South Korean diplomats in Washington expect the local police to conclude a sexual abuse investigation into former presidential spokesperson Yoon Chang-jung as early as this month, a report said Monday. Yoon is alleged to have inappropriately touched a South Korean embassy intern at a local bar and later to have called her to his hotel room during President Park Geun-hye’s visit to the U.S. in May. He was initially accused of misdemeanor sexual abuse.South Korean Embassy officials told Yonhap New

An advisory panel on the government’s new pension scheme for elderly citizens ended four months of discussions without reaching consensus on major issues. The committee, consisting of representatives from the government, civic groups, labor and business, decided to implement the new pension system from July next year, but not for all elderly citizens. The government will use taxpayers’ money to support the elderly, officials said after the meeting. But they failed to reach agreement on who shoul

An independent human rights body called on the government Monday to overhaul the existing law on immigration to prevent children of immigrants living here illegally from being deported without due regard to their right to education.The National Human Rights Commission made the request to Justice Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn after a 17-year-old boy surnamed Kim from Mongolia was forcibly repatriated to his home country last November, a move condemned by human rights activists as a violation of the Unit

The potential compensation payouts for people aboard Asiana Airlines Flight 214 will probably be very different for Americans and passengers from other countries, even if they were seated side by side as the South Korean jetliner crash-landed.An international treaty governs compensation to passengers harmed by international air travel. The pact is likely to close U.S. courts to many foreigners and force them to pursue their claims in Asia and elsewhere, where lawsuits are rarer, harder to win an

The government is planning to require all public schools specify the amount of salt in school meals starting next year in order to reduce the risk of obesity and diabetes among students.The Education Ministry announced Sunday that it would regulate all school meals and monitor the amount of salt they contain, as part of efforts to reduce students’ salt consumption by more than 20 percent.The current average sodium intake from a school lunch is 928 milligrams ― equivalent to about 2.35 grams of s

Localized heavy downpours battered regions north of Seoul Sunday, flooding homes and roads, and knocking down a section of the wire fence on the border with North Korea. Two people were killed after being swept away in swollen streams, officials said.Up to 272 millimeters of rain fell in northern parts of Gyeonggi Province between Saturday and Sunday alone, with Yeoncheon County near the border with North Korea receiving nearly 100 mm of rain in about an hour from between 6 a.m., officials said.

South Korea's vice foreign minister is expected to visit Japan next week, during which he may possibly discuss a  summit  between the two countries, diplomatic sources said Saturday.Kim Kyou-hyun, Seoul's first vice minister for foreign affairs, plans to visit Tokyo for the opening ceremony Thursday of a new building for the South Korean embassy there.Kim is expected to use the occasion to meet with his Japanese counterpart, Akitaka Saiki, and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said the sou

South Korea's top court on Friday partly reversed a lower court ruling that said two U.S. producers of a toxic chemical should compensate most of the South Korean Vietnam War veterans who sued the firms for their exposure to the defoliant.Sending the case back for review, the Supreme Court said the Seoul High Court should reconsider its 2006 verdict of a combined63 billion won (US$61 million) in damages awarded to 6,795 South Koreans.In a ruling, the court did not recognize epidemiological corre