The state-run Korea Environment Corp. said Tuesday it will provide technology to clean up China’s fifth-largest lake and produce biogas from the waste. The company has signed an agreement with Hefei city in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui to exchange technology and know-how to decontaminate Chaohu, one of the most polluted lakes in China.Hefei and Anhui authorities plan to spend 70 billion yuan ($11 billion)on improving water quality, in line with a national campaign to clean up the Yangtz

Military prosecutors have indicted an Army captain who used foul language to criticize President Lee Myung-bak on Twitter.According to military law, those who publicly insult their seniors are subject to imprisonment of up to three years.The officer, whose name was withheld, denounced the president for alleged corruption, a government plan to privatize Incheon International Airport and KTX services and a canceled plan to build his private retirement home on the outskirts of Seoul. The officer wa

An investigative team of Yoido Full Gospel Church on Sunday announced that founder and Emeritus Pastor Cho Yong-gi is responsible for its failed investment incurring 33.5 billion won ($29.1 million) in losses.The announcement is expected to further escalate the internal feud between the board of seniors and the Cho family at the world’s largest network church. Last year, 29 elders filed complaints against the Cho clan for dereliction of duty.The ad-hoc fact-finding body of 12 elders reported to

The Seoul municipal government said Monday it will give a subsidy of 1 million won ($847) per child to parents with disabilities starting this year.The support is aimed at easing the financial burden of childbirth on mothers and fathers with disabilities, as they often earn less than their nondisabled counterparts, a city government spokesman said.Last year, the average monthly salary of a family

Four high-ranking members of Greenpeace stood stranded in front of the immigration office at Incheon International Airport last month. Three of them ― its Korean manager and East Asia leaders ― were denied entry and ordered to return to Hong Kong. Only Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo was admitted to the country.They were not told why they were banned. They guessed the reason may be the group’s anti-nuclear campaign, running counter the Korean government’s plan to expand a

Nine claimants seek 100 million won each from MitsubishiKorean wartime laborers’ first legal victory last week has prompted a chain of similar damage suits by other victims forcefully taken to Japan during the 1910-45 colonial period.A civic group said that nine Koreans plan to lodge a lawsuit next month here against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., seeking 100 million won ($860,000) in compensation per person for their forced labor between 1944 and 1945. The plaintiffs including Yang Keum-duk,

POSCO plans to form a 10 billion won ($8.6 million) fund by 2014 to compensate Korean workers forcefully taken to Japan during colonial rule, company officials said Sunday. The plan was revealed after the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of two groups of Koreans claiming compensation from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Nippon Steel Corp. They demand that the two Japanese companies pay withheld salaries and compensation for their forced work between 1941 and 1944.POSCO’s decision, h

The Internet server for the Test of English as a Foreign Language taken in Seoul and other cities failed Saturday, leading to mass cancellations and complaints from test-takers.The applicants for the English-language test, which was scheduled to start at 11 a.m., had to wait an hour before being told about the malfunction. They were belatedly informed of the malfunction, along with the test organizer’s plan to refund and reschedule it, at around noon. The test-takers blame Educational Testing Se

Hawkish members of KCTU clash with dovish new group in competition for membersA brawl on Friday between members of two umbrella labor organizations revealed growing tension in the nation’s labor movement since the launch of a dovish group late last year. According to the police, about 100 members of the hard-line Korea Confederation of Trade Unions clashed with some 20 of the new Korea Labor Union Confederation on Friday morning in front of a petrochemical plant in Ulsan. The brawl started when