Police said Sunday that the National Police Agency chief nominee Lee Chul-sung was pardoned in a presidential amnesty in 1995 for a drunk driving offense, responding to growing allegations about his ethical standards. The agency’s deputy chief Lee has been grilled over his drunk driving history and attempt to hide his identity as a police officer at the time of the accident. He is to succeed retiring NPA chief Kang Sin-myeong, who steps down Monday. Lee Chul-sung, nominee for the National Police

The proportion of those who sat for South Korea’s college entrance exam for the second time has increased among the total number of test takers over the past three years, a report said Sunday. According to a report submitted by the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation at the request of Rep. Ahn Min-suk of The Minjoo Party of Korea, 136,900 high school graduates last year sat the College Scholastic Ability Test, also known as Suneung. The figure accounted for 21.56 percent of the total te

Family members of the victims of the Sewol ferry sinking started Thursday a hunger strike to last for an indefinite period in protest against the government’s decision to dissolve the Sewol Special Committee tasked with investigating the 2014 maritime disaster. Yoo Kyeong-geun, the father of the deceased student Ye-eun and the spokesperson for the families of Sewol victims, began the strike at 4 p.m. at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, calling for the extension of the Sewol Special Committee

South Korea’s migrant workers called for the abolishment of the Employment Permit System and an end to human rights abuse at workplaces Wednesday, the 12th anniversary of the foreign worker policy. Depicting the EPS as a “modern-day slavery” system, an association of more than 100 lawyers, foreigners and labor rights groups urged the government to amend the labor policy to protect migrant workers’ labor rights and human dignity. “The government promotes the Employment Permit System as an advance

Nearly seven in 10 students in Korea benefit from a free school meal program led by municipal education offices, the Education Ministry said Monday, adding that the scheme may be leading to the “worsening quality” of student lunches. According to a report by the ministry, 67.6 percent of elementary, middle and high schools in the nation provide free meals to all students regardless of their families’ income, as of 2016. The proportion was 46.8 percent in 2011. The free lunches cost the schools a

The government said Friday that it will offer financial subsidies for young people looking for jobs, in partnership with the state-run Youth Hope Fund, overturning its initial stance that handing out “cash” could create “moral hazards.”The Ministry of Employment and Labor will offer funds of up to 600,000 won ($544) over three months to help job seekers cover expenses when attending job interviews under the program called “Successful Job-landing Package,” minister Lee Ki-kwon said at a news brie

On Wednesday evening thousands of students and graduates from Ewha Womans University held a rally on campus to protest what they saw as the school’s unilateral push for a series of policies, demanding the school chief step down.An estimated 3,500 students and graduates gathered on campus at the university in western Seoul, despite the scorching heat, in its second large-scale rally on campus, holding placards reading “Who is Ewha Womans University for?” and “Owners of this school are the student

It took a weeklong match in March this year between 18-time world Go champion Lee Se-dol and Alphago for it to hit South Koreans hard: Human beings could actually be replaced by artificial intelligence.Alphago, the AI Go program developed by Google DeepMind, won four out of five games. The initial anticipation of Lee’s sweeping victory soon turned into self-assuring consolation that he at least managed one win. “After the match, I was actually fearful of my own arrogant assumption that a man-mad

The stepmother of 7-year-old Shin Won-young was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for abusing her stepson to death and burying his body to cover up the crime. Shin’s father, who neglected the crime and helped abandon the boy, received a 15 year jail term. The Pyeongtaek Branch of Suwon District Court said in the ruling that it had to impose stern punishment for the accused as they caused an “irreversible outcome,” referring to the boy’s death. The court also cited how the two had admi

Seoul City is to take legal action late this week against the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s decision to ban its program to support unemployed and underemployed young people with monthly cash support, the city government said Sunday.Also, the metropolitan government is set to establish countermeasures, such as nonmonetary support plans, in case the court dismisses the petition.“Seoul City will file for a provisional injunction, asking that the government‘s cancellation (of the program) be susp

The prosecution on Friday indicted a senior prosecutor and the co-founder of South Korea’s biggest online gaming company Nexon over alleged bribery and shady stock transactions, ending a monthlong probe into the high-profile corruption scandal. It also requested that the Justice Ministry dismiss the disgraced prosecutor, a sanction which will cut down his pension by 25 percent and ban him from opening a law office for three years. Lee Geum-ro, the chief of the prosecution’s special team for the

Linking with overseas institutions to allow students to cultivate a global outlook and network with business leaders is a growing trend at universities here.KAIST College of Business runs the China-Korea-Japan Field Study Program involving three institutes: China’s Tsinghua University, Korea’s KAIST and Japan’s Keio University.This year, it invited some 40 Master of Business Administration students from the three universities to Korea from July 8-16 for them to conduct joint research on Korea’s

Eight out of 10 South Korean workers have been given work-related instructions by their bosses via mobile messaging apps after office hours, a survey showed Wednesday. According to the survey on 1,668 workers by recruitment site Job Korea, 82 percent of them said that they had been contacted by their superiors about work-related issues via messaging apps such as KakaoTalk or Line, after working hours.Fifty-eight percent of thpse polled were negative about such work-related communication outside