Most Popular
-
1
Seoul should engage Kim Jong-un’s elites for change, ex-North Korean diplomat says
-
2
Thousands rally in Seoul to call for Yoon's resignation
-
3
Most teen sex offenders get away with slap on wrist
-
4
FM champions multilateralism, stresses S. Korea's vision as 'global pivotal state'
-
5
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is killed in Beirut strike, Israel's military says
-
6
Man sentenced to 1 year, 8 months for stealing from elementary school classrooms
-
7
Suicide attempts spike among youth in Korea
-
8
[Weekender] How Seongsu, once an industrial zone, has become ‘Seoul’s Brooklyn’
-
9
Panmunjom tours for select Korean nationals may resume in October
-
10
Young Poong says no better offer for Korea Zinc
-
Korean companies seek to drop job titles
Employees head to their offices in a building in Seoul. (Yonhap)One thing that surprised Tyler Kim when he joined a South Korean company last year after nine years of working in the U.S. was that his coworkers called him “chaekimnim,” a direct translation of his job title, manager.“It was a bit awkward at first,” he said, since it was the first time he was not called by his name at work.Hierarchy has been a key aspect of corporate governance worldwide. But it means more when it comes to the Kore
Social AffairsApril 5, 2016
-
Mother on trial for killing disabled daughter
A mother who strangled her disabled daughter to death has been put on trial.The Daegu Prosecutor’s Office said on Tuesday that the 38-year-old mother confessed to killing her 11-year-old daughter because it was “difficult for her to bring up a challenged child.” (123RF)The night before her crime, the mother went out for a drink. She returned home near 3 a.m. and strangled her daughter to death at around 4 a.m. The woman had divorced her husband many years ago. Her daughter had a congenital secon
Social AffairsApril 5, 2016
-
Questions on marital status ruled unfit for job interviews
Questions regarding relationship history and status are discriminatory in a job interview, according to a fresh report from a Seoul City human rights ombudsman, Tuesday. The report came in recognition of the claims of a human rights violation at a civil servant employment interview held in December 2015. (123RF)At the time, an interviewer had asked a female applicant whether she was married and if she had ever been in a romantic relationship. He also wanted to know the duration of her longest se
Social AffairsApril 5, 2016
-
[Kim Seong-kon] Living in an age of hybrid, middlebrow cultures
For some dubious reason, Koreans tend to think of themselves as ethnically homogenous people. Naturally, they take pride in sharing a pure bloodline. That is why in Korea, people translate mixed-blood as “twigi” and hybrid as “japjong,” both of which are derogatory remarks in the Korean language. At school, kids frequently pick on mixed-blood classmates and tease them or make fun of them cruelly. At work, mixed-blood persons, who are likely to be excluded and alienated, easily become social pari
ViewpointsApril 5, 2016
-
Member Gong Minzy to leave 2NE1
Member Gong Minzy will be leaving four-member K-pop group 2NE1, while the other three members will return as 2NE1 this summer with a new song, YG Entertainment said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon. “We held one-on-one talks with each member in light of 2NE1’s contract expiring on May 5. During the talks, we expressed our wish to renew their contracts and revitalize 2NE1 as a team,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, Gong Minzy is no longer willing to continue with us. Former K-pop gir
PerformanceApril 5, 2016
-
[Lee Jae-min] New dilemma on digital privacy
We all know how devastating it is to lose a cellphone or tablet PC, as our daily life is entirely disrupted. With so much personal information digitized and stored in one single device, the handheld gadget means the entire world for the owner. So, from the perspective of users, nothing would be more sensitive to their privacy than the information contained in this device. On the contrary, for the law enforcement agencies a cell phone is an information bonanza. Make-or-break materials are stored
ViewpointsApril 5, 2016
-
CNBLUE welcomes ‘Blueming’ season
K-pop rock band CNBLUE released its sixth mini album “Blueming” on Monday. “Welcoming the blooming season, the new album includes tracks that are uplifting and that make people feel the start of something new,” the group’s leader and main vocalist Jung Yong-hwa said Monday at an interview. The lead song “You’re So Fine,” a spring-themed song written by Jung, is pop rock featuring a punk beat and the lifting sound of brass. K-pop rock band CN Blue (FNC Entertainment) “Our songs used to depict sad
PerformanceApril 5, 2016
-
Lonely young Koreans hire dates
The practice of hiring dates is gaining popularity among young Koreans as coddled young people find personal interactions increasingly difficult. Birds are chirping and flowers are beginning to bloom. Cherry blossom season has finally arrived in Korea, marking the start of spring. As lovely as these cherry blossoms are, it is a bittersweet season for some singles who feel pressured by the many couples that can be spotted enjoying the flowers together. Many Koreans, especially college students in
Social AffairsApril 5, 2016
-
S. Korea, U.S. working to tackle abuse of N. Korean workers abroad: U.S. envoy
South Korea and the United States are working together to determine the extent to which North Korea uses its workers abroad to raise money for its weapons of mass destruction programs, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues said Tuesday.North Korea's exports of workers has emerged as a new area the international community needs to address to tackle both the North's human rights abuses and its defiant pursuit of missile and nuclear weapons capabilities.Speaking in an intervie
North KoreaApril 5, 2016
-
NPS purchases shares in Korean firms
The National Pension Service, Korea’s largest institutional investor, said it had purchased shares of Korean companies in various sectors.In multiple regulatory filings on Tuesday, the NPS said it had purchased a 5.02 percent stake in cable TV services provider CJ Hellovision, a 5.15 percent of trading company Hyundai Corp., a 9.71 percent of computer software-maker DuZonBIzon, a 5.01 percent of airliner Korean Air, a 5.06 percent of automobile tire maker Hankook Tire Worldwide, a 5.03 percent i
April 5, 2016
-
N. Korea's GPS jamming targeted at aircraft navigation system: official
North Korea's continuing attempts to jam South Korea' Global Positioning System may be aimed at disrupting the navigation systems of aircraft, government officials said as the communist country continued to send jamming signals on Tuesday.In a provocative operation that started in late March, North Korea has been sending GPS-jamming signals across the border. The signals began last Thursday and continued on and off into Tuesday, according to military and information and communication technology
North KoreaApril 5, 2016
-
Teenage mom wished the best for her dead baby
The 19-year-old Vietnamese mother who had discarded her dead newborn at a subway station a week ago, had no idea that her action was a criminal offense in Korea, the Uijeongbu Police said. The teenage mother had always been interested in Korean culture. Upon graduating from high school, she enrolled in a Korean language program in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul. Surveillance camera records helped the police in identifying the woman. (Yonhap)Her trouble began when she found out after registering in t
Social AffairsApril 5, 2016
-
[Editorial] Panama papers leak
The eldest son of disgraced former President Roh Tae-woo has been found to have established three paper companies in an offshore tax haven in 2012, raising suspicions that he might have attempted to hide some of his father’s slush funds.The finding was reported by Newstapa, an independent online news outlet that analyzed, in cooperation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the leaked documents of Mossack Fonseca, a Panama law firm known for helping clients hide their w
EditorialApril 5, 2016
-
[Editorial] Minimum wage
The Minimum Wage Council will kick off negotiations Thursday to set the national minimum wage for next year. Discussions among the labor, management and government representatives are expected to be unusually stormy this year, as labor groups are determined to raise the wage floor drastically. Last year, the trilateral council set the minimum wage for 2016 at 6,030 won (about $5.30) per hour, up 8.1 percent from that for 2015. The increase rate was the highest since the 8.3 percent hike in 2008.
EditorialApril 5, 2016
-
[Noah Feldman] Dog bites woman, a federal case
Dog bites man may not be a news story -- but in nine western states, it’s grounds for a constitutional case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has allowed a lawsuit by a woman who fell asleep in her office after a hard night’s drinking, accidentally tripped a burglar alarm, and was bitten in the lip by a San Diego police dog responding to the alarm.What makes the case so interesting is that the San Diego Police Department trained Bak, a service dog, to enter a room and bite the first
ViewpointsApril 5, 2016
-
[Dambisa Moyo] Will Britain choose irrelevance?
When voters in the United Kingdom go to the polls on June 23 to decide whether their country should leave the European Union, the issues they will have to reckon with will include the impact of their decision on unemployment, trade flows, and the stability of financial markets. But there are other less quantifiable considerations that must also be weighed in the balance.The economic arguments against a British exit from the EU -- or Brexit -- have been well rehearsed. Many have suggested that if
ViewpointsApril 5, 2016
-
Most Korean victims stay silent after sexual harasment
Almost 80 percent of South Koreans take no follow-up actions after being sexually harassed at work, while 45 percent of such cases involving female victims occur at drinking gatherings at the hands of those in managerial positions, a government study showed Tuesday.The study, which surveyed workers at 400 public institutions and 1,200 private firms, showed that a total of 6.4 percent of 7,844 surveyed workers had been sexually harassed at work. Among all surveyed women, 9.6 percent had been hara
Social AffairsApril 5, 2016
-
Ministry warns against using 'Sewol textbook' in schools
The Korean government on Tuesday stepped up its warning against a liberal teachers’ group for using a controversial textbook which it accuses of biasedly illustrating the Sewol ferry tragedy. The warning came after the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union vowed to push ahead with the use of the “416 textbook” that it published last month to mark the second anniversary of the tragedy that took the lives of 304 passengers who were mostly high school students on April 16, 2014. It was the
Social AffairsApril 5, 2016
-
Police's open letter to rape victim sparks fury
A week ago, Airdre Mattner mustered up the courage to come forward as a rape victim to the media in hopes of highlighting how Korea’s justice system had failed to protect her and mishandled her case. Mattner said that she was drugged, abducted and raped in late September in Seoul. She said that while the sexual assault haunted her, the botched investigation into her case by police further broke her down. (Airdre Mattner)After the story surfaced and consequent public attention was paid to the
Social AffairsApril 5, 2016
-
[ELECTION 2016] Parties battle for Gyeonggi voters
YONGIN, Gyeonggi Province -- Having been born and raised in Seoul’s most affluent district of Gangnam-gu until the age of 17, Heo Seong-wook moved to the district of Suji in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, in 2006 with his family.Explaining the move was to continue enjoying the Gangnam lifestyle until they saved enough to move back to the right-wing bedrock in southern Seoul, the 27-year-old graduate student was not hesitant to express his family’s conservative political disposition.“Our family think
PoliticsApril 5, 2016