Two South Korean male filmmakers tied the knot in central Seoul Saturday, marking the first public wedding in the country for a gay couple.Film director and producer Kimjo Gwang-soo, 48, and 29-year-old Kim Seung-hwan, the head of gay film distributor Rainbow Factory, got married on a temporary stage built near Cheonggye Stream with about 1,000 guests and citizens in attendance.South Korea does not legally recognize gay marriages."I found out I was gay when I was 15 and I prayed to God everyday

The chief prosecutor on Friday denied a news report as “groundless” that he has a child born out of an extramarital affair. The Chosun Ilbo reported that Prosecutor General Chae Dong-wook has a son who was born in 2002. It claimed Chae first met the mother of the child in 1999.“I’ve never heard of that,” Chae told reporters. Chae and his wife have a daughter.He says that given the timing of the report there seems to be an intention to sway the prosecution over various ongoing politically sensiti

A brother-in-law of disgraced former President Chun Doo-hwan will stand trial on tax evasion charges, state prosecutors said Friday.Lee Chang-seok was indicted on a charge of evading taxes worth 6 billion won (US$5.4 million) and formally detained pending trial, they said.He is the first relative of the former president ever to stand trial since prosecutors restarted efforts to reclaim hidden assets of the former military dictator who was convicted of taking bribes while in office in the 1980s.C

The ruling Saenuri Party on Friday submitted a motion to expel leftist Rep. Lee Seok-ki, who was arrested Thursday for allegedly plotting an armed revolt and forming an illegal organization against South Korea. High-level Saenuri officials also urged the government to petition the Constitutional Court to consider the disbandment of Lee’s Unified Progressive Party.“I urge (the government) to request the Constitutional Court to disband the UPP,” Saenuri Party secretary-general Rep. Hong Moon-jong

South and North Korea restored a military hotline along the west coast on Friday to coordinate cross-border travel as the two sides work toward reopening a shuttered joint industrial park.Shortly before 11:00 a.m., a South Korean liaison officer at the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine office spoke with his North Korean counterpart over the phone to test the telephone lines, a senior official at the defense ministry said.The military hotline had been used to provide safe passage for South Kore

Suicide rates among people aged 60 and over in Korea have risen steadily over the last four years, a report showed Thursday.A total of 5,151 elderly people took their own lives in 2011, up nearly 28 percent from 4,029 in 2008, according to National Police Agency data released by Rep. Kim Hyun of the Democratic Party.The report showed that the total number of suicides in Korea has also risen steadily from 12,270 in 2008 to 14,722 in 2009, 14,779 in 2010 and 15,681 in 2011. Of the total 57,452 peo

The number of smoking violations in public areas in Seoul reached 431 cases this year, almost double that of last year, a city official said Thursday. The Seoul City government has designated three public spots including Seoul Plaza as nonsmoking zones since 2011 with fines of 100,000 won ($91.60) for violators. The number of smoking violations at bus stops also increased to 583 as of July, nearly equal to the total in all of 2012. The cases in areas governed by district offices also rose to 11,

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Thursday that it established a 100 billion won ($91 million) fund to help the nation’s struggling pharmaceutical industry make inroads into global markets.The fund will be spent on encouraging local drugmakers to develop new products, promote sales and expand production capacity, officials said. The ministry has offered 20 billion won to the fund with other state-run financial institutions joining in the investment. “The government-led fund is created to i

A controversial documentary on the 2010 sinking of the South Korean warship was released nationwide on Thursday after a local court rejected the Navy's request for an injunction against what it called defamatory content."Project Cheonan Ship," which is directed by independent filmmaker Baek Seung-woo and produced by Chung Ji-young, challenges a multinational investigation team's conclusion that North Korea is responsible for torpedoing the Navy vessel Cheonan in the western sea on March 26, 2010

South Korea’s human rights watchdog said Wednesday it has recommended a military academy to ease the ban on dating among freshmen cadets, saying the excessive regulation constitutes “discrimination.” Currently, the Korea Air Force Academy bans romantic relationships among novice cadets to tighten regulations on the students who are required to endure rigorous and disciplined military lifestyle. Violators are subject to heavy punishment. The rule was challenged by an Air Force cadet when he filed