As part of efforts to reduce car accidents involving senior citizens, Busan City said it will provide transport allowances and other benefits to those aged 65 or above who voluntarily surrender their driver’s licenses.The city government said Wednesday that senior citizens born before or on Dec. 31, 1953 will be given public transport cards worth 100,000 won ($89) in return for giving up their driving licenses.The offer is limited to 400 senior citizens who sign up this year, a city official sai

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said Monday it will review online video advertisements by international matchmaking agencies to see if any of them incite bias or are likely to infringe on human rights.Several marriage brokers have recently been ordered by the ministry to delete ads that sexually objectify women or promote bias. Some, for instance, claim that women of certain nationalities have “nice figures” and are “simple.”The ministry said it will look into all video ads on interna

North Korea is looking for a place in Switzerland to hold its second summit with the US, according to a Japanese news report on Friday.Citing multiple diplomatic sources, Kyodo News reported that a team of North Korean diplomats has been sent to Geneva, Bern and Davos to look at conference halls and hotels as potential venues for its denuclearization talks with the US.  (Yonhap)Pyongyang and Washington are expected to rev up talks on denuclearization and normalization of diplomatic relations fol

A UN human rights expert said he will meet this week with North Korean restaurant workers who defected to the South in 2016, a US broadcaster reported on Friday. Pyongyang has demanded the repatriation of 12 North Korean restaurant workers, claiming they were abducted by South Korean authorities in China. In an interview aired by local broadcaster JTBC in May, the restaurant manager who defected to the South with the female employees said the South’s National Intelligence Service had orchestrate

The Military Manpower Administration said on Thursday that enlistment will be deferred for conscientious objectors who refuse the mandatory military service until they are legally able to perform alternative civilian services.The Constitutional Court ruled last week that a clause of the Military Service Act which does not recognize alternative service as a substitute for conscription is unconstitutional. The MMA said it has decided, in acceptance of the ruling, to postpone the enlistment of cons

Prosecutors on Thursday questioned the court’s dismissal of a warrant to detain a former labor minister suspected of having taken part in an anti-labor union scheme led by the state spy agency during the Lee Myung-bak administration.Lee Chae-pil, who served as labor minister from 2011 to 2013, allegedly supported the establishment of a third umbrella labor organization to counter existing union groups -- the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions.He is sus

Dozens of people were caught for cheating insurance companies out of money by lying that they lost valuables while traveling abroad.Busan’s Yeongdo Police Station said Wednesday that it had booked 46 people, including college students and employees of state-funded companies, without detention over suspected insurance fraud. The suspects allegedly lied that they lost belongings during overseas trips from January 2016 to May this year, and received between 200,000 won ($179) and 10 million won fro

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Wednesday it will toughen regulations on clinical trials, as they have led to an alarming number of deaths and hospitalizations due to side effects.Eighty-two people were reported to have died during clinical trials from 2012 to June 2017, while 1,168 people were hospitalized due to life-threatening conditions, according to ministry data released by Rep. Kim Sang-hoon of the opposition Liberty Korea Party. Kim is a member of the parliamentary committee o

A former Army general-turned-lawmaker proposed a revision bill that forbids coercing soldiers in active service to take part in religious events.Rep. Kim Joong-ro of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party said Tuesday that he chief authored the legislation as soldiers are often told to attend religious events and those who refuse are given unfavorable treatment. The current law on soldiers’ status and service guarantees soldiers’ rights to engage in religious observance to the extent that it doe

A woman was sentenced to four years in prison for stoning her abusive husband to death despite a self-defense plead.The Supreme Court said on Monday that it finalized a lower court ruling on the woman surnamed Kim who was sentenced to four years in prison for murder.Kim, 61, claimed that she killed her husband in self-defense as he had repeatedly assaulted her over their 37-year marriage. The attacks included stabbing her with a knife and hitting her head with a gas cylinder.  (Yonhap)In March l

The National Police Agency has removed an exclusive dining area for superintendent generals and higher-level officials screened off from the common cafeteria.NPA commissioner nominee Min Gab-ryong recently ordered the removal of partitions dividing the dining hall for senior officials, which were often seen as a symbol of an authoritarian organizational culture.Former Commissioner Lee Cheol-seong resigned late last month, but the National Assembly has yet to hold a confirmation hearing for Min. 

South and North Korea on Thursday agreed to form joint study group on cross-border road connection in the working-level talks on cooperation to connect roads across the border and modernize roads in the North. A three-person South Korean delegation led by Vice Transport Minister Kim Jeong-ryeol met with their North Korean counterparts led by Pak Ho-yong, vice minister for land and environmental protection, at the northern side of the truce village of Panmunjeom. The meeting came as a follow-up t

An independent counsel team officially began its investigation Wednesday into allegations that a power blogger tied to ruling party officials manipulated internet comments for political purposes. The team is expected to scrutinize close associates of President Moon Jae-in including former lawmaker Kim Kyoung-soo, who was elected governor of South Gyeongsang Province in local elections earlier this month.The Cabinet approved a 3.14 billion-won ($2.82 million) budget Tuesday for the operation of t

SINGAPORE -- When Michael Heng, a business strategist and former professor, heard that the US and North Korea were going to hold a summit, he felt it was finally time for something to happen in the reclusive state.He asked his friend, an official at the North Korean Embassy in Singapore, if he could take some Singaporeans on a mission to tap future business opportunities in the North.A day after the summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore earlier

Police said they will raise the proportion of women in senior positions and increase the number of female officers to investigate crimes against women. They will also not investigate charges pressed by an offender until the sexual crime case is sent to the prosecution.A committee for gender equality under the National Police Agency reviewed Friday plans to be more gender sensitive in enforcing public security policies, better protect female victims of violence, improve organizational culture, an