Pharmaceutical firms vow to defy measure designed to reduce insurance expendituresThe government plans to slash the price of about half the drugs on the market by an average of 14 percent, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday. The price cuts, if approved by the Prime Minister’s Office in December, will be the largest since the government took away drug sales rights from doctors and gave them exclusively to pharmacists in 1999.The move, designed to reduce national health insurance expen

Police apprehended several Chinese students studying here for using cameras, mics and other devices to cheat on the state-administered Korean language test.According to the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, officers have arrested a 22-year-old Chinese national surnamed Ma, along with two others for helping Chinese students here on study abroad programs cheat on the Korean Language Proficiency Test.Police have also booked Yang, 23, a Chinese student and 18 others without detention, for cheating

Police said Monday that they have rounded up nearly 130 criminal gangsters in the first week after declaring a war on organized gangs.On Oct. 25, Cho Hyun-oh, commissioner general of the National Police Agency (NPA), ordered police officers to aggressively use all means available, including firearms

The Seoul Family Court said Saturday it has granted a divorce to a housewife and ordered her husband to pay her compensation, finding him responsible for ruining the relationship with his constant belittling comments.The 37-year-old wife, identified only by her surname Park, filed for divorce, claiming she could not continue the marriage because her husband kept finding fault with the way she cooks, shops, irons and does other housework through written memos and mobile phone text messages for se

Third umbrella union to launch Tuesday, vowing ‘no politics,’ more benefits Korea’s labor unions had their day.With violent strikes and street protests, they made contributions to advancing democracy and improving labor rights in the 1970s and 1980s. But those days are gone. What unions need to do now is to break away from their stereotyped militant showdown with police and find a new way to address their issues, said Jung Yeon-soo who leads a movement to launch a new umbrella organization. “We

300 students including Chinese and Japanese expected to join program every yearMajor universities in South Korea, China and Japan will launch a joint degree program next year as part of efforts to expand academic exchanges, the Education Ministry said Sunday.The Education Ministry and the Korean Council for University Education announced 10 South Korean colleges and universities chosen to partner with Chinese and Japanese universities under the Campus Asia program.The program is an Asian version

The bodies of two pilots of a South Korean cargo plane that crashed into waters off the southern resort island of Jeju were recovered on Sunday nearly three months after the accident took place, Jeju maritime police said.The pilots ― Choi Sang-gi, the 52-year-old captain of the plane, and Lee Jeong-wung, his 43-year-old deputy ― had been unaccounted for after their Boeing 747 cargo plane operated by Asiana Airlines crashed into waters about 107 kilometers west of the island in an accident presum

The Seoul Family Court said Saturday it has granted divorce to a housewife and ordered her husband to pay her compensation, finding him responsible for ruining the relationship with his constant belittling comments.The 37-year-old wife, identified only by her surname Park, filed for divorce, claimin

South Korea will likely raise highway and train service fares by the end of this year following years of unchanged rates aimed at curbing inflation, a source said Friday.The finance ministry and the transportation ministry are currently in the last phase of talks to determine when and by how much th

Police are investigating four panelists of an Internet podcast over allegations they spread false information about Na Kyung-won, the Grand National Party’s unsuccessful candidate in Wednesday’s Seoul mayoral by-election. According to the National Police Agency, the investigation was launched after Na’s election camp filed a complaint against the four ― political commentator Kim Yong-min; former Democratic Party lawmaker Chung Bong-ju; magazine reporter Ju Jin-woo; and Kim Eo-jun, head of online