A cold spell swept through the center of the country on Thursday, with the mercury dipping to the lowest levels reported this winter, according to the state weather agency. The first cold wave watches of the season were issued in central regions including Seoul and Incheon and Gyeonggi, Gangwon and North Chungcheong provinces, as the morning low reached minus 10.4 degrees Celsius in the morning, the Korea Meteorological Administration said.The cold snap will be the worst on Friday, when temperat

Social Affairs Jan. 9, 2014

District courts on Wednesday turned down prosecutors’ request for arrest warrants for eight railway union leaders pending trial over the three-week strike heldlast month.Some 8,700 laborers of Korea Railroad Corp. went on strike on Dec. 9 in protest of the government’s plan to set up an affiliate under the company, a move that the union believes is aimed at rail privatization. The walkout is the longest on record.While the government and KORAIL remained steadfast in their pursuit of key figures

Social Affairs Jan. 8, 2014

The Korean Peninsula was hit by 93 earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.0 or stronger last year, the Korea Meteorological Administration said.A report by the KMA said the latest figure is the highest since the center began to compile data in 1978, and almost double the average of 44.5 quakes a year monitored between 1999 and 2012.No deadly quakes were observed, but a string of minor tremors suggest that the country, known as being relatively safe from earthquakes, needs a comprehensive study on the

National Jan. 6, 2014

The state-run train operator is expected to bring KTX and freight train operations back to normal by Jan. 14, as political parties agreed to form a parliamentary subcommittee to assure there would be no privatization of the firm. The labor union of Korea Railroad Corp. returned to work on Tuesday after ending its 22-day strike in protest of the government’s plan to set up an affiliate to run a new bullet train service. The union claims the plan is a step toward privatization of the firm that cou

Politics Jan. 2, 2014

South Korea’s largest ecological park will open on Jan. 2 to boost public awareness of the environment and biodiversity, officials said Wednesday.The state-run National Institute of Ecology in Seocheon, South Chungcheong Province, will display some 46,000 specimens from 4,500 plant species and 4,200 specimens from 240 animal species in its Ecorium exhibition center. Some 326.4 billion won ($308 million) has been spent on the construction of the facility on a 1 million-square-kilometer plot of la

National Dec. 25, 2013

Korea will allow about 53,000 migrant workers under the non-professional employment (E-9) visa next year, an increase of 3,000 from this year, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said Sunday.The figure includes about 5,600 workers with a reentry visa under the government’s foreign work permit system. They will be assigned largely to the manufacturing, construction, agriculture and fishing industries, which are suffering a worsening labor shortage. Some 17,000 foreign employees will return to th

Social Affairs Dec. 22, 2013

Police on Thursday detained a railway strike leader and raided four union offices across the country in an investigation of the “illegal” walkout. About 15,000 train service workers escalated their protest in a massive rally in Seoul demanding the cancellation of what they call the “privatization” plot and a halt to the police clampdown on unionists. A union member identified by the last name Yoon was taken into custody on charges of hampering business with an illegal strike. The court issued wa

Social Affairs Dec. 19, 2013

Thousands of truck drivers are likely to join the ongoing strike by railway workers soon, a move that could cripple the nation’s cargo transport and port operations.In a news conference Wednesday, the Korea Cargo Transport Workers’ Union pledged to refuse to deliver cargo in protest of the government’s clampdown on railway strikers.Police began manhunts for 10 strike leaders Monday with court warrants for detainment. Police said Wednesday it planned to request warrants for an additional 18 union

Social Affairs Dec. 18, 2013

The government on Tuesday announced measures to better cope with harmful fine dust amid mounting criticism over its inaccurate forecasts in the past week. The Ministry of Environment is to have a taskforce of 12 experts from concerned ministries to release a fine dust forecast on a daily basis starting as early as next Monday, according to officials. The new plan came as smog blanketed much of the country in recent weeks. The smog level was way off from the calculation by the National Institute

National Dec. 10, 2013