Ex-Korean chief of U.S. firm sentenced to three years in jail A Seoul court on Thursday found Lone Star Funds and its former chief of its unit guilty of stock-price manipulation, overturning an acquittal in 2008. The Seoul High Court ruled that the Texas-based private equity fund and Paul Yoo rigged stock prices of Korea Exchange Bank’s credit card affiliate to help KEB absorb the unit at a low...

More than 230,000 habitual drunk drivers nationwide were caught more than three times in the last 11 years, a police report showed Thursday. In a report submitted for a parliamentary audit, the National Police Agency said that about 3.2 million drivers were caught driving drunk between 2000 and 2010. This figure means that 12 offenders per every 100 license holders were caught at least once for...

“Killer heels” are famous for the discomfort they cause fashion-conscious women, but now a local court has ruled that they can be considered weapons. Suwon District Court Judge Lee Jun-cheol on Wednesday issued a sentence of 18 months jail time, suspended for two years, to a 26-year-old woman who beat another woman with her heels, accepting the argument that their use exacerbated the offense. T...

More than 1,000 high-income professionals and public office holders had their indictments for sex crimes suspended over the past three years, a lawmaker revealed Thursday, adding more fuel to public outrage over the country’s leniency on sex offenders. According to Justice Ministry data presented to Rep. Lee Jung-hyun of the ruling Grand National Party, the number of public prosecutors, attorney...

Ministry to revise geographical control points The frequency of earthquakes in South Korea rose sharply this year, following the global trend in the number of tremors, the weather authorities said Thursday. The Korean Peninsula experienced 45 quakes ― 17 times on land and 28 times in nearby seas ― from January to September, the Korea Meteorological Administration said in a report. The figure i...

Seoul has been named the best convention city by a Singapore-based leading travel and convention magazine, TTG Asia Media, city officials said Thursday. Korea’s capital, honored by the magazine with the renowned convention and a travel award as well, has outstripped Singapore, holder of the title for the past three straight years. A survey of about 70,000 readers of TTG Asia Media, the leading ...

SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Yonhap) -- The government will improve and increase the number of its programs to teach the Korean language to foreigners next year as the recent boom of Korean pop culture has helped push up demand for learning the language, the culture ministry said on Thursday. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism hopes to encourage Korean language study through a package of measures tha...

One hundred public officials will be disciplined en masse for habitually gambling at a local casino during work hours, state auditors said on Wednesday. The Board of Audit and Inspection has recently conducted an intensive audit into 465 accounting and safety management officials who have visited Kangwon Land, the nation's only casino for both locals and foreigners, more than 20 times during wor...

Criminal background checks for sex offenses will be released for all faculty members of education facilities to better protect the nation’s students, government officials said Wednesday. According to the Education Ministry, a first round inquiry took place between May and July of this year, surveying 189,759 nurseries, schools and private academies. Out of a total 1,026,852 faculty members 85.2 ...

The Busan Global Village has gained recognition from Koreans here over the last two years for its high-quality, low-cost English language education programs. A total of 115,800 people have visited the village over that period and experienced effective ways of learning English. For Choi Young-suk, a 35-year-old housewife, the Busan Global Village was a great educational opportunity for her child...

Criminal background checks for sex offenses will be released for all faculty members of education facilities, to better protect the nation’s students, officials said Wednesday. According to the Education Ministry, a first round census took place between May and July, surveying 189,759 nurseries, schools and private academies. Out of a total 1,026,852 faculty members 85.2 percent gave their conse...

Police questioned Lee Yoon-chai, chairman of Pigeon Corp., the nation’s second-largest maker of fabric conditioner, Wednesday on charges of ordering an assault on a former chief executive of his company. A day earlier, investigators raided the headquarters of the company in Incheon, west of Seoul, to secure evidence. According to Seoul Gangnam Police, Lee is suspected of paying 300 million won ...

South Korea’s capital and New York City signed an agreement to run a joint tourism marketing campaign, city officials here said Tuesday. According to Seoul Metropolitan Government, Deputy Mayor Kwon Young-gyu, New York City’s chief of marketing George Fertitta and Korean Air’s Woo Kee-hong signed a memorandum of understanding. This will be the first time that New York City has formed a joint ma...