Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Sunday it would permanently ban a male teacher who harassed his student from teaching at a school again -- the first case of its recently announced “one-strike” policy on sex offenders.The teacher at a Seoul-based public school, identified by his surname Kim, inappropriately touched the female student during a remedial physical education class in May, according to the SMOE. He turned himself in a week later, admitting all charges. The case went cold, h

Social Affairs Aug. 16, 2015

Complaints related to direct purchases from overseas online websites have marked an eight-fold increase in the first half of this year, compared to the same period last year, Seoul city government said Thursday.According to the Seoul Metropolitan government, 3,898 of such cases were registered to the Seoul Electronic Commerce Center, up from just 476 in the first half of 2014. Over the past few years, direct purchasing from overseas has spread among Koreans, mainly because the exclusion of a mid

Social Affairs July 30, 2015

A woman was taken into custody Wednesday for assaulting a bereaved father of one of the students killed in last year’s ferry sinking, police said.The accused, a 66-year-old surnamed Park, was reportedly passing by a joint memorial altar for the Sewol ferry victims in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, when she saw a banner criticizing the government for its handling of the ship’s sinking, according to Ansan Danwon Police Station in Gyeonggi Province. She went into the memorial and protested the banner,

Social Affairs July 30, 2015

Rival parties, after nearly three weeks of parliamentary impasse, agreed Thursday to pass an extra budget plan at the National Assembly's regular session later this week.Floor leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party and the opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy agreed to pass the 11.2 trillion-won ($10.3 billion) supplementary budget plan through the regular session on Friday.The government submitted the budget plan to the parliament for approval on July 6 to boost the troubled economy, wit

Politics July 23, 2015

Banning stepparents from joining school operating committees at their stepchildren’s school is an act of discrimination, the state-run rights commission said Thursday.The National Human Rights Commission of Korea said it recommended the Education Ministry revise its manual on school committees, which bans anyone without a legal filiation of a child from joining his or her school committee. Even if the marriage effectively made them parent and child, one still has to undergo a formal adoption pro

Social Affairs July 16, 2015

Korea University of Technology and Education is looking to further contribute to the practical application of science and technology by expanding its Professional Science Master programs, officials said Wednesday.The KOREATECH PSM aims to train professionals that would “commercialize science and lead the development of science-intensive industries.”The PSM movement was initiated in the United States in 1997, in response to calls to integrate practical and science and technological knowledge. The

Social Affairs July 15, 2015

South Korea’s Education Ministry is set to create a permanent response team to deal with outbreaks of infectious diseases within schools, officials said Wednesday, a decision sparked by the recent Middle East respiratory syndrome crisis.“As the ministry’s gesture to show that it will protect schools from not just MERS but all contagious diseases, we will create a permanent task force that will be operated from July,” said Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea. A team of five ministry officials will b

Social Affairs July 8, 2015

South Korea and Japan have agreed to expand economic and financial cooperation at a finance ministers meeting in Tokyo, the government said Saturday.The talks between Choi Kyung-hwan and his Japanese counterpart, Taro Aso, mark the resumption of bilateral dialogue that had been suspended since November 2012 and allowed the two neighbors to exchange views on a host of outstanding issues, the finance ministry said.The trading partners had been holding annual meetings since 2006, but fraying relati

Foreign Affairs May 23, 2015