Prime Minister Chung Hong-won instructed officials Tuesday to devise ways to prevent recently discovered meteorites from being taken out of the country to better preserve them for research purposes, his office said.His order came after the Korean Polar Research Institute confirmed earlier this week that two pieces of rock found last week some two days after a meteor shower in Jinju, some 434 kilometers south of Seoul, had come from space."As meteorites are precious materials for space research,

President Park Geun-hye has ordered officials to postpone a Cabinet meeting on regulatory reforms amid reports that she was unhappy with deregulation measures proposed by her economic team.Park was to preside over the first round of the meeting on Monday, but Cheong Wa Dae said late Sunday evening that it would hold the meeting on Thursday to better accommodate demands from the private sector. The meeting is aimed at seeking ways to implement a series of regulatory reforms, a key part of her thr

South Korean prosecutors have indicted a Korean-American English teacher for buying illegal drugs through Bitcoin, marking the first criminal case with which the controversial virtual currency has been involved. The 30-year-old suspect surnamed Jeong is accused of buying nearly 130 ecstasy pills using Bitcoin, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said Monday. The English teacher is said to have used $480 of the cryptocurrency to make the online purchase in January at his home in Gangna

South Korea’s employment rate has surged to the highest level in 12 years, largely driven by a huge return of economically inactive middle-aged workers to employment, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said Monday.The ministry said in its labor report that 767,000 people had been newly employed in January and February, marking the fastest growth since March 2002.Authorities note that the growing participation of economically inactive people in the job market ― those that have either chosen not

Reports of what initially appeared to be an incendiary device placed at a Seoul subway station caused citizens to run out of harm’s way and disrupted subway operations for nearly three hours on Monday.Police confirmed that the device in a black briefcase was not an explosive. The briefcase was found at around 2:15 p.m. at Gangnam-gu District Office Station linking two major subway lines.“We opened the briefcase and found clothes and metal hangers, which at first, seemed to be a detonator through

More young Korean women see marriage as an option, a study showed on Monday.According to a survey by The Herald Business, about 45.5 percent of the 264 freshmen questioned at Duksung Women’s University said marriage is not a must, five percentage points higher than in a similar survey conducted on women in their 20s and 30s last month.More than 39 percent of the students who said marriage is optional answered that they want to “bet on their life for social success,” followed by 16.6 percent sayi

Seoul City’s push to ease development restrictions in a traditional culture district is creating concerns among those who want to protect the area against possible runaway commercialization projects. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Sunday that it would introduce a new rule to soften business restrictions in Insa-dong, a sightseeing area packed with traditional craft shops, art galleries and restaurants.In 2002, authorities designated certain areas in Jongno-gu, totaling 120,000 square met

The Education Ministry is seeking a legal amendment to ban sex offenders from working at universities and colleges amid a public furor over a local university’s decision to retain a sex offender in their faculty. A high-ranking ministry official said Sunday the government will push to revise the law protecting minors to ban those convicted of sex crimes from being hired at universities or colleges. The current law, revised in 2009, prevents the offenders from working at educational facilities su

A South Korean intelligence agency official was arrested on charges of forging official documents for the spy agency's pursuit of an espionage case against a North Korean defector, prosecutors said Sunday.The spy agency official, only known by his surname Kim, was arrested a day earlier upon the issuance of an arrest warrant from a Seoul court, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said. He is now under interrogation, it said.Kim has been at the center of the snowballing scandal over th

South Korea's science institute confirmed Sunday that rocks discovered last week in the country's southern region were meteorites and asked the government to make sure they are not taken out of the country.The Korea Polar Research Institute classified the two rocks found in Jinju, 434 kilometers south of Seoul, as "ordinary chondrite" of high iron composition. Given the proximity of where they were found and similarity in composition, the institute believes that they are from the same rock."Ther

North Korea has turned to active online advertising to attract more foreign tourists to its scenic mountain resort, which observers say is apparently linked to its efforts to earn much-needed hard currency.The Korea International Travel Company, the North's state-run tourist operator, said on its website Sunday that the number of tourists from European and Asian countries to Mount Geumgangsan is on the rise."(Foreign tourists) have constantly expressed admiration and praised Mt. Geumgangsan," on

The remains of more than 400 Chinese soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War will return home from South Korea next week for permanent burial, a diplomatic source said Sunday.The remains will be brought home by plane on March 28 and buried at a state cemetery in China's northern city of Shenyang, the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity."Chinese authorities in Shenyang plan to hold a ceremony on March 28 and bury the remains at one of state cemeteries," the source said.Durin