A total of 24 South Korean nationals were killed or injured in a deadly bus crash on a rural highway of the U.S. state of Oregon, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday.Five Koreans were among the nine people who died after the tour bus carrying 47 people slid off an icy highway and down an embankment Sunday morning in Oregon, the ministry said in a statement, identifying the Korean victims by name.Local news reports said the crash took place as the bus was returning to Vancouver, Canada from L

A third of children’s playgrounds and day care centers built before 2009 were found to have harmful metals at levels exceeding government safety standards, according to the Ministry of Environment. The ministry announced Wednesday the results of its survey of 700 playgrounds and 300 indoor facilities that were established before the government began to regulate environmental safety of new construction more strictly under a 2009 law. Of the 1,000 places, 322 failed to meet the safety standards. I

Koreans in their 50s and 60s, many of them belonging to the Korean “baby boomer generation,” were the driving force behind the country’s breakneck rise from being one of the poorest countries to one of the world’s wealthiest. Believing that hard work and persistence would lead to success, they sacrificed weekends, holidays and much of their personal time to work, making possible the “Miracle on the Han River.”On the political front, they were witness to the country’s turbulent journey to democra

If the defining phrase of the 5060 generation is the “baby boomer generation,” then that of the 2030 generation is the “880,000 won ($820) generation.” First coined in 2007 by an economist and a civic activist as the title of a book about the crisis facing the young generation, the phrase refers to the average monthly income a typical member of the 2030 generation working at a temporary job can expect to take home. The amount is calculated by multiplying the average monthly wage of temporary wor

Seoul's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed on Tuesday the deaths of five South Koreans in a recent tour bus crash in the U.S. state of Oregon that reportedly killed four others and injured a dozen others. "Five of the nine killed in the charter bus in Oregon were Korean nationals and the other four held U.S. citizenship," the ministry said in a statement. Most of the nine victims were U.S. residents, it said. Local news reports said that the charter bus was carrying about 40 people

Free child care is likely to be expanded to all children aged 5 and under starting from 2013, as the ruling camp seeks to implement President-elect Park Geun-hye’s welfare pledges. To fund it and other welfare expansion plans, the ruling Saenuri Party is also moving to increase tax revenues by drastically lowering the ceiling for a comprehensive financial income tax. Currently, about 50,000 Koreans who earn more than 40 million won a year in financial gains such as interest and dividends are sub

The government has placed a year-long ban on 13 colleges from accepting new students from overseas for poor management and illegality in admissions.The schools ― four two-year colleges and nine universities including Seoul Women’s University, the University of Suwon and Hansei University in Gyeonggi Province ― will be barred from issuing student visas from the second semester of this year, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced on Sunday.The restriction does not apply to exc

South Korea will complete the process of replacing existing analogue broadcast services provided by terrestrial TV channels with superior digital broadcasting as scheduled on Monday, officials said.Terrestrial TV stations such as KBS, MBC and SBS have gradually turned off analogue broadcasting in provincial areas from early this year. They will terminate the services in Seoul and its satellite cities, the only area that has remained unaffected from the change, as planned at 4 a.m. Monday, the Ko

All families with children up to five years old will likely get free childcare service starting next year, officials said Sunday, as political parties reacted affirmatively to President-elect Park Geun-hye‘s pledge to expand the government’s welfare spending.If the program is confirmed, beneficiaries will be allowed to choose between free attendance at childcare centers or kindergartens and a monthly allowance of up to 200,000 won ($187) from next March regardless of their income levels, said th

A heated competition is looming between the nation’s major port cities in the east and west to host a new ministry in charge of maritime and fisheries affairs.A key aide to President-elect Park Geun-hye suggested Friday that the new authority to be created under her presidency be headquartered in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province.Reviving an independent maritime and fisheries branch is a key campaign pledge of Park. She had promised to establish the headquarters in Busan during her campaign speeches

A local court ordered two Hyundai Motor Co. contract workers Thursday to end their two-month protest atop a power-transmission tower, saying rejection of the ruling will cause them to pay daily fines of 300,000 won (US$280).The two workers began the protest on Oct. 17, demanding permanent employment of contract workers. They complain that contract workers are paid far less than regular workers, although both groups do the same type of work. Hyundai Motor currently has about 6,800 contract worker

The Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that the current law allowing retroactive enforcement of electronic anklets for convicted sex offenders is constitutional.The court dismissed a petition filed by a district court against a controversial clause of a subsidiary law on putting electronic anklets on convicted sex offenders who are likely to repeat crimes after their release.The monitoring system is “aimed at preventing repeat crimes by sex offenders and protecting the people from sex crimes