Police apprehended a man who held a pregnant woman at knifepoint in a Seoul department store on Wednesday.According to Gangnam Police Station, 35-year-old Lee grabbed the woman by her hair and held her hostage while brandishing a kitchen knife at the Hyundai Department Store COEX branch.“Around 10 a.m. right after the store opened its doors, there was a young man who was hanging around and laughing suspiciously,” said one witness whose name was not disclosed.“He suddenly grabbed a knife on displ

The government and the ruling party agreed to open a school violence hotline as one major step to responding to school violence, Education Ministry officials said Wednesday. A high-level meeting of Grand National Party members and ministers of related agencies agreed to unify separate school violence hotlines into “117,” which will be operational 24 hours a day nationwide. “As we remember 112 as a number for reporting crimes, and 119 for fire reports, we decided to make 117 a number with which p

Union members at the nation’s largest carmaker said Wednesday that they will stop a walk-out and resume production, as many of their requests have been accepted by the management. The union at Hyundai Motor’s largest plant in Ulsan on Tuesday afternoon halted engine production after one of its members set himself on fire, alleging he was bullied by his superior, who told him not to leave work to participate in union activities.The walk-out on Tuesday afternoon broke three straight years of no st

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (Yonhap News) -- Three crew members of a South Korean fishing boat went missing overboard and three others were injured after the ship caught fire in Antarctic waters early Wednesday, rescue officials said.The 51-meter-long vessel Jeong-woo 2, which had been fishing in the remote Ross Sea, some 3,704 kilometers southeast of New Zealand, issued a distress call at around 3 a.m. after it was engulfed in fire, according to the Rescue Coordination Center New Zealand (RCCNZ).The

Seoul Global Center will open a new branch Thursday in Seoul’s business district to help foreigners with startups and investments here, officials said Wednesday.According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the Yeouido Global Business Center will open its doors to counsel foreigners on opening small businesses and finding investment opportunities.Located within the newly opened Seoul International Finance Center, the center will also be able to help foreigners with administrative work outside

A man who held a pregnant woman hostage at a department store in southern Seoul Wednesday morning has been arrested, police said.Authorities said the man threatened the woman with a knife that was on display in the kitchen appliance section on the 7th floor of the Hyundai Department Store in Samseong-dong. The man didn’t demand anything throughout the incident. He was taken down by the police less than an hour after the confrontation started. No one was injured, officials added.Witnesses said th

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Jan. 11 (Yonhap) -- Three crew members of a South Korean fishing boat went missing overboard and three others were injured after the ship caught fire in Antarctic waters early Wednesday, rescue officials said.The 51-meter-long vessel Jeong-woo 2, which had been fishing in the

SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Yonhap) -- The number of South Koreans retiring to farming surged to a new annual high in 2011 thanks to local governments' efforts to attract retiring baby boomers, a report showed Wednesday.According to the report by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the nu

A judge issued an arrest warrant for a Chinese man Tuesday on charges of throwing firebombs at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.The Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for the 38-year-old man, surnamed Liu, for allegedly attacking the embassy in Seoul on Jan. 8 in protest of Japan's r

Prosecutors indicted the captain of a Chinese fishing boat with physical detention Tuesday on charges of killing a South Korean law enforcement officer last month during a raid on the vessel for illegally fishing in Korea's exclusive economic zone.The 42-year-old captain, whose identity was withheld

The government pardoned or reduced the sentences of 955 convicts and lifted more than 3,700 administrative restrictions for construction companies on Tuesday.According to the Ministry of Justice, 540 prisoners including one serving a life sentence were pardoned or given reduced sentences. The convict on life sentence, whose sentence was reduced to 20 years, is a first-time offender who has served more than 10 years of his term, during which the prisoner has shown exemplary behavior, the ministry

Korean students will be able to use digital tools such as calculators and computers in math class from 2014 under the government plan to strengthen the real-life application of mathematics, Education Ministry officials said Tuesday. The ministry will also oversee the math curriculum of middle and high schools to see if they follow the regular public curriculum in an attempt to curb excessive spending on private tutoring, according to officials. Currently, Korean students are not allowed to use c

Cheonggyecheon, the stream running through the heart of Seoul, has seen visitors toss more than a million coins into its wishing well in a little over six years, Seoul City said Tuesday.According to the Seoul Metropolitan Facilities Management Corporation, 1.07 million coins have been thrown into the wishing well totaling 68.73 million won ($59,450) from October 2005 to December of last year.On a layover from Texas to Beijing, 25-year-old Stephen Tinh visited the well at the mouth of the popular

Seoul’s Bamseom Island in the Han River, known as a rare urban habitat for migratory birds, is expected to be included on a protection list under the international treaty of the Ramsar Convention, in recognition of its ecological and environmental value, the Environment Ministry said Tuesday.The ministry said it will register the island with the secretariat of the Ramsar Convention within this month. The secretariat is expected to make a decision as early as April after reviewing the island’s bi