(Yonhap)South Korea’s top court ruled Thursday that the suicide of the vice principal of Danwon High School, which had been attended by 250 victims of the Sewol ferry disaster, cannot be considered death in the line of duty.The Supreme Court upheld earlier rulings that had rejected the request from the bereaved family of Kang Min-kyu, who was 52 years old when he died, seeking compensation entitled to public servants who die on the job. Kang, one of the survivors from the nation’s biggest mariti

Social Affairs March 3, 2016

South Korea’s parliament has passed a revised bill to prescreen air passengers as part of efforts to block terrorist suspects from entering the country, the Justice Ministry said Thursday. The National Assembly passed the revision to the immigration control law late on Wednesday. It requires airlines to receive permission from the nation’s immigration office before issuing plane tickets, the ministry said in a press release.  (Yonhap)The immigration office will receive a list of passengers from

Social Affairs March 3, 2016

Police said Wednesday that officers dedicated to curbing child abuse in Seoul will accompany on-site inspections of long-term absentees, as part of stepped-up measures to curb increasing violence against children.Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has launched a team of anti-abuse police officers, allocating one officer to each of the 31 police stations in Seoul. The police officers will take the lead in investigating violence against children, conducting on-site inspections and cooperating with c

Social Affairs March 2, 2016

Kim & Chang and the London Court of International Arbitration are set to hold a joint seminar on international arbitration in central Seoul on March 7, the Korean law firm said Tuesday. Amid growing demand among Korean firms for international arbitration, lawyers and experts in the sector from around the world will come together to share their expertise and knowledge on ways to better deal with cross-border disputes, the firm said. Park Eun-young, president of the LCIA Asia Pacific Users‘ Counci

Social Affairs March 2, 2016

South Korea’s top court on Tuesday ruled that the government is not responsible for compensating a Korean civilian killed by the U.S. Navy’s shelling during the 1950-53 Korean War. 　The Supreme Court ordered a retrial for the case in a lower court, reversing an earlier verdict that had demanded the government pay 48.8 million won ($39,600) to the victim’s bereaved families. 　 (Yonhap)The victim, identified only by his surname Bang, was one of about a thousand victims killed by artillery fire fro

Social Affairs March 1, 2016

The number of Korean university graduates giving up on looking for a job or not working at all has continued to increase, data showed Monday, highlighting bleak job prospects for young people. According to Statistics Korea, the economically inactive population holding a university degree stood at 3.34 million last year, up 4.7 percent from a year earlier. (Yonhap)The number of economically inactive university graduates who are neither employed nor have lost a job has more than doubled from 1.59

Social Affairs Feb. 29, 2016

(Yonhap)More than half of Koreans have a negative attitude towards foreign workers residing here, a recent survey showed. In a survey by local pollster Gallup Korea, 54 percent of respondents said that the migration of foreign workers to Korea is “not a good thing.” The study was conducted on 1,500 Koreans aged 19 and above. Thirty-nine percent said that it is a “good thing,” which is significantly lower than the 57 percent average across the 69 countries that participated in this global survey.

Social Affairs Feb. 26, 2016

Two days after the Sewol ferry sinking on April 16, 2014, took away 304 lives, mostly students on a school trip, one of the survivors was found dead in an apparent suicide.It was the vice principal of Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, where most of the student victims had attended. He left a note saying he could not bear living while over 200 of his students were still missing. Since the Sewol tragedy, three other surviving students as well as Kim Dong-soo, 51, who saved more than

Social Affairs Feb. 26, 2016

South Korea’s monthly spending on private education per child hit a record high in 2015, with seven out of 10 students taking private lessons, government data showed Friday.　According to the survey by Statistics Korea and the Ministry of Education, 68.8 percent of students across the nation received private tutoring last year, up 0.2 percent from a year earlier.(Yonhap)The average amount spent was 244,000 won ($197), up 1 percent from the previous year. However excluding those not receiving priv

Social Affairs Feb. 26, 2016

Police said Tuesday that they booked a 29-year-old man on charges of abusing his 11-month daughter amid a growing number of child abuse cases across the nation.  (Yonhap)The Jecheon Police Station is questioning the man who is suspected of kicking the crying infant in her face and stomach on multiple occasions while quarreling with his wife earlier this month. He also allegedly beat her until the baby bled in mid-January. A witness told police the man was violent with the baby once or twice a mo

Social Affairs Feb. 23, 2016

Prosecutors on Tuesday raided the residence and office of a close aide to an ex-chief of South Korea’s rail operator in its widening probe of suspected slush funds in connection with a now-defunct urban development project. Officials carry out boxes of confiscated items Tuesday from the office of an aide to the former president of the Korea Railroad Corp. in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul. (Yonhap)The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said that investigators seized computer hard disks, internal re

Social Affairs Feb. 23, 2016

A local court on Tuesday handed out a two-year jail term, suspended for three years, to a woman who had allegedly given birth in a squat toilet and consequently killed the baby.The 27-year-old gave birth to the baby on her own at the traditional toilet in her residence in Jeonju in March last year. The baby fell inside the toilet and died as his airway was clogged with alien substance. She allegedly knew that childbirth in the toilet might kill the baby.  (Yonhap)“Her crime is heavy as the defen

Social Affairs Feb. 23, 2016

A 47-year-old Canadian was caught growing cannabis in his residence and habitually smoking it, South Korean police said Monday.According to the police, the Canadian national, who had previously been a lecturer at a university in Daegu, smuggled marijuana into Korea from Thailand in August 2010. He then grew it at the balcony in his apartment building, the police said.  (Yonhap)The man allegedly set up facilities like a ventilator, electronic heater and reflecting plate on the balcony to grow the

Social Affairs Feb. 22, 2016

Korean jobseekers most want to work for tech giant Google, showed a local survey on Monday.According to a survey on 2,700 university students and job seekers by the recruitment sites Job Korea and Albamon, Google topped the list as the most desired foreign employer in the local job market, with around seven out of 10 participants saying so.  (Yonhap)Apple Korea ranked second with 25.9 percent of the votes, followed by Starbucks Korea at 16.9 percent, Nike Korea at 14.4 percent and Yuhan-Kimberly

Social Affairs Feb. 22, 2016