The prosecutors grilled a former deputy chief of the top court’s administration affairs body, who is at the center of the massive judiciary power abuse scandal involving former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae, Monday.Lim Jong-hun, the former deputy chief of the National Court Administration, appeared in front of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office at around 9:20 a.m. He is accused of aiding Yang in using politically sensitive trials as bargaining chips to win favor from the

Politics Oct. 15, 2018

South Korean parents are fuming after a lawmaker revealed thousands of cases of financial fraud at private kindergartens during a National Assembly session on Thursday. As more and more parents call for a new oversight system to monitor the financial management of private kindergartens, the Education Ministry said only that it would cooperate with provincial authorities to make public the names of the kindergartens concerned.According to Education Ministry data revealed by Rep. Park Yong-jin of

Social Affairs Oct. 14, 2018

All of the nine bodies of Korean climbers and Nepali guides were recovered on Sunday, a day after they were found dead on a Himalayan mountain in Nepal.“At around 10:30 a.m. (local time), the rescue team retrieved three out of the nine bodies and transported them to a nearby village,” a South Korean Embassy official said. “The recovery work was completed at around 11:30 a.m. after the six remaining bodies were also transferred one by one.”On Saturday, the bodies of the five Koreans and four Nepa

Social Affairs Oct. 14, 2018

From its diverse education methods and state-of-the-art facilities, Chadwick International in Korea offers experience-based learning opportunities.Located in Songdo International Business District in Incheon, Chadwick International is a school for pre-kindergarten to grade 12 students. It is a sister campus to Chadwick School, a kindergarten to grade 12 school in the greater South Bay area of Los Angeles that was founded by Margaret Lee Chadwick in 1935. The two campuses share the same mission t

Social Affairs Oct. 11, 2018

Prosecutors raided the office of a former Constitutional Court justice nominee who is suspected of using private information to profit from stock investments and make hundreds of millions of won, investigators said Thursday. A team of investigators at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office that specializes in stock-market crime cases said it had searched the office of Lee You-jung, a lawyer at One Law Partners in Seoul’s Gangnam area, as well as three other places, Monday.Lee is suspect

Politics Oct. 11, 2018

Police on Wednesday released a construction worker suspected of causing a fire at an oil storage tank, as prosecutors decided not to issue a warrant for his arrest. Goyang Police Station said the Goyang branch of the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors’ Office denied its second request for an arrest warrant, citing a lack of evidence. The 27-year-old suspect, who is a Sri Lankan national, was set free from the police station 48 hours after he was detained without a warrant on Monday afternoon.  (Yonh

Social Affairs Oct. 10, 2018

Paradigm changes are needed in all aspects of society to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and this should be an essential goal for corporations, experts said Wednesday. At the Climate Action Conference 2018, hosted by World Wildlife Fund for nature Korea, about 250 environmental experts, government officials and business leaders gathered to discuss pathways to bring about practical changes and achieve decarbonization, following the recent adoption of the Special Report on Global Warm

Social Affairs Oct. 10, 2018

North London Collegiate School Jeju said its 2018 graduates have achieved outstanding results in the International Baccalaureate Diploma, with students receiving scores higher than the global average. According to the British international school located on Jeju Island, 42 students obtained an average of 37 points in the IB, above the international average of 30 points. Four of its students received the perfect score of 45 points, the school said. North London Collegiate School Jeju’s class of 2

Social Affairs Oct. 10, 2018

Korea International School aims to help students prepare for their future. With its North American-based school curricula, KIS pursues education that builds a strong academic foundation for students by challenging them to develop long-term, higher-order mastery of learning. The curricula for kindergarten and elementary school students at KIS center on transdisciplinary learning. The school offers a multinational learning atmosphere, and students are able to maximize learning opportunities by app

Social Affairs Oct. 9, 2018

The average compensation given to North Korean defectors for reporting information valuable to the South’s national security has quadrupled from last year, a lawmaker said Tuesday.According to data that Rep. Park Byeong-seug of the Democratic Party of Korea received from the Unification Ministry, the average compensation given to a defector was 79 million won ($69,600) in September, 4.6 times more than the figure recorded in the same month last year.  (Yonhap)The South Korean government provides

Social Affairs Oct. 9, 2018

Fire authorities on Monday conducted a joint state inspection of a gasoline storage tank that exploded and was engulfed in a massive blaze in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. However, they had yet to determine the exact cause of the explosion, as of Monday evening. The inspection began at noon and ended in about an hour, faster than the expected three hours, due to the extensive damage to the accident site, according to the police.(Yonhap)The blaze was completely extinguished at 3:48 a.m., some 17 hou

Social Affairs Oct. 8, 2018

INCHEON -- Governments and policymakers around the world should quickly take action to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as higher temperature increases of global warming may lead to far-reaching and unprecedented changes, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in a new assessment Monday.According to the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius, global warming is likely to reach hit an increase of 1.5 degrees C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues at the cu

Social Affairs Oct. 8, 2018

A Seoul court on Friday sentenced former President Park Geun-hye’s chief of staff Kim Ki-chun to 1 1/2 years in prison and former Presidential Secretary Cho Yoon-sun to one year in prison suspended for two years over the abuse of power. The Seoul Central District Court handed down the sentence to the two former presidential aides for creating a list of pro-Park civic organizations to illicitly provide them with hundreds of millions of won in support. Kim Ki-choon (left) and Cho Yoon-sun (Yonhap)

Social Affairs Oct. 5, 2018

Former President Lee Myung-bak was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday, over a series of corruption charges including abuse of power and embezzlement.The Seoul Central District Court also ordered a fine of 13 billion won ($11.5 million) and the forfeiture of 8.27 billion won. Prosecutors had demanded 20 years in jail, a 15 billion won fine and the forfeiture of 11.1 billion won against Lee.“As a president who was given great authority from the people, he had the responsibility to use his p

Politics Oct. 5, 2018

Two Yemeni asylum seekers were attacked by Koreans on the southern island of Jeju, police said Thursday. According to Jeju Dongbu Police Station, two Yemeni asylum seekers reported they were beaten by a group of Koreans near Jeju City Hall at 2:41 a.m. on Tuesday. When police arrived at the scene, the suspects had already fled.(Uto Image)Police identified one suspect as a man who appears to be in his 20s from footage obtained from surveillance cameras installed nearby the crime scene. The asylum

Social Affairs Oct. 4, 2018