Most Popular
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1 in 3 Koreans live alone, family types becoming diverse
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Korea, Japan finance chiefs vow to tame rampant FX market volatility
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K-pop singer lost consciousness after being hit by foul ball, cancels show
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K-pop group's manager dismissed for setting up spycam in theater dressing room
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Contentious grain bill put directly to plenary meeting for vote
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Korean Muslim YouTuber's plan to build mosque in Incheon goes viral
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Why is Apple Pay struggling to get purchase in Korea?
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Yoon's office denies considering liberal figures for key posts
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Trilateral talks acknowledge ‘serious’ slumps of won, yen
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[Today’s K-pop] BTS pop-up event to come to Seoul
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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
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Oxfam: Super rich no help against poverty
The British charity Oxfam says the world‘s 100 richest people are increasing inequality and holding back the world’s ability to tackle poverty.The world‘s 100 richest people brought in $240 billion last year, The Guardian reported Saturday. Oxfam said that amount of money could put an end to extreme poverty four times over.In a report called “The Cost of Inequality: How Wealth and Income Extremes Hurt Us All,” Oxfam calls on world leaders to curb income extremes and commit to reducing inequality
Jan. 20, 2013
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Class-action suit against Apple withdrawn in Korea
A two-year-long collective lawsuit filed by a group of Korean iPhone users against Apple Inc. wrapped up as the plaintiffs withdrew the case, citing the difficulty of proving the alleged irregularities by the tech company. Twenty-nine iPhone users filed the complaint in 2011 against Apple Korea Inc. and U.S.-based Apple Inc. insisting that the tech giant had illegally gathered users’ location information in a hidden file “consolidated.db” on the handset. “It was impossible to acquire evidence fo
Jan. 18, 2013
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100 doctors face probe for kickbacks from pharma firms
The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office said Friday it will call in around 100 doctors at hospitals and medical centers across the nation on charges of receiving illegal commission from Korea’s largest pharmaceutical firm Dong-A Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.The prosecutors have already sent summonses to some of the doctors, who allegedly received kickbacks from pharmaceutical firms. The rest will be summoned in the coming days. The doctors are thought to have received money or goods worth more than 3 m
Jan. 18, 2013
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Officials slam four-river audit
Controversy over President Lee Myung-bak’s ambitious four river restoration project deepened Friday as the government found itself at odds with the ruling party after the state auditor issued a report calling the project a failure.Minister of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Kwon Do-youp and Environment Minister Yoo Young-sook held a joint press conference Friday defending the restoration project, saying there are no safety or functional problems.“As the public paid attention to the project,
Jan. 18, 2013
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Nearly 100 doctors face summons over alleged illegal 'rebates'
Nearly 100 doctors will be scrutinized for allegedly receiving illegal kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies, sources said Friday. The doctors are accused of accepting money or other kickbacks, known as "rebates," worth more than 3 million won (US$2,840) each, from drug makers in exchange for prescribing their products, prosecution officials and pharmaceutical industry sources said. Some of them were already notified to appear before prosecutors for questioning, according to the officials
Jan. 18, 2013