Most Popular
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Korean labor force to shrink by 10 million by 2044: report
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[AtoZ Korean Mind] Does your job define who you are? Should it?
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Allegations surrounding BTS resurface, enraged fans demand apology
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Students with history of violence will be barred from becoming teachers
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Medical feud leaves hospitals in financial crisis
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Top prosecutor pledges 'speedy, strict' probe into first lady's luxury bag allegations
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Samsung mocks Apple over iPhone alarm glitch
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Chip up cycle won’t stay long: SK chief
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'Queen of Tears' riding high on Netflix chart
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Speaker floats dual citizenship as solution to falling births
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Early cold weather sees heater sales boom
Heaters are flying off the shelves as temperatures have dropped below zero in recent days.Yonhap News Agency reported that sales of heaters and electric pads at major local retail stores, including E-Mart and Lotte Mart, started to rise in November. Among the products, sales of heaters at E-Mart increased 582 percent on-year in the second week of November.The retail industry attributes the sales boom to the unusually early arrival of cold weather.According to the sales rankings at Danawa.com, a
Nov. 29, 2012
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New rules for refugees foreign spouses
South Korea plans to introduce major changes to its immigration policies including tightening criteria for spouse visas and easing rules on accepting refugees and professional talent. The Foreigner Policy Committee under the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday approved the plans during a meeting. The revision would require Koreans inviting foreign spouses to the country to meet a certain income standard and prove that a place of residence has been secured. In addition, a level of Korean profici
Nov. 28, 2012
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Prosecution in grave crisis
The prosecution is sinking deeper into trouble, with a series of scandals damaging the public’s confidence in the integrity of law enforcement officials. To make matters worse, an embarrassing mobile text message blunder by a rank-and-file prosecutor has many questioning the sincerity of the prosecution’s self-reform efforts. Prosecutor-General Han Sang-dae is scheduled to announce Friday a set of measures to reform the prosecution, but few expect him to be able to salvage the beleaguered agency
Nov. 28, 2012
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Korea’s education system 2nd in the world
Korea’s education system is ranked 2nd out of the 40 countries with the best education systems, according to a global league table published by the Economist Intelligence Unit for London-based education firm Pearson.Korea is behind Finland, and followed by Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. The world’s economic powerhouses Germany and the United States are ranked 15th and 17th, respectively, showing that there is no direct economic correlation between high- and low-performing education systems, the
Nov. 28, 2012
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YFU Korea celebrates anniversary
The Youth for Understanding in Korea, nonprofit student-exchange organization, celebrated its 23rd anniversary on Tuesday with representatives from partnering countries and its member schools across the country. Founded in 1951, YFU is an international organization of 65 countries offering exchange programs for young students to learn the cultures and languages of different countries.Since its establishment in 1989, YFU Korea has played an integral role in building mutual understanding between K
Nov. 28, 2012
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Study: Supportive culture is critical to country’s education
British education company Pearson said Korea ranked second in global education rankings, which were based on international test results and evaluation of each country’s education system. Finland ranked No. 1.International test scores on math, science and literacy between 2006 and 2010 were analyzed. In order to evaluate the education system, the company measured each country’s ratio of the number of university students to the graduation rate. Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore ranked behind Korea. M
Nov. 28, 2012
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Dad admits killing 2 kids
A father pleaded guilty Tuesday to setting fire to his sport utility vehicle in downtown Los Angeles to kill his two children, Ashley, 11, and Alexander, 10.Dae Kwon Yun, 61, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and agreed to serve two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, the Los Angeles Times reported. The deal allowed Yun to avoid the possibility of being executed.The Times said Yun appeared in court handcuffed and chained. He spoke softly through a Korean interprete
Nov. 28, 2012
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Second arrest warrant sought for prosecutor in sex scandal
Prosecutors requested a second warrant Tuesday to arrest an assistant prosecutor accused of having sex with a criminal suspect he was questioning, after their first request was rejected the day before.The prosecutors are seeking to charge him with bribery this time again, claiming the woman provided sex in return for favors.The Supreme Prosecutors' Office arrested the 30-year-old junior prosecutor surnamed Jeon without a warrant on Saturday for questioning into allegations he had sexual activity
Nov. 27, 2012
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Productive population in Seoul to fall 1 million by 2032
The economically active population in Seoul will decrease by more than 1 million in 20 years, according to statistics released by the city government on Tuesday.The data showed that the number of Seoul citizens aged 15 to 64, regarded as the economically active population, came to 7.6 million as of July, accounting for 77 percent of the city’s entire population.That figure, however, is forecast to drop to 6.6 million, or 65 percent of the total, as those aged 14 or younger decrease by 145,000, w
Nov. 27, 2012
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Korea seeks non-lethal whale research
Korea plans to conduct scientific research of whales through non-lethal methods, government officials said Tuesday. “After gathering opinions from various sides, the government is now in the process of finalizing its plan to study whales through non-lethal techniques, like many other countries such as Australia do,” an official at the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said. The government had initially sought to lift an all-out ban on whaling, which has been in place since 1
Nov. 27, 2012
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Five vie for Seoul education chief
Five candidates officially kicked off their campaign to become Seoul’s education chief on Tuesday in a race shaping up to be yet another conservative vs. liberal battle. The election to pick the superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education will be held on Dec. 19, simultaneously with the presidential vote, to fill the post vacated by liberal education reformer Kwak No-hyun. Kwak, a former law professor, was jailed in September, convicted of a charge that he bought a fellow candid
Nov. 27, 2012
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Insa-dong loses cultural luster amid rising prices
It has been 10 years since Insa-dong was designated a culture district, but criticism is growing that it has lost its unique character due to overcommercialization.The area, famous for its traditional aesthetic, antique shops and art galleries, was the country’s first designated culture district in 2002. Daehangno, Incheon port and Paju Heiri are the other designated cultural districts in Korea.Created in 2000, the culture district designation is part of the Culture and Arts Promotion Act of the
Nov. 27, 2012
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S. Korean gov't to award medal to prominent activist
The South Korean government will award a medal to a prominent activist who claimed that he was tortured by the Chinese government earlier this year for his efforts to promote human rights there, the government said Tuesday.Kim Young-hwan, a 49-year-old activist, has said that he was arrested in China in March for helping North Korean defectors there and was tortured by Chinese security officers during his 114-day detention. Beijing flatly denied the accusation.During the Cabinet meeting presided
Nov. 27, 2012
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Law agencies ranked most corrupt
Prosecutors, police and judges scored the lowest points among state organizations in the transparency index compiled by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission.The survey, which evaluated 627 government organizations, showed that the Ministry of Justice received the lowest grade on the five-level grading scale among the central administrative agencies. About 244,000 participants including citizens, public officers, reporters and civil activists were surveyed for the report. Administrativ
Nov. 27, 2012
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Warrant dismissed on prosecutor in sexual case
The Seoul Central District Court on Monday dismissed the application for the warrant to detain the public prosecutor accused of having sexual relations with a female suspect in return for favorable treatment.The junior prosecutor identified by his surname Jeon has been charged with bribery. “It is difficult to acknowledge the need to keep the suspect under detention as there is significant doubt about the crime,” the judge said when dismissing the warrant. “The possibility of destruction of evid
Nov. 27, 2012
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Continued violence on Koreans in Australia raises concern
Concerns are rising over the safety of Koreans in Australia after a series of what are claimed to be racial attacks.In the latest incident, a 28-year-old Korean man surnamed Cho was attacked by two white Australians around midnight Sunday in Brisbane, according to Cho and the police. The two young attackers struck his head with blunt instruments, leaving him bleeding from his head and face, they said. They first approached Cho asking for his mobile phone but started to beat him after he tried to
Nov. 26, 2012
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Ethical standards lowest at agencies that should be cleanest
Prosecutors, police and judges scored the lowest points among state organizations in the transparency index compiled by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission.The survey, which evaluated 627 government organizations, showed that the Ministry of Justice received the lowest grade on the five-level grading scale among the central administrative agencies. About 244,000 participants including citizens, public officers, reporters and civil activists were surveyed for the report. Administrativ
Nov. 26, 2012
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Man nabbed for spreading sex videos
A 39-year-old man has been arrested without physical detention on charges of circulating sex videos with women whom he met online, police said Monday.The suspect, only identified by his surname Jin, is accused of having sex with dozens of women whom he met through a chat service and distributing online some 100 pieces of video footage of them engaged in sexual acts between 2003 and 2005, they said.Police investigators, however, said they would have difficulty in bringing charges against Jin, as
Nov. 26, 2012
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Only five expats work at central government
Foreigners are severely under-represented at all levels of government in Korea, with only five currently working in the central government, data showed Monday. As of June this year, central government ministries and agencies had five non-Korean nationals on its payroll, down from last year’s seven, the home administration ministry data showed. The total number of public servants in the central government is over 600,000. Foreign employees of 16 large municipal and provincial governments stood at
Nov. 26, 2012
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Childbirths grow 6.9% in Sept.: report
The number of babies born in South Korea grew at the fastest pace in nearly two years in September amid government efforts to boost the country’s chronically low birthrate, a government report showed Monday.Babies born in September came to some 41,700, up 6.9 percent or 2,700 from the same month a year earlier, according to the report by Statistics Korea.The percentage growth was the largest since childbirths increased 10.8 percent on-year in January 2011, the report showed.The latest childbirth
Nov. 26, 2012