Articles by Ock Hyun-ju
Ock Hyun-ju
laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com-
Park’s salary to rise by 3 percent
The Cabinet has decided to raise President Park Geun-hye’s annual salary by more than 3 percent and expand the merit-based wage system in the public sector, the Ministry of Personnel Management announced Tuesday. Park is set to earn 212 million won ($179,000) this year, compared to 205 million won last year, after the Cabinet approved the bill on government employees’ salaries in the meeting held in the morning.Given that the nation’s average consumer price inflation stood at 0.7 percent last ye
Social Affairs Jan. 5, 2016
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Minister urges passage of labor reform bills
South Korea’s labor minister renewed his calls for the passage of labor market reform bills Monday in his New Year’s speech, amid growing resistance from the labor bloc and political wrangling over the pending bills at parliament. With the National Assembly’s extra session expected to end Friday, Lee Ki-kwon, the minister of employment and labor, underscored the need for bills to revamp the nation’s labor market to create jobs for the young and reduce job uncertainties. Members of the Korea Conf
Social Affairs Jan. 4, 2016
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Victims protest sex slavery deal
South Koreans gathered across the street from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Wednesday to condemn Seoul and Tokyo for sealing a deal over Japan’s sexual enslavement of Korean women without consulting the victims or gaining their consent. Enraged by what they called political collusion between the two countries, nearly 1,000 people jammed into a narrow downtown street to participate in the 1,211st weekly rally held by the former sex slaves and their supporters. (Yonhap)The Korean Council for
Social Affairs Dec. 30, 2015
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[Newsmaker] Top N.K. official in charge of Seoul ties dies
Kim Yang-gon, a top North Korean official in charge of cross-border affairs, was killed in a car accident, the North’s state media reported Wednesday, drawing attention to the impact of his death on inter-Korean relations. He was 73.Kim Yang-gon (Yonhap)The North’s Korea Central News Agency said that Kim, a secretary of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party and director of the party’s United Front Department, died at 6:15 a.m. on Tuesday following the accident, without elaborating.T
North Korea Dec. 30, 2015
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Political feud biggest obstacle to social cohesion: survey
Koreans pointed to political feuds as the biggest reason for deteriorating social conflicts in the country, a state-led survey showed Tuesday. According to the poll by the Presidential Committee for National Cohesion, 51.8 percent of the respondents said that the political wrangling between the ruling party and opposition bloc contributed most to worsening social confrontations. In the multiple-choice survey of 2,000 Koreans aged 19 and over, the wealth gap was chosen as the second-biggest facto
Social Affairs Dec. 29, 2015
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Political feuds biggest obstacle to social cohesion: survey
Koreans pointed to political feuds as the biggest reason for deteriorating social conflicts in the country, a state-led survey showed Tuesday. According to the poll by the Presidential Committee for National Cohesion, 51.8 percent of the respondents said that the political wrangling between the ruling party and opposition bloc contributed most to worsening social confrontations. In the multiple-choice survey of 2,000 Koreans aged 19 and over, the wealth gap was chosen as the second-biggest fac
Social Affairs Dec. 29, 2015
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Arduous history of sex slavery victims
Braving social bias and ostracism, Kim Hak-soon, a South Korean comfort woman, took to the podium in 1991 to testify about her wartime forced prostitution experiences for the first time in public. Another 237 Korean women, forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II, followed suit, demanding a sincere apology and legal compensation from the Japanese government. Later that year, Kim and three other victims filed a lawsuit against Japanese authorities. But Japan’s highest
National Dec. 28, 2015
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Media watchdog restricts foreign language use in TV ads
South Korea’s state-appointed media monitoring agency said Sunday that it has set out specific guidelines to restrict the use of foreign languages in TV commercials. According to the guidelines for the nation’s broadcasters by the Korea Communications Standards Commission, TV advertisements are now banned from containing foreign languages or songs for more than 15 seconds -- half of the 30-second time slot. The regulation covers the narrative of product slogans, company names and catchphrases s
Social Affairs Dec. 27, 2015
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Court allows changes to national IDs
The Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday that a law barring South Koreans from changing their resident registration numbers was unconstitutional.The court said the current law on resident registration numbers excessively violates citizens’ basic rights to make decisions about their own personal information, ordering the government to present a revision by the end of 2017. “It is an excessive violation of rights that the government does not allow Koreans to change their resident numbers regardles
Social Affairs Dec. 23, 2015
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Nigerian falsely accused, denied right to legal defense: watchdog
South Korea’s human rights watchdog said Tuesday that police and prosecutors were recently cautioned for denying foreign suspects’ rights to self-defense by detaining an African man for 12 days without contacting his embassy. According to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, police and prosecutors arrested a Nigerian and detained him for 12 days, ignoring his multiple requests to contact the Nigerian Embassy. Police arrested the man, who was at the time on the wanted list, on a theft
Social Affairs Dec. 22, 2015
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[Profile] Hong Yoon-sik, Interior Ministry
Hong Yoon-sik, a former vice minister at the Office for Government Policy Coordination, has been named interior minister.Hong, 59, is known as a veteran in state affairs, having served various key posts during his 30-year career in the prime minister’s office. Born in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, the nominee received his bachelor’s degree in law from Seoul National University and master’s degree in policy from the University of Michigan in the U.S. He passed the state civil service exam in 1985
Politics Dec. 21, 2015
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Korea to increase public sector part-time jobs
The South Korean government Monday mapped out a plan to expand its part-time work scheme in the public sector by 2018, which would increase the public workforce by more than 1 percent. Under the plan, it will offer government-backed part-time jobs for women in a bid to help them return to work after childbirth and boost the country’s low birthrate. The Ministry of Employment and Labor, along with relevant ministries, announced these and other plans in a meeting.Unlike part-time jobs generated by
Social Affairs Dec. 21, 2015
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Third anti-government rally turns playful
On Saturday afternoon, Gwanghwamun Square, which was shut down by police bus barricades to stop protesters a month ago, turned into a playground for antigovernment demonstrators blowing horns and shaking tambourines.Under a “noisy” and “uproarious” theme, an estimated crowd of 2,500 gathered in the square in central Seoul to signify their opposition to the sedition charge leveled against an umbrella union leader and the government’s push for controversial labor, trade and education polices. The
Social Affairs Dec. 20, 2015
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Protestant group shows tolerance toward LGBTs
A South Korean church group on Thursday indicated their willingness to show more tolerance of homosexuality, seen as the first such move of a major Protestant organization in the country. “Korean society and churches have been treating homosexuality with hatred, but we will now open a forum to discuss the issue and reflect (on our views),” the National Council of Churches in Korea said in a press conference.The group plans to hold debate sessions on the issue and hear testimonies from the lesbia
Social Affairs Dec. 17, 2015
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Japanese reporter cleared of defaming president
A lower court cleared a Japanese reporter Thursday of defaming South Korean President Park Geun-hye by reporting rumors about her whereabouts during a deadly ferry disaster last year. The Seoul Central District Court handed down the not guilty verdict to Tatsuya Kato, former Seoul bureau chief for Japanese right-wing daily Sankei Shimbun, citing press freedom in a democratic society. “Kato’s article was inappropriate in some ways, but press freedom, the core of democracy and its development, sho
Social Affairs Dec. 17, 2015
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