Kindergarten teachers who are caught abusing children will face stronger punishment such as a 10-year ban on establishing or working at childcare centers, the ruling party said Thursday.The measures, announced by the government earlier this month, plan to be introduced into law before the end of this year, the Saenuri Party said in a press release following a meeting with relevant government officials.The current punishment for child abuse is a maximum three-year ban on establishing or working a

The Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that allowing only female students to enroll at law schools run by women-only universities is constitutional.In 2008, the government approved a total of 25 local universities, including Ewha Womans University in Seoul, to create U.S.-style three-year law schools. Ewha Womans University Law School has since annually admitted 100 female students.Soon after that decision, two male law-student hopefuls filed a petition with the court, arguing that the female-o

Samsung Electronic Co. vice chairman Lee Jay-yong publicly apologized on Thursday for a controversy involving his son’s admission to the Younghoon International Middle School.“I am sorry for causing public concern involving my son’s school admission,” said Lee, heir-apparent to Korea’s largest conglomerate Samsung Group. “I think it is right for my son to leave the school.Lee’s 13-year-old son did not show up at Younghoon on Wednesday. Disputes arose in January over his admission to the elite in

A gas leak at a Seoul university Wednesday caused for more than 2,000 people to be evacuated, according to police investigators.  No casualties were reported.The leak was reported just past 4:20 p.m. at Sejong University in eastern Seoul, investigators said.About 1.5 kilograms of liquid boron tribromide, known as BBr3, had leaked in the form of a gas after being exposed to air during an experiment with solar panels in a laboratory, they said. BBr3 is colorless but has a pungent odor and can caus

Prosecutors investigating admissions fraud at Younghoon International Middle school detained the school’s administration official on bribe charges Wednesday.The official surnamed Lim is suspected of receiving money from parents to admit some unqualified students.The investigators raided 16 places related to the school foundation including the chairman’s home, offices and other affiliated primary and secondary schools.The school in northern Seoul first came under fire after it was revealed earlie

Korea Electric Power Corp. agreed to halt work on high-voltage transmission towers in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, on Wednesday while a group of experts reviews alternative plans. The company and residents accepted the parliamentary Trade, Industry and Energy Committee’s mediation measures. The nine-member group ― consisting of experts picked by the residents, KEPCO and the National Assembly ― will review various alternatives for 40 days.The panel will give priority to plans for circumven

The South Korean Army has launched an investigation into allegations that a senior male cadet sexually assaulted a junior female officer cadet under the influence of alcohol on campus during a festival last week, military officials said Wednesday.Last Wednesday, about 30 students and professors at the Korea Military Academy had lunch and drank alcohol after a sports event earlier in the day to celebrate Cadet Day. After a female sophomore drank too much and kept vomiting, the senior cadet brough

The prosecution on Tuesday raided the office of Younghoon International Middle School to secure evidence of alleged admission fraud. According to the investigation, dozens of officers at the Seoul Northern Prosecutors’ Office secured documents, computer files and other material around 3:30 p.m. The evidence is believed to support their suspicion that the school’s vice headmasters as well as teachers fabricated school records used in the initial application screening process in order to admit unq

The former chief of the nation’s main intelligence agency was questioned by prosecutors again over suspicions that he directed spy agents to influence public opinion ahead of last year’s presidential election, according to officials Tuesday.Won Sei-hoon, who headed the National Intelligence Service for about four years until early this year, is under suspicion of intervening in domestic politics by ordering agents to post a slew of politically sensitive comments on the Internet in order to sway

South Korea on Tuesday unveiled its first vehicle partly fueled by ammonia, an alternative to fossil fuel that produces no greenhouse gases.The vehicle, developed by the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), uses a mixture of ammonia and gasoline that is 70 percent ammonia, which reduces the car’s emissions of carbon dioxide by up to 70 percent, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, which produces only the two materials