Seoul City Mayor Park Won-soon said Monday that raising the minimum taxi fare was “inevitable” due to rising costs. Speaking on a radio show, Park said increases in gas prices had not been reflected in the taxi fares and many other cities and provinces had already raised the minimum charge.The current minimum taxi fare is 2,400 won in Seoul, and each local government has the authority to adjust the base fare. The city government is reportedly working on setting on an appropriate increase and pla

Social Affairs June 3, 2013

Prosecution investigators raided the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Monday as part of an inquiry into its alleged cover-up last year of a probe into intelligence agents’ illegal interference in the presidential election. More than 25 officials from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office searched the police agency’s cyber crime unit and seized documents, computer hard disks and other related materials. The cyber unit is accused of hampering the investigation led by the Suseo Police Stat

Social Affairs May 20, 2013

A survey showed that around 80 percent of the public believed the alleged sexual assault by former presidential spokesperson Yoon Chang-jung would likely affect President Park Geun-hye’s state management. According to the survey conducted by private poll taker Mono Research last week, 76 percent of 1,191 survey participants agreed “his acts would inevitably affect state management of the current government” for either a short or long period of time. Another 22 percent agreed that “it might not h

Social Affairs May 19, 2013

Seoul City won four United Nations Public Service Awards, which are given to public officers or organizations in recognition of their excellence in public services. The city government said Wednesday that the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the organizer of the annual award competition, notified the city of the achievements in three sectors: Preventing and combating corruption in the public service, fostering participation in public policy decision making through innovative mecha

Social Affairs May 15, 2013

Women in Seoul gave an average 2.67 on a scale of one to five in grading their level of happiness, according to a report released Sunday by the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family, a city-affiliated policy developer and evaluator. Among the total of nine categories covered in the report, personal satisfaction in city life (3.23) and safety (3.07) received the highest scores while co-prosperity (2.29) and care (2.36) were among the lowest rated categories. The participants also rated sub-categor

Social Affairs May 12, 2013

Hacktivist group Anonymous staged another round of online attacks against the North Korean regime’s websites from Sunday morning, closing down those for public organizations and companies run by the regime. The group reportedly used DDos (Distribute Denial of Service) in their online hacking operation named “OpNorthKorea.”Some of the group’s members posted notifications through their Twitter accounts in advance that Anonymous would launch the operation at 1:00 a.m. (GMT) on May 12, which was 10

North Korea May 12, 2013

Korea, China and Japan will pledge joint efforts at an annual trilateral meeting to reduce the environmental impact of air pollution and tackle climate change issues in the Northeast Asia region.The Ministry of Environment said Thursday that Environment Minister Yoon Seong-kyu would suggest holding regular three-way talks for tackling air pollution, and setting up a network to share information on environmental policies at the annual 15th Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting attended by Kore

National May 2, 2013

The Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling that granted refugee status to a Chinese Falun Gong practitioner who sought refuge here to avoid persecution.The court said in its ruling last Thursday that the fact that the man named Choi was a practitioner of Falun Gong was not a strong enough reason to give him refugee status. “Refugee status can be granted only to those Falun Gong practitioners who are clearly subject to oppression by the Chinese government because of their active involvem

Social Affairs May 1, 2013