The Korea Herald

Primary school student numbers drop by half over past 30 years

Sept 11, 2012

The number of elementary school students in Korea has halved over the past three decades due mainly to the country’s chronically low birthrate, data showed Tuesday.According to the statistics compiled by the education ministry, the number of primary school students came to 2.95 million in 2012.That is a 5.8 percent decrease from a year earlier and nearly half of the 5.65 million students tallied in 1980. This year’s number of middle and high school students also decreased by 3.2 percent and 1.2
Jeju Gotjawal park offers eco-diversity

Sept 11, 2012

Jeju Gotjawal Provincial Park, slated to open next year, is offering a glimpse into its ecological repository in a bid to drum up domestic and international interest and garner support for its preservation.The Jeju Free International City Development Center said Tuesday the unfinished park would be open to the public for nine days from Sept. 7-15 while the IUCN World Conservation Congress is being held. It is inviting environmental leaders participating in the world’s largest environmental gathe
Korea tops in high-school attainment among OECD

Sept 11, 2012

Korea has the highest rate of high school graduates, and also ranked high in spending on public education among OECD members, according to a data from the organization.Nearly 98 percent of Koreans aged 25-34 have completed high school, putting the country at the top for this age group among the 34 OECD member countries, ahead of Czech Republic and Slovak Republic, each with a 94 percent attainment rate, according to the organization’s 2012 edition of “Education at a Glance” released on Tuesday.K
Creating style that fits your identity

Sept 11, 2012

I am sure there isn’t anyone who hasn’t heard the song “Gangnam Style” at least once this summer. Whether you’ve been walking down the streets, having a conversation with friends, or watching television, you would have inevitably run into someone or something mentioning the song. The song “Gangnam Style” is sung by Korean pop singer Psy, who sings about the lifestyles of people who live in Gangnam. The music video amusingly shows Psy doing his cowboy dance while performing unthought-of actions a
KAU charts course beyond pilot training

Sept 11, 2012

President Yuh aims to build globally competitive school to power Korea’s aerospace industryA fleet of training airplanes and a runway greet visitors to Korea Aerospace University.Founded 60 years ago during the Korean War, the university has long been the main supplier of pilots and aerospace engineers in the nation.Initially, the school’s primary goal was to educate students to serve in civil and military aviation: Some 600 pilots from the school are currently working at home aabroad. The count
Fire breaks out in building in central Seoul

Sept 11, 2012

　A fire broke out in a building in central Seoul on Tuesday night. No injuries were reported.　The fire started at around 7:07 p.m. on the fourth floor of the building, unleashing dark plumes of smoke. It was put out about 47 minutes later. The floor is used for storing clothes. The cause of the fire has yet to be known.　The nearby fire station sent some 30 fire engines along with about 120 firef
Int‘l forum on kimchi to be held in Washington

Sept 11, 2012

The flavor of kimchi, Korea’s national dish, will spice up the capital of the United States this week.The 4th International Kimchi Conference is to open here on Thursday, introducing everything about the fermented food from Chinese cabbage or radishes.Kimchi is served as side dish at almost every meal in Korea. It has been gaining international recognition as healthy food. With the theme of “Kimchi from the East Meets Pickle from the West,” the one-day forum aims to provide an opportunity for ex
Police detain civil servant for allegedly killing wife

Sept 11, 2012

Police said Monday that they have arrested a man for allegedly killing his wife and then chopping up her body and dumping it at a mountain.The suspect, a 46-year-old civil servant identified only by his family name Jin, was arrested earlier Monday in Icheon, about 80 kilometers southeast of Seoul.Jin is suspected of striking his wife with a liquor bottle during a quarrel late Saturday after he had
N.K. accepts Seoul’s aid offer

Sept 10, 2012

North Korea on Monday accepted Seoul’s flood relief aid, raising hopes for the improvement of cross-border ties chilled for two years, the Unification Ministry said. “The North notified through the Red Cross channel at Panmunjeom that it would receive flood assistance,” said an official of the ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs. Last Monday, the South’s Red Cross chief sent a proposal calling for talks with the impoverished North on aid shipment.It would be Seoul’s first official assis
Korea has cheapest tobacco, 2nd-highest smoking rate in OECD

Sept 10, 2012

Cigarettes in Korea are the cheapest in the OECD, while the smoking rate is the group’s second highest. According to the data from the European Commission Excise Duty on Tobacco which surveyed the price of the best-selling tobacco in 22 member nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2012, Korea sells the cheapest tobacco at 2,500 won ($2.21) per pack of 20 cigarettes, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday.Korea also had the second-highest smoking rate, re
Education Ministry to issue booklet on Web addiction

Sept 10, 2012

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Monday it plans to distribute a booklet on the prevention of youth addiction to the Internet, games and smartphones to all schools by mid-September.The booklet will include a diagnostic quiz for students’ addiction levels and activity guides to encourage time away from media usage. The ministry also plans to train teachers on how to use the booklet from December to next February.According to the Korean Internet and Security Agency, the avera
Weather chief grilled over bidding suspicions

Sept 10, 2012

Police said Monday they have summoned the head of the state weather agency for questioning over suspicions that he gave preferential treatment to a particular business in connection with a bid for a new weather instrument.Cho Seok-joon, the chief of the Korea Meteorological Administration, is under investigation on charges of abusing his authority to select Kweather, a private weather service provider, as the final provider of a LIDAR observation device, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Polic
Another TOEFL results delay enrages Korean test takers

Sept 10, 2012

Another delay in releasing the results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL, infuriated Korean test takers once again, affecting the credibility of the U.S. based test developer, ETS. The ETS said in a notice posted on its website that the results of the tests taken on Aug 25 and 26, have been postponed and will be announced by Sept. 12.It usually takes 10 days for the test results to be released online, so Korean takers expected to know the results by Friday, which was the dea
‘N.K., China agree on joint use of Cheongjin Port’

Sept 10, 2012

SHENYANG, China (Yonhap News) ― A Chinese company has been allowed to share the rights to use a northeastern North Korean harbor in a deal with Pyongyang, a move expected to accelerate China’s forays into the East Sea, a report said Monday.The North forged the agreement on the use of the port of Cheongjin with the private firm based in the city of Tumen, Jilin Province, on Sept. 1, according to China’s Korean-language press Yanbian Daily, which caters to ethnic Koreans living in China.Under the
Penalty for rapes against minors to be strengthened

Sept 10, 2012

The government will revise the law to increase the penalty for sex offenses against minors, the women’s and family affairs ministry said Monday after a number of brutal sex crimes against youths has sparked public uproar in recent months.The maximum penalty for rape of a minor will rise from the current five years in jail to 10 years or life imprisonment, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said.The revision will also no longer allow the influence of alcohol to be treated as a mitigating