Non-Korean speakers will now be able to know what is going on when they hear air raid sirens in the middle of the day in Seoul. The Seoul Metro said Wednesday they would announce the civil defense and other drills for terrorism, subway accidents, blackouts and fires in multiple languages including English, Chinese and Japanese, so that foreigners in the capital will know what’s happening around them and what they should do. “The number of foreign visitors to Korea now reaches about 10 million (a

Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. plan to hire 1,400 new workers and invest about 360 billion won in facilities this year in order to abolish night shifts and reduce excessive working hours, the labor ministry said Wednesday. The nation’s largest and second largest carmakers will phase out their current two-shift production system until they will run two day shifts only starting from later this year. They plan to complete the transition by 2013. The decision came after their w

South Korea's agriculture ministry said Wednesday that it is checking on a suspected case of bird flu at a duck farm in the northern part of the country.The farm ministry said a large duck farm in Icheon, 80 kilometers north of Seoul, reported symptoms that may indicate the birds have been infected

SEOUL, Jan. 4 (Yonhap) -- The rising number of female lawmakers has led to an expansion in their legislative activities, slowly introducing groundwork for gender equality at the male-dominated National Assembly, a government report showed on Wednesday.According to the report by the state-run Korean

The Education and Science Ministry announced Wednesday they are inviting foreign scientists to take part in the research projects of local colleges, research centers and companies. The annual invitation program is offers them a chance to join local research projects. Foreign scientists and Korean scientists working overseas who have more than five years of experience or outstanding achievements are eligible to apply.The fields open for application are pure science, mechanical engineering, materi

The police force in Seoul launched a special squad on Wednesday in a bid to root out school violence as a string of recent suicides by young bullied students drew attention to rampant violence in classrooms.The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency commissioned the “School Police,” a squad that will work jointly with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, earlier in the day. The special team, composed of officers with backgrounds in adolescent education and psychology, will be dispatched to elem

Male civil servants with newborns may be given an hour off their work day to attend to their children in a move to raise the country’s low birthrate and time spent with family, government officials said Wednesday.According to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security’s 2012 plan, officials are discussing the feasibility of expanding the current measure which allows female civil servants with an infant an hour off their day to include fathers.The Seoul Metropolitan Government has also ru

The government is working on a bill that would require tobacco makers to disclose the harmful substances in their products in a bid to curb smoking.The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Wednesday that it also will come up with a roadmap for when and by how much to raise cigarette prices.Under the bill all tobacco makers would be required to notify consumers of the additives and other harmful substances contained in cigarettes. Currently, only major toxins such as tar and nicotine are listed on

SEOUL, Jan. 4 (Yonhap) -- The government said Wednesday it will expand beneficiaries of its daily one-hour parental leave to include pregnant public servants and male officials who have a baby younger than one year old, as part of efforts to boost the country's birthrate.Currently, only female offic

Prosecutors said Tuesday they have launched an investigation into allegations that a former aide to the communications watchdog’s head received massive bribes from an operator of a local education institution, who is also suspected of embezzlement.The probe was opened to verify the allegations that the aide, surnamed Jeong, received nearly 200 million won ($173,800) from Kim Hak-in, the chairman of the board for Korea Broadcasting and Art School, a college-level vocational school focused on broa

Experts call for long-term measures involving the whole of societyMeasures to deal with school violence have mostly been ineffective and short-sighted, the head of an anti-bullying group has said. Recent school bullying-related suicides have attracted media attention and the government has once again proposed a set of measures and held a series of high-level and school-level meetings to devise new ways to prevent bullying. But Kim Gun-chan, director of the School Violence Prevention Center, a ci

Prosecutors said Tuesday they have launched an investigation into allegations that a former aide to the communications watchdog's head received massive bribes from an operator of a local education institution, who is also suspected of embezzlement.The probe was opened to verify the allegations that

Police agency sends out guidelines limiting prosecutors’ influenceThe controversial presidential decree on the enforcement of the Criminal Procedure Act hit a roadblock on Monday, only two days after its implementation. On Monday, Suseong Police Station in Daegu refused to carry out directives from the city’s prosecutors’ office to conduct an internal investigation, becoming the first police station to do so.“With the decree going into effect, the prosecutors can direct investigations, but an in