South Korean university students have borrowed less books from libraries for five straight years, due mainly to the increase of electronic data and decline in general book readership, a statistical data said Monday.Each student borrowed an average of 7.4 books last year from 409 school libraries nationwide including two-year junior colleges, according to Korea Education and Research Information Service. The public organization under the education ministry said student book rentals from libraries

Social Affairs March 7, 2016

A film depicting the lives of women forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II topped the local box office for the second weekend, data showed Monday."Spirits' Homecoming" attracted 600,903 viewers over the March 4-6 weekend at 861 screens across the country, bringing the accumulated total to more than 2.6 million, according to a ticket sales tally from the Korean Film Council.Directed by Cho Jung-lae, the movie tells the painful stories of the women who were forced to wo

Film March 7, 2016

President Park Geun-hye urged policymakers on Monday to take steps to ensure that U.N. member states can impose additional sanctions on North Korea to rein in its nuclear and missile programs.The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a new resolution last week to punish North Korea for its fourth nuclear test and long-range rocket launch earlier in the year.The tough sanctions are, among other things, meant to cut off North Korea's access to hard currency, which South Korea and other regiona

North Korea March 7, 2016

A vice chief of South Korea's presidential advisory panel on unification has said that international sanctions in response to North Korea's relentless provocations could help create an opportunity for national reunification.Speaking to Yonhap News Agency from London on Sunday, Yoo Ho-yeol, executive vice chairperson of the National Unification Advisory Council, noted that "precarious situations," caused by the communist state, can generate momentum for the South to pursue and lead the unificatio

North Korea March 7, 2016

Fresh off her second LPGA Tour win of the season, South Korean Jang Ha-na reached No. 5 in the latest world rankings released Monday.Jang is the second-highest Korean in the rankings after climbing five spots to reach the top five. Park In-bee remained at No. 2.Jang won the HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore on Sunday. It was her second victory of the season, and she is the first LPGA golfer to pick up multiple wins in 2016.There are four more South Koreans in the top 10: Amy Yang, Kim Sei-youn

Golf March 7, 2016

Korean traditional rice wine, or makgeolli, contains a material believed to be effective in slowing the growth of stomach cancer cells, a study showed Monday.The Korea Food Research Institute said in a recent study that it discovered that makgeolli curbs the proliferation of stomach cancer tumors when it comes into contact with stomach cancer cells. Animal testing on mice also showed that makgeolli was effective in facilitating phosphatase and tensin homolog, a protein that helps suppress tumors

Technology March 7, 2016

South Korea said Monday it will announce its own punitive steps against North Korea this week over its latest nuclear and missile tests, lending support to the latest United Nations Security Council sanctions.The government plans to unveil its sanctions against the North on Tuesday afternoon in response to North Korea's nuclear test in January and long-range locket launch last month, according to the Prime Minister's Office.Measures to be announced are believed to include banning the entry of ve

North Korea March 7, 2016

South Korea plans to attract more than 2 million foreign cruise tourists next year by hosting the world's leading cruise ships and expanding local ports in a bid to become a favored region for cruise tourists from around the world, the maritime ministry said Monday.Some 1.5 million cruise tourists are expected to flock to the country's shores throughout this year, with 908 ships to land at the South Korean ports of Jeju, Busan and Incheon, up from 409 a year earlier, according to the Ministry of

Social Affairs March 7, 2016

Growing geopolitical tensions stemming from the potential dispatch of an advanced U.S. missile defense system to the Korean Peninsula could pose a hurdle to enforcing newly adopted U.N. sanctions on North Korea, analysts here said Monday.The United States has been mired in an increasingly intense spat with China and Russia over the proposed deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system as Beijing and Moscow have categorically opposed it on the grounds that it would hurt their securi

North Korea March 7, 2016