South Korea, China and Japan have agreed to start joint research on ultrafine pollutants as part of a broad scientific cooperation to fight environmental problems.The chiefs of those three countries’ state-run environmental scientific institutes also agreed to add environmental disasters to the list of their ongoing joint projects, including climate change, yellow dust, harmful chemicals and water pollution. The 10th annual meeting was held in Nanjing, China, from Tuesday to Friday, with the par

National Nov. 10, 2013

The state-run Korea Environment Corp. won the International Green Apple Environment Award for the second consecutive year, KECO officials said Wednesday. The company was announced as the bronze award winner in Asia by the London-based Green Organization, with an real-time online system that monitors air pollutants from smokestacks at industrial sites. Named CleanSYS, the program collects data from installations on smokestacks and sends it to its control center. The corporation launched the syste

Social Affairs Nov. 6, 2013

South Korea’s largest ecological center officially launched last month to give a boost to ecological studies and enhance public awareness of environmental problems, according to officials from the Ministry of Environment.The National Institute of Ecology finally unveiled the long-awaited center named Ecorium, which occupies almost 1 square kilometer in Seocheon, a small town in South Chungcheong Province. Having been in temporary operation since March, inviting around 15,760 visitors, it will op

National Nov. 4, 2013

About 73 percent of working mothers in Korea are experiencing difficulty in balancing career and family despite government efforts to support women in the workplace, a poll showed Monday.According to a survey of 1,000 women in their 30s and 40s conducted by the Women’s Intercultural Network, the Misery Index for working moms reached 3.33 points on a scale of zero to five, up 0.29 points from last year. A reading closer to 5 indicates higher levels of stress. The organization analyzed the data by

Social Affairs Oct. 29, 2013

A 22-year-old woman who had been in a coma for nine days after a cosmetic surgery procedure died Saturday, police in Busan said.The college student only identified by her last name Kim received facial bone contouring surgery for more than five and a half hours on Oct. 7. She was found unconscious by a nurse in the hospital’s recovery room that evening and immediately moved to a nearby general hospital.Investigators said they found no wounds other than those from the cosmetic surgery. An investig

Social Affairs Oct. 27, 2013

The Ministry of Education has ordered regional educational offices to take measures to return the full-time officials of the recently delegalized progressive teachers’ union to their respective schools within 30 days. The government will take disciplinary measures including dismissal, to those who refuse to return within the given time.The Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union was stripped of its 14 years of status as an industrial trade union on Thursday after it refused the government o

National Oct. 27, 2013

The government’s move leading to the delegalization of the country’s largest teachers’ union could infringe upon its freedom of association, the head of the human rights watchdog said Tuesday.“We already advised the government that weaker disciplinary action should be considered in this case,” Hyun Byung-chul, the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, said in a statement.Hyun’s statement was released the day before the deadline of the ultimatum provided by the Labor Minis

Social Affairs Oct. 23, 2013

Lawmakers on Monday raised concerns about worsening water quality and environmental damage at the nation’s four major rivers after a massive project of dredging, damming and straightening up the waterways under the former Lee Myung-bak administration. At the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee’s parliamentary audit, the main opposition Democratic Party members blamed the 22.2 trillion won river project for the ecological deterioration at the Hangang, Nakdonggang, Youngsangang and

National Oct. 21, 2013

At least 28 people were injured and 16 were detained in a three-day clash between police and protestors fighting over the construction of 52 electricity towers in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province.The state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation has been pushing ahead with the construction since Wednesday, at the first five of the planned construction sites in Danjang-myeon, Sanoe-myeon, Sangdong-myeon and Bubuk-myeon. Three were hurt on Friday while power corporation officials tried to break thr

Social Affairs Oct. 4, 2013

WASHINGTON, (AFP) ― Many people hospitalized in intensive care for conditions like a heart attack face lasting mental deficits similar to traumatic brain injury, US researchers said Wednesday, urging families to push for minimal sedation.The problem is “very common,” with a condition known as delirium affecting about three-quarters of those treated in the ICU and subsequent brain damage enduring for at least a year in up to one in three of them, said the study in the New England Journal of Medic

Technology Oct. 3, 2013