Most Popular
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Yoon rejects Lee's proposal for pension reform talks
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S. Korea to hold rotating presidency of UN Security Council next month
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Police arrest mastermind behind last year's palace vandalism
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Tax-payers shouldering most of burden for pension childbirth credit programs
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Chonnam international student found dead
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Samsung denies report on HBM chips failing Nvidia tests
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NewJeans drops new album amid Hybe-Ador dispute
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Korea signs off on new med school quotas
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Ottogi heir joins family business in US
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US girding for possibility of N. Korea taking most provocative military actions in decade near election: NBC
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Court rejects arrest warrant for Chung Yoo-ra
A South Korean court again on Tuesday rejected an arrest warrant for the daughter of Choi Soon-sil, who is at the center of the corruption scandal that led to former President Park Geun-hye’s downfall. "It is hard to acknowledge the reason, necessity and appropriateness for her arrest at the current stage (of the investigation),” the Seoul Central District Court said, citing a lack of evidence.Chung Yoo-ra (Yonhap)It was a second attempt by the prosecution to arrest her. The same court rejected
June 20, 2017
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Mother of babies in freezer feared losing boyfriend
The mother who put the dead bodies of her two babies in a freezer did so out of fear she would lose her boyfriend if he found out about her pregnancies and childbirths, police said Tuesday. The 34-year-old suspect, surnamed Kim, was arrested Saturday for infanticide and abandoning of the corpses. According to police, Kim confessed to hiding the corpses in the freezer because her cohabiting boyfriend was not the father of the babies. (Yonhap)Police tentatively concluded there was a remote possi
June 20, 2017
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1 in 9 female migrant workers subject to sexual abuse: report
One in 9 female migrant workers in the manufacturing sector in South Korea experience sexual abuse, a report showed Tuesday. According to a survey by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea on 385 female migrants, 11.7 percent of the women said they had been sexually harassed or assaulted by their coworkers or managers while working in Korea. In the poll, which allowed multiple responses, they said they had been exposed to vulgar jokes, forced to pour drinks for coworkers at office meals,
June 20, 2017
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Nearly half of Korean workers pay no income tax: report
Nearly half of South Korean workers pay no income tax, a report said Tuesday, amid heated debates on a tax hike to secure funds for President Moon Jae-in's job creation pledges.Some 46.5 percent of 17 million wage earners in the country were exempted from paying income tax in 2015, according to the report by the state-run Korea Institute of Public Finance.The number has jumped from 32.2 percent in 2013 as the government changed its income tax deduction programs in 2014, which gave higher deducti
June 20, 2017
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Ministry wraps up first part of search for Sewol victims
The first stage of the search of the ferry Sewol wrapped up Tuesday with five passengers remaining unaccounted for. During the 63-day search of the ferry’s wreckage, which was brought onshore on April 9, the remains of four of nine unaccounted for passengers were identified. During the first stage, about 120 search operators sifted manually through bags of mud retrieved from the third to fifth decks of the ferry, where cabins are located.Workers sort through sand and mud from the wreckage of the
June 20, 2017
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Heat wave to continue, 58 taken ill so far
South Korea’s weather agency issued another heat warning for most parts of the peninsula Tuesday, as midday highs continued to soar to 32-34 degrees Celsius, the agency said. A total of 58 heat-related illnesses were reported across the country as of Monday, according to the Ministry of Public Safety and Security.Heat shimmers from the surface of a road in Yeouido, Seoul. (Yonhap)The Korea Meteorological Administration issued heat wave alerts for Seoul, the Jeolla and Chungcheong provinces and o
June 20, 2017
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Factory farming aggravates Korea’s bird flu outbreaks: OECD report
The poor breeding conditions at poultry farms in South Korea may have accelerated the spread of the bird flu virus, said a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. According to the report titled “OECD Producer Incentives in Livestock Disease Management: Korea Case Study,” battery cage-facilities at poultry farms and stockbreeding farmhouses have made worse the bird flu damage and fast spread of a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu in recent decades. Such facilities,
June 20, 2017
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Ralliers to be banned from encircling US Embassy
Police will ban anti-American protesters from surrounding the US Embassy in downtown Seoul during their rally planned this weekend against a US-led deployment of an anti-missile system, a local civic group said Tuesday.The group said it has been asked by police not to stage any protest rally against the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense deployment in the rear of the US government building. A group of protesters urge the government to withdraw the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Ar
June 20, 2017
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Court to decide on arrest warrant for daughter of ex-president's friend
A Seoul court will decide as early as late Tuesday whether to issue an arrest warrant for the daughter of former President Park Geun-hye's longtime friend at the center of a massive corruption scandal that removed Park from office.The Seoul Central District Court said it began a hearing on Chung Yoo-ra, the daughter of Choi Soon-sil, to decide on the issuance of a writ in relation to her suspected involvement in an influence-peddling scandal for which her mother and Park are standing trial.Chung
June 20, 2017
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Premature deliveries double in 16 years due to late marriages: survey
South Korea's premature birthrate has nearly doubled in the past 16 years, a survey showed Tuesday, with a growing number of women getting married late and experiencing difficulties having babies.The rate of premature delivery within less than 37 weeks of pregnancy rose to 6.44 percent between 2013 and 2014 from 3.31 percent between 1997 and 1998, according to the research of 2.1 million birth registrations filed with Statistics Korea done by professor Im Dal-oh of Kongju National University and
June 20, 2017
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Foreign ministry seeks to hire some 400 more workers: sources
South Korea's foreign ministry is seeking to hire around 400 new employees as part of its efforts to ease the mounting workload and provide better consular services, government sources said Tuesday.In a recently submitted request for staff increase, the ministry demanded a total of 218 more employees. This is around a 10 percent increase compared to its incumbent staff of 2,200, according to the sources. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Yonhap)Separately, the ministry is seeking to hire around 180 n
June 20, 2017
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Daughter of Park's friend tried to get Maltese citizenship: prosecutors
The daughter of former President Park Geun-hye's friend roiled in an influence-peddling scandal attempted to get citizenship in Malta, the prosecution said Monday, fresh evidence that could give the court grounds for her arrest warrantChung Yoo-ra, the daughter of Choi Soon-sil, tried to apply for citizenship in the Mediterranean island country while she was detained in Denmark on suspected illegal stay, according to the prosecution. The file photo, taken on June 13, 2017, captures Chung Yoo-ra
June 20, 2017
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Prosecutors drop charges against ex-Seoul Phil chief
Prosecutors on Monday cleared a former president of the city-run orchestra of sexual harassment and verbal abuse charges, putting an end to a scandal that plagued the classical music foundation for the last few years. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office dropped the charges against Park Hyun-jung, who was accused of repeated sexual and verbal assaults on her staff at the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, citing a lack of evidence. This file photo, dated April 19, 2016, shows former Seoul
June 20, 2017
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Judges to self-investigate 'judicial blacklist'
A group representing judges nationwide decided to look into the Supreme Court’s alleged blacklisting of judges deemed critical of the nation’s judicial leadership, the group said Monday. The 100-member association’s decision came three months after the top court’s chief Justice Yang Sung-tae ordered a “self-investigation” into the suspicion that his organization systemically discriminated against liberal-minded judges. The top court’s chief Justice Yang Sung-tae (Yonhap)Last month, the audit te
June 19, 2017
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Seoul taxi drivers to wear uniforms from this fall
Seoul's taxi companies will be obliged to have their drivers wear uniforms, starting this fall, under the metropolitan government's effort to boost the city's image among visitors, municipal officials said Monday.The Seoul metropolitan government and labor and management of the city's 255 taxi companies have recently reached an agreement to reintroduce the driver uniform after the system was abolished in November 2011 in favor of a free dress code, said the officials. Uniform candidates for the
June 19, 2017
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[News Focus] Fallen Park shows little emotion in court
A barrage of camera flashes greet Park Geun-hye as she steps out of the back of a detention center escort van. Wearing her inmate number, 503, on her left chest and handcuffs, the former president is escorted by two prison guards into the courthouse in southern Seoul. Inside the courtroom, Park quietly walks toward the dock and sits beside her attorney. As she does so, some people in the audience stand up in an apparent show of respect, despite security guards’ gestures not to. This much-repeate
June 19, 2017
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Migrant victim of domestic violence eligible for citizenship: court
A migrant woman whose marriage ended in divorce due to spousal abuse is still eligible for Korean nationality, a court said Monday. The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of a Chinese woman who asked the court to cancel the Justice Ministry’s decision not to allow her to become a naturalized Korean citizen. The ruling came after the Justice Ministry disapproved the 47-year-old woman’s application for Korean citizenship last October, citing that she was responsible for the divorce.(123RF)A
June 19, 2017
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Gov't eyes enhanced public defender system: Moon advisory panel
President Moon Jae-in's policy advisory panel said Monday that the government will seek to introduce an enhanced public defender system to offer legal aid to low-income citizens in criminal cases starting in the investigation phase.The move is in line with Moon's pledge to strengthen the protection of citizens' human rights. Park Kwang-on, the spokesman for the State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee, speaks during a press conference at its office in Seoul on June 4, 2017. (Yonhap)Park Kwang-o
June 19, 2017
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Cable car project on Seoraksan illegal: audit agency
The state audit agency on Monday revealed that a controversial cable car project on Seoraksan is riddled with irregularities, calling for related Yangyang County officials to be penalized. The project, initiated by Gangwon Province’s Yangyang County in 1995, aims to build a 3.5-kilometer cable car system on the southern region of the mountain in Yangyang. Environmental groups have opposed the project and filed for an audit in December.Mount Seorak (Yonhap)According to the Board of Audit and Insp
June 19, 2017
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Korean workers use average 8.6 days of paid leave
South Korean workers only used 8.6 days of their annual paid vacation in 2013, government data showed Monday.According to a study conducted by the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, employees in Korea took an average of 8.6 days off, or 60.6 percent of the average 14.2 days per year of guaranteed annual leave in 2013.The current Labor Standards Act in Korea stipulates that employees who work 80 percent or more of the year should receive 15 days of paid leave.(123RF)Another survey by global tou
June 19, 2017