A Chinese man currently jailed for attacking the Japanese Embassy in Seoul earlier this year will stand trial to decide if he will be extradited to Japan, officials here said Friday.In accordance with an extradition treaty with Tokyo, Seoul's Justice Ministry requested a local court to make a decision on whether to hand over the 38-year-old man surnamed Liu to Japan, after his release from a Seoul prison next Tuesday, the officials said. Liu received a 10-month term for hurling Molotov cocktails

A tragic story of an elderly man who killed his wife with Alzheimer’s disease brought fresh attention to the need to improve care services and social assistance for dementia patients. The police arrested Tuesday the 78-year-old man who strangled his wife, apparently under huge psychological and physical strain from taking care of his wife for the last two years. The man, identified only by his surname Lee, had been looking after his wife full-time, but killed her on Oct. 19, as he couldn’t deal

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The Seoul-Washington time difference will widen to 14 hours starting next week with the end of the daylight savings time in the United States, officials said Wednesday.On March 11, the U.S. advanced clocks by a hour in an effort to save energy by making evenings have more daylight and mornings less. The measure led to a 13-hour time gap between South Korea and Washington, New York and other eastern areas in the United States.The U.S. will adjust clocks backward as of 2

South Korean Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik Thursday called on the international community to strengthen cooperation to promote human rights of the disabled and build a disability-inclusive society. “In order to protect and ensure the inherent dignity and fundamental human rights of people with disabilities, we need to engage every level of society from governments to businesses to persons with disabilities themselves,” Kim said in his address during the opening ceremony of the High-level Inter-go

A global conference on how to build a social protection system that cares for the most vulnerable and improves welfare around the world opened in Seoul on Thursday as the world economy is grappling with the 2007-08 economic crisis. The two-day conference of the International Policy Dialogue: Mitigating Vulnerabilities and Promoting Sustainable Growth is hosted by South Korea’s foreign ministry and the United Nations Development Program.“The recent global economic and financial crisis confirmed t

A man accused of repeatedly assaulting his 13-year-old daughter was convicted on Thursday.The Gwangju District Court sentenced the man, identified only by his surname Kim, to two years behind the bar for habitual use of violence. In March, Kim was indicted on suspicion of attacking and injuring his daughter over 14 times at his apartment in Gwangju, about 320 kilometers from Seoul. At that time, the daughter had a cast on her leg after a car accident and was allegedly reproached by her father fo

The government on Wednesday unveiled a set of plans to promote medical tourism with the aim to attract 1 million foreign patients per year by 2020. In the “global health care promotion scheme” the government pledged to support marketing campaigns, ease immigration and investment rules and improve transport, accommodation, consulting and other services for international patients.It also includes measures to help domestic medical service providers expand overseas.The Ministry of Health and Welfare

The Defense Ministry promoted nearly 120 colonel- and general-grade officers Wednesday in a routine shake-up that also affected the chief of the Capital Defense Command and the deputy chiefs of the Army and the Navy.Five Army major generals were promoted to lieutenant generals, including Lt. Gen. Shin won-sik, who was also appointed to head the Capital Defense Command, and Lt. Gen. Hwang In-moo, who was named the deputy Army chief of staff, the ministry said.In the Navy, Vice Admiral Sohn Jung-m

The South Korean government will disclose the list of the remains of about 4,500 unidentified Koreans, who were forced into overseas labor and died in foreign lands during Japan’s colonial rule, as part of efforts to bring them home, a committee dealing with the matter said Wednesday.The Commission on Verification and Support for the Victims of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Colonialism in Korea, a subcommittee of the Prime Minister’s Office, said they will make the list public for the first

Three teenage girls who were allegedly distressed over family affairs and other issues died on Tuesday in what appears to be a joint suicide.According to police, two 17-year-olds and a 19-year-old were found dead on top of a shopping complex in Gwangan-dong in Busan. Their belongings were found at the rooftop of a nearby apartment building, along with three bottles of soju.“I heard some noise so I went up to the rooftop with a security guard, but the door was locked. All of a sudden I heard a ‘t

A gas explosion at a shipyard here in the southwestern part of the country killed at least two and injured nine on Wednesday, local police said.The explosion, whose cause has not yet been determined, occurred at 8:09 a.m. at the shipyard inside the Daebul Industrial Complex in Yeongam, about 400 kilometers south of Seoul, police added.They said two unidentified workers were killed and nine others sustained injuries. Rescue workers said a dozen workers were inside a ship for block assembly work a

SEOGWIPO, Jeju -- China’s Greenland Group broke ground with the Jeju Free International City Development Center to construct a healthcare town on Tuesday.Greenland’s 778,000-square-meter site will consist of condominiums, a mall, a restaurant serving mainly healthy dishes and a medical research and development center. They aim to complete the construction by 2015.The state-run Chinese real-estate enterprise signed an agreement with Jeju Center, part of Korea’s Ministry of Land, Transport and Mar