A high-ranking financial regulator implicated in a savings bank corruption probe jumped off a bridge over the Han River on Wednesday, but was rescued by police. He is in a stable condition, police officials said. Kim Jang-ho, an assistant deputy governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, jumped

Tower Palace, a high-rise luxury apartment block located at the heart of Seoul’s posh residential area of Dogok-dong, is known as an exclusive home to the rich and powerful. Yet, their closed lifestyle does not necessarily mean a friendly neighborhood.A Seoul court on Wednes­day rejected an appe

A month after a ban on multiple trade unions was lifted, changes are in the making on the country’s labor scene, long dominated by two umbrella groups, officials at the Labor Ministry said Monday. Some 300 new unions have been formed, most of them not affiliated with neither the Federation of Korean

Maritime police have yet to find a crashed Asiana Airlines cargo plane and its pilot and co-pilot, police officials said Sunday. Mobilizing 10 army and police vessels, three aircraft and underwater sonar, police and the navy have for three days searched the waters off Jeju, where the Boeing-747 aircraft, operated by Asiana Airlines Co., went down early Thursday. “We found nothing special yet, exce

President Lee Myung-bak said Wednesday that Korea could not guarantee the safety of Japanese lawmakers if they visit Ulleung-do, the closest they can get to Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, over which Japan claims sovereignty.Lee made the remarks in a Cabinet meeting after he was briefed by the Foreign Ministry about the controversial plan of four Japanese lawmakers, according to presidential

Some members of the U.K. Parliament have sent letters to major political parties in Korea, urging them to work together to pass a long-delayed bill on North Korean human rights, a North Korea watcher here said. “Twenty U.K. MPs sent the letter on July 20, directed to four major political parties of Korea,” Ha Tae-keung, who runs Open Radio for North Korea, a Seoul-based radio station that broadcas

Panel cites too broad sampling scope, need for presumption of innocenceA law permitting the collection and storage of DNA samples from those convicted of or arrested for violent crimes may infringe on their human rights, the nation’s top human rights watchdog said Tuesday. “The commission ruled that the law on the use and preservation of personal genetic information may infringe upon the affected

The government proposed to North Korea a meeting of working-level officials to discuss how to handle issues related to tourism on Mount Geumgang, a joint project between the two Koreas which has been suspended for three years, officials here said Monday. “We have delivered North Korean authorities a notice proposing a meeting of working-level officials at the Mount. Geumgang resort on July 29,” a

Minister for Special Affairs Lee Jae-oh is likely to quit his Cabinet post next month and return to party politics, sources close to him said Friday. “Minister Lee has long before made up his mind about departure from the Cabinet,” Yonhap News quoted an unidentified source at the ruling camp as saying. “I understand he plans to tender his resignation around Aug. 15, by which the parliament’s confi