Most Popular
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Blinken calls on China to press N. Korea to end its 'dangerous' behavior
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New celebrity-endorsed therapy for face contouring requires only a pair of rubber bands
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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[Weekender] How DDP emerged as an icon of Seoul
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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Doctor group's incoming head renews call for govt. to scrap medical school quota hike for dialogue
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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Seoul district offices, garbage firms in dispute over fees
Unpleasant odors and piles of plastic bags containing rotting food waste littered the streets of Seoul as garbage disposers refused to make their rounds in a simmering dispute with city authorities.Seoul’s district offices including Seongbuk, Yeongdeungpo, and Yangcheon are butting heads with private food waste management firms over a price increase in food waste treatment services. The firms are demanding an increase in fees as food waste treatment has become more expensive due to a new law tha
Jan. 14, 2013
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Education, creativity Park’s key goals
The following is the fourth in a series of articles on the major tasks and key members of President-elect Park Geun-hye’s transition team. ― Ed.Improving the education system, enhancing science and technology research and building an innovation-driven economy form a key part of President-elect Park Geun-hye’s economic strategy. Kwak Byong-sun, key architect of her educational reform, and Chang Soon-heung, Korea’s top nuclear power scientist, are in charge of laying the groundwork for the vision
Jan. 14, 2013
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HUFS dedicates auditorium to Obama
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies renamed its main auditorium “Barack Obama Hall” Monday to mark the U.S. president’s reelection.At the hall, then called the Minerva Auditorium, Obama delivered a speech in March 2012. In a congratulatory letter to the White House last November, HUFS president Park Chul said the school would rename the hall after the U.S. president and honorary HUFS alumnus to remember the landmark event.On behalf of U.S. Ambassador to Korea Sung Kim, Minister Counselor for Pu
Jan. 14, 2013
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People in 40s, 50s, main consumers of movies
It‘s a trend that began a few years ago that movie theaters are visited by broader age groups, but now middle-aged people in their 40s and 50s are the main consumer group of cinemas.The advance ticket reservation rates of the three local box-office hits -- “Tower,” “Les Miserable” and “Life of Pi” -- were the highest among viewers aged 40 or over, Maxmovie, a leading online movie ticket reservation site, said Monday. For the Korean disaster film “Tower,” which exceeded 4 million in attendance as
Jan. 14, 2013
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Deaths of seniors living alone led to calls for action
A number of cases of elderly people living alone being found dead in the south of the country have led to calls for the government to come up with measures to tackle the problem. A police officer from Suncheon police department found an unidentified 89-year-old woman’s body in an electric pad in her home. The police assume that the woman died from hypothermia three to four days previously. It was revealed that the woman had lived off of a 95,000-won ($90) old-age pension and didn’t qualify for b
Jan. 14, 2013
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Daegu may get women-only subway cars
Daegu Metropolitan Transit Corporation said it was considering limiting one in six subway cars to women as a measure to prevent crime. The plan has been suggested as a measure to stop the increasing number of sexual harassment incidents on the subway. The number of reported incidents almost tripled to 1,313 in 2011 compared to 466 in 2008, according to the National Police Agency.Several Japanese subway lines run women-only subway cars. Since 2000, Keihan Railway has operated them during morning
Jan. 14, 2013
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Organ donations from brain-dead patients surpass 400
Organ donations from brain-dead patients have increased significantly in recent years, with a record 400 donors last year, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Sunday. According to the Korean Network for Organ Sharing, a total of 409 patients declared brain-dead donated organs in 2012, up 11 percent from a year ago.The figure is up more than 10-fold from that of 2002, with 36 people. There were 86 organ donors after brain death in 2004, and the number jumped to 256 in 2
Jan. 13, 2013
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Korea has highest rate of old-age workers in OECD
More older people are working in Korea than in other advanced countries, reflecting the country’s older retirement age but also greater worries over lack of benefits after their retreat from the workforce, recent data by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed.According to OECD’s report on aging and employment policies, the employment rate for the population aged 65 to 69 in Korea was 41 percent, more than twice the OECD average of 18.5 percent. Korea’s rate was second o
Jan. 13, 2013
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Concerns rise over leak...of chemicals in Sangju
Environment authorities conducted overnight operations during the weekend to plug and clean up chemical leaks at a factory where 200 tons of hydrochloric acid escaped.An evacuation order for 760 residents within a radius of 1.5 kilometers was removed as of Sunday morning after it was issued on Saturday upon the report of the accident. Hydrochloric acid leaked out of a factory in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province, 280 kilometers south of Seoul. The toxic chemical is an aqueous solution of hydroge
Jan. 13, 2013
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One third of foreign manual workers overstay: Justice Ministry
More than one third of foreign manual workers staying in South Korea under a work permit system overstay their visas, the Justice Ministry said Sunday. Statistics by the ministry showed that 15,804 foreigner workers, or 37.3 percent of the 42,379 whose E-9 non-professional work visa expired in the first 10 months of 2012, failed to get out of the country. South Korea introduced a work permit system in 2004 in which laborers from 15 countries are allowed to work here for up to three years wi
Jan. 13, 2013
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Hundreds of residents evacuated due to hydrochloric acid leak
Hundreds of residents around a polysilicon plant here were evacuated to safety after hydrochloric acid was found to have been leaked, police said Saturday.The leak occurred at around 11 a.m. from a 200-ton tank of the Woongjin Polysilicon plant located in this city, some 270 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to police.Police said that when the accident happened, some workers were staying inside the plant, but no injuries have been reported.It is yet to be known how much acid leaked from t
Jan. 12, 2013
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Lee’s long-time aide gets 15 months in jail for bribery
A long-time aide to President Lee Myung-bak was sentenced to 15 months in prison for accepting bribes from the chairman of a now-suspended savings bank in return for influence peddling, court officials said Friday. Kim Hee-jung, who worked as a presidential secretary for personal affairs, was indicted last August on charges of receiving 180 million won ($170,502) in kickbacks from Solomon Savings Bank Chairman Lim Suk on three occasions from August 2011 to January 2012 in exchange for helping th
Jan. 11, 2013
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Presidential office positively considers vetoing taxi law
The office of President Lee Myung-bak is positively considering vetoing a recently passed law on providing state subsidies to the taxi industry, an official said Friday, amid criticism the measure is a populist bill that would cost the nation too much.The ruling and opposition parties passed the taxi bill through parliament last week. It calls for including taxis in the category of mass transportation, along with buses, subways and trains, a designation that makes the industry eligible for gover
Jan. 11, 2013
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Transition team considers shortening working hours
The presidential transition team will consider shortening working hours by stretching the weekly limit across all seven days of the week, not five, an official said Friday.Working hours in South Korea are notoriously long, despite a legal limit of eight hours per day and 40 hours per week. A government report published last September showed that the country's average weekly working hours ranked the highest among the member states of the rich nations' club -- the Organization for Economic Coopera
Jan. 11, 2013
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U.S. soldier indicted for massive drug smuggling
A U.S. soldier has been indicted Thursday on charges of smuggling a massive amount of marijuana into the country, South Korean prosecutors said Thursday.The 23-year-old corporal from the U.S. Air Force base in Osan, identified only by his initial M, is accused of smuggling 944 grams of marijuana with coffee beans via international air mail in September, prosecutors said.That quantity is enough for approximately 1,800 doses, they added.The prosecutors said they have indicted the soldier after the
Jan. 10, 2013
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Three-year term sought for Lee’s brother
The prosecution on Thursday demanded a three-year jail term and 750 million ($707,464) in forfeiture against President Lee Myung-bak’s elder brother Lee Sang-deuk for bribery.Last July, Lee, 78, was indicted and detained on charges that he received some 600 million won from a local savings bank from 2007 through 2011. The bank was at risk of suspension by the state regulator due to capital shortages. His charges also included receiving 150 million won from a local firm, which the prosecution sus
Jan. 10, 2013
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Judge’s request stirs legal debate on ‘voluntary sex work’
A district court judge on Thursday requested the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of a law punishing voluntary sex workers. “Sexual contact between adults, unless it involves coercion or extortion, should be left for the parties to decide in view of their right to self-determination,” Judge Oh Won-chan of Seoul Northern District Court argued in the request. “The current law does not reflect a change in social views that the state should not interfere in such matters.” Subject
Jan. 10, 2013
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Korea’s public spending on family benefits lowest in OECD
Korea’s public spending on family benefits in 2009 amounted to 1.01 percent of its gross domestic product, the lowest among 34 OECD countries according to OECD Family Database. The statistics cover financial support for families and children in cash, service and tax benefits. The average for OECD members stood at 2.61 percent.Korea recorded 0.04 percent in cash benefits, 0.77 percent in service benefits and 0.20 percent in tax benefits. The OECD average for each criterion was 1.41 percent, 0.94
Jan. 10, 2013
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More than 100 students involved in admission fraud at foreign schools
The education office in Gyeonggi Province announced Thursday that it has found that more than 100 unqualified students were admitted to foreigner schools. The announcement came following the regional education office’s on-site-inspection in December of nine foreigner secondary schools in the region, as part of the government’s ongoing investigation into a massive admission fraud case involving several international schools here.According to the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, all of tho
Jan. 10, 2013
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Prosecutors demand death penalty for child rapist
Prosecutors demanded capital punishment Thursday for a man accused of kidnapping and raping a 7-year-old girl in the latest child sex crime to spark public outrage. The 23-year-old suspect surnamed Ko was arrested for allegedly abducting the victim while she was sleeping at her home in Naju, South Jeolla Province, and raping her under a bridge near her house. The accused is also believed to have attempted to kill the victim by choking her. The Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office said that the s
Jan. 10, 2013