The Korea Herald

[Newsmaker] CJ suspected of bribing doctors

Jan 23, 2013

The police announced on Tuesday that 10 officials at CJ CheilJedang, a chaebol manufacturer of food and medicine, have allegedly given illegal kickbacks worth approximately 4.5 billion won ($4.2 million) to more than 200 doctors over two years from May 2000. The kickbacks were allegedly offered in exchange for prescribing its product and were the form of lending the company credit cards to doctors. Some of the doctors used the company credit cards to purchase furniture and other commodities for
Sex slavery monument planned in Singapore

Jan 23, 2013

Singapore is expected to be the first Asian country other than South Korea to have a monument built for Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops during World War II, a Seoul civic group said Wednesday.The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery said it is pushing forward with setting up another “Peace Monument,” which would be a bronze statue of a young girl that symbolizes the Korean victims, euphemistically called “comfort women,” in the Southeast Asi
Late Roh’s daughter gets suspended term

Jan 23, 2013

The daughter of former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun was handed a four-month suspended jail sentence on Wednesday for illegally transferring $1.2 million abroad.Roh Jeong-yeon was convicted of transferring 1.3 billion won ($1.2 million) to the United States in order to buy an apartment in New Jersey in 2007, without reporting the transaction to local financial authorities.It was not immediately known whether she would appeal the ruling by the Seoul Central District Court. The former presid
Police officer suspended after scratching car

Jan 23, 2013

A police officer faces suspension and a criminal charge after scratching a parked car, Changwon police said.The officer, a resident of Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, is alleged to have put a 1-meter scratch into the back side door of the vehicle with a steel clip on Dec. 30.Three days after the incident, the owner of the car requested to see the recorded footage of CCTV only to find out it was one of the police officers in the district. “It was hard for me to get by because of Cho’s car. T
Seoul opens child abuse prevention center

Jan 23, 2013

Seoul City officials announced on Thursday the opening of the Seoul Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse in Suseo-dong, Gangnam, to help tackle child abuse cases across Seoul.Seoul has set up several programs at the center such as a legal advisory panel and the supervisory committee on child abuse cases. It also revealed a plan to offer more education to teachers and children and treatment to victims. The seven child abuse prevention centers in Seoul will use the same phone number: 1577-1391
Gay rights ad sparks dispute

Jan 23, 2013

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea’s decision to advocate advertisements against homosexual discrimination to be posted on subway bulletins touched off debates among Korean netizens. A man, surnamed Kim, requested approval from Seocho District Office last year to post ads on subway bulletin boards that said, “Every person has the right to not be discriminated for sexual orientation.” However, the office rejected his request, saying it may have a negative impact on teenagers and underm
The Economist files complaint against language school

Jan 23, 2013

Police are investigating an English language institute on charges of breaching a copyright belonging to The Economist, a British weekly magazine, officials said Wednesday.The publisher Economist Group filed a lawsuit against the English language school in southern Seoul in November for infringing its intellectual property. The publisher said in the complaint that the language school used its articles and columns in their textbooks from 2009 to 2011, earning up to 160 billion won ($150 million) f
Defector-turned-public servant has Chinese nationality

Jan 22, 2013

A Seoul city official, who was believed to have defected from North Korea and was arrested earlier this month for espionage, has been found to be of Chinese nationality, intelligence sources said Tuesday.The 33-year-old suspect, identified only by his family name Yoo, arrived in South Korea in 2004, disguising himself as a North Korean defector. In 2011, he was hired by the Seoul city government as a two-year contract official.The central government's main spy agency, the National Intelligence
Seoul population smaller, older

Jan 22, 2013

The population of Seoul decreased for a second consecutive year in 2012 to around 10.4 million, according to statistics released by the city government on Tuesday. Around 10.6 million people lived in the capital city in 2010 and 10.5 million in 2011.The decline was due to a bigger outflow of citizens than inflow to the city, with 487,000 moving in and 596,000 people moving out. The number of births was 95,000, and 41,000 died last year. The foreign population decreased by 86,000 from a year befo
Food waste water dispute in Seoul had been foreseen

Jan 22, 2013

The recent food waste stink caused by disputes between district governments of Seoul City and private food waste management firms could have been prevented if measures prepared by the Ministry of Environment five years ago had been swiftly implemented.The food disposal firms at 16 district governments have been refusing to pick up food waste, demanding a price increase in food waste treatment services. District governments, however, are reluctant to pay more, saying the demands are too high: the
N.K. defector held for spying

Jan 21, 2013

A North Korean defector who has been working as a Seoul city official assisting fellow refugees is under investigation on charges of spying for the communist country, officials said.The 33-year-old identified by his surname Yoo is suspected of handing information about defectors to the North’s intelligence agents. He was apprehended by the National Intelligence Service on Jan. 11. The contract public servant Yoo was hired by the Seoul Metropolitan Government through an employment procedure for N
Average age of Seoul teachers rising

Jan 21, 2013

The average age of teachers in Seoul rose 2.1 years in the last decade, according to data released Monday. A report from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education showed that the average age of kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school teachers in Seoul reached 41.5 in 2012, up from 39.4 in 2002 and 40.9 in 2007.Since 2002, the number of teachers over 50 almost doubled from 11,630 to 21,744. For the first time in 2012, the number of teachers in their fifties exceeded those in their twent
Half of Koreans say they are poor: poll

Jan 21, 2013

More than half of South Koreans think they belong to the low-income bracket, a poll showed Monday, apparently reflecting their falling earnings due to the country’s protracted economic slump. According to the nationwide survey of 1,000 people by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, 50.5 percent said their earnings hover below the nation’s median income.Another 36.9 percent responded they belong to the middle-income bracket, while only 10.5 percent believed themselves to be high-inc
Disciplined prosecutors still find ways to practice law

Jan 21, 2013

Several prosecutors who were dismissed for corruption and negligence of duty illegally practiced law less than three years later, a report said Monday. According to a report by Herald Business, six prosecutors of the eight fired since 2007 established their own law firms or began working as lawyers, successfully returning to court despite the law against it.The law on legal professions bans dismissed prosecutors from working as lawyers or opening their own law firms for three years.However, the
Korea accepts 320 refugees in 20 years

Jan 20, 2013

Korea has accepted 320 refugees since it joined the United National Refugee Convention in 1992, the Justice Ministry said Sunday.Last year, 60 people including 18 from Myanmar and 16 from Bangladesh were granted refugee status, an 18-person increase from 2011. The number of applicants totaled 5,069 during the 20 years, including 1,143 last year. Of them, 2,412 were rejected. The nation allowed 171 to stay for humanitarian and political reasons, it said. By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com