Prosecutors are investigating a relative of Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik as part of an on-going investigation into a massive admission fraud case involving several foreign schools. Prosecutors said Monday that they had summoned the wife of Kim’s nephew on suspicion of fabricating documents in order to enroll her child in a foreign school. The 36-year-old, surnamed Park, is believed to have acqu...

Following his overwhelming victory in the Democratic United Party’s primaries earlier this month, Rep. Moon Jae-in now faces a tough vetting process over his qualifications and integrity as a potential president. With people remembering him as the closest aide of former President Roh Moo-hyun, Moon is being called on to move out from the shadow of the late liberal leader and establish fresh lead...

The ruling Saenuri Party is pushing to move the country’s top-ranked Seoul National University to the new administrative city of Sejong in a move to woo voters ahead of December’s presidential election, party officials said Monday. The move would help the Seoul-based state-run university attract additional investment and cut tuition if it sells its land and buildings, a party official said, aski...

The Gay Voters Party, an LGBT organization, said on Tuesday it plans to request police protection for the transsexual cast of talk show “XY Her.” Produced by cable channel KBS Joy, the first transsexual TV program in the nation debuted on Sept 6. It was canceled after one episode due to harsh opposition from conservative activists. National Mothers Association for True Education and 240 other c...

The government said Tuesday it will buy a plot of land where President Lee Myung-bak once sought to build his retirement home, raising suspicions it might be intended to offset losses for the land's co-owner who is the president's son. According to the finance ministry, the government decided to purchase the 463-square-meter plot in Naegok-dong on the southern edge of Seoul at the previous acqui...

SEATTLE (UPI) -- Microbial life may have migrated from Earth’s oceans to land by 2.75 billion years ago, producing oxygen earlier than previously thought, U.S. scientists say. Research reported from the University of Washington suggests the land-based microbes were producing oxygen well in advance of what geologists refer to as the “Great Oxidation Event” about 2.4 billion years ago that initiat...

South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan on Monday stressed the importance of promoting "correct history" at the United Nations. Kim said he discussed history issues in a bilateral meeting here with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi. The ministers are visiting New York to attend the 67th session of the U.N. General Assembly. "We agreed with the need to publicize history, I mean correct hi...

A senior Pentagon official said Monday that South Korea has "a lot of ways" to help the U.S. missile defense system in Northeast Asia. "Yes, there are a lot of ways one can contribute," Kathleen Hicks, principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy, said at a forum. "We do have dialogue with the (South) Koreans about how to contribute to missile defense." She was responding to Yonhap Ne...