A South Korean father who hung his 5-year-old son by the wrists from an electric wire for secretly watching television was sentenced to 18 months in prison, a local court said on Tuesday.  (Herald DB)According to court records, the man tied up his son by the wrists and hung him on the electric cable in the back yard of their house because the boy was watching television at night without permission. He told the child not to move for two hours, warning he could be electrified. The Daegu District C

Social Affairs May 16, 2017

Women take up only 7.2 percent of the top jobs at over 300 state-run organizations and corporations in South Korea, governmental data showed Monday. Out of the 332 heads of state agencies, only 24 are women, with four of them working in organizations under the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, according to data from Public Information in One, a government-run portal on public entities.(123RF)Female chiefs are even more scarce in the judicial sector. Only two out of 14 Supreme Court justice

Politics May 15, 2017

The age-old tradition of giving gifts to teachers on Teachers Day on May 15 is now against the law in South Korea, but many parents still have no clue as to what extent the laws goes. A series of questions bombarded the anti-graft watchdog’s official website Friday, asking whether giving a handmade carnation flower or a small gift valued at less than 50,000 won ($44.50) would be illegal under the anti-graft law.The Kim Young-ran Act, named after the former Supreme Court justice who first drafted

Social Affairs May 14, 2017

President Moon Jae-in ordered the scrapping of the controversial state-published history textbooks, a signature project of impeached former President Park Geun-hye, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday. 　The newly elected president has also issued a directive to allow a song, banned under the previous conservative administrations, to be sung at the upcoming event that marks the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju. With the presidential order, “March for the Beloved” will likely be sung for the first tim

Social Affairs May 12, 2017

President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday named a former veteran intelligence officer who worked on two inter-Korean summits as the chief of the country’s spy agency.The nomination of Suh Hoon for the job at the National Intelligence Service is widely seen as a sign the incoming liberal administration will take a different approach to the communist North and seek to improve inter-Korean ties that have strained under the past two conservative presidents.Suh Hoon (Yonhap)Moon’s appointment for the top po

Politics May 10, 2017

With Moon Jae-in’s victory Tuesday night, Kim Jung-sook, 62, became Korea’s new first lady.Kim and Moon were college sweethearts at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. The first couple’s love story has captivated the people, although theirs was not an easy romance.President-elect Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook enter the National Assembly to attend the inauguration ceremony in Seoul on Wednesday. (Joint Press Corps)Moon, then a pro-democracy student activist, was detained several times for lea

Politics May 10, 2017

Nearly 8 in 10 eligible South Koreans voted to elect a new president on Tuesday, following the ouster of Park Geun-hye in a corruption scandal that has gripped the country for half a year.According to the National Election Commission, final turnout reached 77.2 percent, or 32.8 million out of 42.5 million eligible voters. It is a preliminary tally. A final figure is expected on Wednesday.  (Yonhap)Although the turnout did not reach 80 percent as widely anticipated, it was still 1.4 percent highe

Politics May 9, 2017

In April 1975, a group of students were met with plumes of tear gas near Kyung Hee University in Seoul. They were trying to march in protest against then-President Park Chung-hee, father of former President Park Geun-hye, who had controlled the country under an iron-fisted rule since 1972.Moon Jae-in, then in the third year of law school, was standing at the front line, when he was struck down by a tear gas canister.After blacking out for a moment, Moon recalled he felt somebody was sitting clos

Politics May 9, 2017

South Koreans went to the polls Tuesday to pick their new president, who will lead the country for the next five years. And voter turnout is likely to hit 80 percent when voting closes at 8 p.m., the election watchdog said.“We are expecting the final turnout to be around or over 80 percent, with record-high turnouts from previous overseas and early voting,” an official from the National Election Commission told The Korea Herald. “Also, this year, the polls will be open two hours longer than the

Politics May 9, 2017

More than half of South Koreans have voted in Wednesday’s presidential election, as of 2 p.m., according to the National Election Committee.Voters cast ballots at a polling station in Gangnam district, southern Seoul, on May 9, 2017. (Yonhap)Since polls opened at 6 a.m., voter turnout has hit 59.9 percent across 13,964 polling stations and the figure might reach a record 80 percent at this rate, the election watchdog said. The nearly 60 percent turnout so far represents a figure combined with la

Politics May 9, 2017

South Koreans will elect their new leader today, in what could mark a grand finale to eight months of political turmoil that saw sitting President Park Geun-hye ousted by a peaceful grassroots rebellion. It is a crucial vote that will decide the direction of the country over the next five years, amid the global and regional crosscurrents surrounding the Korean Peninsula. A liberal is the favorite to win, but there is the specter of a Trump phenomenon. Will Moon Jae-in take the presidency as poll

Politics May 9, 2017

May is “family month” in South Korea, with the Children’s Day and Parents’ Day holidays falling on May 5 and May 8. Taking a cue from the special occasions, major presidential candidates have set out child-, senior- and family-friendly pledges. Front-runner Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea has vowed to make children happier, emphasizing the importance of play in a country where private education starts years before entering the school system.  Moon Jae-in (Yonhap)“(Enhancing)

Social Affairs May 7, 2017

As major candidates crisscross the country to drum up support in the final stretch to Tuesday’s presidential election, so too do a handful of fringe candidates -- to much less success. Among them are Cho Won-jin and Kim Sun-dong, who represent two opposite extremes of South Korea’s political spectrum. Cho of the far-right Saenuri Party is in the race with a clear mission: to save former President Park Geun-hye. The arrested conservative Park is standing a criminal trial for corruption after bein

Politics May 5, 2017

Politics May 3, 2017

With only six days remaining to the election, Moon Jae-in’s lead appears to be nearly insurmountable: He garnered 42.4 percent of support in the latest Realmeter poll released Wednesday, against the next two candidates who stand tied at 18.6 percent. 　The race, however, is not over yet. An upset is still possible, although not likely. 　Here is a look at three key variables that could significantly alter the dynamics of the race in the final stretch to the May 9 election. 　Moon Jae-in of the Demo

Politics May 3, 2017