South Korea's top court on Wednesday ordered the government to compensate 19 leprosy patients for forced vasectomies and abortions performed decades ago, the latest in a series of their legal victories.Upholding a lower court's decision, the Supreme Court ordered the government to pay 30 million won ($26,200) to nine male victims and 40 million won to 10 women each for violating their human rights. This file photo taken on June 20, 2016, shows a court hearing under way on Sorok Island in South K

South Korea's birthrate began to tumble in the mid-1980s in line with an increase in the number of married women receiving higher levels of education, a report said Wednesday.The country's total fertility rate -- the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime -- plunged to 1.6 in 1987 from the replacement level of 2.1 three years earlier, according to the report by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. (Yonhap)South Korea suffered a nosedive almost at the same time as

South Korea's Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Wednesday said the apparent assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's half brother represents the "brutal, inhumane" nature of the communist regime should it be found to have killed him.Hwang made the remarks during a session of the Standing Committee of the National Security Council, two days after Kim Jong-nam, an outspoken critic of the dictatorial regime, was killed at a crowded airport in Malaysia.Acting President a

A lawmaker said Wednesday he has obtained intelligence that there are two North Korean spies in the country targeting defectors.Rep. Ha Tae-Keung from the Bareun Party, who is well versed in North Korea issues, said the assassins are focusing on defectors who were high-ranking officials in Pyongyang or are actively engaging in activities against the regime. Rep. Ha Tae-Keung of the Bareun Party (Yonhap)"The government should thoroughly prepare to prevent possible assassinations of high-ranking N

South Korea logged a trade surplus for 60 months in a row in January, but the amount more than halved from the previous month, customs data showed Wednesday.The country's trade surplus came to $2.81 billion last month, down sharply from a surplus of $6.76 billion tallied a month earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. (Yonhap)The steep decline came as a rise in imports outpaced that of exports last month on rising oil prices.Exports rose 11.2 percent on-year to $40.3 billi

A Seoul court held a hearing Wednesday on special prosecutors' request to suspend and nullify the presidential aides' recent rejection of investigators' search of the presidential office for a corruption investigation of President Park Geun-hye and her associates. The special counsel looking into the influence-peddling scandal centered on Park filed the lawsuit with the Seoul Administrative Court on Friday after its attempt to raid the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae was halted by her secretar

South Korea's Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn strongly warned against North Korea's military provocations, saying its saber-rattling will lead it toward a "path of self-destruction."Hwang made the remarks during a meeting with the leaders of the ruling Liberty Korea Party, three days after the North fired off a new intermediate-range ballistic missile, showing off its technological progress in developing delivery vehicles for its nuclear weapons. Acting President and Prime Mini

An acquaintance of the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he did not respond to advice to seek asylum in South Korea, a US broadcaster said Wednesday.The South Korean resident in Malaysia told Radio Free Asia that he used to recommend that Kim Jong-nam go to South Korea rather than live in constant fear, as the Seoul government would protect him. Kim Jong-nam, the elder half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is surrounded by reporters at a Beijing airport on Feb. 11,

Hankook Tire Co., South Korea's largest tiremaker, said Wednesday it will raise the price of its tires by up to 4 percent starting later this week amid higher rubber prices. The company said the price hike will be applied to the tires for its outlets and wholesalers, and the tires for 1-ton trucks, taxis, and the eco-friendly and fuel-efficient series will be excluded. Hankook Tire Co., South Korea's largest tiremaker, said on Feb. 15, 2017, that it will raise the price of its tires by up to 4 p

One out of four employees in South Korea's financial sector earned more than 100 million won ($87,000) last year, a report showed Wednesday.The report submitted to the Financial Services Commission by the Korea Institute of Finance said 24.8 percent of employees at 1,389 financial firms earned more than 100 million won last year. (Yonhap)In comparison, the ratio came to 9.9 percent in 2012 before jumping to 16.5 percent in 2013 and 19.2 percent in 2014.The report said 32.9 percent of those who w

Rep. Yoo Seong-min of the Bareun Party said Wednesday the assassination of the North Korean leader's half brother should be a wake-up call about the regime's unpredictable nature. Yoo, a potential presidential candidate, said South Korea should be ready and resolved to deal with the dangerous enemy, calling for an expanded deployment of an advanced US missile shield in the country.Rep. Yoo Seong-min of the Bareun Party speaks during a meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul on Feb. 15, 2017. (

Lawyers in South Korea are facing a widening gap in income due to fiercer competition and large law firms' growing dominance in the local market for legal services, government data showed Wednesday.According to the data by the National Tax Service, about a quarter of private attorneys in the country earn less than 4 million won ($3,510) per month, with the top 10 accounting for roughly 70 percent of their total sales. This combined file photo shows the logo of a lawyer's office (Yonhap)In 2015,

A senior South Korean lawmaker on Tuesday called for a revision to the missile defense system sought by the country by the mid-2020s as North Korean missiles will likely become harder to detect before launch. The upcoming "kill chain" strike system and the Korean Air and Missile Defense system are both designed to detect and destroy incoming missiles in the shortest possible time. In this captured image from North Korea's state-owned Korean Central News Agency, the Pukguksong-2 missile flies aft

South Korea strongly protested Japan's renewed claims to a cluster of South Korea-controlled islets in its revised education guideline unveiled on Tuesday.Japan's education ministry posted the draft version of a revised guideline on Tokyo's e-government website for a month-long public review process.  (Yonhap)The guideline called for teaching students in the country's elementary and middle schools that Dokdo belongs to Japan."We cannot but deplore Japan's repeated claims to our territory, Dokdo,

South Korean Internet users have increasingly streamed content instead of downloading them though wireless services, government data showed Wednesday, mainly on the back of the introduction of a long-term evolution service based on fourth-generation wireless technology.Internet traffic from video streaming services and video-on-demand, such as Youtube and Netflix, accounted for 56.1 percent of the total wireless data traffic in December 2016, compared with 45.1 percent tallied in December 2013,