A Seoul court said Korean Railroad Corp. should be held accountable for the death of a man after it failed to take necessary safety measures. The Seoul Central District Court ordered KORAIL to pay 76 million won ($70,000) in damages to compensate the man’s family. The verdict is based on the fact that the death of the victim was linked to the absence of safety doors on the platform. While making a phone call and texting, the man, who was intoxicated, slipped and fell onto the tracks at Yangsu St

A total of 30 subway stations in the capital city of Seoul contained higher-than-allowed levels of cancer-causing substances over the last decade, the municipal government said Monday. The city’s regular checks between 1998 and 2004 found that the level of radon in 30 out of 285 stations in Seoul from Line No. 1 through 7, including Gwanghwamun Station in downtown Seoul, exceeded the standard of 4 picocuries at least once, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government.A picocurie is one trillio

The country’s chief economic policymaker and top financial regulators should resign over the recent unprecedented theft of confidential data of 20 million people, a leading civic group demanded Monday.Early this month, the Financial Services Commission, the country’s financial regulator, revealed that some 20 million card and bank users’ personal data, including bank account numbers, addresses and credit ratings, had been leaked from KB Kookmin, Nonghyup and Lotte. A leak also occurred at a bank

Tension escalated over the state-run health insurance agency’s planned lawsuit against cigarette makers, as tobacco firms criticized the plan as an attempt to solve budget issues.The Korea Tobacco Association, a group of tobacco companies here, said Saturday that the plan would have “little legal merit” and is being planned to force taxpayers to pay extra money for health care costs.“Litigation against a lawful and highly taxed industry is a reckless attempt to solve the National Health Insuranc

Samsung Group’s new recruitment program has come under fire as it allegedly puts students from a few favored universities and particular regions at an advantage.According to reports, Samsung, one of the most coveted workplaces in South Korea, has recently notified about 200 universities the number of students they can each recommend as prospective applicants for the company’s recruitment process.Samsung has asked the universities to select a total of 5,000 students, but the number differs at eac

A former sex slave for Japanese troops during World War II died Sunday, bringing the total number of living South Korean victims of the atrocity to 55.Hwang Kum-ja died of old age at a hospital in Seoul, an activist group said. She was 90.Hwang, who was born in 1924, was forced into a glass factory at age 13 and then transferred to China for sexual slavery three years later. She came back home after Korea was freed from the 1910-45 colonial rule but lived alone for the rest of her life.Hwang mad

A veteran chief judge of a local court was nominated to become a Supreme Court justice Saturday, the top court's officials said.They said Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae has picked Cho Hee-dae, the top judge at the Daegu District Court, as the candidate to replace outgoing Supreme Court justice Cha Han-sung.Cho, 56, became a judge in Seoul in 1986. The Supreme Court said Cho beat out four others to earn his candidacy. The nomination is pending approval by President Park Geun-hye, follo

A national interest group for tobacco companies said Saturday it was "disappointed" with a public agency's plan to sue cigarette manufacturers, calling the move a misguided attempt to solve budget issues.In an English-language statement, the Korea Tobacco Association (KTA) said the tentative decision by the state-run National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) to file a suit against the tobacco industry "with little legal merit"  wouldn't be in the best interest of taxpayers.The NHIS said on Friday

A body part of a woman believed to have been murdered was found in a reservoir in Naju, South Jeolla Province, Thursday. The discovery came after a local taxi driver identified by the surname Jeong revealed he had killed a woman and then set himself on fire Thursday night. He’s now in critical condition. According to the police, the 48-year-old suspect told his grandmother that he had killed and buried the woman’s body before apparently committing suicide.Jeong, who was recently divorced, report

NHIS faces hurdles as Health and Welfare Ministry remains cautious

Feuds between labor and management escalated Thursday as the government said it would exclude regular bonuses paid only to employees currently at work from ordinary wages.The Ministry of Labor issued new guidelines for labor-management negotiation that would only count bonuses paid to all workers, including those on leave, as ordinary pay.The announcement came a month after a landmark ruling by the nation’s top court that ordered that regular bonuses be classified as part of ordinary wages. The