The Korea Herald

Seoul under first ever heat wave warning

Aug 1, 2012

A child cools off under the waterfall at a swimming pool in Seoul Wednesday. Earlier in the day, the state weather agency issued a heat wave warning for Seoul.(Yonhap News)The state weather agency issued a heat wave warning for Seoul on Wednesday in response to predictions that the mercury will rise to a record high of 35 degrees Celsius in the afternoon.The warning, which is issued when temperatu
Chairman of suspended savings bank gets 12-year prison term

Jul 31, 2012

A Seoul court sentenced the chairman of a now-suspended savings bank to 12 years in prison on Tuesday for extending more than 200 billion won ($177 million) in illegal loans.Shin Hyun-kyu, chairman of the Tomato Savings Bank, was charged last year with dereliction of duty, for incurring huge losses to the troubled bank through illegal loans.The bank's operation was suspended by the nation's top fi
U.N. team visits N.K. over flood

Jul 31, 2012

ANJU, North Korea (AP) ― U.N. staff visited storm-pounded counties in North Korea on Tuesday, after two days of heavy rain submerged buildings, cut off power, flooded rice paddies and forced people and their livestock to climb onto rooftops for safety.The rain Sunday and Monday followed downpours earlier this month that killed nearly 90 people and left more than 60,000 homeless, officials said. The floods also come on the heels of a severe drought, fueling renewed food worries about a country th
U.S. criticizes N.K. over religion

Jul 31, 2012

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- The U.S. government said Monday that North Korea‘s continued crackdown on religious freedom is “deplorable,” but it sidestepped a question on the possibility of change under Pyongyang’s new leadership.“North Korea continues to be on our countries of particular concern list. The situation is really deplorable,” Suzan Johnson Cook, ambassador at large for religious freedom at the State Department, said at a press briefing on the update of its International Religious Fre
Chinese fugitive gets prison term

Jul 31, 2012

A Seoul court has sentenced a Chinese fugitive wanted for murder in his home country to 10 months in prison for falsifying his identity to seek naturalized South Korean citizenship, court officials here said Tuesday.The 30-year-old man, known by the surname of Liang in China, entered South Korea in May 2006 using a fake passport after being put on the wanted list for killing a man after an argument in Changan, China, court records showed.He was naturalized as a South Korean citizen surnamed Kim
Prison term confirmed for ex-baseball official

Jul 31, 2012

The top court has confirmed a seven-year prison term for a prominent former baseball official for embezzling a massive amount of funds from a school foundation that he managed, court officials said Tuesday.You Young-koo, a former commissioner of the Korea Baseball Organization, was convicted of embezzling nearly 80 billion won ($70.4 million) from the Myongji Educational Foundation while working as board chairman of the foundation.The foundation operates Myongji University in Seoul along with an
Myanmar’s top diplomat to visit this week

Jul 31, 2012

Myanmar’s foreign minister will visit South Korea this week as the two nations seek to improve ties after the Southeast Asian country’s emergence from international isolation with sweeping democratic reforms, officials said Tuesday. Wunna Maung Lwin will arrive in Seoul on Thursday for a four-day visit and hold talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan on Friday, ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young said. The ministers “plan to discuss ways to promote bilateral cooperation in the fields
Korea aims to attract more foreign scientists

Jul 31, 2012

The government announced Tuesday that it will open a one-stop information center to help foreign researchers settle here. The plan is part of efforts to enhance the country’s basic science research by attracting more highly qualified scientists from abroad, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.The one-stop center will be established at the Institute for Basic Science in Daejeon. At the center, specially designated personnel will provide all necessary assistance, from ho
E-cigarettes subject to tobacco rules

Jul 31, 2012

The government is seeking to reclassify electronic cigarettes so that they come under the same regulations as regular cigarettes. The move is expected before the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control general congress scheduled to take place in Seoul in November. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance on Tuesday gave advance notice of the revision to the Tobacco Business Act, which would redefine cigarettes as products made entirely or partly of leaf tobacco that is in
For better luck, some Koreans change names

Jul 31, 2012

When Yu Do-hyun looks at her ID card, she experiences a brief moment of confusion. The face staring back at her is a familiar one, but the name is something she had to get used to. Three years ago, Yu was persuaded by her father to change her given name.“At first when I saw my new name, it was strange and I hated the sound of it,” Yu, who was once known as Young-ah, said. “It’s like a man’s name.”Her father’s intention wasn’t to make her name sound more androgynous, it was to bring her better lu
Summer leadership camp on conflicts

Jul 31, 2012

EPS, a private language school, and ROKING KOREA, a magazine publisher, have organized a youth camp called the Conflict Consortium Summer Camp. The camp began last Friday and runs to Sunday at the Korea Learning Resort in Gyeonggi Province. The camp aims to provide teens with leadership skills and improving their understanding of social conflicts and the ability to resolve them. The University of Colorado initially ran the leadership camp. Lyman McLallen, an English professor from Hankuk Univers
New record set for visitor turnout for Yeosu Expo: organizers

Jul 31, 2012

The daily visitor turnout for the 2012 Yeosu Expo hit a new record Saturday helped by the start of the vacation season and improvement in management of the exposition that will terminate in two weeks.As many as 155,304 people visited the Yeosu Expo venue on the country's southern coast for the first Paris-based Bureau of International Exhibitions-approved event hosted by South Korea since the 199
Teens negatively influenced by porn: survey

Jul 31, 2012

Most teens who watch pornography report negative responses, with some wanting to imitate what they see, according to a survey by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security.In the “Teenager Survey of Porn Usage” of 12,251 teens aged 12 to 18, most teens reported negative responses such as “being shocked” and “feeling sexual humiliation.” However, 14.2 percent said they “wanted to imitate it.” The older boys were, the stronger they showed a desire to imitate. More than 20 percent of high s
Judge replaced in case against president’s brother

Jul 30, 2012

A Seoul court has reassigned a corruption case involving President Lee Myung-bak’s elder brother Lee Sang-deuk to a different team as the previous presiding judge was a member of the disgraced politician’s church.The Seoul Central District Court said Monday that the change was made to forestall a possible controversy over the credibility of court deliberations on the case. “Judge Jeong Seon-jae does not have any personal relationship at all with Lee. But he demanded the reassignment to prevent a
Gil Medical Center treats 6 Indonesian children

Jul 30, 2012

Gachon University Gil Medical Center in Incheon gave six Indonesian children suffering from heart disease a new lease on life, the hospital said Monday.Its medical team found 48 children suffering from a ventricular septal defect when they visited Banten, Indonesia, a sister city of Incheon.VSD is a congenital heart malformation, which manifests as a hole between the lower chambers of the heart. If it does not receive timely treatment, it can severely stunt the growth of a child.On July 12, Gil