Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon was elected as chair of the World Mayors Council on Climate Change at its meeting in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on Sunday.The council is an alliance of leaders of 70 metropolitan cities including Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City and Montreal aimed at addressing climate change and sustainable development. Park will serve for two years.The city government also signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives to open the offic

Kim Hwa-seon, a Korean victim of forced sexual slavery during the Japanese colonial period, died Wednesday.Kim died of natural causes at a hospital in Gwangju, according to the House of Sharing, an organization for the so-called comfort women. She was 86.Kim was taken by Japan’s Imperial Army to Singapore in 1941. After Korea’s independence she lived alone in the city of Daejeon until she moved to live at the House of Sharing in 2011. The number of women staying at the facility has been reduced

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was named Tuesday the winner of this year’s Seoul Peace Prize for his campaigning for women, children, poor countries and Middle East democratization.He is the first Korean national to win the biennial prize since its establishment in 1990 in commemoration of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.“After a rigorous and careful screening process, the screening committee decided to award the Seoul Peace Prize to U.N. Secretary-General Ban in recognition of his great d

The government and businesses have started their annual “Cool Biz” dress campaign. Bureaucrats show up without jackets to save energy during summer, while executives and office workers dress casually to enable air conditioners to be turned down. Seoul Metropolitan Government is going even further, allowing public servants to wear shorts and sandals to work in the most extreme form of the drive. The new dress code plan is attracting mixed reactions from citizens. “I totally agree with Seoul’s ide

An increasing number of adults cannot leave their family home due to lack of financial means and rising living costs, according to statistics by Seoul City.Seoul City said the number of people in their 30s and 40s who live with their parents has almost doubled in the past 10 years.According to city government data, around 480,000 Seoulites aged 30 to 49 lived with their parents in 2010, up from 250,000 in 2000. Of the parents, almost 30 percent said the reason is that their children have not bee

Military prosecutors have indicted an Army captain who used foul language to criticize President Lee Myung-bak on Twitter. He was charged with insulting a senior. The officer, whose name was withheld, denounced the president for alleged corruption, a government plan to privatize Incheon International Airport and KTX services and a canceled plan to build his private retirement home on the outskirts of Seoul. He was indicted twice on March 22 and April 26. According to the military law, those who

The U.S. Department of Defense is considering selling Harpoon Block II Missiles and Seahawk Helicopters to South Korea.The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in press releases last week that it had notified the U.S. Congress of the possible sale of 18 of the missiles, eight of the helicopters and their associated parts, equipment, logistical support and training. The estimated costs are $1.84 billion.The DSCA said it informed Congress of the proposal after a request by South Korea. Th

A Korean student was picked as one of two highest-ranking undergraduates of Harvard University. Economics major Jin Kwon-yong graduated summa cum laude as he finished his 4-year undergraduate course on May 24 in just 3 years with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. He also won the John H. Williams prize that is granted to the top economics student and the Hoopes Prize for students with outstanding research or scholarly workHe was one of the two highest-ranking undergraduates among 1,552 graduates