China has made a “terrible strategic error” by failing to rein in North Korea, a former U.S. Forces Korea commander said Monday, stressing the need for it to assume a responsible role for regional peace and stability.In a meeting with reporters in Seoul, Burwell B. Bell, who served as USFK commander from February 2006-June 2008, also said that the risk of military provocations by the North remains

Opposition says president’s call for patience an attempt to derail fee reductionsParties in Tuesday’s parliamentary education committee general meeting quarreled over the president’s call for more time on the controversial university tuition fee cuts.Lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party accused the presidential office of attempting to pressure the National Assembly to abandon their mo

The government will recommend that all primary and secondary schools adopt the five-day school week starting next year.Currently, local schools rest every second and fourth Saturday in a month. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Tuesday that a pilot program will start at some schools in the second half this year as the new measure is likely to affect the pattern of family life

Protests over tuition cuts signal partisan race to woo voters with populist policiesOpposition leader Sohn Hak-kyu hoped that his party’s plan to cut college tuition fees would appeal to students when he attended their rally early last week.“I am not here to add fuel to your anger but to share your concerns,” Sohn told about 200 university students holding a candlelight vigil in downtown Seoul for

POSCO opened its first overseas thick-plate processing center in China on Tuesday. These are steel plates thicker than 6 millimeters used in shipbuilding and heavy equipment production.The center, POSCO-China Dalian Plate Processing Center or POSCO-CDPPC, is located on Changxing Island of the coast of Dalian in Liaoning province, Northeast China. “China was chosen for the site of the company’s fir

Korea plans to develop unmanned boats for maritime research and surveillance by investing 20 billion won ($18.5 million) over the next five years, the government said Tuesday.The automated boats will sail at a speed of up to 90 kilometers per hour within a 16 kilometers radius and avoid collisions with other vessels or obstacles, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said in a state

Samsung Electronics announced on Tuesday that it has begun its London Olympics promotion campaign. The promotion campaign sponsored by Samsung Electronics, which is the event’s official mobile telecom sponsor, will be held under the theme “Everyone’s Olympic Games.”The company also began the process of selecting the runners for the torch relay. Samsung Electronics plans to select young people from

Trend is likely to continue, hurting economic competitiveness Core productiveThe most productive workforce aged between 25 and 49 has begun shrinking for the first time in recorded history, data showed on Tuesday, marking a trend likely to continue and weigh down on competitiveness of the economy.The Statistics Korea said the core productive population stood at 19.54 million as of end-2010, down 3