Hundreds of civilian, Coast Guard and Navy divers are putting their lives on the line to search for the missing passengers of the capsized ferry Sewol.Late Saturday, divers successfully entered the wreckage after four days of efforts that were frustrated by dangerous conditions. The rescue divers are taking on the daunting task despite the potentially life-threatening circumstances, in the hopes of finding survivors inside the vessel.Many of the civilian divers view the matter as if the victims

(Yonhap)Three divers mobilized for the rescue operation of the capsized Sewol ferry off the coast of South Korea have been rescued by people on a fishing boat, cable news channel YTN reported.Chung Dong-nam, head of a rescue team at the scene, said the divers went missing at around 2:18 p.m. Thursday while searching for the 287 missing passengers. The navy officials said the rescue operation was being hampered by poor underwater visibility and strong currents. By Suk Gee-hyun (monicasuk@heraldco

“Mom, This might be the last chance to say I love you”“Dad, I can't get out.”“Are you okay son? Son? Answer me...”“The ship is sinking. Dad, I’ll see you outside…”Heartrending messages sent from students on the sinking ferry off the coast of Jindo, South Jeolla Province are offering a vivid picture of the frantic situation inside the stricken vessel.“Mom, this might be the last chance to tell you that I love you,” said one 17-year-old student on the ferry in a text to his mother. Fortunately, th

Prosecutors on Wednesday raided a subsidiary of South Korea’s leading steelmaker POSCO over corruption allegations involving its officials. A team of prosecutors obtained computer hard drives, account books and steel trading records from the offices of POSCO P&S in Gangnam, Seoul, to corroborate the charges, the prosecution said. “The raid is solely focused on POSCO P&S, and not the whole group,” an investigator told media on Wednesday.POSCO P&S officials said in a statement that they would full

The former head of Lotte Homeshopping was questioned on Monday for allegedly receiving billions of won in cash kickbacks from local subcontractors.Shin Heon, 60, who led the retail arm of the country’s fifth-largest conglomerate Lotte Group between 2008 and 2012, was summoned by prosecutors at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office as a suspect in the large-scale corruption case.Shin reportedly claimed his innocence, saying he has never demanded a bribe. He currently serves as CEO of Lot

Just a decade ago, it was socially unacceptable for adolescent and teenage girls in school uniforms to wear makeup in Korea. But nowadays, seeing teen girls as young as 11 wearing some form of makeup is commonplace. The number of girls putting on makeup has significantly increased in Korea, leading to a boom in the beauty market targeting young students and debate on how parents should deal with the change. If the industry is any indication, teenagers are becoming the most important customers fo

The nation’s top court on Thursday threw out a damages suit filed by ailing smokers seeking compensation from the country’s largest tobacco firm, KT&G, citing the absence of a causal connection between smoking and their lung cancer.Ending the two 15-year-long tobacco lawsuits, the South Korean Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that there is a lack of proof that smoking was the specific cause of their cancer.“It can’t be seen that KT&G tried to conceal information about the risk of smok