Most Popular
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Medical profs at top hospitals suspend surgeries, clinics
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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Samsung chip business back on track, logs W1.9tr operating profit in Q1
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Shinsegae faces showdown with investors over SSG.com's delayed IPO
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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Hopes rise for possible Gaza truce deal
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S. Korea discussed possible participation in AUKUS Pillar 2 with Australia: defense minister
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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Assembly to start NIS probe Tuesday
Rival parties agreed Monday to launch this week a parliamentary investigation into allegations that the state spy agency meddled in last year’s presidential election.The probe, which will run for 45 days starting on Tuesday, will look into allegations that former National Intelligence Service chief Won Sei-hoon ordered an online smear campaign to sway public opinion in favor of the ruling party ahead of the Dec. 19 election.The probe is also expected to focus on former Seoul metropolitan police
July 1, 2013
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Heavy rain expected throughout the week
Heavy rain is expected to pour out across the nation this week, starting Tuesday in Gyeonggi {rovince and western regions first and other areas later. The precipitation will hit Seoul and the Gyeonggi Province area hardest, with 150 millimeters, while 30-120 millimeters of rainfall is forecast in other regions. Some thunder and lightning is anticipated in the Seoul and Gyeonggi region until Wednesday and in southern parts until Thursday for two days. The intense heat will be alleviated with belo
July 1, 2013
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Local cities compete for DMZ peace park
If the past is any guide, President Park Geun-hye’s plan to build a peace park in the Demilitarized Zone may be close to infeasible. Previous attempts by governments to bring symbols of peace into the no-man’s land, fortified with heavy arms and strewn with land mines, ended in smoke. Worse, inter-Korean ties are at one of the lowest ebbs in recent years.But regional governments bordering the 4-kilometer-wide buffer zone are brimming with hopes and already embarking on plans to host the envision
July 1, 2013
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Prosecution detains ex-DP member for trapping NIS agent
The prosecution on Monday detained a former Democratic Party member who locked in an intelligence agent last year accused of conducting an online smear campaign against an opposition candidate during the presidential election.The man, identified by his surname Chung, continued to defy the prosecution’s summonses, an official said.The ruling Saenuri Party and a National Intelligence Service official surnamed Kim have filed complaints against him and other DP members who allegedly kept her from le
July 1, 2013
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Urban community program embroiled in dispute
From ecological farms to flea markets to after-school institutes, local cooperatives are sprouting up in many districts in Seoul. About 500 neighborhood groups are currently supported by the city government’s “village community” program initiated by Mayor Park Won-soon, a former progressive civic activist.But his pet project has recently been embroiled in political controversy, with conservatives suspecting some of the organizations as hotbeds of leftists and potential support bases for the mayo
July 1, 2013
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Controversy deepens over summit transcript disclosure
Tensions between the ruling and main opposition parties escalated Monday as the two sides argued over whether to disclose the original version of a summit transcript containing late South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun’s controversial remarks on the disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea.Last week, the National Intelligence Service disclosed its copy of the transcript amid the ruling Saenuri Party’s claims that Roh had tried to scrap the western sea border, called the Northern Limit Line, in
July 1, 2013
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Police say SKorean man spurred NJ school lockdown
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korean police say a local man is responsible for prank 911 calls that prompted school lockdowns in New Jersey last year.The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Monday in a statement that a 19-year-old surnamed Lee made calls from South Korea to a New Jersey communications center and threatened to use an AK-47 to kill students at Hackettstown High School.The calls led schools in the northwestern New Jersey town and at Centenary College to keep students inside for
July 1, 2013
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Comfort women were sex slaves: Japanese activists
Japanese activists held a protest on Monday to criticize their government for failing to respond to a U.N. body’s call to put an end to attempts to deny the fact that the former comfort women were sex slaves.According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, Amnesty International Japan and other organizations held a demonstration in front of an office building of Japanese Parliament members. The protestors decried Tokyo’s stance against the recent recommendation by the U.N. Committee against Torture
July 1, 2013
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Official: Hacking attack on presidential site causes massive data leak
Personal information from roughly 100,000 people was leaked in a recent hacking attack on the presidential office, a presidential official said Sunday, in the first confirmed data leakage involving the top South Korean office. The official said the compromised information includes names, birth dates, identification numbers and offline addresses and Internet Protocol addresses, which are the online equivalent of street addresses or phone numbers. Still, users' passwords and their registratio
June 30, 2013
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Foreign start-up entrepreneurs to have wider visa access
The government plans to give certified foreign entrepreneurs looking to set up a company in Korea wider leeway to receive a visa, as part of efforts to stimulate foreign investment, the Justice Ministry said on Sunday.According to the proposed revision to the enforcement decree of the Immigration Control Act, an “entrepreneurship visa” will be granted as part of the corporate investment visa (D-8) to foreigners who hold at least a bachelor’s degree, have earned an intellectual property right and
June 30, 2013
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More women, seniors taking irregular jobs
More women and older workers are taking up irregular jobs in South Korea, showing that the “socially weaker” group remains less protected in the employment market, a report showed Sunday.Of all irregular workers, 53.8 percent were women as of March this year, a 5.2 percentage point rise from 48.6 percent in 2007, the Korea Employment Information Service said.The percentage of women holding regular jobs, meanwhile, declined to 37.7 percent from 38.4 percent during the same period.The ratio of mal
June 30, 2013
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Sejong City marks 1st year amid growing concerns
Sejong City, the nation’s administrative hub built some 150 kilometers south of Seoul, marks its first anniversary on Monday, amid growing concerns about administrative inefficiency, insufficient infrastructure and a lack of budget to further develop the town.The city has been a symbol of the nation’s efforts toward more balanced regional development. Spanning more than 465 square kilometers of land, Sejong is about 70 percent the size of Seoul. The city was planned to house a total of 36 centra
June 30, 2013
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Another South Korean shot dead in Philippines.
A South Korean man was shot dead in the Philippines on Saturday, said the South Korean embassy in Cebu City.The victim surnamed Jeong was shot twice in the head by two unidentified assailants around 3:00 p.m. (local time) on his way out after having a cup of tea with his colleagues. Jeong died on the spot.According to the local police and witnesses, the two gunmen who were seemingly Filipinos took off on their motorbikes after firing five to six times toward Jeong and his driver. Jeong‘s driver
June 30, 2013
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Korea to toughen punishment for domestic violence
The government will strengthen its early response to domestic violence calls and toughen punishment for uncooperative assailants, officials said Friday, as part of efforts to curb the recent upward trend in the number of domestic abuse cases.The government will also make it a rule for police to be accompanied by a professional counselor when called to a scene of a domestic violence case, they said.The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced these and other measures after a government po
June 28, 2013
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Minimum wage talks break down
Labor and management failed to agree on the minimum wage level for next year in their last-minute talks by the legal deadline on Thursday. The two sides came up with compromise proposals at the sixth meeting of Minimum Wage Council but failed to narrow differences, officials said. The 27-member panel consists of the same numbers of union, business and public interest representatives. When the negotiations began in April, labor unions demanded a 21.6 percent increase to 5,910 won ($5.18) per hour
June 28, 2013
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Military profited off entertainment soldiers: report
The Ministry of Defense is suspected of making a profit by selling videos made by its celebrity soldiers to their fans, an online news outlet in Seoul reported Friday.According to the eDaily, all “entertainment soldiers” are required to take an oath to uphold their duties, and the fourth clause of the oath states that the soldiers should give up all the intellectual rights of products they make during their service. Entertainment soldiers are those serving in an army unit that provides TV and ra
June 28, 2013
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Ex-police officer forges check
Choi Young-kil, who is on the nationwide wanted list for cashing a counterfeit check, has turned out to be a former police officer. The Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency said that Choi worked as a police officer from 1982 until he was fired at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Mobile Police Corps in 1990.An overseas travel ban has been placed on Choi, but he is speculated to have already fled Korea to avoid arrest. Choi and two other suspects cashed a forged 10 billion won ($ 8.73 million) ch
June 28, 2013
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Jung Yong-jin wins lawsuit against media
Jung Yong-jin, vice chairman of Shinsegae Group, won a lawsuit against an online media source, Dispatch, over privacy invasion. The Supreme Court handed out a ruling on Thursday that Dispatch’s report on the private family meeting of Jung and his then-fiancée is a violation of privacy law and portrait rights.The court ordered Dispatch to remove its article and pay 15 million won ($13,000) in compensation.Dispatch published the article two years ago, after taking photos of Jung’s family gathering
June 27, 2013
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Students sign up for drug tests to make money
As the summer vacation season begins, college students in South Korea are seeking part-time jobs to help pay for the next semester’s tuition. An increasingly popular choice is taking part in bioequivalent drug trials.Bioequivalent products are generic version of original patented drugs. Before they can be sold, drug firms have to test their products on human subjects to identify side effects.Some college students participate in the two-session experiments with each session requiring a three-day
June 27, 2013
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TV show host gets suspended jail term for illegal gambling
A comedian-turned TV show host received a suspended prison sentence Thursday for illegal gambling.The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Kim Yong-man to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, citing the seriousness of his crime.He was also ordered to do 120 hours of community service.The 45-year-old TV personality was indicted in April for betting some 1.3 billion won (US$1.13 million) with the use of at least two illegal sports betting websites from January 2008 to May 2011."His c
June 27, 2013