Presidential hopefuls and the leader of the main opposition party have begun talking about scrapping the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, saying all it does is carry out campaigns and make gender conflicts worse. The ministry, launched in 2001, has often been slammed for underperforming, making divisive statements, and responding passively to sexual harassment by the late former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon. “Fifteen to 20 years of trial and error is enough for campaigns based on se

Palme d'Or and Oscar winner Bong Joon-ho has opened this year's Cannes Film Festival, celebrating the return of world cinema in theaters in about two years. "I declare (the opening of the 74th festival)," the South Korean auteur said in Korean during the opening ceremony held at the Grand Theatre Lumiere on Tuesday (local time). Along with him, American director-actress Jodie Foster, Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar and Cannes jury president Spike Lee made the same statements in Fre

Behind the surprise bid of Jungheung for the control of a much-larger rival, Daewoo Engineering & Construction, is a self-made entrepreneur little known outside the construction field: Jung Chang-sun, the chairman and founder of Jungheung Group. Jungheung, founded in the southern city of Gwangju, grabbed headlines on Tuesday after it was selected as the preferred bidder of Daewoo E&C, the nation’s sixth-largest builder with a proud but checkered history. Local media put Jungheung

Gyeonggi Province governor and presidential front-runner Lee Jae-myung asked in a televised debate “shall I pull down my pants again?” when asked to explain his scandal with an actor. During the debate among eight candidates for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s primary for next year’s presidential election Monday evening, former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun asked Lee to explain a previous scandal, saying the morality of a president is very important. Lee explaine

An Army general was arrested on charges of sexually molesting a female subordinate, officials said Tuesday, in yet another sex crime in barracks following the suicide death of an Air Force sexual abuse victim. The brigadier general was relieved of his duties and arrested after the subordinate reported her suffering to the authorities, according to the officials. "An investigation is under way. We will thoroughly look into the case and take corresponding measures," defense ministry s

Social network that swept Korea pre-Facebook reopens

Old controversy reignited by frustrated teens denied access to Minecraft

North Koreans surpassed South Koreans in the Test of English as a Foreign Language, one of the leading English language proficiency tests, last year, a report showed Saturday. According to a report from the U.S.-based Education Testing Service, the administrator of TOEFL, the average score in the internet-based TOEFL by North Korean nationals was 87 out of 120 in 2020. North Koreans' average TOEFL score, up four points from 2019, was the same as the global average and one point higher than S

A new poll on prospective presidential contenders released Friday showed former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl with a slight edge over his ruling party rival, Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung. In the survey by Gallup Korea, Yoon received 25 percent of support, up 4 percentage points from a month before. He overtook Lee, whose rating stayed put at 24 percent. The survey conducted from Tuesday to Thursday was the first opinion poll after Yoon, with no party allegiance, announced his inte

YONGIN -- Military prosecutors have demanded five-year imprisonment for Seungri, the disgraced former member of K-pop boy band BIGBANG, on charges including prostitution mediation and overseas gambling. The prosecutors on Thursday asked the general military court in Yongin, south of Seoul, to sentence the scandal-ridden celebrity, whose legal name is Lee Seung-hyun, to five years in prison and a fine of 20 million won ($17,600). The singer is under trial at the military court because he enlis

Seoul’s Education Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon admitted hypocrisy in pushing to get rid of elite private high schools while having sent his own kids to such schools. “(I) admit it was ‘naeronambul’ to have sent my children to foreign language high schools while calling for the abolishment of autonomous private high schools,” Cho told the city council on Wednesday, referring to a popular term that translates into “If I do it, it’s romance. If you do it, i

Jailed former President Lee Myung-bak said it was a shame that the country has come to its current state in a letter to a fellow university alumnus, which was disclosed on an alumni website. On the online community of Korea University students and graduates called Kopas, a person who introduced himself as a plastic surgeon and graduate of the university’s medical school said in a post on Tuesday that he wrote to Lee, and Lee wrote back. “It is such a shame that the country has come

Former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae got herself in trouble by saying she opposes feminism in an interview on YouTube. Among those who criticized her remarks was Rep. Sim Sang-jung of the minor Justice Party. Choo, who has vowed to run for president next year on the ruling Democratic Party ticket, said in an interview with an online media outlet Friday that she opposed feminism and that “if one wants to be treated like a flower because she’s a woman, women will always be ornamental.&

BUSAN -- A court sentenced former Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don to three years in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting female employees at work, broadening the interpretation of injury to include psychological trauma. The Busan District Court convicted him of sexually assaulting two female employees using his power and injuring one of them. He was arrested in court. "This is a workplace sexual assault case in which the accused used his superior position" for his crime, Judge Ryu Seung-woo

A high school student was found dead on a hill in Bundang in Gyeonggi Province, Monday morning, six days after he went missing on June 22. Police suspect that Kim Hwi-seong, 18, took his own life. He was found lying down with a plastic bag over his head, and there were no signs of external injuries. Police suspect that he suffocated to death, but said they will determine the exact cause of death after an autopsy by the National Forensic Service, upon the agreement of his family. Kim, a senior