The Korea Herald

Han Bi-ya to lecture at Ewha on travel, emergency relief

Han Bi-ya, a popular travel writer and advisor to the U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund, has been invited to give lectures to undergraduate students at Ewha Womans University as a visiting professor, the school said. Han will give lectures to students at the department of international studies from the spring semester next year, according to the school. Ewha’s department of international studies is the first school established to nurture global-minded individuals at the undergraduate level.

Social Affairs Dec. 25, 2011

Han Bi-ya to lecture at Ewha on travel, emergency relief

School and sexual violence prevention application released

A smartphone application that allows users to report school and sexual violence against students, receive counseling information and provides tips against violence has been released by the Education Ministry, officials said Thursday. The application, named “Goodbye school violence,” is available for free on iPhone and Android phones from Thursday.It features five services: it sends a text message or makes a call to a nearby police station in case of emergencies; provides guidelines in case a stu

Social Affairs Dec. 22, 2011

Korea to expand incentives to draw foreign education institutions

The government said Wednesday that it will expand incentives to attract more foreign education institutions to Korea in an attempt to increase the nation’s competitiveness in global education business.It plans to encourage international education institutions to come to Korea by easing restrictions, providing more incentives and subsidies and simplifying review processes. It also will seek to revise a related law to allow them to send their earnings back to their countries and apply the accounti

Social Affairs Dec. 21, 2011

Seoul City dismisses 65 for corruption

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has fired 65 officials since February 2009 in keeping with the so-called “one-strike out” sanction system designed to weed out corrupt officials. The officials caught embezzling or accepting bribes in excess of 1 million won ($800) were dismissed and will not be reinstated, city officials said Wednesday.The system led to the firings of 28 officials in 2009, 24 in 2010 and 13 this year. The money amounts ranged from as much as 64 million won ($55,000) to as littl

Social Affairs Dec. 21, 2011

Seoul Council passes student rights ordinance

The Seoul Metropolitan Council passed an ordinance granting more rights to students amid controversy over some contested issues in the ruling that has caused a confrontation between a progressive and conservative group. Until Monday when the ordinance was passed, the opposing groups protested four disputed points of the ordinance: respect of students’ sexual orientation, pregnancy and childbirth, religion and the right to hold collective protests. But with the ordinance expected to take effect n

Social Affairs Dec. 20, 2011

Seoul Council passes student rights ordinance

Scholarships offered by Swede who served in Korean War

A Swedish woman who served as a nurse during the Korean War has contributed part of her donation to the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.The gift comes in gratitude to the Korean government, which has sent her thank-you letters for her service during the 1950-53 conflict. Kerstin Jonasson, 88, and her Rune Jonasson, 85, have asked the KTH to contribute part of their 11.8 billion won ($10 million) donation to a student exchange

Social Affairs Dec. 20, 2011

Scholarships offered by Swede who served in Korean War

Japan offers ‘condolences’

TOKYO (AFP) ― The Japanese government on Monday offered its condolences on the death of Kim Jong-il, the leader of North Korea, a country with which Japan has no diplomatic relations.“We express our condolences upon receiving the announcement of the sudden passing of Kim Jong-il, the chairman of the National Defense Committee of North Korea,” Japan’s top government spokesman Osamu Fujimura said.“The Japanese government hopes that this unexpected development would not bring any adverse impact on

Social Affairs Dec. 19, 2011

Gangnam to promote medical services in China

Seoul’s southern district of Gangnam will hold a series of medical tourism events in China this week to promote its clinics to Chinese customers. The Gangnam medical tourism convention will take place in Shanghai from Dec. 20-22 and in Hangzhou from Dec. 22-24, the district office said Monday. “Chinese visitors are the biggest customers for medical tourism. We hope the medical convention will invite more Chinese people to Gangnam for medical services,” said Gangnam Mayor Shin Yeong-hee.More than

Social Affairs Dec. 19, 2011

Foreign nationals make up 3 percent of population

The number of foreign nationals in Korea hit an all-time high this year, making up 3 percent of the country’s total population. According to statistics from the Justice Ministry on Friday, 1.41 million foreign nationals were present in the nation as of September this year, with Chinese taking the lion’s share.“The increase has to do with the economic recovery since last year to first half of this year,” said Gwak Jae-seok, director of the Migration and Diaspora Research Institute.About 600,000 o

Social Affairs Dec. 16, 2011

Professor Jeong appointed as Yonsei University head

Jeong Kap-young, an economics professor at Yonsei University, has been appointed president of the university, the school said Thursday. The school board appointed Jeong as the 17th president after he received 86.6 percent of the vote from faculty members during the three-day meeting of professors that kicked off Nov. 28.Jeong was one of five presidential candidates selected early last month through interviews and a career examination by criteria such as research ethics and financial status. “I

Social Affairs Dec. 15, 2011

Professor Jeong appointed as Yonsei University head

Seoul’s carbon emissions to peak in 2020

Seoul’s greenhouse gas emissions will peak in 2020 but are expected to fall from 2030, a report showed Wednesday. The city’s greenhouse gas emissions have risen over the past 20 years from about 44 million tons a year in 1990 to an estimated 51 million tons in 2010, according the report by the Seoul Development Institute. In 2020 emissions are expected to reach about 54 million tons, then fall from 2030 as the city population decreases and energy efficiency improves. Energy consumption takes up

Social Affairs Dec. 14, 2011

Union condemns request to promote FTA in schools

A document sent by the Education Ministry to local education offices encouraging them to promote the Korea-U.S. FTA in local schools has met a backlash from a progressive teacher’s union and prompted regional education offices to review whether they should comply. The 16 offices nationwide received an official document from the ministry Friday, asking them to promote the Korea-U.S. FTA on the websites of the regional education offices and schools by installing pop-ups and banners, according to t

Social Affairs Dec. 13, 2011

Design evoking 9/11 causes controversy

The design of a pair of residential towers to be built in Yongsan, Seoul has sparked international controversy by evoking the image of the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001. Families of 9/11 victims were among those outraged at the design evoking the exploding WTC, and criticized Dutch architecture firm MVRDV and the architect, Daniel Libeskind, according to the New York Daily News and New York Post. Scheduled to be completed in 2015, the towers are connected by a “pixilated cloud” whi

Social Affairs Dec. 12, 2011

First president of foreign student council elected at local university

A Chinese student has been elected as the first president of a foreign student body at a Korean university in Seoul. The 25-year-old female student, He Yun from China, was elected president of the nation’s first foreign student council of Kyung Hee University, while 22-year-old male student Sunzhiwei from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region in China was picked as vice president last Friday, according to the school. The two students, both undergraduates at the university, will represent about 1,

Social Affairs Dec. 12, 2011

First president of foreign student council elected at local university

Senior aide to president’s brother arrested for bribery

An aide to Grand National Party lawmaker Lee Sang-deuk, elder brother of President Lee Myung-bak, was arrested on Saturday on bribery charges. The aide, identified by his surname Park, is accused of accepting 700 million won in cash and an expensive luxury wristwatch from two local businessmen for illegal lobbying to save their troubled companies from closure. The Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant on Saturday and judge Kim Hwan-soo cited that “there is a concern that he might

Social Affairs Dec. 11, 2011

Articles by Lee Woo-young