The government plans to increase its support for small and medium enterprises to create jobs next year including 37,000 part-time positions, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said Sunday. The government has set aside about 11.8 trillion won ($11 billion) of its proposed 357.7 trillion won budget for next year to help create jobs as part of the Park Geun-hye administration’s goal of raising the employment rate to 70 percent by 2017 from the current 64.2 percent. Spending for job provision will

An appeals court has lowered the sentence for a South Korean man charged with making an unauthorized visit to North Korea after finding him not guilty of paying his respect to late North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, a court official said Sunday.The defendant, identified only by his surname Cho, 54, made the visit to the North via Germany, Japan and China in 1995, and attended a series of events, including paying homage at Pyongyang's Kumsusan Palace, where the embalmed body of the country's found

The halt of nuclear reactors due to malfunctions and a corruption scandal exposed this year are expected to cost nearly 3 trillion won ($2.79 billion) in taxpayers' money, an opposition legislator said Sunday.Already, the halt of nine nuclear reactors this year has caused a loss of some 2.85 trillion won for the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), according to Rep. Park Wan-joo of the main opposition Democratic Party.Such a loss was prompted as KEPCO, the country's sole power supplier,

The number of employed citizens in Seoul aged 55 or older has risen more than 75 percent over the last 12 years, City Hall statistics showed Sunday, an indication that older people have become more active rather than basking in retirement.Older people who are employed in Seoul totaled 956,000 last year, up 75.4 percent from just 545,000 in 2000. Last year's figure is higher than the number of employed citizens aged between 15-29. Younger people in employment fell to 903,000 last year from 1.29 m

The ruling Saenuri Party lawmakers are pushing to introduce an iris recognition system for foreign visitors as part of the efforts to strengthen immigration control. “Some developed countries in Europe easily manage immigration by requiring far more information from foreign visitors,” said Rep. Kwon Seong-dong.Under the current regulation, only fingerprints and overall facial features are recorded as foreigners enter the country. The lawmakers said the new system should also include foreign refu

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III will make a state visit to South Korea next month for talks with President Park Geun-hye about expanding economic cooperation and exchanges, the presidential office said Friday.The Oct. 17-18 visit will be Aquino’s first to South Korea since he took office in June 2010. The trip will also make him the first foreign leader to make a state visit to Seoul since Park took office in February.Park and Aquino will hold a summit on Oct. 17 to discuss boosting coop

South Korea and the U.S. will hold their annual high-level defense meeting in Seoul next Wednesday, where the proposed delay in the transfer of wartime operational control is expected to top the agenda.U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is to arrive here on Sunday for a four-day visit during which he will also preside over a change-of-command ceremony at the U.S. Forces Korea headquarters in Seoul next Wednesday. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti will replace Gen. James D. Thurman.During the Security Cons

The Justice Ministry said Friday it has advised Cheong Wa Dae to accept the pending resignation by prosecutor general Chae Dong-wook, saying they have secured testimonies and circumstantial evidence to suspect he has engaged in an extramarital affair.In an emergency press conference, the ministry claimed that they discovered Chae to have frequented the woman in question identified as Im at her caf in Busan and a restaurant in Seoul over a long period of time. Im allegedly called herself Chae’s w

A 45-year-old South Korean man was charged without detention for allegedly chasing and threatening a student with a deadly weapon, the police said on Friday.According to Gwangjin District police, the suspect was trying to scold a group of students who were smoking and making loud noises on the street near his house in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, around 9 p.m. Thursday.“I tried to warn them but I lost my temper and brought the knife as the students snapped at me,” the suspect said during an investigation

A South Korean appeals court on Friday upheld a four-year prison term imposed on the head of the country's third-largest conglomerate, SK Group, for embezzling company funds.Chey Tae-won, 53, was found guilty of embezzling nearly 50 billion won (US$45 million) from two SK Group affiliates and funneling the funds to make personal investments in stock futures and options in 2008.In the same ruling, the Seoul High Court overturned an acquittal of Chey Jae-won, the chairman's younger brother and the

President Park Geun-hye apologized again Friday for scaling back her election promise to give a monthly allowance to all senior citizens as the opposition stepped up criticism that she deceived voters with a false promise."I am truly regretful and apologetic that we could not help but make a revision (to the pension promise) without giving it to all the people as originally planned," Park said during a lunch meeting with representatives of senior citizens on the occasion of next week's Senior Ci

The nation’s top court on Thursday reversed a lower court’s ruling on Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn for embezzlement and sent the case back for a retrial.The Supreme Court said the Seoul High Court should reconsider its verdict of a three-year prison term and a fine of 5.1 billion won ($4.51 million) delivered to the 61-year-old tycoon. It said the appellate court did not properly judge some of the charges against him.Kim was indicted on charges of using company money to pay back debts of