The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to promote the use of electric cars among private institutions by subsidizing two-thirds of costs for purchase. The government aims to distribute 385 electric cars this year to public and private organizations. “Seoul City will be fully prepared for the dawning of the electric car era” said Jung Hung-soon, director of Green Transportation Policy Division at the municipal government.The municipality has tried to increase the number of electric, hydrogen fue

Social Affairs May 19, 2012

Seoul City plans to increase the number of hydrogen power systems for a stable electricity supply in case of blackouts or other emergencies, officials said.Under the plan, 29 hydrogen fuel cell power plants will be built and 102 hydrogen fuel cells will be installed by 2014. The facilities are expected to generate 230 megawatts of electricity per hour that could meet the energy demands of 400,000 households. Hydrogen fuel cell plants are recognized for their efficiency, emitting less greenhouse

Social Affairs May 17, 2012

Police said Wednesday they have launched an investigation into alleged influence peddling involving Korea Meteorological Administration chief Cho Seok-joon in a contract bidding process.The Seoul Metropolitan Police suspect Cho, along with Park Kwang-joon, chief of the Korea Meteorological Industry Promotion Agency, of providing favors to a specific contractor during bidding for Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) between June and December last year.They allegedly changed the standard range of w

Social Affairs May 17, 2012

The operator of subway Line No. 9 has canceled its plan to raise its fare under pressure from citizens and the municipal government. Seoul Metro Line 9 Corporation announced a plan in April to increase the fare by 500 won to 1,550 won on June 16.Citizens already suffering from inflating living costs criticized the plan. The company apologized Wednesday for causing concern. The operator and Seoul Metropolitan Government said they will resume negotiations over the fare and try to make efforts to m

Social Affairs May 9, 2012

Police in Gyeongggi Province have booked two Chinese brokers and 18 students for faking documents to enter Korean universities and are widening their investigation to find more such cases. The 20 people were booked without detention.The Chinese students, none of whom are qualified to attend university in Korea, paid 7 million won ($6,192) to 18 million won to each broker for a fake high school diploma and school reports, according to the police. A broker surnamed Gang received 7 million won from

Social Affairs April 30, 2012

A fire broke out in Hallasan National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site, on Jeju Island Tuesday. No injuries were reported.A hiker found the blaze at an “oreum,” or a parasitic volcanic cone, at around 12 p.m. Around 4,000 firefighters and park rangers battled the fire for around two hours.They put out the fire at around 2 p.m. Some 16,000 square meters of forest were damaged, according to the fire department.The fire is thought to have started at a water fountain at Sajaebi Oreum, which is 1,3

Social Affairs April 24, 2012

The nation’s largest teachers’ group asked the government to give special judicial authority to teachers to curb school violence. In a meeting with the Education Ministry on Monday, the Korean Federation of Teachers Associations also demanded the government extend counseling and therapy and set up more alternative schools.The teachers said it has become even more difficult to control unruly students because of rules on students’ human rights that went into effect in Seoul this year.The governmen

Social Affairs April 23, 2012

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday approved 28 billion euros ($36.56 billion) in funding for crisis-hit Greece over the next four years, while Standard and Poor‘s warned that the country’s new bonds remained vulnerable to default despite this month‘s massive debt writedown.The IMF’s executive board granted the immediate release of 1.65 billion euros ($2.15 billion) of these funds as part of the country‘s second bailout, a statement said.Greece will receive a total 172.7 billion euros in

World Business March 16, 2012