A high school dropout-turned-NSA techno whiz kid leaks details of a super-secret government program for mass surveillance on innocent Americans. Then he goes on the lam. Edward Snowden’s story could have been ripped out of the pages of a pulp fiction spy thriller. It was believed he was heading to Ecuador, the only place he officially applied for political asylum. Things changed on Monday. He ...

Jung Yong-jin, vice chairman of Shinsegae Group, won a lawsuit against an online media source, Dispatch, over privacy invasion. The Supreme Court handed out a ruling on Thursday that Dispatch’s report on the private family meeting of Jung and his then-fiancée is a violation of privacy law and portrait rights. The court ordered Dispatch to remove its article and pay 15 million won ($13,000) in ...

As the summer vacation season begins, college students in South Korea are seeking part-time jobs to help pay for the next semester’s tuition. An increasingly popular choice is taking part in bioequivalent drug trials. Bioequivalent products are generic version of original patented drugs. Before they can be sold, drug firms have to test their products on human subjects to identify side effects. ...

The National Assembly on Thursday passed a bill aimed at collecting billions of won in fines from a former president who was found to have accumulated large amounts of wealth illegally. The amendment bill calls for extending the statute of limitations on forfeiting and imposing fines on public officials' illegal wealth from three years to 10. Under the revised law, former President Chun Doo-hwa...

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) demanded Thursday President Park Geun-hye apologize over allegations that her ruling party mobilized the state spy agency to win last year's presidential election. The demand comes amid growing allegations that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) could have strong ties to the ruling Saenuri Party. Last year, the NIS was accused of conducting an onlin...

South Korean President Park Geun-hye left for Beijing on Thursday for her first summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping that will be watched closely as to how far China would go in committing itself to helping end North Korea's nuclear program. It is Park's second overseas trip since taking office in late February. In May, she visited the United States and held summit talks with President Barac...

North Korea attempted to sell ballistic missiles with a range of 3,500 kilometers to a British arms dealer, an Internet media outlet based in the United States said Thursday. NK News, which specializes in providing North Korea-related information to the general public, said a recent United Nations report revealed the communist country's Haesong Trading Corp. allegedly made an offer to sell a wid...

Nearly 25 percent of adult citizens in Seoul are obese amid a lack of exercise, with the proportion on the rise for the fourth consecutive year in 2012, a report showed Thursday. According to the report by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 23.4 percent out of 23,165 surveyed citizens aged 19 or older were obese in 2012, with 31.6 percent among male citizens and 16.5 percent among women. The ra...