The Korea Herald

Police: Butane canisters found in Incheon Airport

Police said Friday they have recovered two butane canisters in a suspicious white box in South Korea's main airport near Seoul, but no accident was reported.Police said they received a report around 4:30 p.m. that the box suspected to contain explosive devices was found in a man's bathroom in Incheon International Airport, South Korea's main gateway.Police cordoned off the area as an explosive ordnance disposal unit was checking the bathroom.A scan from portable digital x-ray equipment showed th

Social Affairs Jan. 29, 2016

Korea manufacturing losing steam

The 2015 corporate earnings this week showed that the manufacturing industry, once the backbone of the nation’s exports-driven economic growth, is losing steam at a fast pace. (Yonhap)The nation’s top two manufacturers ― Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor ― recorded a double digit year-on-year fall in their net profit last year, squeezed by falling demand in major overseas markets and growing competition from cheap rival products. Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor announced a 19 percent a

Latest News Jan. 29, 2016

New finance minister stresses sweeping structural reforms

South Korea's new finance minister said Wednesday that the country should mobilize all resources to carry out structural reforms in order to put the economy back on a growth path and make it stronger."It's urgent to complete reforms in the education, labor, public and financial sectors in order to make a breakthrough in the low-growth trap," Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho said in his inauguration ceremony. "All resources should be funneled into the task.""There is no tomorrow unless we revamp the ri

Jan. 13, 2016

Former 'comfort women' declare recent deal with Japan null

A group of former "comfort women" declared Wednesday the nullification of the recent South Korea-Japan agreement on the wartime sexual slavery victims, urging the Seoul government to make a "proper" resolution.The agreement, reached on Dec. 28, has sparked a wave of public protests among victims and their supporters, who claim Japan got the better end of the deal by obtaining Seoul's promise to settle the issue once and for all if Tokyo fulfills its commitments.Under the deal, Japan apologized a

Social Affairs Jan. 13, 2016

‘Comfort women’ rally marks 24 years

The weekly rally held to protest Japan’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II marked 24 years Wednesday, becoming the longest-running demonstration in the world.　Despite the landmark deal between Seoul and Tokyo on Dec. 28, the decades-long ordeal of the victims -- euphemistically called “comfort women” -- appears to be far from over, with the victims and their supporters still crying out for the same demands in front of the Japanese Embassy in downtown Seoul.　 (Yonhap)In the 1

Social Affairs Jan. 6, 2016

Park’s salary to rise by 3 percent

The Cabinet has decided to raise President Park Geun-hye’s annual salary by more than 3 percent and expand the merit-based wage system in the public sector, the Ministry of Personnel Management announced Tuesday. Park is set to earn 212 million won ($179,000) this year, compared to 205 million won last year, after the Cabinet approved the bill on government employees’ salaries in the meeting held in the morning.Given that the nation’s average consumer price inflation stood at 0.7 percent last ye

Social Affairs Jan. 5, 2016

Victims protest sex slavery deal

South Koreans gathered across the street from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Wednesday to condemn Seoul and Tokyo for sealing a deal over Japan’s sexual enslavement of Korean women without consulting the victims or gaining their consent. 　Enraged by what they called political collusion between the two countries, nearly 1,000 people jammed into a narrow downtown street to participate in the 1,211st weekly rally held by the former sex slaves and their supporters. 　 (Yonhap)The Korean Council for

Social Affairs Dec. 30, 2015

[Newsmaker] Top N.K. official in charge of Seoul ties dies

Kim Yang-gon, a top North Korean official in charge of cross-border affairs, was killed in a car accident, the North’s state media reported Wednesday, drawing attention to the impact of his death on inter-Korean relations. He was 73.Kim Yang-gon (Yonhap)The North’s Korea Central News Agency said that Kim, a secretary of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party and director of the party’s United Front Department, died at 6:15 a.m. on Tuesday following the accident, without elaborating.T

North Korea Dec. 30, 2015

[Newsmaker] Top N.K. official in charge of Seoul ties dies

Political feuds biggest obstacle to social cohesion: survey

Koreans pointed to political feuds as the biggest reason for deteriorating social conflicts in the country, a state-led survey showed Tuesday. 　According to the poll by the Presidential Committee for National Cohesion, 51.8 percent of the respondents said that the political wrangling between the ruling party and opposition bloc contributed most to worsening social confrontations. 　In the multiple-choice survey of 2,000 Koreans aged 19 and over, the wealth gap was chosen as the second-biggest fac

Social Affairs Dec. 29, 2015

Arduous history of sex slavery victims

Braving social bias and ostracism, Kim Hak-soon, a South Korean comfort woman, took to the podium in 1991 to testify about her wartime forced prostitution experiences for the first time in public. 　Another 237 Korean women, forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II, followed suit, demanding a sincere apology and legal compensation from the Japanese government. 　Later that year, Kim and three other victims filed a lawsuit against Japanese authorities. But Japan’s highest

National Dec. 28, 2015

Media watchdog restricts foreign language use in TV ads

South Korea’s state-appointed media monitoring agency said Sunday that it has set out specific guidelines to restrict the use of foreign languages in TV commercials.　According to the guidelines for the nation’s broadcasters by the Korea Communications Standards Commission, TV advertisements are now banned from containing foreign languages or songs for more than 15 seconds -- half of the 30-second time slot. 　The regulation covers the narrative of product slogans, company names and catchphrases s

Social Affairs Dec. 27, 2015

Court allows changes to national IDs

The Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday that a law barring South Koreans from changing their resident registration numbers was unconstitutional.The court said the current law on resident registration numbers excessively violates citizens’ basic rights to make decisions about their own personal information, ordering the government to present a revision by the end of 2017. “It is an excessive violation of rights that the government does not allow Koreans to change their resident numbers regardles

Social Affairs Dec. 23, 2015

Nigerian falsely accused, denied right to legal defense: watchdog

South Korea’s human rights watchdog said Tuesday that police and prosecutors were recently cautioned for denying foreign suspects’ rights to self-defense by detaining an African man for 12 days without contacting his embassy. 　According to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, police and prosecutors arrested a Nigerian and detained him for 12 days, ignoring his multiple requests to contact the Nigerian Embassy. 　Police arrested the man, who was at the time on the wanted list, on a theft

Social Affairs Dec. 22, 2015

SNU elects Korea’s first lesbian student body president

A lesbian was elected Thursday as the student body president of Korea’s most prestigious university, the first time someone from a sexual minority has held such a post. 　Kim Bo-mi, 23, the sole candidate for Seoul National University’s 58th student council election, won 86.8 percent of the vote in the election, according to the university’s election committee. 　The voter turnout in the vote held Monday to Thursday was 53.3 percent, with only 11.2 percent voting against Kim, 0.1 percent abstaini

Social Affairs Nov. 20, 2015

SNU elects Korea’s first lesbian student body president

Suu Kyi eyes historic win in Myanmar elections

Myanmar's boisterous election campaign draws to a close Friday, two days before milestone polls that could finally propel Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party to power after a decades-long struggle against the military. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) is eyeing an outright majority at Sunday's general election, the first the party has contested since 1990.Myanmar was ruled for half a century by a brutal and isolationist junta which crushed pro-democracy movements through a combin

World News Nov. 6, 2015

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