The Korea Herald

Adultery website tests Korean law

Apr 7, 2014

Noel Biderman insists he has no problems sleeping at night after launching an adultery hook-up site in South Korea where marital infidelity is a crime punishable by up to two years in prison.Biderman is the CEO of Canada-based AshleyMadison.com ― slogan: “Life is short. Have an affair” ― which claims more than 25 million subscribers in 35 countries and launched in South Korea last month.Within a week, 46,000 people had signed up and Biderman said the company was targeting a membership of around
1 in 9 female patients say suffered sexual harassment

Apr 7, 2014

A survey of female patients has found that more than 10 percent felt sexually harassed while receiving medical treatment. Nearly 12 percent of adult female patients experienced sexual harassment in hospitals over the past five years, according to the Human Rights Law Foundation’s survey of 1,000 people aged 19-59. In the survey permitting multiple answers, a total of 255 cases of sexual harassment were documented. Having to take off clothing in an open area made up the largest share of complaint
Pay, working hours talks remain fractious

Apr 7, 2014

Political parties, businesses and labor unions have made little progress in closing the gap in their positions on key labor issues in the run-up to a public hearing this week. The subcommittee for the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee convened Monday to seek an agreement on ordinary wages and work hours, the biggest areas of contention dividing the management and labor circles.But pundits questioned whether the subcommittee would yield promising results, given their differences
Prosecution reopens probe of spy suspect

Apr 7, 2014

Espionage suspect Yoo Woo-seong has come under criminal investigation again, with the prosecution reopening the four-year old case against the former Seoul Metropolitan Government official. Yoo, a North Korean-Chinese who came to South Korea in 2004, is on trial for charges of spying for Pyongyang. He is also being investigated for fraud after a North Korean defectors’ group claimed he fraudulently received subsidies for North Korean defectors. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office is r
Seoul police to compensate for property damage

Apr 7, 2014

Police officers will now have to think twice before kicking down doors and breaking windows in pursuit of thieves, as a revised law will require them to pay for the damage they cause, the Seoul police said Monday.The revision to the Act on the Performance of Duties by Police Officers requires the police to pay for damage caused while performing official duties, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. The changes, which went into effect Sunday, detail the requirements, amount, and paym
Korea may allow hotels near schools

Apr 7, 2014

Seoul education officials on Monday had suggested that the government allow some hotels without adult entertainment establishments to be built near schools.The proposal by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education focuses on specifying what hotels would be exempted from the ban under the government’s proposed revision of the Tourism Promotion Law. For example, “tourist hotels” would be subcategorized into “business tourist hotels” without adult facilities, and ones with such establishments.The
‘Investment in mental disease research low’

Apr 7, 2014

South Korea’s investment in mental illness research remains low despite the increasing social and economic burden such diseases pose, a report showed Monday. According to the government-affiliated Korea Health Industry Development Institute, public subsidies for studies of mental illness remained at one-ninth the level of support for cancer studies in 2012 ― 30 billion won ($28 million) ― while the financial burden of mental disease was 80 percent higher than that of cancer. Mental illnesses are
Nearly half of Koreans willing to donate organs

Apr 7, 2014

Almost half of Koreans are willing to donate their organs, but the actual registration rate remains low, a survey showed Monday. According to a two-month survey conducted by the state-run Korean Network for Organ Sharing, 47.7 percent of some 1,000 respondents said they were interested in organ donation. The rest said they were not willing to do so. Of those who expressed interest, only 15 percent were actually registered for organ donation. Over 40 percent said they were hesitant to make a move
Oil leak at S-Oil's Ulsan refinery extends three days

Apr 7, 2014

An oil leak at a storage facility belonging to S-Oil Corp., South Korea's third largestrefiner, continued for a third consecutive day Sunday, but was expected to be stopped before the end of the weekend, officials at Ulsan Metropolitan City Fire Department said.The leak began at about 3:30 p.m. on Friday after a mixer broke down in a tank storing 570,000 barrels of crude at the refiner's plant in Ulsan, a port city 410 kilometers southeast of Seoul, the officials said.As of 11 a.m. on Sunday, 13
Toddler’s murder reopens old wounds for Korean adoptees

Apr 6, 2014

Shannon Heit, 33, trembled with rage as she recalled the moment two months ago when she heard that a Korean boy had been killed by his adoptive father in the U.S.Heit, a freelance translator in Seoul, is not related to the boy. But she said that, as a Korean-American adoptee herself, she felt a deep connection to him, and a greater pain.Hyunsu O’Callaghan, 3, died on Feb. 3 at a children’s hospital in Maryland, just four months after he was adopted by an American couple. Brian O’Callaghan, the b
Spy suspect’s lawyer investigated for defamation

Apr 6, 2014

The prosecutors’ office is to investigate spy suspect Yoo Woo-seong’s lawyer Chang Kyung-wook for alleged defamation and contempt of court.On Thursday, the North Korea defectors’ group Youth Forum of North Korea Democratization filed a complaint against Chang over comments he made during Yoo’s hearing on March 28. Yoo is a former Seoul city official of North Korean-Chinese decent suspected of spying for Pyongyang. At the time of the hearing, the prosecution had asked to be allowed more time to c
Search for 11 N.K. sailors continues off southern coast

Apr 6, 2014

South Korean authorities continued to face difficulties on Sunday in locating 11 North Korean crew of a sunken Mongolian freighter despite locating its wreckage.The ship, Grand Fortune 1 crewed by 16 North Koreans, sunk 34 kilometers off the southern port city of Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, on Friday. The South Korean Coast Guard rescued three and recovered the bodies of two sailors on the same day. The rescued sailors and the bodies were returned to North Korea through the Panmunjeom truce vi
Refiner wraps up Ulsan oil spill cleanup

Apr 6, 2014

South Korea’s third-largest oil refiner S-Oil on Sunday finished the four-day cleanup work for the spill that occurred at a storage tank in Ulsan. About 138,000 barrels, or 21.9 million liters, of crude oil spewed from the tank since Friday after a mixer within the facility went off course, S-Oil officials said in a statement. Three-meter-deep concrete dikes surrounding the tank prevented the oil from flowing into the sea.As of Sunday afternoon, 381,000 barrels of crude oil remaining in the tank
Man found guilty of raping and impregnating coworker

Apr 6, 2014

A man was put behind bars for raping an intoxicated female coworker and impregnating her, the Suwon court said Sunday. A 24-year-old man surnamed Lee was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for rape of his 25-year-old colleague. He was also ordered to complete 40 hours of counseling and treatment, and his personal information will be made available online for three years.Lee was accused of taking the victim to a motel near Osan Station last year and raping her, under the pretenses th
Seoul to set up ‘bug hotels’

Apr 6, 2014

Seoul Metropolitan Government unveiled Sunday a plan to build what it calls “insect hotels” to create places where bugs can seek refuge.Seoul plans to build and place 27 structures designed to house bugs across the city to help protect bugs from the reckless spread of insecticide. The 80-by-185 centimeter wooden constructions will be made mostly of scrap wood. Carpenter shops in Seodaemun-gu and Dobong-gu districts will be in charge of building them.The bug hotels will host a variety of insects,