Most Popular
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Hybe-Ador feud should have limited effect on Hybe's overall performance: analysts
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First-ever meeting of president, opposition chief set to finally happen
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Blinken calls on China to press N. Korea to end its 'dangerous' behavior
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NewJeans' singles, Japanese debut to proceed as planned, despite Hybe-Ador feud
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Experts raise concerns about Japan putting pressure on Naver over Line
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South Korea to launch space security center under spy agency
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More med professors to take day off each week while govt. urges them to stay
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Hybe refutes Ador CEO Min's denial of breach of trust
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S. Korea, Japan could consider simplified entry agreement: Seoul official
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Legoland Korea Resort to open until 9 p.m.
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Vietnamese leader to make state visit to Korea next week
President Lee Myung-bak will hold summit talks next week with Vietnamese President Trong Tan Sang, who will make a three-day state visit, Lee’s office said Monday.The two leaders will exchange views on bilateral cooperation in foreign policy, security, energy and resource development as well as economic and trade ties at the summit next Tuesday, Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release. During his visit, Sang is scheduled to visit Korea’s industrial facilities, meet with Korean business leaders to
PoliticsOct. 31, 2011
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Ex-P.M. Han acquitted of illegal funding
Former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook was acquitted Monday of charges that she took illegal political funds from a builder in 2007. This is the second time the ex-premier has been found not guilty of accusations by prosecutors. Last April the Seoul Central District Court cleared her of charges that she had received $50,000 from Kwak Young-wook, former chief executive officer of Korea Express, in December 2006 in exchange for helping him obtain the top post at a state-run corporation.This time, H
Social AffairsOct. 31, 2011
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Former PM acquitted of receiving illegal political funds
SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's first-ever female prime minister was acquitted on Monday of receiving illegal political funds, a decision expected to help her clear barriers to her political aspirations.Han Myeong-sook, who worked as prime minister between 2006 and 2007 under the late liber
PoliticsOct. 31, 2011
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S. Korea, Japan vice defense chiefs to discuss cooperation
Vice defense ministers of South Korea and Japan will hold talks in Seoul on Tuesday to discuss regional security and ways to enhance bilateral defense cooperation.South Korean Vice Defense Minister Lee Young-geol and his Japanese counterpart Kimito Nakae are also expected to exchange views on issues concerning North Korean military threats.Their talks were arranged after the defense chiefs of the two countries agreed in January to hold a vice-minister-level meeting on a regular basis as part of
DefenseOct. 31, 2011
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Personal info online despite law revision
Private personal information is readily available online a month after a revision of the personal information protection law took effect, leaving much of the population here at risk.According to Internet security experts on Monday, private information including resident registration numbers of Grand National Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won, who ran for Seoul mayor, civil servants and people with disabilities can be found online.Na’s resident registration number, for instance, was first discovered on
Social AffairsOct. 31, 2011
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S. Korea, China to discuss N.K. nukes in Beijing
South Korea will push for closer consultations with partners of the stalled multinational talks on North Korea’s denuclearization in nuclear talks with China and trilateral talks with the U.S. and Japan, officials said Monday. As his final trip to a six-nation dialogue member state, Seoul’s new chief nuclear negotiator Lim Sung-nam will arrive in Beijing Tuesday for talks with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei, according to the Foreign Ministry here. It is Lim’s first official visit to China sinc
Foreign AffairsOct. 31, 2011
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Korea to cut drug prices drastically
Pharmaceutical firms vow to defy measure designed to reduce insurance expendituresThe government plans to slash the price of about half the drugs on the market by an average of 14 percent, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday. The price cuts, if approved by the Prime Minister’s Office in December, will be the largest since the government took away drug sales rights from doctors and gave them exclusively to pharmacists in 1999.The move, designed to reduce national health insurance expen
Social AffairsOct. 31, 2011
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Students caught cheating on Korean language exam
Police apprehended several Chinese students studying here for using cameras, mics and other devices to cheat on the state-administered Korean language test.According to the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, officers have arrested a 22-year-old Chinese national surnamed Ma, along with two others for helping Chinese students here on study abroad programs cheat on the Korean Language Proficiency Test.Police have also booked Yang, 23, a Chinese student and 18 others without detention, for cheating
Social AffairsOct. 31, 2011
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Seoul’s pointman on N.K. to visit U.S. for talks
South Korea’s chief of North Korean affairs will visit the United States this week to discuss Seoul’s recent policies on Pyongyang and pending regional issues, the Unification Ministry here said Monday. The visit will be first to the U.S. by South Korean Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik, who took over the post from his hardline predecessor last month. President Lee Myung-bak’s appointment of Yu has been seen as an indication of Seoul’s softening stance toward North Korea.Yu has repeated a willingn
North KoreaOct. 31, 2011
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Lee off to Russia, Cannes for talks
President Lee Myung-bak is set to leave for St. Petersburg Tuesday to hold summit talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev before heading to Cannes to attend the G20 Summit.At the summit with Medvedev on Wednesday, Lee will discuss bilateral cooperation while talks are underway between the Korea Gas Corp. and Russia’s Gazprom, as well as between Gazprom and its North Korean counterpart on piping Siberian gas to South Korea via North Korea.Lee will fly over to Cannes, France, later Wednesday
PoliticsOct. 31, 2011
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Cheong Wa Dae shake-up looms large
Lee’s chief of staff says he will step down in Dec. after budget bill, FTA passesCheong Wa Dae was scrambling to deal with mounting pressure over last week’s defeat in the mayoral by-election, with its chief of staff saying he will quit after the National Assembly passes the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement bill and next year’s budget bill.The presidential office is planning an organizational shake-up, officials said Monday, as it has often done after losing elections.Dong-a Ilbo, a local newspap
PoliticsOct. 31, 2011
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GNP’s key figures step up welfare plans
Following the defeat in the Seoul mayoral by-election last week, key figures of the ruling Grand National Party are looking to reach out to the public, especially young voters.Former chairwoman and presidential hopeful Rep. Park Geun-hye is to present on Tuesday a complex policy model, suggesting that welfare should be realized through employment and self-support, according to officials.She will also claim that the government’s job training systems should be reinforced especially for the underpr
PoliticsOct. 31, 2011
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Parties fail to move FTA bill forward
Despite a flurry of meetings on Monday, rival political parties failed to move forward a long-pending motion to ratify the Korea-U.S Free Trade Agreement. Opposition lawmakers physically obstructed a session of a parliamentary committee on foreign trade, where the FTA bill was scheduled to be handled. “I am not going to push anymore to hold a session today, causing a physical clash between members,” Rep. Nam Kyung-pil of the ruling Grand National Party, the committee’s chair, said outside the me
PoliticsOct. 31, 2011
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Four military security personnel arrested on hacking charges
Four military personnel were arrested this month on charges of hacking into e-mails of a professor at Chosun University in the southeastern city of Gwangju, military investigators said Monday.The Criminal Investigation Command under the Defense Ministry said that security operatives broke into the e-mails of Gi Gwang-seo, political science professor at the university, and downloaded nearly 700 documents in early September.This incident has drawn attention as speculation has risen that military s
DefenseOct. 31, 2011
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About 130 gangsters nabbed in first week of police crackdown
Police said Monday that they have rounded up nearly 130 criminal gangsters in the first week after declaring a war on organized gangs.On Oct. 25, Cho Hyun-oh, commissioner general of the National Police Agency (NPA), ordered police officers to aggressively use all means available, including firearms
Social AffairsOct. 31, 2011
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Pragmatist’s vision of new labor movement
Third umbrella union to launch Tuesday, vowing ‘no politics,’ more benefitsKorea’s labor unions had their day.With violent strikes and street protests, they made contributions to advancing democracy and improving labor rights in the 1970s and 1980s. But those days are gone. What unions need to do now is to break away from their stereotypical militant showdowns with police and find a new way to address their issues, said Jung Yeon-soo who leads a movement to launch a new umbrella organization. “W
Social AffairsOct. 30, 2011
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Consul general in Russia summoned in drinking scandal
The South Korean consul general in Irkutsk, Russia, has been called home to explain his conduct at a dinner with Russian government officials, a foreign ministry official here said Saturday.“We have summoned him earlier this week,” said the ministry official. “This is the first time to summon a head of an overseas mission for misbehavior.”The consul general to Irkutsk, whose name was withheld, has been under fire for disorderly conduct while under the influence of alcohol while at a dinner with
Foreign AffairsOct. 30, 2011
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North Korea lambastes military drill in S. Korea
North Korea on Saturday denounced large-scale military exercises under way in South Korea as a “very dangerous preliminary war for invasion,” demanding the South halt the drills immediately or face “catastrophic consequences.”South Korea launched the Hoguk exercises across the country on Thursday for a nine-day run. On Friday, thousands of troops conducted maneuvers off the country’s northernmost island of Baengnyeong near the tense western sea border with North Korea. The exercises “are a very
North KoreaOct. 30, 2011
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Court grants divorce to woman over husband’s nit-picking
The Seoul Family Court said Saturday it has granted a divorce to a housewife and ordered her husband to pay her compensation, finding him responsible for ruining the relationship with his constant belittling comments.The 37-year-old wife, identified only by her surname Park, filed for divorce, claiming she could not continue the marriage because her husband kept finding fault with the way she cooks, shops, irons and does other housework through written memos and mobile phone text messages for se
Social AffairsOct. 30, 2011
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Displaying Verdi’s opera costumes for first time
Maestro Giusepe Verdi and the opera are synonymous with beautiful and elaborate period piece costumes.For the first time ever, a large number of original costumes used by famous singers like Luciano Pavarotti and Maria Callas during their most memorable performances are on display at the Seoul National University Museum of Art until Nov. 30.Along with the costumes are original stage sketches ― used to develop the scenes and the costumes for the operas ― drawn by the great masters of the 20th cen
Foreign AffairsOct. 30, 2011