Educational spending in South Korea increased at the slowest pace in more than a decade last year due to large debts owed by households and high inflation, a report said Sunday.   According to the report compiled by Statistics Korea, households in the country spent 34.6 trillion won ($31.71 billion) on education last year, up 0.5 percent from a year earlier.   The increase is the lowest since 1

The president of South Korea’s leading university was trapped in his office almost overnight on Friday when a group of staff and students staged a protest outside his door to demand a role in the school’s process of gaining independence from state control.Some 400 staff and students at Seoul National University sat in the hallway outside President Oh Yeon-cheon’s office for almost 12 hours until 3

South Korea’s human rights watchdog said Friday it is against the government’s move to adopt a U.S.-style plea bargain system.The proposed system would allow prosecutors to either drop an indictment or give a lenient sentence to a suspect in return for his admission of wrongdoing and testimony.The decision by the National Human Rights Commission came after the Justice Ministry in December asked th

The penalty system has cut the number of false fire alarm calls made on April Fool’s Day, according to the National Emergency Management Agency.A total of 98 prank calls were made on last year’s April Fool’s Day, down from 475 in 2004, showed the agency’s data submitted to Rep. Yoon Seok-yong of the parliamentary health and welfare committee.The Fire Services Act was revised in 2004 to impose a ma

Minister Chin says that fund will also seek long-term partnership with companiesThe investment of the 340-trillion-won ($300 billion) national pension fund will be diversified into emerging markets, green industries and overseas bonds over the next three years, Health and Welfare Minister Chin Soo-hee announced Friday. Overseas investment will rise to 20 percent of the total from the current 12.6

Almost one in four households in Seoul consisted of just one person last year, the city’s census found Thursday. Single-person households jumped from 4.5 percent in 1980 to 23.8 percent in 2010, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government.Their number increased more than 10-fold between 1980 and 2010, while the total population of Seoul nearly doubled in the same period. “A growing number of si

Adult males in Gangwon Province showed the highest smoking and drinking rates while those in the Jeolla provinces stayed the most sober and smoke-free, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The more stable a region’s economy, the more likely its residents will refrain from an unhealthy lifestyle, the institute said.According to its research based on data collected fro

The Ministry of Employment and Labor will help foreign spouses here find jobs through a set of programs in April. During the month, the candidates can receive subsidies for job training fees up to 3 million won ($2,600) and tailored job consultations. Successful candidates will then be able to work at social enterprises, as care-givers, factory workers and more.The applicants should visit their lo

A student of KAIST was found dead Tuesday in a suspected suicide, the third this year at the nation’s top university in science and technology, raising questions about the competitive environment there.According to police, a 25-year-old KAIST senior surnamed Jang was found in a parking lot of an apartment complex in Jamwon-dong, southern Seoul. He appeared to have fallen from the building. He was

Starting in April, all vehicle passengers on expressways here will be required to wear seatbelts, said the National Police Agency on Thursday.Under a revised traffic law, drivers on expressways including Olympic and Gangbyeon Expressway risk being fined 30,000 won ($27) when carrying passengers not buckled in.The law originally stated that only front-seat passengers of private vehicles and all pas

   A compulsory seat belt-wearing law for all passengers on motorways nationwide will take effect on Friday, the National Police Agency (NPA) said Thursday.   Under the new law, all passengers of vehicles, including those sitting in the back seats, must put on seat belts when they are on a motorway, a measure aimed to reduce casualties in traffic accidents, said the NPA.   NPA officials said offen