Most Popular
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Who's lying? Hybe vs. Min conflict continues to intensify
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Seoul should engage Kim Jong-un’s elites for change, ex-North Korean diplomat says
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Most teen sex offenders get away with slap on wrist
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Ex-Trump official calls for S. Korea to raise defense spending to 3 or 3.5% of GDP
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Man sentenced to 1 year, 8 months for stealing from elementary school classrooms
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Thousands rally in Seoul to call for Yoon resignation
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FM champions multilateralism, stresses S. Korea's vision as 'global pivotal state'
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Same-sex couple denied insurance clearance despite landmark ruling
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Panmunjom tours for select Korean nationals may resume in October
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Young Poong says no better offer for Korea Zinc
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N.K. leader to use party congress to cement his power: experts
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is likely to use next week's party congress as an occasion to reaffirm his unfettered power at a time when the isolated country is struggling to tackle tougher U.N. sanctions, experts predicted.North Korea said Wednesday that the Workers' Party of Korea will open its first congress in more than three decades next Friday. Seoul's unification ministry expected the event to run for four to five days.It will be the first party congress since October 1980 and also the
North KoreaApril 27, 2016
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[Editorial] Second chances
One hundred days remain before the 31st Summer Olympic Games kick off for a 17-day competition in Rio de Janeiro.A noteworthy event for local spectators is whether the country’s soccer team will advance to the semifinals, as they did four years ago in London, taking bronze. Fans are pinning their hopes on forward Son Heung-min, who plays in the English Premier League.Another is whether LPGA star Park In-bee or one of the other Korean female players will capture gold in golf, which has been desig
EditorialApril 27, 2016
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[Editorial] Demographic crisis
According to the National Pension Research Institute, South Korea is projected to see the number of seniors aged 65 or older take up about 45 percent of the population by 2060. This means the proportion of the population who are of working age -- between 15 and 64 -- will decrease sharply over the next few decades.As the drop in the working-age share of the population is set to start next year, concerns are mounting over the low birthrate. The International Monetary Fund forecast last year that
EditorialApril 27, 2016
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Keep junk food off kids’ TV (and the Internet)
The many campaigns that have been waged over the past decade to get American children to avoid unhealthy foods have not been fruitless. The national childhood obesity rate has stopped rising. Yet neither is it falling. What kids need is not just a better diet, but also a better media diet. The U.S. childhood obesity rate stands firm at 17 percent. And many overweight children and adolescents in the U.S. are growing even heavier. The number who are severely obese -- with a body mass index of 35 o
ViewpointsApril 27, 2016
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[Photo News] Number of vacant office buildings soars
LEASE FEE DISCOUNT -- Two women walk past a building in Gangnam, southern Seoul, which is publicizing a 20 percent discount on the rental fees of offices, on Wednesday. The government said the average vacant ratio of office buildings in Seoul soared to 10.1 percent in the first quarter of this year due to the increased supply of offices and the protracted, sluggish real estate market. (Yonhap)
April 27, 2016
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[Gareth Evans] Playing by the rules in Asia for China
China’s adventurism in the South China Sea has prompted a change in Australian policymaking that merits wide international attention. In making maintenance of a “rules-based global order” a core strategic priority, Australia’s new Defense White Paper adopts language not often found at the heart of national defense charters. It is all the more surprising coming from a conservative government that is usually keen to follow the United States down any path it takes.Australia wanted a readily defensi
ViewpointsApril 27, 2016
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Nature Republic IPO faces further delay
Nature Republic’s plan for an initial public offering faces another delay, after the firm’s trouble-making CEO made headlines for allegedly assaulting his lawyer while in jail. “The IPO schedule has been postponed,” an official at Nature Republic said. “We are still in the preparation process to pick the optimal time for launch.”Jeong Un-ho, the leading low-cost cosmetics brand’s founder and chief executive, who has been imprisoned on charges of gambling overseas, now faces violence charges as h
April 27, 2016
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[David Ignatius] Azeri-Armenian conflict in the Caucasus
The military commander of the breakaway Armenian republic of Karabakh predicted in an interview Monday that a fragile cease-fire could collapse within days. By that night, Azerbaijani shelling had killed two Armenian soldiers in a northern border town, amid accusations by each side that the other had violated the truce. The “frozen conflict” here, stalemated for 22 years, exploded on April 2, when Azeroi forces attacked across the 200-kilometer front line. The Azeri seized ground for the first t
ViewpointsApril 27, 2016
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Minjoo pushes for hearing on humidifier disinfectant case
The main opposition party on Wednesday announced that it would push to hold a parliamentary hearing on the toxic humidifier disinfectant case and introduce a bill aimed at offering financial support for victims.“The National Assembly should come up with its own measures to strengthen regulation on corporate misdeeds and unethical behaviors,” The Minjoo Party of Korea’s chairman Kim Chong-in said. “We urge other parties to join efforts to protect public safety,” he said. The decision comes in lig
Social AffairsApril 27, 2016
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Training offered to migrant workers to avoid work accidents
UIJEONGBU – One Sunday afternoon last month, a support center for foreign workers in Uijeongbu, some 20 kilometers north of Seoul, was filled with some 50 migrant workers who had travelled there from factory-concentrated cities in Northern Gyeonggi Province. The foreign workers from nearly 10 Southeast Asian countries had gathered to attend a 30-minute lecture aimed at raising awareness on preventing work accidents by the state-run Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency.The program began wi
Social AffairsApril 27, 2016
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Korea to restrict visa extension for foreigners not paying taxes
South Korean government said Wednesday that it would run a six-month pilot project to restrict foreign residents who fail to pay local taxes from extending residency visas. The Justice Ministry and Home Affairs Ministry have partnered to share foreign residents’ tax information and collect unpaid taxes totaling 74 billion won ($64 million) as of April. According to the Immigration Act, the government can revoke or change the visa status of foreigners who violate local laws. The government will r
Social AffairsApril 27, 2016
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[Reporter’s Column] Park’s blame game fails to appeal
In politics, especially for a top-level leader, it often pays to set aside self-esteem and earnestly admit one’s shortcomings in public. It is this humble gesture of introspection and allusion to betterment that touches the doubting heart amid challenging situations.President Park Geun-hye, however, seems to be in denial of such dynamics as she has once again pointed her finger at political parties instead of shouldering blame as the nation’s top official in charge.When Park invited the chief ed
PoliticsApril 27, 2016
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[FEATURE] Hard knock lives of Koreans born to U.S. soldiers
More than 50 years after her American solider father left South Korea, Jang Yeon-hee still longs to meet the parent who she has never known. “Whenever I take the subway I see a lot of foreign tourists en route to Incheon International Airport,” Jang said in an interview with The Korea Herald. “When I see such visitors I’d break down in tears. There are so many people coming in and out of this country, and yet the person who gave me my life left before I was even born and never bothered to visit
Social AffairsApril 27, 2016
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Loving dog owners fuel Korea’s pet industry boom
Every month, 25-year-old Rebecca Kim spends around 700,000 won ($610), sometimes more or less depending on the circumstance, on her two dogs — Cocoa and Oreo. The costs include hiring a dog trainer, routine visits to the veterinarian, and purchasing organic dog food and daily necessities. She also pays for pet hotels, as she is often out of town for work, among other fees. “They’re definitely expensive to take care of and such,” Kim admits. “But in the end, they’re a part of the family and the c
IndustryApril 27, 2016
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N. Korea to hold party congress on May 6
North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea is slated to hold its first political convention in 36 years on May 6, Pyongyang’s state-run media said Wednesday, during which the communist state is expected to reaffirm Kim Jong-un’s leadership. “The politburo of the WPK’s central committee (has) decided to hold the party’s seventh congress in Pyongyang on May 6,” said the Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station, adding that new party leadership -- led by Kim -- has been selected. The North has been
North KoreaApril 27, 2016
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Pyongyang preparing assault exercise on replica of Seoul's presidential office: military
North Korea is preparing to launch a large-scale artillery drill on a replica of the South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in a move to fan cross-border tension in the runup to a rare congress of its ruling party, the military here said Wednesday.About 30 artillery pieces have been brought to a training range just outside Pyongyang where the replica of Cheong Wa Dae was set up in early April, a Joint Chiefs of Staff official said. "The North is likely to conduct an actual exercise in th
DefenseApril 27, 2016
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Seoul mulls policy bank recapitalization
As a wave of corporate restructuring looms, Korea is moving to shore up capital at policy banks, with a Korean-style “quantitative easing” considered as one option of doing so. Starting next week, a task force comprising officials from the Finance Ministry, financial authorities, central bank and policy lenders Korea Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of Korea will begin work on the bank recapitalization plan, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday. President Park Geun-hye (Yonhap)“It will lea
April 27, 2016
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Bird’s nest halts train for nearly an hour
The mugunghwa train that was traveling from North Jeolla Province’s Imsil-gun to Iksan-gun on Wednesday morning had to stop for about 50 minutes due to a cut in electricity supply. The cause behind the glitch was later found out to be a short circuit caused by a magpie nest built on an electricity line. (Yonhap)The incident took place around 7:20 a.m., causing delays for around 30 passengers who were mostly university students and workers setting out for the day. Korea Railroad Corporation, the
Social AffairsApril 27, 2016
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Start-ups form alliance for joint online-to-off-line services
A group of South Korea’s leading start-ups announced Wednesday that they would join forces to invigorate the online-to-off-line sector, in which many, if not all, are bleeding cash due largely to high marketing costs.Representatives of five start-ups -- SOCAR, Yogiyo, Yanolja, Mesh Korea, and Spoqa -- said they would form the O2O Alliance, seeking collaboration among the rising firms in the Korean start-up scene.(Starting from second from left) Shin Seung-ho of SOCAR, Ryu Jeong-beom of Mesh Kore
TechnologyApril 27, 2016
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8,000 Chinese tourists to visit Korea to taste ‘samgyetang’
A group of 8,000 employees from a Chinese company will visit South Korea next month to taste Korean traditional ginseng chicken soup, the Seoul city government said Wednesday.The largest signal tour group from Chinese health care company Joymain Science & Technology will arrive in Seoul on May 5 and May 10 in two groups on an employee incentive trip, and have a "samgyetang" dinner in central Seoul on May 6 and May 10 respectively, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said. The city government will
Social AffairsApril 27, 2016