A National Intelligence Service agent and a collaborator were indicted Monday as a probe into allegations of evidence forgery neared its end. The NIS agent and the collaborator, both surnamed Kim, are accused of forging the document supposedly issued by the customs authorities in the Chinese city of Sanhe. The document is one of three allegedly forged pieces of evidence submitted by the prosecution to appeal Yoo Woo-seong’s acquittal in the ongoing espionage case. The spy agency official is also

Foreigners who marry Korean citizens will be required to have at least basic Korean language ability in order to legally stay in the country, the government said Monday.The Ministry of Justice said it will put into force toughened requirements for issuing F-6 visas for marriage immigrants, which are intended to guarantee stability in living arrangements and also to help authorities better deal with their growing number.Under the revised rules set to go into effect on Tuesday, foreigners wanting

Seoul National University said Monday it had decided to remove a music professor from his post after investigating a claim that he had sexually harassed a female student.The university said its ethics commission and the SNU Human Rights Center conducted an investigation into the allegations, and concluded that the professor, surnamed Park, had acted in a way that “smeared his dignity as a member of SNU.”An SNU official said the school requested a heavy punishment for Park, including expulsion fr

The Seoul municipal government said Monday it will create massive forests along the Hangang River, which flows through the South Korean capital city, by 2030 as part of efforts to restore its ecological system and improve water quality.Under the comprehensive plan to create desirable environments on and surrounding the river, the Seoul Metropolitan Government will create a total of 13 forests on the banks along the river over the next 15 years. The forests will have a combined area of 1.04 milli

The South Korean government may introduce a new employment system with working hours of as little as one hour per day as part of the effort to meet its employment rate goal, a local daily reported Monday. According to reports, the Ministry of Employment and Labor is evaluating the “ultraflexible work” system, which allows a person to work as little as one or two hours a day.The proposed system is modeled after the U.K.’s “Slivers-of-Time” project and Japan’s part-time market, which utilizes part

A South Korean actress on Monday attended a closed court hearing to claim innocence in regard to prostitution charges.Sung Hyun-ah, 40, was summarily indicted in December 2013 for allegedly receiving 50 million won ($47,000) from a wealthy businessman in return for sexual favors four years ago. She countersued the following month.The actress walked into the Suwon District Court in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, at around 3 p.m., without responding to reporters’ questions. “Sung consistently pleaded h

Foreigners who marry Korean citizens will be required to have at least basic Korean language ability in order to legally stay in the country, the government said Monday.The Ministry of Justice said it will put into force toughened requirements for issuing F-6 visas for marriage immigrants, which are intended to guarantee stability in living arrangements and also to help authorities better deal with their growing number.Under the revised rules set to go into effect on Tuesday, foreigners wanting

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies on Sunday faced opposition from its alumni and students over a plan to erect a statue of its founder, who is suspected of aiding Japan during its 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea.HUFS recently notified its alumni that the university will unveil a statue of Kim Heung-bae, the school’s founder, during the university’s 60th anniversary on April 18. But some of the school’s alumni have said the university should abandon its plan for the statue. They said Kim was on

A survey of businesses that hire part-time teenage workers has found that more than two-thirds violate labor laws.Labor law breaches were found at 69 percent of the 939 employers surveyed. Nearly 1,500 violations were found, including delayed payment and paying below minimum wage, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s survey, which was held from Jan. 15-Feb. 8 and released Sunday. Businesses that do not specify working conditions in labor contracts made up the largest share, at 41.

A senior judge in South Korea's southern city of Gwangju offered to resign Saturday, holding himself accountable for the much-criticized ruling that valued a day's prison labor by a former tycoon at 500 million won (US$467,726).The ruling by Chang Byong-woo, the chief of the Gwangju District Court, caused an angry uproar across the country, as it would have allowed Huh Jae-ho, 72, the former chairman of the now-defunct Daeju Group, to pay off his fines of 25.4 billion won through a mere 50 days