The prosecution Tuesday raided Kumho Petrochemical headquarters and offices of its business partners to look for proof of alleged embezzlement to create slush funds. Investigators from the Seoul Southern Prosecutors’ Office seized hard disks containing accounting information. “We have found circumstantial evidence that Kumho Petrochemical misappropriated company money to amass slush funds, but it

The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office is investigating allegations that Gloworks chief executive Park Sung-hoon may have compromised the health of his firm with inappropriate corporate activities, police sources said on Monday.Park is best known as the chief executive of online music provider Bugsmusic, which was transformed into a company developing natural resources called Gloworks.Some of the c

Downloading discount coupons from social commerce business websites for medical treatments is a violation of the Medical Law, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday. However, it is not illegal for hospitals or medical facilities to offer price cuts directly to patients on services not covered by insurance, it said. The conclusion was reached upon request from Seoul Metropolitan Government,

All nuclear power facilities to undergo safety inspectionThe Korean government will conduct a safety inspection on nuclear power plants in the country amid growing worries about the radiation leaks in Japan. Officials said they may shut down reactors if they fail to meet safety standards.In a nuclear power committee meeting Monday, presided over by Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik, participants decide

Police said Sunday a university professor was found hanged at his apartment, the latest suicide involving students and faculty of South Korea's top science university.The professor, identified only by his surname Park, hanged himself in the kitchen of his apartment in Daejeon, about 160 kilometers south of Seoul, when he was discovered by his wife on Sunday afternoon, police said.The 54-year-old P

Korea is working to launch a committee that will deal exclusively with disasters and accidents caused by disasters, such as the radiation leak from a nuclear power plant in Japan, a government official said Saturday.The committee will be set up within the National Science and Technology Commission that governs policies on high-tech industries and investment, Lee Seok-rae, a commission official, sa

KAIST president Suh Nam-pyo is to face questioning at the National Assembly and a board meeting over the suicides cases of four of his students, who have reportedly been under enormous stress stemming from his policies. While the 74-year-old former MIT professor defends his rules as a necessary procedure to improve the overall competitiveness of the school, calls for his resignation are mounting w

The number of Korean high school students choosing to study a second foreign language fell sharply last year, after education authorities decided it was no longer required, government data showed Sunday.According to data released by the state-run Korean Educational Development Institute, the number of high school students learning a second foreign language totaled 596,044 as of April 2010, marking

The Korean Education Center, based in Sydney, said Friday that 5,758 students in Australia are learning Korean language as their school subject.Only 3,030 students were learning Korean in 2009 but in just two years the number increased by 90 percent. In New South Wales, where most Korean expats live, the number doubled during the same period. But it is apparently not due to more Korean expats stud

Another student at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, one of the nation’s most distinguished academic institutions, committed suicide, the police said on Thursday. The student identified by his surname Park was the fourth at the school to take his own life this year. The police said the 18-year-old was found by a passer-by in front of an apartment building in Incheon at around