Kim Min-jin, 25, who attends a university in Seoul, used to go to the school library to browse books or to do coursework at least once a month when she was a freshman. But now, Kim rarely goes to the library. Instead, she simply turns to the Internet to download digital books and reports available.“Most of the reading material is up online, so I don’t find it necessary to go to libraries now,” Kim told The Korea Herald. “I prefer to download material from an e-library as it is easier for me refe

A U.S. soldier was apprehended on charges of breaking into a Korean woman’s residence under influence, police said Sunday.The Seoul Yongsan Police Station booked on Saturday night a 29-year-old soldier, who works at Seoul Airfield, for trespassing onto a 31-year-old woman’s house in Itaewon, central Seoul. He reportedly climbed to the third-floor terrace by using one of the external pipes of the building. (Yonhap)The soldier asserted that he had made a mistake and that he had meant to enter his

Gangnam Station in southern Seoul was crowned the most frequented subway station in Seoul for 19 years straight, officials said Sunday.Located in the bustling commercial and business district, Gangnam Station on line No. 2 drew 204,508 passengers on average daily, with a total of 74.6 million using the station last year. (Yonhap)The Seoul Metropolitan Government compiled the data by analyzing passengers’ usage of public transport cards at subway stations encompassing lines No. 1 to No. 9 in Seou

The mortality rate for those who do physical work is more than twice that for salaried office workers, a study showed Friday, showing a correlation between occupation and death. A doctors team from Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital looked into the death records of 1.14 million workers enrolled in government-run employment insurance plans, analyzing data from 1995 to 2008. Over this period, there were 563 deaths per 100,000 male workers in the agriculture and fishery sector, compared to 249 deaths of whi

(Yonhap)South Korea’s top court ruled Thursday that the suicide of the vice principal of Danwon High School, which had been attended by 250 victims of the Sewol ferry disaster, cannot be considered death in the line of duty.The Supreme Court upheld earlier rulings that had rejected the request from the bereaved family of Kang Min-kyu, who was 52 years old when he died, seeking compensation entitled to public servants who die on the job. Kang, one of the survivors from the nation’s biggest mariti

South Korea’s parliament has passed a revised bill to prescreen air passengers as part of efforts to block terrorist suspects from entering the country, the Justice Ministry said Thursday. The National Assembly passed the revision to the immigration control law late on Wednesday. It requires airlines to receive permission from the nation’s immigration office before issuing plane tickets, the ministry said in a press release.  (Yonhap)The immigration office will receive a list of passengers from

Police said Wednesday that officers dedicated to curbing child abuse in Seoul will accompany on-site inspections of long-term absentees, as part of stepped-up measures to curb increasing violence against children.Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has launched a team of anti-abuse police officers, allocating one officer to each of the 31 police stations in Seoul. The police officers will take the lead in investigating violence against children, conducting on-site inspections and cooperating with c

Kim & Chang and the London Court of International Arbitration are set to hold a joint seminar on international arbitration in central Seoul on March 7, the Korean law firm said Tuesday. Amid growing demand among Korean firms for international arbitration, lawyers and experts in the sector from around the world will come together to share their expertise and knowledge on ways to better deal with cross-border disputes, the firm said. Park Eun-young, president of the LCIA Asia Pacific Users‘ Counci

(Yonhap)More than half of Koreans have a negative attitude towards foreign workers residing here, a recent survey showed. In a survey by local pollster Gallup Korea, 54 percent of respondents said that the migration of foreign workers to Korea is “not a good thing.” The study was conducted on 1,500 Koreans aged 19 and above. Thirty-nine percent said that it is a “good thing,” which is significantly lower than the 57 percent average across the 69 countries that participated in this global survey.

Police said Tuesday that they booked a 29-year-old man on charges of abusing his 11-month daughter amid a growing number of child abuse cases across the nation.  (Yonhap)The Jecheon Police Station is questioning the man who is suspected of kicking the crying infant in her face and stomach on multiple occasions while quarreling with his wife earlier this month. He also allegedly beat her until the baby bled in mid-January. A witness told police the man was violent with the baby once or twice a mo

A local court on Tuesday handed out a two-year jail term, suspended for three years, to a woman who had allegedly given birth in a squat toilet and consequently killed the baby.The 27-year-old gave birth to the baby on her own at the traditional toilet in her residence in Jeonju in March last year. The baby fell inside the toilet and died as his airway was clogged with alien substance. She allegedly knew that childbirth in the toilet might kill the baby.  (Yonhap)“Her crime is heavy as the defen

A 47-year-old Canadian was caught growing cannabis in his residence and habitually smoking it, South Korean police said Monday.According to the police, the Canadian national, who had previously been a lecturer at a university in Daegu, smuggled marijuana into Korea from Thailand in August 2010. He then grew it at the balcony in his apartment building, the police said.  (Yonhap)The man allegedly set up facilities like a ventilator, electronic heater and reflecting plate on the balcony to grow the

Korean jobseekers most want to work for tech giant Google, showed a local survey on Monday.According to a survey on 2,700 university students and job seekers by the recruitment sites Job Korea and Albamon, Google topped the list as the most desired foreign employer in the local job market, with around seven out of 10 participants saying so.  (Yonhap)Apple Korea ranked second with 25.9 percent of the votes, followed by Starbucks Korea at 16.9 percent, Nike Korea at 14.4 percent and Yuhan-Kimberly

South Korea’s top court Monday denied a man’s request for the cancellation of his marriage in a situation where the bride had not told him that she had been raped and given birth before they wed. In a suit filed by a 41-year-old man surnamed Kim, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed earlier rulings that had ordered a nullification of the marriage and demanded the 26-year-old Vietnamese woman pay him 3 million won ($2,430) in alimony. Supreme Court (Yonhap)“A person’s history about childbirth sh