The number of Seoul citizens holding master’s or doctoral degrees has tripled over the past 20 years, a study found Sunday. There were 39,538 master’s and 5,043 doctoral graduates last year, almost triple the 14,049 in 1990, according to the study conducted jointly by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Statistics Korea.Women with higher education showed a five-fold increase in two decades, with

LOS ANGELES (Yonhap News) ― The number of illegal aliens from South Korea in the U.S. dropped for the second straight year in 2010, but the number still remained over 170,000, a report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released Friday showed.The number of Korean illegal aliens in the U.S. dropped to some 200,000 in 2009 from 240,000 the previous year. The number then dropped 15 percent l

  South Korea's police have asked the local court to issue an arrest warrant for a U.S. service member accused of breaking into the home of an elderly Korean couple in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, and assaulting them, officials said Sunday.   The unidentified 20-year-old American soldier stationed in Dongducheon, 70 kilometers north of the capital, is in detention on charges of intruding into the

   DAMYANG -- About 1,000 ducks found dead earlier this week at a farm in southern South Korea were confirmed Saturday to have been infected with a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza, raising concern that the lethal virus is spreading in the country, officials said.    The H5A1 virus was found on the duck farm in Damyang county of South Jeolla Province, about 350 kilometers south of Seoul

An apparent engine problem with a KTX train forced hundreds of passengers to change trains in the middle of their journeys on Saturday, officials said, the latest in a recent series of incidents involving the high-speed trains.A KTX-Sancheon train encountered an engine problem after departing from the southeastern city of Daegu on Saturday morning.The Seoul-bound train arrived in Daejeon, about ha

Disgraced South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk had been in Libya at the invitation of a state research institute in the North African nation, sources close to him said Saturday.Hwang was seen among 198 South Koreans evacuated from Libya on a charter flight to Cairo on Friday, raising questions about why he had been in the country. Hwang's activity has drawn attention after his purported breakthrou

A Seoul court has acknowledged that former President Kim Young-sam fathered a son born out of wedlock 52 years ago. The Seoul Family Court on Thursday ruled for 52-year-old Kim, who claimed to be a biological child of the 83-year-old former President.According to Judge Ma Eun-hyeok, the senior Kim refused to offer his DNA for a paternity test; did not appoint an attorney to deliver his opinion and

A 26-year-old South Korean man died on Thursday when an explosive he had apparently bought on the Internet and tied to his body exploded, police said.The man identified only by his surname, Oh, had complained of his personal woes for four hours at a local police stand earlier in the morning while claiming he was carrying an explosive, according to the police in this eastern port city of Pohang.The

One maritime police officer was killed and four others were missing off Jeju Island after a maritime police helicopter crashed into the sea Wednesday night.The police have mobilized a search plane, eight patrol vessels and two Navy vessels to collect the remains of the chopper and the bodies of the missing passengers.According to the Jeju Coast Guard, the helicopter, AW-139, lost contact with head

A 114-year-old woman in Guri, currently the oldest living person in South Korea, has asked the national recordkeeping agency to help her seek the world's oldest living person title in the Guinness Book of World Records, alocal government said Thursday.According to the city of Guri, some 15 kilometers east of Seoul, Kim Eom-gok, born on Nov. 7 1897, has reported her identity to the Korea Record Ins

JEJU ISLAND (Yonhap) -- Rescuers on Thursday discovered the body of a female officer as well as the wreckage of a Coast Guard helicopter that went missing with five crew members on board Wednesday night near waters off the southern resort island of Jeju, officials said.    The AW-139 helicopter took off from Jeju International Airport at 8:20 p.m. and picked up the deceased 28-year-old female offi