South Korea's famous rock-ballad singer Kim Jang-hoon said Friday he hopes to build a memorial in New Jersey for Asian women forced by Japanese soldiers into sexual slavery during World War II, in cooperation with activists in other Asian countries with such victims."While planning a performance tour of U.S. cities this year, the idea of building a memorial like the Holocaust memorial came to mind," Kim told Yonhap News Agency by phone.Kim said he wants to make the new facility in New Jersey, U.

The Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that former President Park Chung-hee’s draconian decrees in the 1970s were unconstitutional and infringed the basic rights of citizens. In a unanimous decision, the court said that Presidential Emergency Decrees No. 1, No. 2 and No. 9 issued in 1974 and 1975 were “not in accord with basics principles of democracy.”Park, the father of President Park Geun-hye, ruled the nation from 1961 to 1979 before he was assassinated. The court said the first and seco

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― A U.S.-based group monitoring human rights in North Korea said Wednesday it was hit by a cyber attack that disabled its website for several hours.The incident at the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea occurred at the same time as a major attack targeting South Korean TV broadcasters and banks.Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the group, said he learned early Wednesday about the attack, which changed the welcome page to identify the site as “Hitman

Prosecutors have sought an arrest warrant for political science professor Hahm Sung-deuk on charges of influence peddling. The Korea University professor, who is well known for his studies on the presidency, is suspected of taking nearly 78.6 million won ($70,389) from an advertisement agency chief executive, identified by his surname Yoon, in 2008 and 2009.He asked Hahm to lobby a senior Fair Trade Commission official to help him maintain an ad contract with a major Internet shopping mall witho

Kim Yong-man, a popular comedian and television show host, is facing charges of illegal gambling, according to prosecution officials.The prosecution questioned Kim Tuesday over allegations that he bet more than 1 billion won on at least two illegal sports betting sites from 2008. Kim admitted to most of his charges, the prosecution said.The news came as the government is stepping up a campaign against illegal online gambling, including plans for a special crackdown next month.The 46-year-old Kim

In a landmark ruling, the Constitutional Court on Thursday declared a series of emergency decrees based on the Yushin Constitution, which was declared by the military regime of the late President Park Chung-hee in 1970s in an attempt to remain in power, as unconstitutional.Park, who ruled the nation from 1961-1979 after seizing power in a military coup, introduced a new constitution, known as the Yushin (revitalizing reform) Constitution. The father of incumbent President Park Geun-hye then proc

Part of the malicious code that paralyzed network systems at South Korean banks and TV broadcasters came from a Chinese Internet Protocol (IP) address, Seoul's communications watchdog said Thursday.Local TV broadcasters KBS, MBC and YTN along with Shinhan, NongHyup and Jeju banks suffered a massive network failure on Wednesday that halted financial services and crippled operations.Following an analysis of source codes, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) announced that the incident was cau

Filial piety is a big thing in South Korea, a country which has long valued Confucian ethics. Parents willingly spend the bulk of their time, energy and money raising and educating their kids; in return, they get looked after by their children after retirement. At least, that was how parent-child interdependence was normally accepted and practiced here. In recent years, however, the bond is noticeably wearing thin as more Korean parents are suing their children for failing to offer proper care a

Seoul City will consider removing and refurbishing artificial weirs and structures in the Hangang River as part of plans to revive its ecosystem, officials said Wednesday.It will also replace artificial levees with sand banks and natural levees in areas that have no flooding risk. The city government laid out plans to improve the environment of the river and make it more accessible to citizens. The water quality indexes for most parts of the river indicate satisfactory levels, but improvements a

South Korea's communication watchdog said Wednesday that massive computer network failures at major broadcasters and banks were caused by hacking attacks using malignant code.Officials said they could not find any evidence to link the attacks to North Korea but stressed that does not mean that they are ruling out such a possibility.At around 2 p.m., broadcasters KBS, MBC and YTN and four banks -- Shinhan, Nonghyup, Woori and Jeju -- reported to the National Police Agency (NPA) that their compute

Police have opened a preliminary investigation into alleged sex-for-favors cases involving a number of high-ranking officials and public figures. Officials at the National Police Agency said they obtained intelligence that a local contractor bought sexual services for social elites in return for business favors. The list of influential figures involved in the case reportedly includes an official who serves in a vice ministerial post and the head of a large hospital.The 51-year-old contractor, id