The application process for the F-2 spouse visa will have stricter rules from Monday, the Ministry of Justice said Sunday. The latest revision to the immigration law came after several cases of abuse and fraud in international marriages.In July last year, a 20-year-old Vietnamese bride was murdered by her Korean husband, just eight days after arriving in Korea. Her husband had a history of mental

Social Affairs March 6, 2011

Defector groups Wednesday pledged to continue flying propaganda leaflets across the border despite North Korea’s recent threat of “direct firing” at the South’s psychological warfare sites.“The empty threats from the North have repeated over the past four years. There is nothing special this time as well,” said Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector and head of the Fighters for Free North Korea. “

Social Affairs March 2, 2011

The international community should not expect North Korea to collapse soon through popular uprisings but instead seek an incremental approach to build trust with the nuclear-armed communist state, an expert said Sunday.Andray Abrahamian, a freelance writer on Korea issues who teaches at Social Science College of the University of Ulsan, South Korea, dismissed chances of any collapse of the North K

National Feb. 28, 2011

GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of U.S. automaker General Motors Co., will officially launch the Chevrolet brand in South Korea this week, saying goodbye to Daewoo, a name that has endured in South Korea for the past 28 years, the company said Monday.The name of the company will officially be changed to GM Korea from GM Daewoo also from Tuesday, it added."The change of the company name is an e

National Feb. 28, 2011

The number of Seoul citizens holding master’s or doctoral degrees has tripled over the past 20 years, a study found Sunday. There were 39,538 master’s and 5,043 doctoral graduates last year, almost triple the 14,049 in 1990, according to the study conducted jointly by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Statistics Korea.Women with higher education showed a five-fold increase in two decades, with

Social Affairs Feb. 27, 2011

An annual education report warned Friday that the nation’s teaching workforce was getting older. According to the Korean Educational Development Institute, the teaching workforce here has gotten older ― by up to three years ― compared to 10 years ago. Last year, the average ages of teachers at kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools were 31.8, 39.7, 41.3 and 41.5, respectively. Compared

Social Affairs Feb. 23, 2011

Free lunch for every student will cost more than 13 trillion won ($11 billion) for five years, a report by the National Assembly’s budgetary committee found Tuesday. A total of 13.44 trillion won, including 2.77 trillion won this year, will be needed in the coming five years to offer free meals at all schools, according to the report disclosed by Rep. Kim Dong-sung of the ruling Grand National Par

Social Affairs Feb. 22, 2011

A terrorism expert Monday raised the possibility of home-grown terrorist attacks in Korea where social minorities struggle with prevalent discrimination against them. “Migrant workers, children of married immigrants and North Korean defectors who may experience disgrace and discrimination against them here are more likely to vent their anger through terror attacks,” Lee Man-jong, professor of law

Social Affairs Feb. 21, 2011

A boarding school for North Korean defector children will open in Seoul next week, aimed at offering Korean language lessons to those from low-income households, a non-profit defectors’ group said Friday.According to North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, the Samheung School will start its first semester on Feb. 25, with 27 elementary students. Considering that their parents usually return home lat

Social Affairs Feb. 18, 2011