Most Popular
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40 flights canceled on Jeju Island due to bad weather
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Pandemic left Korea more depressed than before: report
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Korean labor force to shrink by 10 million by 2044: report
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N. Korea slams US, other countries for seeking alternative to UN sanctions monitoring panel
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[AtoZ Korean Mind] Does your job define who you are? Should it?
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Gov't appears to shelve punitive measures against mass walkout by doctors
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Govt. asks hospitals to mitigate impact of medical professors' absence
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Allegations surrounding BTS resurface, enraged fans demand apology
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Students with history of violence will be barred from becoming teachers
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Samsung mocks Apple over iPhone alarm glitch
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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
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Park GH’s sister-in-law resigns from law jobs
A sister-in-law of Rep. Park Geun-hye, the ruling Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate, has left her posts at a law firm and the nation’s land and housing firm. Seo Hyang-hee, wife of the presidential candidate’s younger brother Park Ji-man, resigned as a representative lawyer at law firm Sebit and a legal adviser for the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), the state-run land and housing developer.Seo worked as a legal adviser for two years for Samhwa Savings Bank before it went bankrupt
Sept. 7, 2012
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Appearance No. 1 preference for ideal wife: survey
More than three out of 10 single men around the world cited appearance as their No. 1 preference for an ideal would-be wife, a survey showed Friday.According to the survey by South Korea’s matchmaking company Sunwoo of its 41,036 single male clients from 121 countries, 31.1 percent said appearance is the primary attribute for their ideal spouse, followed by personality with 28.5 percent, occupation or ability with 21.7 percent and family background with 18.7 percent.The survey was conducted onli
Sept. 7, 2012
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Media firm chief acquitted of insulting 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 Web site that allegedly threatened the president with foul words.He told prosec
Sept. 7, 2012
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Mannam volunteer group denies recruiting for fringe church
Mannam charity denies recruiting for fringe churchBy John Power 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,
Sept. 7, 2012
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College classmates embroiled in proxy presidential war
The confrontation between professor Ahn Cheol-soo and the ruling Saenuri Party is getting more personal following accusations made by his close ally against a party official.Questions are now arising about the relationship between Geum Tae-seop, a lawyer working with Ahn, and his friend Jeong Joon-gil, a former prosecutor and now member of Saenuri’s communications team.Geum claimed on Thursday that Jeong had threatened him in a phone call to disclose “bribery and woman problems” surrounding Ahn
Sept. 6, 2012
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Activists cry foul over blocked ...access to WCC
JEJU ― Local groups opposing the construction of a naval base on the island of Jeju denounced the government Thursday for denying them access to the IUCN World Conservation Congress, a major gathering of environmental professionals from around the world. Villagers of Gangjeong, a small village on the southern coast of Jeju chosen as the site for the planned base, had sought to set up a booth inside the Jeju Convention Center, where the conference will be held till Sept. 15, but to no avail. “Isn
Sept. 6, 2012
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Lee upholds green growth
JEJU ― President Lee Myung-bak on Thursday sought to promote the concept of green growth to participants of a major environmental meeting in Jeju. Speaking in front of thousands of environmental professionals, government policymakers and businessmen, he said that the country, which in 2008 set green growth as a new national development strategy, is taking efforts to a new level on the belief that “flourishing nature makes people happy.”“The slogan of the WCC is Nature+, which shares a common den
Sept. 6, 2012
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Giant water bugs: predators in the pond
Giant water bugs, once commonly found in rice fields and ponds throughout the country, are now rated as a second-class endangered species. Efforts to restore their population have been under way for years, led by private biodiversity research centers. In the latest of the efforts, Holoce Ecosystem Conservation Research Institution in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province, reintroduced 40 pairs of the rare insects, to a nearby pond last week. They were among about 400 entomologist Lee Gang-won bred in ca
Sept. 6, 2012