The state human rights watchdog chief on Thursday sent a letter to some 1,500 North Korean defectors, urging them to report cases of human rights abuse they had suffered or witnessed in the communist state, officials said Thursday.In the letter, Hyun Byung-chul of the National Human Rights Commission also expressed regret over the lack of “systematic” measures to express their agony and frustratio

From as early as next year, people whose spouses give birth will be able to use paid-paternity leave for up to five days.Those who need to look after their sick family members will be also guaranteed 90 days of non-paid leave, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said Thursday.The measure is part of the revision of the Act of Gender Equality Employment and Support, which the ministry seeks to subm

BEIJING (AP) ― Chinese police are holding a South Korean Bible instructor and his wife following a raid on an underground Protestant church, an activist group said Wednesday, as the government pressures Christians worshipping outside the Communist-controlled church.The instructor, whose Chinese name was given as Jin Yongzhe, was detained Tuesday along with dozens of other Christians during a polic

Police are interrogating a high-ranking official of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission for sexually assaulting one of his female staff workers earlier this month.The man was immediately sacked.According to police in Songpa, southern Seoul, 55-year-old Park raped his subordinate at a motel in Gangdong District around 9:40 p.m., after they shared drinks and the woman went drunk. It was

The full enforcement of the time-off system, which is a salary cap for full-time unionists, might hit a wall as Hyundai Motor said Wednesday that it did not pay the salaries of any of its 233 full-time unionists last month.The company is to provide pay to 90 of them. The conflict is also eminent in other units of the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which still defy the system that w

Police are investigating two explosions at Seoul Station and Gangnam Express Bus Terminal about 30 minutes apart on Thursday.There have been no reports of injuries yet from the two blasts, officials said.The explosions caused chaos with citizens hurriedly leaving the two public transportation hubs. Police have not ruled out the possibility of terrorism, officials said.The blast at the bus terminal

BEIJING (AP) - Chinese police are holding a Korean Bible instructor and his wife following a raid on an underground Protestant church, an activist group said Wednesday, as the government pressures Christians worshipping outside the Communist-controlled church.The instructor, whose Chinese name was given as Jin Yongzhe, was detained Tuesday along with dozens of other Christians during a police assa

Judges and prosecutors will be banned from taking cases for a year after retirement at courts where they worked in their last year.The new rule is part of a revised bill on lawyers approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday.The bill is applicable to military judicial officers and lawyers who serve the government as employees, as well as judges and prosecutors.Under the revised law, they are barred for a

A former worker of Ssangyong Motor was found dead Tuesday at a subcontractor’s plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, the company’s union said Wednesday. His death is the 15th among Ssangyong Motor’s former employees or their family members, which recently completed a bailout program after bankruptcy. According to the union, the 45-year-old man identified by the family name Kang was working at th

More than half of Seoul’s citizens believe they belong to society’s lower middle class, marking a slight increase from last year, a survey showed Wednesday.By political, economic and social status, a total of 51.3 percent said they fall under the category of “lower middle class,” while 23.2 percent said they belong to the upper middle class, according to the survey by the Seoul Metropolitan Govern

A group of researchers has found a new way of detecting Alzheimer’s at an early stage using a biomarker, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. The finding will help in the early treatment of the disease, which is one of the most common forms of dementia in Korea, Dr. Kim Young-yeul, who was in charge of the study, said. According to his report, the amount of interleu

Nearly nine out of 10 child abuse cases were committed by family members, and the majority of offenders were biological parents, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Wednesday. About 40 percent of victims were assaulted every day. Experts say both victims and offenders need special therapyAccording to the ministry, a total of 5,657 cases of child abuse were reported in 2010. Among them, 530 wer

Fears rise over possibility of the deadly disease afflicting pregnant womenA 36-year-old woman who had recently given birth died of complications from an unidentified virus Tuesday at a Seoul hospital, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. This is the first fatality reported from the pneumonia-causing virus and authorities are still struggling to trace its origin and find trea

Police will recruit a former military officer to effectively carry out their operations in the event of North Korean provocations, officials at the National Police Agency said Tuesday.“The agency revised its regulations to expand its anti-terrorism center into a bigger crisis management center which will handle disaster situations. With the revision, we have also laid a ground on which to recruit