Most Popular
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Medical profs at top hospitals suspend surgeries, clinics
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Samsung chip business back on track, logs W1.9tr operating profit in Q1
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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Shinsegae faces showdown with investors over SSG.com's delayed IPO
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Hopes rise for possible Gaza truce deal
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Ex-pro baseball player who killed debtor appeals sentence
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S. Korea discussed possible participation in AUKUS Pillar 2 with Australia: defense minister
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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S. Korea to issue travel ban on Haiti amid intensifying gang violence
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Korea has cheapest tobacco, 2nd-highest smoking rate in OECD
Cigarettes in Korea are the cheapest in the OECD, while the smoking rate is the group’s second highest. According to the data from the European Commission Excise Duty on Tobacco which surveyed the price of the best-selling tobacco in 22 member nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2012, Korea sells the cheapest tobacco at 2,500 won ($2.21) per pack of 20 cigarettes, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday.Korea also had the second-highest smoking rate, re
Sept. 10, 2012
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Education Ministry to issue booklet on Web addiction
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Monday it plans to distribute a booklet on the prevention of youth addiction to the Internet, games and smartphones to all schools by mid-September.The booklet will include a diagnostic quiz for students’ addiction levels and activity guides to encourage time away from media usage. The ministry also plans to train teachers on how to use the booklet from December to next February.According to the Korean Internet and Security Agency, the avera
Sept. 10, 2012
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Weather chief grilled over bidding suspicions
Police said Monday they have summoned the head of the state weather agency for questioning over suspicions that he gave preferential treatment to a particular business in connection with a bid for a new weather instrument.Cho Seok-joon, the chief of the Korea Meteorological Administration, is under investigation on charges of abusing his authority to select Kweather, a private weather service provider, as the final provider of a LIDAR observation device, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Polic
Sept. 10, 2012
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Another TOEFL results delay enrages Korean test takers
Another delay in releasing the results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL, infuriated Korean test takers once again, affecting the credibility of the U.S. based test developer, ETS. The ETS said in a notice posted on its website that the results of the tests taken on Aug 25 and 26, have been postponed and will be announced by Sept. 12.It usually takes 10 days for the test results to be released online, so Korean takers expected to know the results by Friday, which was the dea
Sept. 10, 2012
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‘N.K., China agree on joint use of Cheongjin Port’
SHENYANG, China (Yonhap News) ― A Chinese company has been allowed to share the rights to use a northeastern North Korean harbor in a deal with Pyongyang, a move expected to accelerate China’s forays into the East Sea, a report said Monday.The North forged the agreement on the use of the port of Cheongjin with the private firm based in the city of Tumen, Jilin Province, on Sept. 1, according to China’s Korean-language press Yanbian Daily, which caters to ethnic Koreans living in China.Under the
Sept. 10, 2012
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Penalty for rapes against minors to be strengthened
The government will revise the law to increase the penalty for sex offenses against minors, the women’s and family affairs ministry said Monday after a number of brutal sex crimes against youths has sparked public uproar in recent months.The maximum penalty for rape of a minor will rise from the current five years in jail to 10 years or life imprisonment, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said.The revision will also no longer allow the influence of alcohol to be treated as a mitigating
Sept. 10, 2012
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Leader of embattled UPP resigns from politics
Kang Ki-kab, the chairman of the minor opposition Unified Progressive Party, said Monday he is stepping down to take responsibility for the party’s split.Four lawmakers quit the embattled party Friday after months of factional infighting over an allegedly rigged primary race ahead of April’s parliamentary elections.The self-expulsions came as little surprise as the party’s two factions have made no headway in their talks to resolve their differences over the voting scandal.“I have put in my all
Sept. 10, 2012
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Government mulls punishing sex offenders regardless of victim's complaint
The government is considering revising the law to punish sex offenders without a complaint from their victims, the justice ministry said Monday, in response to growing calls to eliminate loopholes in the current law. Under the current law, those suspected of committing sex-related crimes are indictable only if a formal complaint is made by the victim, stoking concerns that sex offenders sometimes
Sept. 10, 2012
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Suicide rate in S. Korea 2.6 times higher than OECD average: report
South Korea's suicide rate was again the highest among the nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), coming in 2.6 times higher than the OECD average, a government report showed Sunday. An average of 33.5 people per 100,000 took their own lives in South Korea in 2010, up from 28.4 in 2009, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said in a report, citing the OECD Healt
Sept. 10, 2012
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Calls for action to tackle Korea’s suicide rate
As Korea continues its battle against rising suicide rates, organizations and civic groups planned a wide range of activities and events for Monday to mark World Suicide Prevention Day here.While suicide rates have decreased in many developed nations since 1995, the rate has increased rapidly in Korea. In 2010 alone, more than 15,500 people in Korea committed suicide. This amounts to about 28.4 deaths by suicide for every 100,000 people, or 42 deaths every day ― the highest rate among the OECD c
Sept. 9, 2012
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Child benefit to be expanded to all children under 2
The government and ruling Saenuri Party reached an understanding to give child rearing allowances to all babies under age two starting next year to expand welfare coverage, sources said Sunday.Saenuri sources said the new plan is a move in the right direction and could make it easier to deal with soaring costs of looking after babies.South Korea has one of the lowest birthrates in the world. Low birthrates can hurt the country’s growth potential down the road and fuel rapid population aging.At p
Sept. 9, 2012
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Prosecutors protest court’s denial of lawmaker’s arrest
Prosecutors investigating a cash-for-candidacy scandal in the ruling Saenuri party strongly protested the court’s decision Friday to reject the arrest warrant sought after a former Saenuri lawmaker suspected of bribery.“It is a decision that is extremely difficult to understand. We cannot help but view it as an intentional rejection in favor of a certain suspect,” the Busan District Prosecutors’ Office said in a four-page statement on Saturday.The court denied the prosecutors’ request, citing a
Sept. 9, 2012
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Child porn to be censored on mobile messengers
Child pornography could be automatically blocked on online messengers, and people making or distributing such material could face tougher punishments in a move to crack down on sex crimes against children.Public calls are growing for a stricter crackdown on child porn in the wake of increasing cases of child sexual abuse, including a 7-year-old girl who was kidnapped and raped by a 23-year-old man in Naju, South Jeolla Province. And police are working to introduce comprehensive measures to deal
Sept. 9, 2012
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2 bodies recovered on Mount Rainier glacier
Park rangers returned to a glacier on Mount Rainier Saturday to search for a fourth victim of a series of winter storms, a day after recovering what they presume to be the second and third bodies.The climbers _ two parties of two _ vanished during unrelenting storms on the 4,392-meter volcano in mid-January. The summer snowmelt last month revealed one of the bodies not far from the climbing route
Sept. 9, 2012
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Seoul City plans elderly-friendly streets
Seoul’s Jongmyo Park and Tapgol Park will receive a makeover as part of the metropolitan government’s efforts to turn the districts in central Seoul into elderly-friendly areas, officials said Friday.The two parks now surrounded by elder-oriented facilities, such as a classic movie cinema, hairdresser and soup kitchen, are visited by an estimated 3,000 senior citizens every day. The metropolitan government and the Ministry of Health and Welfare will collaborate to refurbish the surrounding areas
Sept. 7, 2012
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Media firm chief acquitted of insulting President Lee
A local court acquitted the chief of an online media firm Friday of charges of insulting and threatening President Lee Myung-bak in a hostile online posting.Shin Sang-cheol, head of online news outlet Surprise, was indicted on the charges in February after a conservative group sued him over his posting on the company’s website that allegedly threatened the president with foul words.He told prosecutors that he wrote it after the prosecution launched an investigation into former President Roh Moo-
Sept. 7, 2012
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Mannam charity denies recruiting for fringe church
A volunteer organization for foreigners embroiled in controversy over its connections with a controversial church has denied that it is a recruiting tool for the religious institution. Mannam Volunteer Association, an organization that offers language and cooking classes to foreigners as well as recruits them for charitable activities, released a statement on Sunday addressing its connection to Shinchonji, a church founded in 1984, and World Peace Initiative, a group which, according to its webs
Sept. 7, 2012
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Top conservation group denies praise of four-river project
JEJU ― A top official of the International Union for Conservation of Nature on Friday denied the presidential office’s claim that she expressed positive views on Korea’s controversial four-river restoration project. In June, Cheong Wa Dae said that Julia Marton-Lefevre, secretary-general of the world’s largest environmental organization, highly evaluated the river project during a courtesy call on President Lee Myung-bak.“I am afraid I was misquoted,” she told a news conference. She was attendin
Sept. 7, 2012
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4 lawmakers quit UPP over factional infighting
Four lawmakers of the minor opposition Unified Progressive Party quit the scandal-ridden party Friday to establish a new form of progressive politics.Their “voluntary self-expulsion” was approved in a meeting of the UPP lawmakers, leaving it with nine seats in the 300-member Assembly. The four lawmakers accepted expulsion from the party’s Seoul chapter in order to keep their seats in parliament. Under South Korean law, lawmakers elected on a proportional representative ticket lose their legisla
Sept. 7, 2012
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Obama thanks HUFS president
U.S. President Barack Obama sent an appreciation letter to Park Chul, the president of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, in appreciation of kindness and hospitality he had received during his visit in March to the university. In the letter Obama said that he and his wife, Michelle extended their deep thanks to Park. He said he believes Koreans and Americans can meet shared challenges and build a brighter future for all nations as both share an enduring bond. Obama made a speech at the un
Sept. 7, 2012