would demolish the annex of the former National Tax Service building near Deoksugung Palace in central Seoul. The annex, situated between the palace and the Seoul Metropolitan Council building, was built by Japan in 1937 in an alleged attempt to conceal the palace, experts said
Social AffairsMay 6, 2015
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[Lee Joo-hee] Let’s not sugarcoat the truth
It was sad to see U.S. President Barack Obama and Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe in Washington last week sashaying into a banquet wearing tuxedoes, alongside gracefully dressed first ladies. It was almost like a kid watching his best friend enter a party with the school bully.As melodramatic as it sounds, the resentment that prevailed South Korea during the eight-day-long Abe visit to the U.S. was very real.It was not about feeling left out. It was more about feeling let down, but not because the U
Foreign AffairsMay 6, 2015
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S. Korea seeks 'new momentum' with China to revive N. Korea nuclear talks
South Korea's top nuclear envoy, Hwang Joon-kook, said Wednesday he will discuss with his Chinese counterpart about how to inject a "new momentum" to restart the long-stalled multilateral talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Hwang, who held talks with his U.S. counterpart, Ambassador Sung Kim, in Washington earlier this week, made the remarks upon his arrival at the Beijing airport before holding talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, later in the day. "During a meeting with Sp
North KoreaMay 6, 2015
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Ex-PM campaign volunteer questioned in bribery scandal
A man who volunteered for former Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo's by-election campaign in 2013 was interrogated over allegations his former boss took bribes from a businessman, prosecutors said Wednesday.Lee stepped down as prime minister last month after the businessman's suicide note implied he took 30 million won ($28,000) in kickbacks when he was running for a seat in South Chungcheong Province.Lee denies the allegations.Prosecutors said they have called in the former volunteer, identified only
PoliticsMay 6, 2015
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Grassroot contacts crucial for trust-building between two Koreas: U.S. expert
A renowned U.S. professor Wednesday stressed the importance of more "grassroot" contacts between the two Koreas to promote trust-building on the divided peninsula as there is no hope for eliciting exchanges at the government level.Francis Fukuyama, a senior fellow at Stanford University, said realistically, it is not easy to expect cross-border civilian exchanges on the peninsula like those between East and West Germany in the past, but he said that economic liberation in the North can serve as
North KoreaMay 6, 2015
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S. Korea, U.S. begin Korean War remains excavation
South Korea and the United States launched a project Wednesday to dig up the remains of their soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War.The allies kicked off the joint excavation for a three-day schedule in mountainous areas in the southern city of Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, where a division involving soldiers from the two nations launched a fierce battle in August 1950 against the invading North Korean forces, according to the Defense Ministry."Upon the tip-off by a ministry offic
InternationalMay 6, 2015
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Dozens caught in drug-fueled orgy
Dozens of people were under investigation for having orgies on drugs, police said Wednesday.Nine people were arrested and 18 others booked without physical detention, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said.Twenty-one of them, including a married couple, met through ZleTalk, a chatting app, and gathered at motels in Seoul's Gangnam district to use methamphetamine, or meth, and engage in group sex. They usually met in groups of four to eight at a time, police said. Together, they are believed t
Social AffairsMay 6, 2015
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S. Korea eyes more deregulation to lure foreign investment
South Korea will further remove unnecessary and excessive regulations concerning foreign direct investment as part of efforts to boost foreign investment and the local economy, the government said Wednesday.Under its latest measures, approved at a Seoul meeting of economy-related ministers, the government will work to remove or ease about 10 government regulations that may hinder foreign investment, according to the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Energy.For instance, the government will seek
PoliticsMay 6, 2015