The government has come under fire for its ambiguity over whether to sing in unison the “March for My Beloved,” a 1980s pro-democracy protest song, during its ceremony marking the May 18 Democratic Uprising.Opposition politicians, civic groups and the families of the victims of the military crackdown on the 1980 civilian uprising in Gwangju denounced the government, saying any decision against the song would be tantamount to disregarding the lofty spirits of the democracy fighters. Some of them

1 million babies die the day they’re born, Save the Children says

Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to build a new type of public facility which provides life-long learning along with library services in Geumcheon-gu, southwestern Seoul. The city adopted the concept from the United Kingdom’s “Idea Store,” a one-stop location for various services including a child care center, conference room and adult education, departing from the traditional function of the public library. “The scale of the facility won’t be big as the one in London but we expect it to be h

Two people have been arrested on charges of selling and smoking marijuana, police said Monday.The two, including a 34-year-old member of a local indie band surnamed Shin, are suspected of collecting marijuana from a mountain in Jeongsun, Gangwon Province, and using the drug twice last October before selling it to four others, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) said. That quantity is enough for approximately 100 doses, officers at the SMPA said."An investigation shows that Shin collected

South Korea’s top court has upheld the conviction of a local man for kidnapping Korean tourists in the Philippines, court officials said Sunday.The 20-year-old kidnapper, only identified by his surname Kim, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiring with four Koreans to abduct nine Koreans who were on vacation in the Philippines between November 2010 and September 2011.“Kim, along with his accomplices, meticulously planned to lure the tourists. The method of his crime was cruel as he had

President Park Geun-hye on Saturday celebrated the reopening of the ancient gate that was destroyed in an arson attack more than five years ago, saying it will mark the path to a new era.Sungnyemun, built mainly out of wood, was severely damaged in early 2008 when an elderly man set it on fire in a grudge against the government.The gate in central Seoul, better known as Namdaemun, meaning "south gate" in Korean, and the nation's No. 1 treasure, was one of the four gates that surrounded Seoul, th

PAJU, Gyeonggi Province (Yonhap News) -- Hundreds of South Korean police officers stopped dozens of North Korean defectors and activists from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border via balloon on Saturday as North Korea warned of "unimaginable consequences."About 500 police officers prevented a truck carrying balloons and about 200,000 leaflets from accessing the defectors' launch site of Imjingak near the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.Police have vowed to cordon of

The prosecution is looking into up to nine websites to investigate accusations that the nation’s main intelligence agency attempted to influence public opinion on the Internet ahead of last year’s presidential election, officials said Friday.Allegations have been raised that the National Intelligence Service extensively and systemically meddled in the presidential election by using its agents to post a slew of politically sensitive comments against the opposition candidate on the Internet to swa

An American man suspected of sexually abusing minors in the United States has been arrested in South Korea after an eight-year-long international manhunt, police here said Friday.The 44-year-old suspect, whose identity has been withheld, is suspected of raping minors in the U.S. state of Kentucky four times between August and October 2003, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA).The suspect entered South Korea in 2004 via Thailand, the SMPA said, adding that he has since been wo

Suicide was the No. 1 cause of death among the younger population in South Korea in 2011, with the suicide rate rising significantly over the past decade, a report showed Thursday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, suicide was the leading cause of death among those aged 15-24 in 2011. The suicide rate per 100,000 among the age group stood at 13, up from 7.7 tallied in 2001.Ten years ago, traffic accidents topped the list with the highest death rate of 15.6, the report showed. In 2011,