Most Popular
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Contentious grain bill put directly to plenary meeting for vote
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Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
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Will tug-of-war between doctors, government end soon?
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Climate impacts set to cut 2050 global GDP by nearly a fifth
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Trilateral talks acknowledge ‘serious’ slumps of won, yen
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[Graphic News] More Koreans say they plan long-distance trips this year
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[KH Explains] Hyundai's full hybrid edge to pay off amid slow transition to pure EVs
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North Korea removes streetlights along cross-border roads with South
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Russia's denial of entry of S. Korean national unrelated to bilateral ties: Seoul official
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Farming households dip below 1m for first time in 2023
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Studying and living in Korea, a unique experience
I first came to Korea to teach English in September 2009 after graduating from Purdue University in the United States. I got a job at Yangji Elementary School in Yongin. This ended up being a great place for me to start my life in Korea and begin learning what opportunities there are here.I loved my life in Yongin, I took Korean classes at Kyung Hee University in Suwon at night and went skiing regularly at the Yangji Pine Resort. My experience as a teacher was also great. I liked teaching and lo
Jan. 23, 2013
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Police officer suspended after scratching car
A police officer faces suspension and a criminal charge after scratching a parked car, Changwon police said.The officer, a resident of Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, is alleged to have put a 1-meter scratch into the back side door of the vehicle with a steel clip on Dec. 30.Three days after the incident, the owner of the car requested to see the recorded footage of CCTV only to find out it was one of the police officers in the district. “It was hard for me to get by because of Cho’s car. T
Jan. 23, 2013
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Seoul opens child abuse prevention center
Seoul City officials announced on Thursday the opening of the Seoul Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse in Suseo-dong, Gangnam, to help tackle child abuse cases across Seoul.Seoul has set up several programs at the center such as a legal advisory panel and the supervisory committee on child abuse cases. It also revealed a plan to offer more education to teachers and children and treatment to victims. The seven child abuse prevention centers in Seoul will use the same phone number: 1577-1391
Jan. 23, 2013
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Gay rights ad sparks dispute
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea’s decision to advocate advertisements against homosexual discrimination to be posted on subway bulletins touched off debates among Korean netizens. A man, surnamed Kim, requested approval from Seocho District Office last year to post ads on subway bulletin boards that said, “Every person has the right to not be discriminated for sexual orientation.” However, the office rejected his request, saying it may have a negative impact on teenagers and underm
Jan. 23, 2013
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The Economist files complaint against language school
Police are investigating an English language institute on charges of breaching a copyright belonging to The Economist, a British weekly magazine, officials said Wednesday.The publisher Economist Group filed a lawsuit against the English language school in southern Seoul in November for infringing its intellectual property. The publisher said in the complaint that the language school used its articles and columns in their textbooks from 2009 to 2011, earning up to 160 billion won ($150 million) f
Jan. 23, 2013
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Defector-turned-public servant has Chinese nationality
A Seoul city official, who was believed to have defected from North Korea and was arrested earlier this month for espionage, has been found to be of Chinese nationality, intelligence sources said Tuesday.The 33-year-old suspect, identified only by his family name Yoo, arrived in South Korea in 2004, disguising himself as a North Korean defector. In 2011, he was hired by the Seoul city government as a two-year contract official.The central government's main spy agency, the National Intelligence
Jan. 22, 2013
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Seoul population smaller, older
The population of Seoul decreased for a second consecutive year in 2012 to around 10.4 million, according to statistics released by the city government on Tuesday. Around 10.6 million people lived in the capital city in 2010 and 10.5 million in 2011.The decline was due to a bigger outflow of citizens than inflow to the city, with 487,000 moving in and 596,000 people moving out. The number of births was 95,000, and 41,000 died last year. The foreign population decreased by 86,000 from a year befo
Jan. 22, 2013
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Food waste water dispute in Seoul had been foreseen
The recent food waste stink caused by disputes between district governments of Seoul City and private food waste management firms could have been prevented if measures prepared by the Ministry of Environment five years ago had been swiftly implemented.The food disposal firms at 16 district governments have been refusing to pick up food waste, demanding a price increase in food waste treatment services. District governments, however, are reluctant to pay more, saying the demands are too high: the
Jan. 22, 2013
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N.K. defector held for spying
A North Korean defector who has been working as a Seoul city official assisting fellow refugees is under investigation on charges of spying for the communist country, officials said.The 33-year-old identified by his surname Yoo is suspected of handing information about defectors to the North’s intelligence agents. He was apprehended by the National Intelligence Service on Jan. 11. The contract public servant Yoo was hired by the Seoul Metropolitan Government through an employment procedure for N
Jan. 21, 2013
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Average age of Seoul teachers rising
The average age of teachers in Seoul rose 2.1 years in the last decade, according to data released Monday. A report from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education showed that the average age of kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school teachers in Seoul reached 41.5 in 2012, up from 39.4 in 2002 and 40.9 in 2007.Since 2002, the number of teachers over 50 almost doubled from 11,630 to 21,744. For the first time in 2012, the number of teachers in their fifties exceeded those in their twent
Jan. 21, 2013
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Half of Koreans say they are poor: poll
More than half of South Koreans think they belong to the low-income bracket, a poll showed Monday, apparently reflecting their falling earnings due to the country’s protracted economic slump. According to the nationwide survey of 1,000 people by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, 50.5 percent said their earnings hover below the nation’s median income.Another 36.9 percent responded they belong to the middle-income bracket, while only 10.5 percent believed themselves to be high-inc
Jan. 21, 2013
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Disciplined prosecutors still find ways to practice law
Several prosecutors who were dismissed for corruption and negligence of duty illegally practiced law less than three years later, a report said Monday. According to a report by Herald Business, six prosecutors of the eight fired since 2007 established their own law firms or began working as lawyers, successfully returning to court despite the law against it.The law on legal professions bans dismissed prosecutors from working as lawyers or opening their own law firms for three years.However, the
Jan. 21, 2013
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Korea accepts 320 refugees in 20 years
Korea has accepted 320 refugees since it joined the United National Refugee Convention in 1992, the Justice Ministry said Sunday.Last year, 60 people including 18 from Myanmar and 16 from Bangladesh were granted refugee status, an 18-person increase from 2011. The number of applicants totaled 5,069 during the 20 years, including 1,143 last year. Of them, 2,412 were rejected. The nation allowed 171 to stay for humanitarian and political reasons, it said. By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com
Jan. 20, 2013
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Applicants for Korean language proficiency test top 1 million
The cumulative number of applicants for the state-managed Korean language proficiency test has topped the 1 million mark, officials said Sunday, indicating the rapid spread of the “hallyu,” or the Korean wave, abroad.The education ministry said a total of 18,702 people applied for the 29th Test of Proficiency in Korean, a test for non-Korean natives interested in school admissions and job searches in South Korea, raising the cumulative total to 1,015,013.TOPIK, which measures ability to understa
Jan. 20, 2013
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Court chief nominee admits wrongdoing
A controversial nominee for the top post at the Constitutional Court on Sunday confessed to falsely registering his home address in a real estate transaction two decades ago in violation of the law. Lee Dong-heub, who was nominated by President Lee Myung-bak earlier this month to head the top court, made the unusual confession, but insisted that the false address registration was intended not to disturb the education of his children. Lee has been suspected of committing the illegality to avoid t
Jan. 20, 2013
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Feasibility of Park’s policies questioned
A growing number of private think tanks and scholars are raising questions over the fiscal feasibility of President-elect Park Geun-hye’s welfare-centered campaign promises, with some insisting Sunday that her initial financial projection was less than half of what would be necessary.The ruling Saenuri Party has said that a budget of 130 trillion won ($123 billion) would be enough to cover all of Park’s welfare promises, including pension payments for all senior citizens, expansion of health car
Jan. 20, 2013
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Park’s North Korea policy focused on inducing changes
The incoming government of President-elect Park Geun-hye is expected to focus its North Korea policy on getting the communist North to embrace changes, multiple sources said Sunday.Park’s transition team had received policy briefings from the foreign and unification ministries and collected opinions from private experts over the past weeks before finalizing a broad picture of its North Korea policy, said the sources.They explained that the tentative direction of North Korea policy has been based
Jan. 20, 2013
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Police bust 9-story Seoul hotel used for prostitution
Police said Sunday they have busted a sex trafficking ring suspected of running a massive brothel out of an entire nine-story hotel and bar in southern Seoul.In the crackdown, police detained the brothel owner who raked in money with corporate style marketing and offered a one-stop service for alcohol, girls and sex in the luxury building in Samsung-dong, southern Seoul.The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it will seek a formal arrest warrant for the 35-year-old brothel operator, surnamed J
Jan. 20, 2013
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Your destiny may all be written on your face
Like many young South Koreans, Ko Joo-hyun is anxious about her future. She will be graduating from college soon, and she wonders what kind of job she will end up in and when she will get married. Like many others struggling to get or stay ahead in a society that moves quickly, questions about her future are a source of stress, and to help address them, she will consult a fortuneteller that offers a range of services ― including face reading.Face reading is an old practice where a trained expert
Jan. 20, 2013
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Korea ranked last in OECD in employment of female college graduates
South Korea's employment rate of female college graduates ranked at the bottom among a group of the world's advanced nations, with the country having the largest difference between employment rates for men and women, data showed Sunday.According to the data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), only 60.1 percent of college-educated South Korean women were employed as of 2011, marking the lowest rate among 33 OECD member nations.Turkey was second from the b
Jan. 20, 2013